Merry Christmas and Looking Forward to the New Year

It's Christmas Eve 2013 and I will be so glad when tomorrow is over. I hope to be going into a deep winter slumber and get back to normal, whatever that means. We had our extended family party last night with the Turley sister's families. We get together on the 23rd, have Mexican food, a little nativity for the kids, some Christmas songs and a story called Turky Trot. My Grandma Fern was a librarian in Phoenix and she came across this book, so we have to read it every year for as long as I can remember. Our family is getting big and spread out but with Mom and Dad still alive we have three generations of children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. I pulled out all my bags and began wrapping for the grandchildren and somehow I am short a gift for one of my grandsons. So I will be going out to the store to finish my shopping, something I dread. It seems like this year has been particularly hard for me. I don't know if the stress of everything with the short Christmas season, or that I'm just getting older, but everything sure seems harder to do. My sister gave me an article called, "A Grief Like No Other." It talks about the Grandparents of the children killed at the Sandy Hook Elementary school last year. It talks about why grandparent's grief can be especially devastating and lonely. More than 160,000 American grandparents lose grandkids each year. I was shocked to hear those statistics. I'm so thankful to have survived the years I have after Kamber's passing, but I miss her and wish there was a present for her under the tree. But life goes on and I have seventeen beautiful grandchildren and wonderful children, I'm so blessed. I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and look forward to the New Year.