Hey everyone- Happy New Year!!
I’m finally just now posting about my Christmas. I started to get pretty depressed as
Christmas day approached. Since I can
remember, minus the few years here and there when I was out of state ,
Christmas Day was always always always spent with my Dad. This was the first Christmas without him and
it really was so very different for me. I was kind of lost. I know that seems
so dramatic and I always had my husband by my side but when there is such a
deep rooted tradition that I did for over 40 plus years, it was hard.
The whole Christmas
week was very busy and hectic which was good I guess. We had lunch at our house on Christmas Eve
day. Our son Collin who lives in Austin with his girlfriend Sydney drove up the
night before and went to his mom’s house.
Our daughter Alison rode with them and they got to our house around
11:30. My in-laws came over too so they could see the kids. We had a nice time though very brief . We
rarely get to see Collin now that he lives out of town and he’s working full
time. After lunch, Todd had to leave for
church because he was playing drums for the candlelight service and always has
to go early to practice with group. The
family left and I then I headed to our church for the service.
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| Silly selfie with kids and parents |
After our church service, we went to my Dad’s house and had
dinner with my stepmom Deb. She is very
devout Catholic and her church dedicated 4 different masses in memory of Daddy
and the Christmas midnight mass happened to be the last one. I really do miss practicing Catholicism often
especially around the holidays so I would have joined her anyway but it was
special bonus for the dedication. I like
that her church actually starts Midnight Mass at 11 and then ends at midnight
instead of starting at midnight like many do.
We got our double dose of Jesus that day for church with 2 different
church services. I actually liked it and would do that again. I was soooo tired though by the time we got
home. I had got up super early that day for finishing touches of house cleaning
for the family lunch.
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| The first service of the day was Candlelight at our church |
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| Mass dedicated to my dad ( Mark Schmitz) |
On Christmas morning, Todd and I slept in until 8am and we
fixed breakfast and opened our gifts from one another. I have another post regarding my Christmas
present that I asked for. We had to be
at Todd’s parents house for lunch by noon and they live about 45 minutes
away. Their lunch was with Todd’s
brother Kevin and his wife Paula and Kevins sons Zac and Seth, Todd’s cousin
Kimberly and her husband Richard, Us,
and the in-laws so there were 10 of us.
We did our gift exchange with the family and had nice time visiting with
one another. I think we left their house
around 4 and headed home. I was SO tired
from the nonstop day before and coming getting into bed around 1am, it was
catching up with me. I think we had
leftovers and then put on our comfy pajamas and had a Bed In ( our version of
Bed in is where we turn off the lights and lock the doors around the house and
shut everything down , then just watch TV from our bedroom). It was great!
We both fell asleep by 10.
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| Silly selfie with the fam |
I took the week off for vacation between Christmas and New
Years and it was great. I wish I could tell you that I met up with friends
every day, shopped, cleaned house, took down Christmas, etc. I didn’t do any of that. One day I did take
Jack and Avery to the movies to see Sing. I’ve mentioned them a few times. I’m
really good friends with their mom who works with me. They don’t have any
family in Texas and they didn’t go home to Chicago this year. They’re good boys and I love spending time
with them. Sing was super cute! I did read a book- Miss Peregrine’s home for
peculiar children. I liked it but then I
realized it’s a series of 3 books and I didn’t have the other 2. I hate when I do that! I slept in every day to at least 8 or
8:30. I just kinda took it easy which I so
rarely do. It was nice!
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| Sing with Avery and Jack |
For New Years Eve, we
were invited to some friends house who had a really fun ( brilliant) idea- the
party started at 6pm and they changed all their clocks in the house to say
9pm. So at our time at 9, we did a count
down and toasted champagne like it was midnight. Todd and I were back home in our jammies and
in bed again by 10. HAHA! We are some
wild and crazy characters ! The
following day on Sunday was spent at my Dads ranch again visiting with my
stepmom’s family. My stepbrother and sister and the kiddos were in from
California and I needed to spend time with them. It was also Cowboys football time that we
lost to the Giants. Poop! Then Monday came around and we had a corporate day
off so that was good. I unfortunately had caught a bug (from one of the kiddos I
suspect) and was super super sick all day and into the late evening. Todd took down the Christmas tree and did
what he could with decorations but i wasn’t able to help him much at all. Then back to work on Tuesday. That was all
pretty much my holiday in a nutshell.
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| NY Eve party with friends Debbie and Wendy( avery and jacks mom) |
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| My nieces Ava and Paloma |
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| Dad's dog Leroy did not mind being festive and wearing party hat |
This week has been rough emotionally. This Thursday will be
the one year anniversary of my sweet amazing Daddy taking his last breath. I cant believe its already been a year. It
honestly feels like it was a few months ago. I think I lived so long in the
dark with my head in a hole last year that I lost track of time. I will be
working from home that day so I don’t have to wear makeup because I suspect
I’ll be crying the majority of the day.
This weekend Deb is hosting a Celebration of Life in Memory of Daddy. I’ve
also been dreading that. I don’t know why.
It will be friends and family that loved my dad but I just am exhausted
from crying and yet I still do. A few of
my close friends will be there so that will help. Todd said to me the other night that we don’t have
to go. But we do. I need to show my support to Deb. Maybe this is healing for
her. I am his only daughter ( only kid born to him) and I feel like I need to
be there. So, please pray for my heart
this week and weekend. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Have a great day yall!!
