I'm feeling a little sad tonight

My favorite thing about the holidays is Christmas Eve. I've posted before about how I love my family's Christmas Eve party, it is so special to me. My grandparents always hosted in the past, and it was a large party where everyone dressed up, we had lots of music, drinks, and the most wonderful food ever imaginable. The best thing about the Christmas Eve party was that we were all together, my entire family, as long as I can remember.

I even remember being a little girl and being sent to bed in my grandparent's room before the party was over. There room was always freezing and I remember snuggling next to my brother in our new PJs before sleep finally came.

Last year we didn't have our traditional Christmas Eve party. My Grandpa's last wish was to host the party, he knew it would be his last. But the day of Christmas Eve he became too ill, so it was rescheduled at the last minute.

This year my Grandma is traveling for Christmas, being in her house alone one year after my Grandpa passed away is too hard, so she will travel to England to visit my aunt and uncle. That leaves the rest of the family to celebrate without her.

Today I spoke with my aunt and she informed me that they are not interested in celebrating Christmas Eve this year with the rest of the family. This was a huge surprise and greatly saddens me. I understand if they don't want to pretend my grandpa is still alive, or pretend that my grandma is home, but I still feel ditched on the most special day of the year. At least (I hope) to see them on Christmas...

I'm bummed that I'm feeling so sad right now because today I had the most wonderful day with Connie and Chelsea (and the dolls!). I woke up to a winter wonderland. I relaxed in front of the Christmas tree, got dressed and left the house with the ladies. We headed downtown first for tea and then to see the Nutcracker. What a wonderful time we had! The ballet was fantastic and the tea house was warm and comfortable like always.

Here are my two favorite photos from the tea house:


Violet's blog also has an account of our fun day.