New Traditions

I talked to a friend recently who lost her father about a year before I lost mine. She wrote me a sweet note the other day, letting me know that she was thinking about me this Christmas. I have had so many other sweet messages & comments lately, and I want each & every one of you to know how much those mean to me. My friend told me that it's good to have new traditions, especially after a life-changing event happens. Since we knew this Christmas would be so different without Dad, we knew from the start that we wanted to do something different.
And so, we did. It was wonderful.

We had Christmas Eve dinner at our house this year. I felt like it was all part of me growing up, I guess. Like I was taking over the reigns in a way. We had always had Christmas Eve dinner at Mamaw Ruth's.

We had breakfast on Christmas Eve morning with our other set of grandparents, Mom's parents, then went to Mom's afterwards to exchange gifts. I got a few pics of both places.

This one shows my brother & the great company that he was during that morning. :)

Mamaw Helen & Pop opening presents...

Their cat...

FAT cat, that is...

Mom opening her ring that Zach & I got her.

Mom's tree...

And Jonathan sleeping again at Mom's, with Reese's in hand...

Zach playing his game. He loves those puzzles!

Mamaw Ruth at our house Christmas Eve night...

Zach took a really good pic of us & our little family in front of our tree on Christmas night, and I hope to post that soon!

We also got to see many of our friends over the Christmas weekend. We had dinner on Thursday night with our sweet friends Nathan & Katie. Nathan was one of Zach's groomsmen. We also got to see another of his groomsmen, Brett, and his fiance one night. Then, I got to see my friend Jen & her husband at church on Sunday morning. We always enjoy Christmas break when so many of our friends come home!

Here's to even more new traditions throughout this next year!