I had an amazing Christmas. I got spoiled by my parents and family!
He said
Christmas this year was very quiet and very event free and I mean that in the best possible way. Last year, we were fresh off losing Greg at the start of December and had a lot of the family in and out of the hospital to boot. Mom & Dad were in filing health and a few short months after Christmas, we lost Dad just after his 83rd birthday. The six months between the end of November and the end of March last year took a huge toll on our family last year. So, to come into Christmas this year, and have it be uneventful and well, slow was a total welcome reality. We go to have a very lowkey Christmas that included family time with just Danielle, Emelia and I, as well as time with the Teeter side on Boxing Day. And the best part was having a low key Christmas Day evening spent with my brothers Matt and Shawn here at the house.
The big change over the last year for Emelia is getting used to her being the girl that loves her sleep. Gone are the Christmas mornings where we were up well before sunrise and this year, delightfully we all kind of just woke up at the same time after eight in the morning. And that is totally welcome as far as I am concerned. We made our way downstairs me thinking about how much better this timeline was. We worked our way through Emelia’s haul and by her reaction the presents were a hit (I mean she did have a slideshow presentation for us to reference so it was easy to get it right). But, we still managed to slip in a surprise here and there—the biggest of which was the replacement Cheer shoes for her ones that were well past spent that she was trying her hardest to squeeze out one more season of.
In the afternoon Christmas Day we went over to spend time with Mom as we knew this day would be difficult as it was her first Christmas alone, so we wanted to make sure she didn’t feel that way. Later that evening we had Matthew & Shawn over to a quiet evening of nibblers for and a lot of laughter and shared moments with family and Christmases past. It was really great and needed in a way that we didn’t know until we had it. Boxing Day was the big day as we got all the Teeter family together with Mom at Glendale to have a Swis Chalet family dinner together there. It was so great to be all together again even though there were two very notable and big presences we were all missing.
In the end it was the perfect, lowkey Christmas that helped us soothe a lot of the pain we were feeling around this time. And it is all we could ask for. And are very thankful for that!
She said
We are here on Sunday after Christmas and it was a peaceful and relaxing holiday for us. Emelia has kept busy this week with her friends. She had her bigger group of friends over a few days before Christmas after skating and then a day later they all went to watch their friend Carter play hockey before they all came back here before heading to her besties house for the night. Emelia’s larger friend group has expanded in the last year. A few of her best friends have boyfriends now and they have folded in two guy best friends in their group. Emelia is loving have guy best friends, she comes home every day with hilarious stories that now include Matheus and Carter. The guys are great, they are like fake big brothers and they have all been great for each other. They have all been spending as much time as they could this holiday break together before Carter headed down south for a family vacation.
Once we reached Christmas Eve morning the kids all went off for their family celebrations and we settled in for a few days with family. We wanted it this way. It has been a heavy and painful year for our family so a quiet celebration with family is exactly what we needed. This is our first Christmas without Doug and since Greg passed so close to Christmas last year it feels like this season is more real with our family feeling so much smaller and quieter this year. John and Emelia both had to work Christmas Eve so once they were both home we had a quiet sushi dinner together and watched some Christmas movies before heading to bed.
The morning came quickly and we were down taking in every memory of what is Emelia’s last official Christmas as a child. We wanted it to be filled with magic. She loved all her gifts and we were able to even surprise her with the gift of new cheer shoes as an extra special Santa present. The day was quiet and lazy. We kept the holiday tradition alive with eating breakfast and watching Christmas Vacation before heading over to see Helen at the nursing home. We had a quick visit before coming home to get ready for Christmas dinner with our family and Matthew and Shawn. Boxing Day we headed over again to Helen’s place for a full Teeter family celebration. Celebrations certainly feel a lot different than they did before, we have to have a quieter gathering in a room at the home, far from the loud celebrations of the past. But it was great to get together with the whole extended family.
The rest of our week this week is starting to plan New Years Eve, Emelia is having friends over here for a party to take in the new year. John and I will quietly hide in our room to watch the Canada/USA world juniors game while the kids cheer in the new year. We hope that next year will only bring positive life moments after all we have been through over the last few years. Happy 2025 to all that have been there for our over the last few years, your support mean everything to us!