Christmas night, a special gift

So I plan to share a little of our crazy present time with pictures soon, but I had to write about this first. A beautiful Christmas day with my family ended with a night at my mom and dad's, great food, better company, and a little, ok alot more chaos than my parents are used to, but they are pretty good about it. Angel Boy is a particularly busy baby right now and into everything. As we were leaving, he was pulling out some books of grandmommmy's and a card flew out and landed on the floor out of nowhere. My dad picked it up and began to read it. His expression became somewhat thoughtful and he said "hmm, history of Grandma Neff, in the middle of the kitchen floor.." Grandma Neff was on my mom's side. My mom said incredulously, "What?!" and she took it. "I have never seen this before,...this is in grandaddy's handwriting," (her father, deceased). As it turns out, Grandma Neff was whom I was named after. I took the card and read it....

It said "She was a woman of small stature, no more than 5'2". She and her husband John had 4 children which they raised in the Catholic Faith. Grandma and Grandpa Neff were devout catholics who for many years walked seven blocks in all kinds of weather to attend daily mass. She was a good cook-expert pie maker, and a fine homekeeper. She was French Canandian. Her mother used to talk to her grandchildren in French and insist they respond in French...."

Nothing profound, to anyone else it's a simple description about a simple lady who lived a long time ago. So why did it make me cry the whole way home?

Life has been a little more difficult than usual for me this past year, I have had a physical ailment that has been hard to cope with and this past week was particularly rough. It was like this note fell out of heaven, like a little Christmas card from my namesake saying "Hey! We, your family, are all up here routing for you! We've been where you are and we are with you all the way. It may be tough some times, but it's all worth it in the end. We will be here when you get to the other side, ready to welcome you!"

 It was the best Christmas gift of the day.

...and up there is a very savvy french lady I can't wait to meet.

Hope everyone had a very blessed day, Merry Christmas!