Christmas Sendoff for Grandpa K

December 19, 2017

Another K Christmas at the cliff came and went!  We all gathered at Uncle Don's and started the day by bidding farewell to Grandpa K's ashes in Cape Cod Canal, upriver from the Coast guard Station.  Each one of us shared a memory or a story of Grandpa and Uncle Joe videotaped the ceremony. Grandma Chris got emotional saying how happy she was that Grandpa K gave her a family. (us)  It was freezing cold so we didn't linger long, but Grandpa's ashes blew one way in the wind and then followed the tide in the opposite direction making a pretty design as it floated back under the pier we were standing on.  Grandpa K alway did like water ballet. And that was his last dance, not to be outdone by the many acts he imitated when we used to watch the show Community Auditions on Sundays.   He would make me fall over laughing!  Or when he imitated the girl doing exercises at White Farms Ice Cream stand.  He stood in front of our car and started doing jumping jacks, instead of going up to the window to order our ice creams!  We were dying!
    So back to Uncle Don's for appetizers and visiting with Kim's parents until dinner. I think we did presents after dinner and then had dessert.  Auntie Kim (2)  made her famous lasagna and garlic bread with salad. We played Famliy Feud on the Wiii after dessert which got a little annoying dealing with the function of the remote controls (board games rule!) but we had some laughs while arguing over rules,  scoring,  sequence of players and teams and who knows what else~ We played the K's vs. the Wannabes, me, you both, Uncle Don, your dad and Ryan vs. Holly who balanced out the other team with Grandma Chris, Auntie Kim, Ervin, Uncle Joe and Joie.  The game fizzled out fast and we watched some classic cartoons (Frosty and Rudolph) until I was ready to crawl into the the Murphy bed.  You and your dad and me and Uncle Joe all all slept downstairs in the bar which was nice with gas fireplace on and the ambience of multi-colored Christmas lights at the bar.
   Breakfast muffins in the morning before we all went our separate ways.  The day was was over early.  I went home feeling pretty sad about saying goodbye so soon, wishing we had more time together, that we all lived closer together and could see more of each other.   I love you all so much and I am so grateful and lucky to have a fun and loving family to belong to!  (and so are you!!)
    I think saying goodby to Grandpa made this holiday a little tougher than past ones, plus of course, me having a recurrence of cancer and in treatment again, not knowing what lies ahead for me and how much time I have left, quality time, not sick and saddled with side effects of treatments which have fortunately not been bad yet.  My mind always goes to the dark side, I know, but heck, I'm hoping some amazing strides are made in treatment in time to save your old aunt so she can really get old! LOL!
Love you little beasts,
Auntie Kim

PS Dylan made a video of himself playing Jingle Bells on the saxophone later that night which of course made me cry and want to crawl into the phone to hug him to death!  So sweet when he thanked Uncle Don and Auntie Kim for the awesome weekend at the end.