It's Christmaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaassss!
So first and foremost, MERRY CHRISTMAS! wherever you are in the world, I hope you're having a really special day filled with hope and happiness.
I don't want to reflect too much on the past year because I have something planned for New Years Eve where I will be reflecting over the year but I wanted to reflect on last Christmas in comparison to this Christmas.Last year, my Nana and Papa had Christmas dinner with us for the first time (they normally went to my auntie and uncles but because of work shifts and things, they came to us in 2013). They went to visit my cousins etc in the morning and then came to us in the afternoon for dinner where we had the most memorable day in my life so far. Nothing particularly amazing happened, just them being here was amazing.
Papa and my dad are so alike, they even both wore the exact same outfit on Christmas Day without knowing it. That's something we didn't realize until recently when we took the time to reflect and open our eyes.
Papa hadn't been very well, he'd had a bad cold that despite going to the doctors and getting antibiotics just was not clearing up but he seemed to be getting better, his cough was nowhere near as bad and he had an appetite again,
On Boxing day, we had a brilliant day just chilling out and at night time, we went a bit mad and were drinking shots and having fun, until the phone rang at 3am telling us Papa was extremely unwell and was being rushed to ICU in hospital. Cut a long story short (so not to disrespect my family), Papa had pneumonia and while we had glimmers of hope, several weeks later after a long stint in hospital, he passed away on February 22nd.
My entire family were heartbroken, and still to this day are heartbroken. Papa was a legend, the kind of man who everyone loved and who fought for what he believed in without offending a single person. At any party or wedding, papa would be up on the dance floor in his tartan troosers' seperating the crowd while him and nana did rock n roll! He would stuff his pockets full of chipolata sausages to take home to his wee dogs who he loved, and him and my Nana were soul mates, like full on proper true love soul mates who were married for 60 years.
This Christmas will never compare to the joy we had last year, but it's Christmas, and the last thing Papa would want (or Paps as we called him a lot) is for us all to be miserable and gurning on the couch when we could be living our lives and fulfilling our potentials.
I miss you Papa, we all do, we will all make you proud this Christmas.
xxxxxxx
