Up The Farway Tree

Two sleeps......!!

Well that's me home for Christmas and it's only 2 more sleeps......!!    So happy to be home with my family and looking forward to catching up with everyone over the festive period. I think Christmas is about spending time with family and friends and just taking some time out of an otherwise busy life to remember those that are important to me.

We decorated our tree a few weeks back and had some new ornaments this year - from Bruge and Rhodes, to add to our happy memories.  We actually have so many decorations now that I think we need another tree next year!  I love unwrapping each one when we decorate the tree, and spending a moment thinking about where it came from and the memories it brings back.  Many of them do remind me about Frances Ann - but in a happy way - and I can feel that she is still part of my Christmas every year.

Now I am home with mum and dad, I have another tree to look at.  Theirs is also filled with decorations with memories of years gone by.  There are of course the home made ones from our school days, decorations I remember from being young and newer ones they have collected on holidays in recent times.   The angel at the top is hilarious.   Frances Ann announced one year she was making a new angel for the tree.  It consists of a ping pong ball painted pink for the head, tinsel hair, paper rolled up for the body and the wings ripped of the old angel and glued on!   It keeps falling off the tree so we have to tie it on with ribbon now - it kind of looks like it's about to skydive off the tree any second, but we love it!!!   

Mum has been baking (despite her sore hip) and the kitchen is full of pancakes, scones, fruit loaf and now she is making truffles.  I made some mince pies (even made my own pastry) so we are certainly stocked up for the season.  

Tomorrow I will have the traditional Christmas eve catch up with my friends -who all come to mum and dads and we eat cakes and drink coffee, while exchanging gifts.  I will set the table for Christmas day, start running around slightly hyper, and then we will go to the Vigil Mass.   Afterwards we will settle down to a Christmas movie, before I am packed off to bed so that Santa can come!!  My stocking is ready!  I am not sure whether I will be able to sleep.....it's unlikely :-)

I will be remembering my donor at this time and thank her for each Christmas I can celebrate with my family.  I will also be remembering my dear friend Gerard's family this year - he sadly died last week after developing severe chronic rejection after his lung transplant.  He was an advocate for LLTGL and a member of Team Glasgow.  He will be missed so much - but his memory will certainly live on and I think too, of his donor, who allowed him those extra Christmases with his own family.

Although we do feel loss more poignantly at this time of year, we should also remember the happy memories and use them to add that little bit of sparkle to Christmas......it will always be a special day for me.....you just have to believe in the magic :-)