Cindy's Life as She Knows It

Today would have been my father's 85th birthday.  Unfortunately, he's been gone from us for almost 20 years.  There isn't a day that goes by that I don't miss him.  I told my nine year old today how much fun he and his grandfather would have had playing jokes on everyone and being ornery.  They have a very similar personality in that respect and both my sons have my father's blue eyes. My dad adored his grandchildren.  My sisters' kids got the pleasure of knowing and loving him.  They were teenagers and young adults when he passed.  My girls......it's painful for me to even think about how close they were to him and at five and eight, when their beloved Pop Pop was just gone.....it took them years to get over it. My father kept them whenever they wanted to visit, picked them up from school, took them for treats, brought them donuts, loved them with a passion.  My girls idolized him and he saw them each and every day. My oldest son was just a y...

It was hard to get into the Christmas spirit this year for some reason.  We did alot less as a family in terms of Christmas shows and pagents etc, but alot more in terms of cold nights under warm blankets watching movies and being together.  We were happy, just not jolly, I guess you could say!  Two days before Christmas we decided to head out with our boys and have dinner.  This turned into a very nice holiday outing with dinner at Ruby Tuesdays, walking in the mall, seeing an old friend, hanging out and watching a holiday train garden and seeing some lights on the way home.  Christmas Eve was spent playing games, watching movies and I wrapped while my husband took the boys out for last minute mom shopping.  I baked lots of cookies and about 8pm we got our houseful of guests, including MomMom, both daughters, our son in law, both granddaughters and my daycare baby, along with her mom.  We all waited excitedly for Santa to come by on the fire truck, go...