Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Hi baby boy, its a new year and another that we won’t see each other. But let that not stop me from telling you about your dad and the fun we all had as a family while he was growing up.

In Chinese astrology you are the Monkey. That is funny because I always called your dad my little monkey because he was just always so upbeat and happy and mischievous.

First Christmas. This was never my favorite holiday at all. We woke up the kids got to open presents and look at what Santa brought them for being good, and they were always good kids. Then we had to get the kids ready and go visiting everyone. I would’ve loved just to stay home relax and let the kids play with their toys all day long. The good part was is that I always had the kids on A track so that they had a long winter vacation and had enough time to play with their bikes, computers, game boxes, etc. before they had to go back to school. Grandpa also had the time off of work so it was a fun family time for all of us.

New Years Eve was what I would’ve liked Christmas to be. We would wake up and have a special breakfast, eat dinner and then break out the games! We played UNO, Monopoly, and Risk and more through the night. We had special snacks to snack on all the with music blaring in the background. We had a very noisy household (noisy all the time extra noisy on NYE). As it got closer to midnight everyone would get a bit grouchy but never the less we pushed on until midnight! We had special glass wine glasses for the chime of midnight. At midnight we broke open a bottle of Martinellie’s apple non alcoholic champagne and toasted to the new year. Your dad loved it and would grace us all with his beautiful smile (I don’t think he smiles as much anymore, he used to smile all the time, it brightened up the whole room).

Then off to do fireworks. Your dad got to light the fireworks, when he got old enough, it was one of his favorite things to do. After he got the wick going good he would run back and watch with anticipation on his face to see what that one would look like. He loved fireworks. One year for New Years, when we lived in Delta we drove 4 hours, 2 hours one way and 2 hours the other, to get fireworks. I wasn’t going to buy fireworks that year but the look on your dads fallen face when I said that made my heart hurt so off we went to go buy some fireworks, his smile was always worth it.

You are in my heart. I love you Vash.
Always and Forever
Grandma Jayme