{"id":102,"date":"2015-03-27T19:51:17","date_gmt":"2015-03-27T19:51:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/?p=102"},"modified":"2015-03-27T19:52:31","modified_gmt":"2015-03-27T19:52:31","slug":"102","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/?p=102","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Pictures"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"WP_20141212_003\"<\/a>\"WP_20141212_006\"<\/a>These pictures were taken the day of my mom’s visitation; the\u00a0day before her funeral.\u00a0 It was Christmas time (notice Frosty).\u00a0 I was worn, sad, and a little anxious.<\/p>\n

We started out the day about 4 in the morning, drove 90 minutes to the airport, and flew the 2 1\/2 hours to Arizona.\u00a0 We had some time before we needed to be ready, so we headed to the mall.\u00a0\u00a0We wandered around, not really intending to buy anything, just\u00a0wanting to pass the time.<\/p>\n

As we passed\u00a0Frosty, I remembered that we hadn’t taken our family photo for the Christmas letter.\u00a0\u00a0We were going to\u00a0take one over Thanksgiving break when my oldest daughter was home from college, but\u00a0my mom’s health got worse and I flew to be with her before we were able to take the picture.\u00a0 So Frosty seemed like a good place for an impromptu photo op.<\/p>\n

And as usually, the kids had to follow the ‘regular photo’\u00a0with a crazy one.\u00a0 I love that about my kids.\u00a0 They know how to act in a socially acceptable and polite way when needed.\u00a0\u00a0They even\u00a0know how to properly pose for a picture.\u00a0 But they also know that it’s okay to be goofy, silly,\u00a0fun, and different.<\/p>\n

For so many years, I was worried about always looking\u00a0normal and acceptable.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0My kids have\u00a0taught me that normal and acceptable can be boring.\u00a0\u00a0They’ve\u00a0taught me to play and laugh.\u00a0 They encourage me to try new things.\u00a0\u00a0And they’ve taught\u00a0me to laugh even\u00a0when\u00a0I fail.\u00a0\u00a0They and my husband are my biggest cheerleaders.<\/p>\n

So as I look at these pictures, my heart smiles.\u00a0 They remind me that even in the midst of\u00a0 grieving,\u00a0I can laugh and have\u00a0moments of joy.\u00a0 And that joy\u00a0brings hope.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Hope that life, even if different than before,\u00a0will go on and have purpose and meaning.<\/p>\n

And if you’re wondering where your pictures are from us, well……\u00a0I never got them sent.\u00a0 Maybe next year I’ll be more organized.\u00a0 But I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These pictures were taken the day of my mom’s visitation; the\u00a0day before her funeral.\u00a0 It was Christmas time (notice Frosty).\u00a0 I was worn, sad, and a little anxious. We started out the day about 4 in the morning, drove 90 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2,3],"class_list":["post-102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-family","tag-hope"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=102"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102\/revisions\/110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}