The year started out well for us, we all had our goals and managed to achieve most of the things we wanted to do.  Graham is enjoying his work, I’m loving mine and completed a new book.  Mel and Ryan are enjoying married life and Melanie now works at home making bridal and formal wear, which has been a life passion for her.  Meredith has completed uni and is enjoying an overseas trip before starting a new job in the new year.  Miriam had a great job and was living with friends not far from the city.  Christine completed the teaching at Box Hill that she came home for and is making plans to move back up to the country to work with horses in the new year and Angela and Ben are busy working on their home and looking after their menagerie of animals: a snake, 2 dragons, 2 rats, cat, and pig.

But at the end of September our happy lifestyle was rocked to the core when we lost our darling, beautiful Miriam and Graham and I struggled to make sense of it all.  It should have been a wedding and not a funeral.  And we’ve been limping along ever since.

Christmas will be very different this year and so we’re relocating to our youngest daughter’s home for the main meal and time together as a family.

We’ve received lots of Christmas cards from people everywhere – family, friends, colleagues, but I just don’t have what is needed to write out cards and happy wishes to everyone. I hope you can all forgive me.  We love you all but just can’t bring ourselves to sit down and write card after card, wishing everyone a Merry Christmas when feeling merry ourselves feels somewhat distant.  I’m hoping we do have a nice family day but I expect it will have tears accompanying the smiles as we reminisce and share our thoughts and love with one another.

And so, my message here is to you all.  Make sure you spend time with your loved ones as you never know when they might be snatched away from you.  It’s not a thought anyone wants to have but the reality is it does happen.  So savour every moment and don’t let anger or annoyance drag on.  Get over it and get back into loving that person and enjoying life.

In the meantime, if you’d like to see some messages about Christmas, as I have been blogging about what happens here in Melbourne, why not visit MuchAboutMelbourne?