Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Tuesday, December 1, 2015 -- Mattie died 324 weeks ago today.

Tonight's creation was sent to me this morning by my Facebook friend, Tim Beck. Tim lives in Phoenix and my joke with him is.... if he lived near me I would insist on us meeting. I love his creativity and his charitable and compassionate spirit. In November, I asked Tim if he would consider doing a Christmas themed composition for parents. He asked me to send him some photos! Which I did... I sent him photos of Mattie through the years at Christmas time. Here is the wonderful result! To me the center photo looks like an angelic butterfly and I love all the gold stars and ornaments with photos of Mattie on them! I told Tim that this was a wonderful surprise to receive this morning. As returning home is always hard for us, as are the holidays. 


Quote of the day: Real love never fails, never fades, and the greatest expression of it is giving. ~ Gena Showalter

It is hard to believe but the candy is still coming in! Keep in mind that our last collection date was November 13. Each year we analyze how we could do this better or differently and what I come to the conclusion is so much is out of our control. We can't control when people have their candy ready for pick up or drop offs. If it was only a matter of picking up candy and delivering it, that would be hard enough. But all the candy has to be examined and sorted. That is a feat onto itself and it is labor intensive. Each October my greatest hope is that I will be finished processing candy in November. But I haven't succeeded yet, it always runs into December. Now if I had a dollar for every piece of candy, the Foundation would be doing very well. Not sure how to convert candy to fundraising, but what stuns me every year is the amount of candy that comes our way. It almost seems impossible to think that this much post-Halloween candy is circulating around our area! 

Any case, I am adjusting to being back to grayness and rain, as well as jumping right back into Foundation work! I know we had a hard start to our day, as being back home can be somewhat depressing to us as well as knowing that the holidays are looming. It is like living with a grey cloud inside your mind and heart and some days it is hard to break through this feeling. I know this is where Peter was at today and he is usually days ahead of me, because I typically block out things to function. But if eventually catches up to me.