Our Papa

With funeral planning, the pictures started rolling in!

I saved some of my favorites that depict him perfectly.

Husband, father, Papa, Bishop, neighbor, friend.

Always either working, cooking, playing, or spreading love.

Sweet Papa

Hospice needed to be called in to help in the care of Papa. 

They advised that we needed to bump up our Christmas if we wanted to spend it with him.

What a hard pill to swallow.

With the organized Grammy that we have, she already had set December 15th
 to be our Christmas party.

Only instead of it being a party, it was a very special, sacred evening spent

with the most incredible family.

We started out pretty solemnly.

Taking turns holding Papas hand.

They gave him a special blessing.

Allowing him to move on if he felt he needed to.

Thanking him for all that he had done for us, and will continue to do.

He was not able to communicate with us with words.

However, I knew he was very aware of who was there and 

talking to him.

He would doze in and out of sleep.

He was also in a lot of pain. That was hard to see. 

And also leave it to Grammy to have him dressed 

all festively.

This group of boys had Papas heart.

His very first crop of grandsons, (after a slew of of grand daughters)
who he loved fiercely.

And who they loved unconditionally as well.

We ate dinner then moved onto the nativity. 

Lindi was head over heels excited it was her turn to be Mary this year!

Sweetest little angel there ever was.

Papa is usually the one who reads the nativity from the scriptures.

Valerie was able to find a video on her phone from past years of a quick excerpt, 

just so we could hear his voice.

It was getting late.

Papa was becoming more agitated.

Hospice was on its way with more pain relief.

Nobody was aware of what would come in the next hour.

We figured it would be a week, maybe 2 before it actually happened.

The grand kids said their tearful goodbyes.

Siblings stayed behind, to get him settled for the night
 before going home themselves.

It wasn't an hour before I got the call from Casey.

He could hardly blurt it out.

But I knew. 

He had passed. 

Surrounded by each one of his loving children and wife. 

He held out for us.

For one last special night all together.

I think that is what gets me the most.

A strong confirmation that family was his everything!

He didn't want to leave, he fought it until the end.

A Different Kind of Christmas

The Christmas season started out pretty normal.

Winter sports were in full swing.
Lane was loving being on the volleyball team.

We went toy shopping for the less fortunate.

Winter sing for the elementary kids.

And Rusty's first band concert!

Girls night out to see Frozen 2!

The cutest preschool Christmas show case.

Got the house all decorated 

All the while trying to keep our spirits up.

Papa was not doing well. At all.

He should be joining us in the fun instead of being pushed around in his wheel chair.

More news of another bad fall, or more health declining kept coming.

We didn't know what to expect.

We were still praying for our miracle. 

No Christmas is complete without going to the mall to see Santa!

Too cheap to buy the real Santa pictures.

Della loving all the Christmas decorations at JuJus's house. (Judy Cotter)

This is just in her entrance way. 

She is the queen of house decor!

It is magical during Christmas time!

And then it happened.

Sunday, Dec. 15th was one of the hardest, but most special day for our family.

Our sweet Papa passed away.

Many little miracles happened for us that I will talk about in the next post.

While we were doing funeral planning, my family slayed their Christmas dance

once again for the Lindblom party!