Wanted to take a few minutes to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year ....it's been a really tough year for everyone around the world, and we can only hope the New Year brings better days for all of us.   I chose to decorate the tree I had purchased at half price after last Christmas - it was a 9 ft. Balsam Hill tree and I couldn't just let it sit in the box in the garage, even though Gary passed away in Feb. (which we are now sure was from COVID-19).  Christmas was always his favorite time of the year - especially eating the Christmas goodies!   🙂    

The oldest son, Vince has come down to Arizona for the winter months and is staying here.  I closed on my other house the end of September, but didn't get into the new one until first week in November.   He got here the day before Thanksgiving and has been a big help  to me (even though he's now disabled) in fixing things up around here, as this place needed plenty of fixing.  The dogs are enjoying play time with Vince's service dog (Sammi - the maltipoo), who used to be our youngest son's dog before he passed away in 2016.   Sammi is like glued to Vince's side when he has that "service dog" vest on and goes everywhere with him, even the casino.   🙂  They did take a few days to head to northern AZ area where he did some gold panning (his favorite hobby right now), and while they were gone that first week in Dec., I put up that 9 ft. tree and between assembling it and decorating it with 700 lights and hundreds of bulbs, I spent over 9 hours on it, but I know Gary is looking down at it and smiling!!   I had to do it in his memory, as well as get that memorial garden in the back yard for him and our youngest son, Dan!     I also did the candlelight vigil the 2nd week in Dec. and had a small ceremony here with only a few friends, but it was nice to share memories.

In a year when COVID-19 dictated all of our lives, we still managed to find a few bright spots along the way.   I am hoping to be able to get the COVID vaccination by spring and travel back to Colorado in the summer to finally have a "real" service for Gary since we were only able to have about 12 people at the grave site on his birthday last summer.    He deserves better!!

Sarah

(Gary's caregiver for nearly 16 yr.)