Well it has been 8 months and 3 days since we lost our lovely Mum, Sheila and more so it seems at this time of year her absence is felt. Not only because it’s Christmas time but December is the month of both our Birthdays & Mum would have been 75 years of age on the 20th December, a milestone she was excited about getting to and one for which she had started planning over a year ago to have a big family get together to celebrate her Birthday and this year’s Christmas. Instead she is no longer with us & we have a huge gap of a lovely lady lost with Dad & I visiting her at Hedge End Cemetery on the day whispering Birthday wishes into thin air, which seems so unfair. Still we must try to move on & remember her love of all things festive and struggle through this year of so called festive fun. We’ve decorated Coniston Gardens to the brim with all the beautiful Xmassy things Mum had made over the years ranging from coasters, to cushion covers, aprons, to napkins, toys, pictures, tree decorations, stars, mobiles, this list goes on! Amazing to see all the beautiful crafty beaded, lace & embroidered things she has made over the years and a comfort to watch them twinkling in the fairy lights, making it feel a little that she’s still there & will wander in the door any second, it only lasts a moment though… Dad has busy plans this Christmas and will be visiting nigh on all of us it seems! Christmas Eve with Pauline in London with her family, Christmas & Boxing Days with Susan & her posse, Kara, Amy & Alfie also with Maria, Joel and little Sam who are staying there too & are over from Portugal, plus Pauline & all her family so quite a mad house! Mike & I will see them all the day after & bring Dad back to ours in Oxford then drop him off back at Pauline’s later in the week where he will stay until he flies off to Sweden on the 30th to bring in the New Year with Forrest/Philip, Erika & their 2 daughters Celia & Holly. So jet setter or what! It’s great he’s being kept so busy but still all the trips & visits will be with twinges of sadness as this would have been Mum’s absolute ideal Christmas to be doing all these trips & seeing us all (bar Angela who’s in America with her family) all over the Christmas holidays. It’s such a shame that it takes such a sad loss for us all to get it together and actually do the things we say we’ll do & to make the effort to spend the time with our loved ones. Still I like to think that it’s Mum up there making it all happen, still organising and looking out for us all as we have never been so close as a family in my opinion and someone is making it happen… So thank-you Mum & Happy Christmas xx