Christmas

What a great Christmas season celebrating with all of our family. We had some Allen family Christmas celebrations and some Wright family celebrations. We even had our annual Malone - Wright White Elephant exchange. It was so fun to have Christmas with our cousin (Sutton) this year. And it was Amelia's first Christmas. So it was a very busy and very exciting holiday season. Here are some pictures:

 A little Christmas tree action.

 It was Amelia's first Christmas. :-)

The cousins all had matching pjs thanks to Aunt Ashley and Uncle David. However, getting a good pic of all of them in said matching pjs was next to impossible.The above pic was one of the two best I got - if that tells you anything. ;-)

To conclude our Wright Christmas celebrations we lit some lanterns that were leftover from my sister's May (2013) wedding. It was pretty fun and they looked beautiful rising up into the night sky.

Shredder Dave

I have been trying to write this post for almost ten months and I still don't really know what to say, or how to say it. There are no words, or at least no words I can find that seem to really fit, to sum up my feelings regarding your passing.

I will never forget the day I found out that Katie was dating someone who called himself "Shredder Dave." I thought it was such a weird name for a grown man to go by. I was pretty incredulous that this relationship was ever going to turn into anything substantial. However, Katie kept insisting that you were a keeper. And then I met you. And it all made sense. ;-) You were a heckuva guy David Adams. Self assured. Loyal. Generous and so kind. You were a friend to everyone you met. I remember my dad talking very fondly of you after just having spent a few short days getting to know you on our Disney trip.

I have definitely run the gamut of the grieving process. I have felt: shock , disbelief, anger, sadness, joy for you (Praising His name in His presence), and so much more. I grieve because I didn't get the chance to know you as well as I would have liked. I grieve because you were so young and just married. I grieve because my oldest daughter will not get to make silly faces with you again. I grieve because my youngest daughter will never have the chance to know you and make silly faces with you.

The crux of the issue is:

We miss you so much Uncle Dave. I miss you.

Will Claire remember you well enough to miss you? In some ways I hope that she will and in other ways I kind of hope she doesn't. I know that when she talks about "Aunt Kate's wedding" and "Uncle Dave" that it sort of breaks my heart. My heart breaks for her (even though she is too young to really understand), for Aunt Kate, and for myself.

I am so glad that your death was not a horrible, drawn out process. I am so glad that you are jamming out with Jesus. I am so glad to see your legacy building up our Savior in the lives of so many. But I also miss you. And I just needed to put that out there. You were missed all summer. You were missed at Thanksgiving. You were missed at Christmas. You will continually be missed by so many friends and loved ones that you left behind. And I am sad that you are gone, but I am so happy to know where you are and what you are getting to do. And I know that you are not sad anymore - sadness is reserved for the living.

Goodbye Shredder Dave.