X-mas 2007 with Family photos

So as you may know if you read my last post of the 2007 year, in December my grandmother passed away. So spending the Holidays with family was bittersweet. It was nice to spend a Holiday with the family even though grandma or "Gueli" as I called her was no longer with us.

I always wrote to my mother, a couple of my closest aunts, and Gueli throughout the year not just for birthdays and holidays, but just to keep in touch. I have always felt that handwritten letters are always more personal.

The last Christmas I spent with family was in 1999. The last time I spent time with my Grandma was in March of 2005 when I drove down to spend a whole week at home. The times since then I would write, and my mother and aunt came to visit a couple times throughout the 2005, 2006, and 2007 years, so I didn't get time to spend time with Gueli the past couple of years. My mother and aunt would always tell me that she held very dear to her all the letters and cards I sent her.

In 1998 My mother, cousin and Gueli drove to Arizona and went to the Grand Canyon. A few days before her passing I had mailed out a postcard of the Grand Canyon. The day my cousin and I arrived for the funeral was the same day the postcard arrived. She didn't get to see the postcard but I am sure she remembers that trip. She did receive her birthday card. Her birthday is in October so that was the last mailing I sent that she got. The day after her funeral I was in her room and she had her Birthday card on a chair that was near her bed. Sidenote - my mother was her 4th child out of eleven, and the last to be born in her room instead of a hospital.

Anyways I think I'll leave the rest of the memories to myself. Here's a photo of part of the family at church on one of the days of novenario. Novenario is where they have 9 consecutive masses for the person who passed.