Merry Christmas. darling.

This year has been challenging for our family as we discovered my grandmother (aka Mimi) might not make it through Christmas. Mimi has stage 4 bone marrow cancer and has been a warrior throughout this trying time. She has and always will be a warrior in my eyes - and she is the reason I am writing this blog tonight. 

First, let me share a few things about our Christmas this year, the whole clan decided to celebrate Christmas early - so we packed up all of our gifts and all of the food and we headed to Mimi's house. We had our usual lasagna and salad, which we all love. However, for the reasons I mentioned earlier, the mood was very different.  It didn't feel like a "normal" Christmas to me and I could see it didn't feel normal for anyone else. We all wanted our pictures taken with Mimi and we all wanted to talk and cherish every moment with her, because holidays for us have always been about family. Yeah, we could get awesome gifts and eat amazing food - but it was always about the laughs we shared and the memories we were creating. This year was obviously different, we were trying to act cheery and excited for Christmas, but it was visibly hard for most of us. Until, "Santa" came! Let me explain, we have a three year old who is in that stage of,  "oh my gosh, it's SANTA!" (insert Will Ferrell clip from Elf),  and right when she opened the door and she saw Santa, our whole night changed. The room filled with laughter and cheer when she realized it was indeed Santa, and he had driven his sleigh all the way to Oklahoma to visit our family. 

In that moment, we remembered that Christmas was all about making new memories, creating new traditions for our family. Christmas is such an amazing holiday, and while most kids would say it's because of Santa and all the gifts - as we get older we realize it's truly about family. Family is something that no one can replace, and something that should always be cherished. This Christmas our family was put back into perspective, and reminded me what this holiday is all about. I'm forever thankful for spending this Christmas with family, and the people I love. Remember to always cherish the most important thing in life, which is your family; the people who love you, and the people you love. 

Here are a few pictures from this night: 

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night,

G.