December

 

The last month of the year is here. 

This month has Christmas and all that is intended, given and received for this holiday and it also includes all the difficulties in and around this holiday that exists in ourselves and the world today- and those challenges. 

It also has my birthday which is also both challenging and celebratory. 

but the most challenging of them all is my mothers death day, falling between Christmas and my birthday- that memorial, is on December 17th. 

 It will be 9 years ago this year, that she left this earth and moved to the stars.

Despite all of this, we followed the 4th year of our family tradition and got a tree last night- a fresh tree just come in from Canada this family bring them in every year around the corner from our house. We fully decorated it with my mothers old ornaments which she hadn't used for the last 6 years of her life, and we finally collected them, for the first time, from storage in Pennsylvania earlier this year. What a joyous and fun filled night! What a treat it was for us all! For me just revisiting these ornaments after 15 years. And my son especially loved seeing the cowgirl, the violin, birdcage, nutcracker and all the fun animals and international and antique ornaments my mother had! What a beautiful and simple tree! Little tree, Thank you for sacrificing your life for our celebration of Peace and love in the world.

We are starting our own tradition this year and celebrating Christmas at home with just the 3 of us, instead of traveling to extended family and celebrating together with them. We make this choice, this year, because of our plans to visit our Korean family later, and having gone to Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving, with an added treat- a visit from my Grandmother, Aunt and Uncle who live in Santa Fe. My host Aunt and Uncle in PA, had already decorated their house for Christmas expecting our visit- with many trees and years of collected decorations!

My gratitude for all of these things and life as it is now, even with all of its challenges, including my mounds of homework due on 12/14, extends today for all that we have! Thank you to all my personal, worldwide and online friends and family for supporting, loving and sharing with us in our lives and in this journey. We send much the same to you all with love and peace.