The First Christmas......

The First Christmas......without my Dad.  I can't remember a Christmas without my Dad because it has never happened before now.  No matter if I lived hundreds of miles away, Christmas Eve was always with Mom and Dad.  So, in all my 53 years, this was a first.  Was it tough?  Yes.  Did we make it through?  Yes.  Do I wish with all my heart that he was here with us?  Oh yes.  No matter what we did, we felt the loss of his presence.  But it made us all remember the funny things that Dad would do or say and there was a lot of 'Remember how Dad liked to .........'.  We all have so many wonderful memories of Dad and how can we not be grateful for every one of them and how lucky we were to share so many special times together.  I've been blessed with a beautiful family and I treasure every moment with all of them.

Dad and Mom  Christmas 2011

Over the past month or so, the family has had many discussions about how Christmas should be this year.  Our Christmas Eve is full of Danish tradition and happily, there has been very little change since I was a child.  But there was no way that this year could possibly be the same.  In the end, we decided that the best thing we could do for our family was to keep things as much the same as possible, because we love our traditions and Dad loved them too.  Luckily for us, we had a special gift this year....a little sweetheart called Amaya, Jason's girlfriend's little daughter.  She brightened Christmas Eve for all of us, just like a star.  Thank you Melissa and Amaya, for coming into our lives!

Christmas Eve began......Melissa and Jason getting ready for turkey

Our first course is risengrød....a rice and milk 'pudding' that 'cooks' in the duvet all day.  Served with butter and cinnamon sugar.  My favourite!

The family....ready to begin the feast.  We were joined by Vince's mother this year too....

We were too busy enjoying the wonderful food to take pictures!.....a huge free range turkey that was absolutely delicious....potatoes, carrots, stuffing, sweet red cabbage and Danish sugar potatoes...and of course, gravy and fresh cranberry sauce.  Yum yum!

Once dinner is finished, the kids are sent to the den to watch 'Bluetoes'...luckily Mom still had a VHS machine!  The girls finished cleaning up the kitchen and Vince pulled the tree out into the center of the room and began putting the candles on it...yes, REAL candles!  It is the most beautiful thing!

Presents are placed under the tree and then 'Santa' stomps his feet and says 'Ho Ho Ho' and the kids come running.  We all join hands, music begins and we 'dance' around the tree.  It's a mixture of Danish and Canadian carols.  We sing, we walk and we run...it's a workout!  We are all reminded of how Dad would squeeze our hands tight while we danced.

The grown-ups were pooped but Amaya loved dancing around the tree and didn't want to stop!  The boys were like that when they were little too.  Even with all the shiny presents waiting to be opened, they just wanted to 'dance more'.  Little moments like that are what make special memories....

Amaya kept us all laughing all evening.  I think this is her 'oh no, not another picture' face!

She had a lot of fun opening all her presents, but the tissue paper was beyond entertaining for all of us!

So, although there were tears and sadness, we had another beautiful, special Christmas.  We all missed Dad but we all felt him there with us as well.  He is always in our hearts, every day of the year.

Merry Christmas Daddy!