As I reflect on those moments such as our first Christmas in Ohio, when you got your first look into my Italian heritage. Though you felt like an outsider because of the language barrier, you accepted embraced and made it your own through the years.
Christmas became real and personal once Jaclyn was born. How can we ever forget waking to pings and puffs as we soon discovered that our baby girl learned to get out of her crib and decided that the sparkly Christmas ornaments made pings and puff sounds as she rolled them down the hallway.
Since we were so far away from our families we knew that Jaclyn needed to be exposed to a bigger family environment and that is were Grandma Mary and her family fit the bill. The festive holiday traditions were maintained along with keeping the Italian heritage intact.
Things changed somewhat with the one Christmas of my fathers death. We both realized that the moments that we do have we can no longer put on auto pilot but rather put more effort into each and every day.
We have come a long way in our journey together and we have many moments that with a simple blink of an eye we can recapture and enjoy. In doing so we will understand how our future moments in time will be shaped so that our off springs will be able to do the same.
So Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and just close your eyes and see all those moments in time together.
