Installment 1- The blog to end all blogs (because its so very long)

Where to begin? I've been gone for a week! A crazy week. I can't believe how much I actually missed writing in this blog. My blog is my friend!! I know, I'm strange sometimes.
Firstly, my grandmother died on Tuesday. The funeral was on Friday morning. It was so surreal to see her in the casket. She looked beautiful and more peaceful than I've seen her in I don't know how many years. Throughout the funeral I kept thinking, "She's finally happy, and she's not suffering." My second(?)-cousin Betty gave a eulogy and told how my grandmother was a Christian and how much she loved her grandchildren. It was very sweet and moving. I'm SO glad to know that she's in heaven, happy with the Lord..and reunited with my dad, her son. I don't know what a reunion is like with a mother and son in heaven, but I know its got to be more wonderful than we can imagine. "Beulah Land" was played at the funeral...and OH that song. My sister and I were overcome with images of Granny greeting Jesus, dressed in her beautiful blue gown, happy and lovely and finally home. As hard as it is to lose her, someone who's been in my life and heart forever, my father's mother, I'm happy she's no longer suffering. She suffered from Parkinson's and Alzheimer's for many years, but now she's free from pain and worry. That's something to be thankful for.
Next, Christmas. What can I say? It was Christmas! It was wonderful and overwhelming. Well, I can start with Christmas Eve. That morning, I had church...the Christmas Cantata. My mom and Chuck came, Kim and the girls came, and it was so good to see them all there, sitting together. We did the Cantata and I was SO nervous. My voice was shaky on ALL the songs because I was so nervous about the solo!!! My heart started thumping and I was praying and singing and trying to take deep breaths all at once! haha So it came, and I got through it. To ME it sounded like my voice was REALLY shaky. Cause I was so nervous! But my family (of course they did - ha) said it was pretty and Julia (the one who handed the solo over to me) said it made her cry!!! I was like, "WHAT?" haha. So maybe I didn't do as badly as I thought. It was a great service though. We had the Lord's supper, and it felt nice to sit with all my family. It felt like LOVE in the room. I could feel God's presence that morning. :) I do love Christmas.
Christmas Eve EVENING we went to Jessie's mom's and it was all chaos and kids and family and food and fun. Jessie's mom got us these awesome outside-chairs with a little table and cupholder attatched. The kids of course, got toys-toys-toys. Then Jessie's brother came as we were about to leave. He and Jessie hugged and in earshot of me began talking. Jessie told him we were about to leave and his brother acted all outraged ("WHY?") Jessie told him we were going to see my family and his brother says something like "I think its really crappy that you only spend a couple of hours with your family and are going to spend all day with HERS"
What????
Jessie goes, "LOOK..." and tells him some stuff that I tuned out because I was REALLY upset. So the last fifteen minutes there, I spent trying not to cry! Yeesh. Then one of Jessie's cousin's wives, a lady named Jennifer, grabs me in a bear hug while I'm saying my goodbyes and starts being SO sweet..saying, "I'm sorry about your grandmother, I know what you're going through, my grandfather has Alzheimer's and if you ever need to talk and cry together you know you can call me..."
At that point the tears were about to start spilling so I hugged her back and thanked her profusely, said my last goodbyes and got out of there as fast as I could! THEN...I started sobbing! I did. What Jessie's brother said hurt my feelings SO much and then Jennifer was SO nice to me that the waterworks could not be stopped. Jessie was SO pissed off (at his brother, not me) at one point he said, "I just should've punched him!!!" I was thinking, yeah, that would've been nice.... haha. I feel better about it now though. We try to alternate years with our families and even out the time and you CANNOT please everyone no matter how hard you try. He can like me or not, but our family is our family and I don't calculate its every move to try and please him! Ok, the rant is through!
Since this is so long, I'm going to stop here! I'll have to write this blog in installments! Next to come, Andrea's Christmas Day! Stay tuned! ha