This is a little late, but I wanted to wish you all a very Merry Christmas!  I hope that you all had a great time with family and friends.  Mine wasn’t so great.  My grandmother on my dad’s side passed away on December 22.  That’s the second grandparent to pass away within a month.  It always seems to happen around the holidays – my other grandmother (mom’s side) passed away December 27, 2001.  But…she’s definitely in a better place now…the last few months were absolutely miserable for her, and I’m glad that I got to see her a few weeks ago when I was here for my grandfather’s funeral.

On a positive note, I got to see a lot of family for the holidays.  I met so many new relatives that I had no idea who they were…apparently I met them when I was younger.  This sparked an interest in a family reunion for my dad’s side.  I always knew most of my mom’s side of the family because of the reunions…but they stopped doing reunions on my dad’s side when I was about 10.