Holiday Survival

Wow, what a couple of months. Rachel got married November 4 and it was a wonderful, bittersweet affair. Then we had Thanksgiving here in Houston and Mom went to Oregon for about a month. Mom hibernated in her subterranean hideout (a.k.a. basement apartment) over Thanksgiving. Kristin ventured down there to keep her company every now and then. It was a tough Thanksgiving for her and the reality that surviving the holidays just means we come up for air only to realize that we have to survive the rest of our lives. There is no relief on the other side of our survival. She flew back to Dallas a few days before coming to Houston for Christmas. We left on Christmas Eve for a Christmas cruise on Carnival for 7 days. We went to Jamaica (man), Grand Cayman and Cozumel. The cruise was fun, but depression hit quickly on the heels of our desperate attempt at holiday cheer. It was so "un-Christmas", which is what we were striving for. But our hope lies in the message of Christmas and we lost the essence of that in our endeavor to escape the pain of the loss of our deeply cherished holiday traditions. We'll try to achieve a better balance next year. In the mean time, my family is so glad I've emerged from my funk and finally took a bath after three or four days (ooooooh!). I still haven't put on make-up or anything other than sweats, but we do what we can.