Traditions, Birthday Fun and Loss

 I'll preface this by saying that I'm heartbroken as I write this so this may not be as cheerful as I'd want it to be. 

Traditions are important to me. I love our holiday traditions, starting at Thanksgiving when our elf on the shelf appears. He brings a lot of joy...and mischief....until Christmas Eve, when he goes back to the North Pole for the year. A few years ago the boys and I tried to accomplish 25 days of kind acts leading up to Christmas. We weren't 100% successful but one thing that we did, that the boys still enjoy doing, is "candy cane bombing" cars. Essentially, they put a candy cane on car doors in the parking lot. Then we sit and watch a few people come to their car, often smiling when they see the candy cane. On Christmas Eve we typically go to a service and then go look at Christmas lights. This year we didn't look at lights because I was in a funk and the boys said they don't like looking at lights anymore. But we still baked cookies for Santa and a birthday cake for Jesus. 

On Christmas morning we woke up early to open gifts then enjoyed brunch at my brother in law's house. Later that afternoon, my in-laws came over for dinner. It was a pretty low-key Christmas, which was just what I needed. The day after Christmas, P and I woke up not feeling well. I'm 99% sure mine was a sinus infection and we found out that P's was just a viral infection. But we spent about 5 days sleeping and watching football. We didn't get off the couch much. It was glorious...except the sick part.

Thankfully we were feeling better in time to celebrate E's birthday. He wanted to go bowling and then grill burgers and have fruit salad. For the first time in years, he wanted to have a big birthday party. So we didn't do much on his actual birthday.

Our Christmas break has been really low-key except for getting new floors. We had 2 days of "chaos" because of it, but it was well worth it! I am in love with our new floors and it made me realize how bad our old floors truly were.

Today has been hard, despite it being E's big birthday party. Shortly after waking up, I got word that one of my sweet students from last year died unexpectedly last night. It took me by surprise and absolutely broke my heart! She and I got close last Christmas because her little brother and E are good friends. She gave the best hugs and her smile was infectious. The only time I saw her being "down" was when she didn't get picked for the middle school cheerleading squad. But, in true Corley nature, she put her friends first and was excited for them. I was thrilled when she made the middle school dance team! She was always so positive and gave the best hugs. Today I had a splitting headache from trying to hold it together for E's birthday. I didn't want him to know about Corley until after his party. Thankfully I accomplished my goal and he had a lot of fun, despite the cold temperatures. He improvised on games because no one really wanted to go outside, but no one seemed to mind.

It's been a long day and I'm ready for bed. Tomorrow is the last day I get to relax before going back to work. I'm thankful for the time I've had with the boys and our restful break. 

Sweet Corley Ann....a beautiful life cut too short