A Week To Go

This will be Christmas number 4 without our Abby here.  Year one we tried to avoid as much as we could.  Year two we began to incorporate her into the season more with our "Abby Tree" at home and her own pink tree at the cemetery.  Year three we were snowbound, making the day harder by not having family here and not being able to go the the cemetery. Year four is all but here and I am still not ready.  Yes the trees are up  - one upstairs, one downstairs, and our Abby Tree.  The night before we had plans to pull out the trees, I could not sleep and became physically ill.  I tried passing it off as a bug, but deep down I knew the cause was the anticipation of what was to come the next day.  The trees went up and the girls had fun decorating them.  We still cut down on the number of ornaments we put up, but maybe in a few more years we will have them all back out.  Later I realized I did not take a single picture of the event which is really odd for me.  Last week our Abby Tree went up and was decorated.  It seemed like Mady took extra pride this year in helping me with her tree.  She hung almost every ornament, strung the pink star garland, wrapped the base with the pink Princess tree skirt, and placed the star on top.  Even though the trees are up and decorated, for some reason they don't seem to get plugged in.  I guess the light is just not back in the holiday for us yet.  Today we plan on getting Abby's pink tree decorated and to her at the cemetery.  Then it will be shopping and wrapping left to make the day special for the girls.