Christmas Sisters

From my very first Christmas, through my 30th Christmas, there is one person that I spent every Christmas Day with. Just one person.

It wasn't my mom or dad. They divorced when I was a toddler and they had to become flexible with who would have their 3 girls at Christmas time.

It wasn't my husband. Obviously that didn't start until our engagement.

It wasn't my little sister. She didn't exist before my 16th Christmas.

It wasn't my older sister who moved to Canada and got married. She started spending all but one Christmas up in the frigid, darkness she now calls home.

It was my big sister, Sherri. Every Christmas since I was a baby, well into our married lives, whether at our dad's or our mom's, we were together on Christmas day.

Our Christmases often included shenanigans; like caravaning through a cemetery to find the tombstone of "Friend," playing Christmas carols on the piano with silly "shave-n-a-haircut" type finales, playing more holiday tunes on our wooden recorders, and disturbing everyone by playing one fated song on said instruments through our noses, making strange videos and taking strange pictures, giving each other and our family bizarre, recycled gag gifts, and so on and so on...

Laughter. Christmases with Sherri were always filled with a plethora of giggles and a strange modulating laughter that we inherited from our mother.

Our last Christmas day together, she donned a baseball cap with a meager ponytail peaking out the back, assembled from the depleted amount of hair on her head. That Christmas had less laughter, no shenanigans, and a heavy, dense air about it. I must admit, I was convinced it was our last Christmas together. It was.

Christmas has not been the same without her. It will never be just that way again. But this Christmas has a new hope. Sherri Lee is no longer here to celebrate with me, but her niece Shaylee is. This is my new daughter that I believe Sherri knew would grace our family. A surprise to us, but a birth of a new beautiful, smiling sister in our family. And I'll be spending every Christmas day with Shaylee for a long time.

Plus, I cannot ignore the elation I feel for my baby sister coming to spend Christmas day with me! I know I won't be able to spend every Christmas day with her, but I know it will not be our last. And, it is going to be just plain amazing.