One thing my childhood taught me was how to accept change whole heartedly and make the most of it. As you may have read in my last post my kids Papa died suddenly in an accident just prior to Christmas. Jason was definitely heading back for the funeral and it was quickly decided he would stay for Christmas as well.
I have realized with many things in our lives that its the adults that get hung up on details, events, and situations whereas children are much more resilient to change. Time and again I've put more thought then necessary into topics and situations prior to discussing it with Francis to only realize how accepting children can be.
They don't have the clutter of information in their brains to complicate an already complicated situation. Jason headed home to Manitoba to be with his Mom and family for ten days over Christmas. It was where he needed to be.
Fortunately the kidlets were all healthy while their dad was away making life much easier on my end. Christmas day we all moved to Grandma's farm and stayed until Jason returned on the 29th.
Uncle George came home for Christmas as well. Having the extra arms to hug, cuddle and feed made my life all the easier.
Jason flew home on December 28th to all of our delight. We had a mini Christmas on the 29th which included a few presents under the tree, steak and lobster (Jason's favorite), as well as a family viewing of the Disney classic Frozen.
Funny thing is I've boycotted the show since it first came out. I had gone to buy the DVD when it first hit the stores and I refused to pay $25.99. From then on I just decided it wasn't necessary to get Francis to watch it and believed it gave me some relief. Why? Well I've never seen a Disney show marketed to the extent Frozen was.
Every grocery store, drug store, general store, gas station, and hospital was/is full of Frozen parapinelia. So I figured if she didn't know anything about it it would safe me a lot of headache and it did! However, now having seen the show I have to say it was super cute and well worth watching several years later when I could rent it for $5 and watch it with the family.
After Dad had been gone for ten days it finally caught up with Francis. She just snapped and couldn't get grounded no matter what I did. It wasn't until Dad came and tried to calm her that it became evident that's all she wanted was her Daddy.
It was beautiful to see how his hugs and closeness brought her peace. Again the importance of spending time with your loved ones at Christmas and not putting the emphasis on stuff as in the end we all remember the time......
PS! Alistair's school put on another amazing evening Christmas concert and Alistair got to be Frosty the Snowman for his class production. All the kids were so excited for him it was awesome. The efforts and interest the whole school puts into Alistair still astounds me. Its a lovely gift!
