All I want for Christmas...

Christmas Tree '06 .. the picture is a little blurry, but our tree is just like the one we get every year. Sort of pear shaped, very fat, and perfect - in my opinion :)

Me and the Syd...She was waiting patiently for a treat.

So... the holidays are officially here, now that we A. have a tree, B. have seen every Christmas light display in North Wilmington (including the Top of the Hill house), and C. are pretty much finished with Christmas shopping. Oh, also I've watched A Christmas Story TWICE. haha. Happy last night of Hannukah to you Jews out there, by the way.

A friend of mine did something really incredibly nice for me the other night - she caught me really off guard and just did something she didn't have to do. I was shocked, and I've been trying to figure out how to do something nice for her in return, but I also love the idea of Pay it Forward, so I've been holding a whole lot of doors for people and smiling at a lot of strangers!!

My mom is working on Christmas Day this year, so we are celebrating Christmas on Sunday- Christmas Eve. We'll wake up just like it's Christmas and everything, it will be fun. I'm super excited for my mom to open up her present...Em and I searched forever to find her the perfect thing that I wanted to get her. I hope she likes it. Speaking of presents...I'm finally done buying what I wanted to get Em for Christmas. Now I just need to do a little work on it... ;-D

I got an invitation today to the annual Family Christmas Party (aka, the BHS Varsity Field Hockey team of the 2004/2005 school year) My senior year of high school, our hockey team became extremely close... I don't know if it was because of our trip to the Hamptons in NY, or if it had to do with the extremely sad death of the father of one of our teammates... or maybe just because we were all so similar (and very different sometimes). But man..we had some fun times. This is the picture from our Family Reunion last Christmas - I'm in a pinkish sweater on the right. (That was also the outfit that I wore to Liam's viewing... I can't look at that sweather without thinking about it, and the viewing and this party were the only times I ever wore those white pants.) ... I just remembered that this picture is missing a person - Nina Julian, who refused to be in it because she said she didn't look good enough to be in a picture.. I think she's hiding behind us.

I thought about visiting Liam while I'm home...maybe on Christmas Day- since I won't have much else to do. I'm a little nervous though.. I went with Em during Thanksgiving Break- it's just so odd. There's no headstone, no marker..no anything. I know that it's what the Kanes wanted... and I understand, when your child of five years dies, who cares about gravestones or markers? I wouldn't be able to look at it, and see the dates. Thinking about Liam's dates makes me physically ill, so I try not to. Either way, I respect the Kanes decision, but it just makes the place where Liam is buried a little bit surreal. I kind of feel like he's not really under that dirt, that it's a joke. And he'll pop out from behind the bushes and giggle. It's kind of like..how I'm still waiting for the website to have an update from Mr. Kane claiming that this has all been a sick joke, and that Liam has been hiding under his bed..

Time to get wrapping - we're having Christmas with my mom's side of the family in Chestertown today. It should be fun - I haven't seen Coulby (4) and Emma (2) since August - and there's Baby Jack who I haven't even met yet! Yesterday my mom and I went to Michaels... I guess since there's a new baby, my cousin Sherri was having trouble getting both Coulby and Emma off to school, and since Sherri is staying at home now, she can let Emma stay home too, since she's only two and doesn't HAVE to go to daycare/preschool whatever. But Emma is really sad...she told my mom, "Coulby gets to go to school and I have to stay home with mommy and Baby Jack. I miss my friends and I miss the things I make." I guess she used to make lots of crafts and stuff where ever she went. So my mom, who has the softest heart of anyone I know haha, took me to Michaels and we picked out A TON of crafts for her to do. And it's hard to figure out crafts for a two year old (almost three..) to do. It's so cute, and I'm stoked b/c we bought all these suncatchers and suncatcher paint, for us to work on today with the girls! So cute, I LOVE hanging out with them.

I'm off...

Love Everywhere,

Kristen