Kurt Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve we headed over to my Dads house for Christmas. As the second Christmas after my Mom's death, it was a little more normal and a little less sad, but there were still reminders of my Mom in everything we did. Sometimes the reminders made me smile, sometimes I teared up.

We had a huge dinner and then got dressed and ready for church. We went to my Mom's church in Haslett, a traditional Lutheran service which I love. We've gone to my Mom's church for Christmas eve ever since I was a kid. I used to dread it as a kid, but I love the tradition and the liturgy, along with all of the memories that go with it. We sang every Christmas carol there is and then at the end we sing Silent Night while holding candles (and constantly trying to blow each others candles out in between verses). As the kids (all eleven of them now) are getting older, Church is a little less chaotic. At one time, we had nine of them under six and you can imagine that church was nuts. It never stopped my Mom from being proud of everyone of her grandkids at church and wanting to show them off. My Dad tried to use my Mom's trick at one point and pass out candy to the kids. Some at it, others rejected the candy saying that it tasted like "pocket". There was one part in the service where every year for about 15 years I would lean over to my Mom and ask if the "Barclay Boys" were going to do their solo. My Mom would patiently explain to me that they had moved away many, many years ago, acting each time as if I just didn't know. This year I had to lean over and ask my siblings.

My Mom was also very passionate about making sure we took our family pictures every Christmas. She would bribe the grandchildren with treat bags to get the pictures done. We did it in record time this year, getting them before we headed to church so immediately after we could change and the kids could open presents.

Because i am the Godfather of their three boys, Dan and Kris asked that I join their family picture, and then take a separate picture with Dan that he could put into his office. I happily obliged.

We had some phenomenal gifts this year. One the good kind of phenomenal, one the embarrassingly bad kind. Jon and Bethie got Em and Maddie a high-school musical sing-along game for the Wii that my Nephews seemed to especially love (and I caught Nate mouthing the words in the background as the girls sang).


In the past, Dan and Kris have tried to buy my Dad the most outlandish gift. One year they got him old fashioned nails and another year a fireplace pop corn popper. Not to be outdone, Jon bought my Dad a special butter dish that doesn't have to be refrigerated. My guess is that being down in Memphis, Jon had not heard that my Dad had a heart attack a while back and that butter is not on the list of things to be consumed in a low-cholesterol, low-fat diet.





One of my Moms last requests was that we keep my Dads clothes up to date so that he doesn't begin to dress like an old man. My Dad was kind enough to gift each of us one of his sweaters, as seen above. (The irony was that Dan has and still wears one of the sweaters).

As the kids are getting older, the younger ones continue to get more attention, especially by the aunts and uncles. Bender and Reagan are especially cute. Ben (as seen on the right after I put some styling gel in his hair) cracked me up with his obsession for deer and waking Nate up Christmas morning with "Nate play football hit guys") and little Reagan is probably the cutest Kurt/Mayes baby of all time (my Mom would disagree, saying that they were all beautiful).

It was a fantastic Christmas with a ton to be grateful for. The only odd thing was that Dan and Kris did not stay over at my Dads on Christmas Eve night like they usually do. We were all a little surprised by this. (Note to those in the family: Dan and Kris have been driving back Christmas Eve night for about ten years. Every year everyone in the family acts surprised and probably mention it 20 or 30 times how strange it is that Dan and Kris aren't staying over this year).

You can see the rest of the pictures here.