[Corin Stormhands]

Hold your family close Rosie. I lost my Dad when I was in college. I was 20. He was the youngest of nine in his family (7 lived to be adults, 2 died with the "Spanish" flu in the early 1900s).

My Aunt, always the "practical" one thought it would be easier if we just got together on Christmas Eve (a Sunday that year) at a community center and didn't get together as a family on Christmas Day. That would've left my mom, my brother and I all alone. I threw a fit. So my mom (feeling much the same) invited everyone to our house for Christmas dinner.

The Christmas Eve dinner was cold and harsh. But Christmas Day that year, at home, with all the family is still one of my warmest memories.

Twenty-four years later, I still miss my Dad. It's a little less painful every year. But the empty spot is still there.

It won't be easy. But hold each other close. Let the tears flow. It's okay.

[RosieCotton]

Thanks for that story...and for not saying "I know JUST how you feel..."

In our case, because there are still younger kids at home and people being what they are, I imagine we'll get invited to half a dozen dinners, but we mostly just want to be together. So being gracious is going to be a strain, as it was when she first passed away and everyone treated Dad as if he were helpless.

But Mom was always the one who kept up traditions and who was the center of everything, both spiritual and "external" during the holidays. We'll get through it, but not without tears and without feeling her loss.