December 22, 2009: Christmas and Deceased Relatives
Did your family visit the cemetery at Christmas? How did your family honor deceased family members at Christmas?
In 2003 we lost my father-in-law in January and my brother-in-law in December. Our family comes together in early January and we have a luncheon to remember both of them. We light a memory candle for each of them. Sometimes, someone will read a poem and other times, we talk about the memories we have of each of them.
In December, as part of our Christmas gift, my Mother in law gets each of her boys (and their families) a hotel room downtown. We spend time from the afternoon until late morning early afternoon the next day together. We always go out to a nice dinner, sometimes we go see a Broadway in Chicago production, other times we just go and see the lights in the city. The adults stay up late, enjoying the lobby and talking about the past year and what lies ahead for the new one. We really enjoy this time together, and everyone looks forward to it each year.
Having loved ones pass around the holiday is a terrible thing. Instead of completely enjoying the holiday around us, some sort of the day ends up with “why did this have to happen around the holidays?”
We did visit the cemetery on Christmas but it was for the Circle of Lights. Ok it wasnt actually on Christmas day but it was a few days prior…