Thirty-One Days of Blogging - Day 24

Christmas of 1984 was the beginning and the ending. My mom died of cancer on 11-19-84, which was a few days before Thanksgiving. I was reunited with my dad’s family at her memorial service. I spent Thanksgiving with them, and it was a lot of fun. It wasn’t easy because I had not been around any of them since I was ten, and now here I was at twenty-five. What I didn’t know is a respiratory therapist that treated my mom was dating my cousin. That really helped that first Thanksgiving, and Christmas 1984 started a tradition of spending part of Christmas with the Harringtons.

Christmas changed a bit through the years as some of my cousins got married and moved away due to jobs. My dad was one of seven, and there are a total of nineteen first cousins. It is one thing to reunite with family; it takes a little more time to develop friendships. I was fortunate that one of my aunts and uncles lived in Omaha, where I live. Another aunt and uncle lived in Vail, IA, only about a 1.5-hour drive from Omaha. Those two families accounted for eleven cousins, which meant many family events since 1984. Those events have spanned graduations, weddings, births, deaths, family reunion trips, and watching the next generation grow up to adults.

I could not have predicted that all of this would happen from the holidays in 1984. They warmly welcomed Terry into the fold when we started dating in 1989. I think when they found out he was a practicing Catholic, that cemented the deal. I also am not sure that they all understand what sharing in all these family events has meant to me. I am closer to my two cousins who live in Omaha because I have been lucky to have spent more time together. They have always been there when I needed anything.

I can only hope they all know how much I care about and love them. In the past thirty-six years, we lost three of our cousins and eight aunts and uncles, the most recent Uncle Roger just last week in this time frame. We won’t be gathering in person tomorrow for Christmas, but we will have a virtual Christmas call. It will be a different Christmas memory but special all the same. It will be family, which means laughter, adult beverages, and a few jabs of Christmas stories from the past. Certainly, we will also be raising a toast to Uncle Roger, and I am certain he will be there in spirit. Life is so short; make sure all your special people know how much you love them. Until next time, make sure your glass is always at least half full.