It was 1997, the same Christmas as the year before, buying presents and visiting relatives. I had been doing rather well in wrestling for a sophomore in high school. Christmas Eve came and went. Morning came, and we were up at 7:00am (my parents were strict about not starting too early) and ready to start opening. And so the usual procedure of distributing gifts went on. at about 8:30 or maybe 9:00, the phone rang, and my mother answered. She spoke briefly with my father, and we had breakfast, as we always do: eggs, coffee cake, sausage, orenge juice. After breakfast was mostly over, my mother told us "Your grandmother died last night. Uncle Casey and Uncle Jon went to pick her up for midnight mass and found her. She must have fallen asleep in her chair watching television, and passed away."
Just a reminder that not every Christmas is the same. Happy Holidays