Love & Death & Christmas

In May of 2010, Aleisha's grandma died. Then, June 12, 2010, my dad died. The day before Thanksgiving of 2010, my cousin was killed in a plane accident. Needless to say, we did not feel festive that year and put up no Christmas decorations. As the holidays came around in 2011, we got out a few minor decorations (my Grinch sled, Max the dog, and a few mangers, but no lights were put up as we still did not feel festive. As the holidays of 2012 approached, I felt like I wanted to celebrate again. I started listening to Christmas music on November 1st and started getting excited. Then, on November 12th, one of our cats, Forti, was discovered run over in the parking lot and I saw his back crushed and his eyes bugged out. I felt sad and it dampened the mood a touch, but I was still looking forward to the holiday season. Thanksgiving came and went and I had a blast with 2 full Thanksgiving dinners. The day before Thanksgiving, we visited my uncle Dennis in the hospital (who had been in and out of the hospital since September 15th) and had a good time visiting with him. We decided to go to my mom's in Hurricane and celebrate Christmas with her on the weekend of December 9th. As we were heading out the door, we noticed that our 12 year old cat, Harry, was looking very sick. His nose was dry and crusty and Aleisha alerted me to the fact that he had urinated on himself earlier that day while I was at work. With the car already packed for the trip, we took Harry to the vet. And found out he was dying of liver failure and only had a few days left to live. So, we decided to put him to sleep. We held him one more time and I went to finish trip packing while Aleisha was with him as he was put to sleep (I could not be there to watch it). Then, we went on the vacation and cried most of the way down. Worst. Beginning. to a vacation. ever. The weekend celebration was muted somewhat. But, I still was excited to put up decorations, but, with the 2 jobs I have, it was tough to find the time. On Friday, December 14th, my Uncle had emergency surgery and it was discovered that the cancer he had that they thought could be cured, was still growing, ripping apart his internal organs, his kidney was dead, his vascular system was shutting down, his lungs were filling up with fluid and, it was discovered on Thursday December 20th, that he was terminal with no way to save him. On Saturday, December 22nd, Uncle Denis decided that he was going to stop fighting and he decided to be taken off of everything and spend the holiday with his family surrounding him and enjoy his last few days. On Sunday, December 23rd, he was transferred to his daughter's house where he will spend the end of his life and we are now pretty much awaiting word that he has died. Amazingly enough, I found time to put up the lights and more decorations than we have had in the past 3 years. While not totally decked out, our house pleases me with the decorations that we do have and I am really feeling the spirit of Christmas this year. Why? This is the question which has been in the back of my head for the last few days. and I think that I finally have an answer. Christmas is the celebration of the birtn of Christ who came to Earth to be our Savior so that we could live again- truly live again. While I still have the separation anxiety of death and not being able to see my loved ones again for a long time, I do know that I will see them again. Of that I have no doubt. And this was brought to pass by the Birth of our Savior who lived a perfect life and died for us and took his life again in resurrection. This is the meaning of Christmas. This is why we celebrate the season and the giving of gifts ad the lights and the trees and the decorations. But it is all about Christ and the love that He brought to this earth so that death is only a temporary thing nd we may be able to live and love our family and friends again after this life.