friend-mas

Christmas at our house was really wonderful for the most part, as I’ve already shared.

And, after I posted, Christmas morning was amazing too:

After that, my husband and I started preparing for our oldest daughter to return home, and, as could have been predicted, that was not without drama and heartache:

She did not want to open her Christmas gifts.
She suggested that she had been “uninvited” to family Christmas at home – until she was reminded that it was her idea not to come.
She was uncooperative about even the simplest request from the beginning.
Even though all of these changes with her care must happen, as her mom, I am still having times where it is just really upsetting and hard to deal with. So it was a stressful first day back with her.

Thankfully, tonight was our girl’s Christmas dinner with my Al and Cheryl and it could not have come at a better time.

We’ve shared so many memories over the years.

There’s this one from a Christmas almost ten years ago:

And, many Halloweens, with our families. The two kidlets on the right in this picture are all grown up and they are a matched set these days:

And wonderful Bunco memories from back in the day:

Tons of birthdays celebrated together:

And many fun random dinners out together:

And Farkle nights at each other’s houses:

We’ve had some of the BEST times.

We’ve been together through plenty of hard as well.

In years past, we’ve had to say goodbye to two very young precious friends. And Al and I have been dealing with spoonie issues together for a long long time.

But this year brought the hardest and most heartbreaking hard that none of us ever saw coming and we are still sticking together and hanging on and praying:

So, tonight, we met for dinner and to celebrate a late Christmas:

And we sat and talked and laughed for so long that our server brought our checks so she could go and wait on a party that came in – and then she came back to check on us after she was done with them.

It was just the best to be together.

And Al gave us the most fabulous Christmas gifts too ❤️❤️❤️: