Family Time

I love the holidays, always have.  I can’t get enough of cheesy Christmas music, decorations, Christmas tree smell, holiday parties, new year parties, egg nog, and family.  I had to remind my self quite a few times this year how much I loved the holiday’s.  After feeling the burn of a really financially tough 09 and feeling like I had nothing to give this Christmas, Kim and I’s first Christmas together with rings on our fingers.  I was starting to feel like the people I never understood before who hated the holiday’s.  You know, the people that say things like “I hate the holiday’s, it’s just a lot of pressure and driving around to see everyone and family fights, and crowded malls and bla bla bla”.

Then a few small things that cost no money and weren’t wrapped in pretty paper came to me.  I have a very good friend who’s wife was due to have their second child just before Christmas.  When she went in to labor and it was time to go, they rushed down to the hospital and began the rituals of child birth etc.  Except things didn’t go exactly as planned.  Marissa delivered their healthy baby boy (thank God) and soon after was induced into a comma due to Swine Flu and Pneumonia complications.  She has been in the hospital unconscious and hooked up to a multitude of chords and machines for 25 day’s now.  Jeff, her husband has spent 18 hours a day in her hospital room through Christmas, through New Years, and through the beginning of his only Son’s first 25 days on earth to be by her side.  That was a BIG lesson to me this Christmas, that the things that really matter in life are mostly the things you don’t notice on a daily basis.  Jeff would have been the happiest man alive to have his wife and two children together with their families without a single gift in sight this year.  Kim and I went to visit Jeff yesterday at the hospital just to hang out and keep him company for a bit and he told us as we were leaving to return home to remember to hug and kiss each other as often as possible.  So I’m sending his message out to the rest of the Internet world if anyone is reading.  Remember to hug and kiss the people you love.  A LOT!!

Here are a few pictures of my other gifts this year.  We had family in town from D.C that were lucky enough to rent a great little beach cottage in Oceanside for New Years week.  Again I was reminded that just spending time with them laughing, surfing, and having fun was all I needed this year to remember why I love the holiday’s so much.