Memories

Christmas was hard: there are memories of my Dad everywhere. He loved my mom's cookies, and chocolate covered cherries. He was always the hardest family member to buy gifts for, and he usually let my mom pick out the gifts for us. Still, we managed a Christmas dinner with the family, and presents and stockings. We took the traditional picture of all of us around the dinner table, after taking half an hour or so to figure out the timer on the camera - again. I have a new MP3 player to load with music, and a new alarm-clock radio. My nephew got the toy garbage truck he wanted so desperately, as only a 4 year old can want. But of course it wasn't the same, and it's one more part of the process: what we have to go through to come out the other side, changed.