Christmas With Mom and Dad

The first Saturday of this month my side of the family got together to celebrate Christmas. There were 27 of us total. Four generations. Everyone was there (except a nephew who was taking the SAT test), sisters, brother, in-laws, nieces, nephews all the way down to my parents' six great-grandchildren.

This was a Christmas celebration that I both looked forward to and dreaded. This was the first Christmas since my mom's stroke. One thought that went through all of our minds after Mom's stroke, I think, was that Christmas will never be the same. Mom always made Christmas special. Always. From the traditional foods (Spritz, Potato Bologna, Fruit Cake, Pecan Dreams, Swedish Brown Beans, Swedish Rye Bread, Mashed Potatoes, etc...), to decorating every single room in their house, to the mantel with 29 stockings, to the schedule for the evening: everyone assigned jobs to help get the meal on the table, eating a wonderful, abundant meal, washing the dishes and cleaning up the kitchen (this added much to the drama of waiting, but we did it this way all my growing up years), then finally getting to open presents.

My dad was able to reserve some nice rooms in the home where my mom is living right now. We did our best to carry on with some of the traditions, namely the Christmas stockings. We were able to hang them all up across the bar in one of the rooms. They were quite the sight:

My oldest niece is a cosmetologist. She and her mom (my sister) picked out a pretty Christmas sweater for Mom and put some make-up on Mom and fixed her hair very nicely. I thought she looked so very pretty. Here is Mom and Dad together:

 I love that Mom is able to give a full smile and not the half-smile she gave three months ago.


We all enjoyed lunch and dinner together. 

I brought some Swedish Potato Bologna for Mom. She has made it for Christmas every year for as long as I can remember. One of our local grocery stores makes it and sells it through the holidays.

 It's so good to see Mom feeding herself. She manages a lot with her left hand and is able to eat mostly regular food. Dad helps her with each meal.

This little one (one of my niece's twins) was being kind of fussy, so Hubby took her and sat down at the piano and starting playing. She sat there for the longest time listening. It was sweet.

My wonderful, dear, sweet husband prepared his own gift for his mother-in-law. He spent a month looking through his piano music picking out hymns to play for my mom.  Mom has occasionally hummed along to a familiar song and he wanted to gift her with well-loved hymns to trigger that part of her brain.

We gathered in one room and sang together.

As we were singing some Christmas songs, I watched Mom. At one point I saw her mouthing the words to O Come All Ye Faithful!!! Mom doesn't say any words. She readily shakes her head "no" and with some effort can nod her head "yes", so to see her forming words was just amazing! I was so taken up in the moment, that I didn't get a picture or video. Nevertheless, I will never forget that moment! Never.

O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant,
O come ye, O come ye, to Bethlehem.
Come and behold Him, born the King of angels

I am so very thankful that my mom is one of those Faithful.

Merry Christmas, Mom and Dad. I love you both!