my mother's gifts

if you have read my blog .. you know that my mother passed away this year unexpectedly.. her absence was even more apparent to me on Christmas Eve..

for those that do not know the story.... after many battles a compromise was made between my mother and my sweet Tim on when presents were to be opened..

for my mother... Christmas Eve was magical and that was when presents were shared.. Santa came and really strong egg nog was had.. she used rum and a lot of it in her homemade egg nog.... I guess that is why my siblings and I were all close to our teens when we... one by one....realized that there was not a Santa delivering gifts.. we were not naive.. evidently we were drunk..

Over the years it became tradition in our house that each and every Christmas Eve was reserved to open gifts from my mother.. mailed from Colorado.. wrapped individually .. and shipped in a box.. usually with packaged pop tarts and ding dongs to protect the contents..

no presents came by mail this year.. no funny gifts of Christmas vests or light up Santa hats..and for a minute or two I felt her missing.. felt that she was really gone.. then as I looked around at my children .. all here gathered in my house.. I realized that her gifts were right in front of me..

my children have a number of my mother's gifts inside them.. they are strong, courageous..my mother was a fighter.. a never give up girl from West Virginia.. my children fight to the finish for things they believe in.. passionate about what is right.. and determined to change what is wrong..they laugh at the same things with the same sense of humor.. belly laughs and giggle giggle giggling sometimes takes over and they cannot stop..they love life and each other so much.. 

many of these are my mother's traits.. and she has passed them on for me to open each and every time we are together as a family..... my mother's gifts..

Merry Christmas...