Life as We Know It: Christmas

It's that time of year again. Another Christmas, another birthday. You were supposed to be turning 28 on Christmas Day. Amid all the joy and celebrations, we still feel your loss.

Merry Christmas from Heaven Throughout the Christmas season, don't fall into despair, Relive the special times we shared, I promise, I'll be there. You'll find me in the stories, of loved ones who stop by, I am the flickering candlelight, My spirit did not die. Continue with traditions and gather around the tree, I want you to be happy... You were everything to me! So fill the house with laughter, and know that I'm a part, Of all the joy the season brings, Here ALWAYS in your heart.

You are still the best Christmas gift our family ever received. Know we miss and love you very, very much, but we know we can all be together again someday.

Richard Gene Kirk 12/25/1988-7/9/2008
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Christmas morning dawned ~~bright~~ dark and early when 3;30 am rolled around and Tucker threw up. Multiple times. Sigh...why oh why is it ALWAYS when we are out of town??! After a few hours, he said he felt much better,,,and my stomach started rolling.

Santa made it!

He even remembered Blue!

And this was about the time my stomach finally revolted and I spent the rest of Christmas day throwing up. It was extremely unfair.

The boys got basically everything they wanted and spent the rest of the morning enjoying their gifts.

My brother Richard was born on Christmas Day. Since he passed away, we try to visit the cemetery together on Christmas afternoon. His best friend and his family also joined us. Someone usually reads a poem and we always play a version of "Silent Night" which is my mom's favorite Christmas song.

It ends up being a very emotional, tender part of our Christmas.

After that, we ended up back at my parents' to open gifts and have dinner. I was still sick so no dinner for me. I spent most of my time here huddled in the corner with my face in a hood so people (hopefully) wouldn't catch my germs.

Every year we make Mom a photo calendar and she LOVES it!!

The Christmas aftermath.

I finally crawled in bed about 9 pm Christmas night still feeling miserable but woke up the next day feeling much better. Plus, no one else got sick! Yahoo! We spent the day mostly lazing around. My mom made each couple a Christmas blanket to share...or not. This blanket is MINE!

My sis and her family drove down from Logan since we were in town. We had a ball just hanging out.

Uncle John makes everything better!

This is a typical Kirk sibling photo...and we can never seem to get Raymond to be around when we take them!

Saying goodbye to Grandma is never easy. We had such a good Christmas but now it was time to load up and head back to ND.

Had to grab some Taco Bell. I'm seriously deprived in Williston.

I finally got done packing all the bags to leave in the morning and came to bed to find this:

Up bright but not so early to start the trek back home. Bad weather was on the way so we needed to leave. The car was loaded within an inch of it's life with all the Christmas spoils.

Bye, Vernal!

Blue was freezing even in a sweater so he basically traveled 800 miles like this.

The roads were junky. We were about an hour out of Vernal and it was slow going. Right after I took this photo, some jacka** in a pickup sped past us. I said, "What the heck is he doing?? He's going to cause a wreck!" And then he started sliding and swerving and I just knew we were going to hit him...he slid off the road and over the guard rail. Kev came to a safe and complete stop, I jumped out and carefully made the descent down to the truck while Kev grabbed the first aid kit. I don't know how that pickup didn't roll but it was upright albeit pretty beat up. Also....the only injury sustained was a cut. That's it. Crazy! We called the cops and waited with the people until some of their friends came to take them where they were going.

After all that excitement we needed some nourishment so we stopped in Craig, CO at the Wendy's (something else Williston lacks."

We had planned to drive to Gillette, WY that day but helping at the accident and the snowy roads put us way behind. We decided to call it a night in Casper. It was sooo windy and cold.