Thursday, December 25, 2014 Granddaughter Ashly

Granddaughter Ashly is busy opening a gift and I was randomly capturing photos. I was so busy during most of the family gathering that I did not even think to stop to get some pictures. So these are not fabulous, but certainly better than no photos at all.

This was not our best Christmas ever. Our son, Shawn, is currently living in Arizona and did not get back here for Christmas. Our daughter, Deidre (Dede), who lives right here in our community is separated from her husband and her two adult children. She chose not to join all of us for this holiday. She tried to produce a legitimate reason for not joining us, but this mom wasn't convinced. I think she is making bad choices. I did NOT tell her that. I just listened as she spoke to me by phone.

As a youngster, I learned that family is prized. Even when members are misbehaving and not conforming to family norms -- on holidays and special occasions you don't skip the gathering. For a day "you fake it till you make it." 

So we enjoyed our granddaughter, Ashly, her younger brother, Emerson, who lives with us, and our son-in-law, John, who is like a son to us. Ashly's boyfriend, Robert, was also with us.

Our son's daughter, Desiree, also did not join us. Desiree is the mom of our great-grandson Tristan. She did not join us because her boyfriend/fiancé, Justin, who is in the U.S. Navy, was on "watch" duty for the day. Desiree lives in San Diego and she did not have Tristan for the day because she had T last Christmas, so this year he was with his daddy. We were disappointed that Des chose not to join us because she and Justin will be getting married soon and they will be moving to the MidWest for his next assignment with the Navy. This will be her last Christmas in California for probably quite some time.


"Family" -- they really can mess with the emotions of a day. 


In spite of all of that, we had a very nice time with the four who joined us and it was Ashly who asked us one Monday evening in early December if we'd host the Christmas dinner event. She really thought we all ought to be together even though at the moment we are quite a "mess." For that matter, we're probably always quite a mess.


I know very few perfect families. So I suppose in some sense, we are possibly not too far from normal, if there is any such thing as "normal." 


So Merry Christmas to you from our dysfunctional family.
Good night from Southern California,
Rosie (& Mr. Fun), aka Carol