Christmas Day Prayer

This came today from my Aunt Liz, one of my dad's sisters:

A Time to Remember:
Since we will be geographically dispersed on Christmas day, we want to share with you that at 12:38 pm on Christmas day we will stop and have a moment of silence to remember Barbara Charley and Ivan. We will light three candles for them and recite a few prayers. Though we miss them so, let us be strong in our faith, our love for each other and remember the wonderful gift of having the love and friendship of dear Barbara, Charley and Ivan.

Prayer for the Departed Souls of Barbara, Charley and Ivan

We are stricken with immense grief at the loss of Barbara, Charley and Ivan. We pray to God Almighty for their souls and we especially express our condolences and prayers to Julia, Jeremy and Sylvia. Let the Almighty Lord send His heavenly angels to comfort them and all in the Burger and Sheremeta families. The loss is so great for us but let us abide to the great purpose God has destined for them in the heavenly garden. Today, let us remember the departed souls of Barbara, Charley and Ivan, our brother, sister, mother, father, son and daughter, and let our prayers strengthen the family.
The Twenty Third Psalm
The Lord is my shepherd: I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green Pastures, he leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake,
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me, thy rod and staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointed my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
Prayer For The Dead
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace.

Amen.
Irish blessing on the dead
May they rest in the company of the saints,and their sons and daughters with them.
--Irish blessing
Leaba imeasc na naomh go raibh acuagus ag an chlann mac is iníon atá leo.

This is some of my dad's family in New Rochelle- Nana, Joan, Liz, me, & John.

Red Coat

Yesterday I was shopping and saw a red pea coat and had to get it. My mom always wore a red coat, and this somehow makes me feel close to her. :)

Christmas Vacation

Oh my family took joys out of the little things in life.
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation being one of them.

My husband Jason loves this movie and asked if it would bother me if we watched it. I said no, and as soon as the music came on- it took me back to my living room in Hillsborough.
I could just hear my dad laugh at all the same moments, slapping his knee, and then start to cough because he was laughing so hard. Whew.

He'd laugh whenever cousin Eddie said anything, whenever Clark did something stupid (when didn't that happen!) and pretty much through the whole movie.
If you knew my parents, you know that they could watch the same movie over and over- this was one of them!

Later that night Jason and I were talking- and watching this movie was his last memory of spending time with them. We were home for Thanksgiving and we decided to stay and watch a little bit of Christmas Vacation before hitting the road :)

So next time you watch Clark Griswald, give a big old laugh for Charley :)

Gas Money

I was excited to give someone "gas money" today as they left for a trip.



Whenever I'd head out on the road back to school, or even up to visit Jason, my dad always gave me gas money. :) Sometimes it was my mom making him give it to me:

Dad: here you go (a couple bucks)

Mom: Charles- give her more!

Dad: 20 Dollars? (anyone who knows my dads voice I'm sure can hear the way he'd say it!)

Mom: Charles!

Dad: ok, ok.....
So this is when I made the final move to Maryland. It was Kitty and me for 5 hours! I knew my parents were really happy for me that day! :)


I really would use the money for gas- although I remember when gas was .87 cents and you could get gas and snacks!

Christmas presents with no labels!

I was wrapping a few Christmas presents this weekend and didn't have any gift tags or a pen nearby. This made me think about how my mom NEVER labeled presents. It was always "let me see it for a minute" before handing them out. Sometimes someone would start to open a gift and mom would say, oops, that isn't for you! and then hand a half opened present to the person it was intended for.

So this year I will see if I can remember what things are for whom! I only have one kind of wrapping paper so far, so we'll see how it goes. :)

Christmas, 2005- Dad with Boris.

Another thing about Christmas presents, and presents in general. I love keeping the wrapping paper on the floor (like in the above picture.) I like the mess that it makes! It always makes me sad when I'm at a party or shower and the wrapping paper goes straight to a garbage bag. That is no fun! I guess if I'm not the one cleaning up it makes sense- but even if it was my job to clean up- I'd leave the ribbons and the wrappers out for a while.

This makes me think of how my mom used the wrapping paper from gifts one year to decorate with at the dining room table. We had a table that had a piece of glass over the wood. Mom took the pretty paper and made a collage underneath the glass. She'd make sure to put who things were to and from (for those of us who DID label gifts!). It was a nice way to remember each other and keep the season alive for a while. :)

Last Thanksgiving

November of 2006 was the last time that our family was all together. It's funny- whenever I would go home to visit I was always running around from here to there trying to see all my friends and go out. That weekend Jason and I stayed close to home the whole time. We had lots of walks at ayr mount w/ dad, mom and I had our shopping trips to wal-mart and the dollar tree :) And one night we looked at their photo album from the three week vacation that they had just taken. Mom told us all about how much the hotel rooms were...... all the great (and not so great) meals they had, and the perfect trip to up mount washington at peak colors.

And Ivan took Jason and me to his girlfriends house- where he had spent a lot of time. Showed us the heart that he hung 50ft high on a tree outside her bedroom window, showed us the platform he built in a field to hang out at, and just was showing us around. It was fun.

I'm thankful for that weekend- for the time that we all spent together.

As the holidays approach I am scared- scared of all the feelings that will flood back, and the constant reminder of Christmas Day and the accident. I feel like I'm at a different place in my grieving process. It is getting harder, not only b/c of the holidays, but it is becoming more of a reality- that they really died. Crazy!

I can't stand people asking if I'm ready for the holidays, and if I'll see my family. For people who don't know me well, it's hard to smile and say great, fine- but I know I can't go into detail about why my answers may be short.

Anyway, I'm praying for good days ahead- for wonderful reminders of my family- and how I can share the love that I've recieved from them and pass it along to others.

Here are a few photos from last Thanksgiving in Hillsborough :)

family get togethers

OLD family picture! 1994/95?

A little more recent, and Dad's ordination in 2005.

I spent yesterday with a great family while Jason and I hosted a housewarming party. The home was full of brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, parents, grandchildren, moms, dads........

It was really nice to be around a family who loved being with each other and supported one another.

My family had moved towards that in the past few years- not that we didn't enjoy being around each other before that- but once we all got older it was different. I miss that!

meet the fam.

And this is my older brother Jeremy & sister Julia with Ivan last year. They both live in NC still. (I didn't know how to get this picture on the bottom. first time blogger!)

This is Ivan Burger- working on something as usual!

My Dad, Charles Burger- always a bright smile.

And Mom, Barbara Burger, probably being taken to or being brought home from work!

(My dad took my mom to work EVERY morning (only 2 miles away...) then he went swimming, then to work- and picked her up everyday too! I always enjoyed the times that I was home from school, or visiting from MD and would suprise mom and get her instead of my dad. But then I usually wanted to go shopping (wal-mart- hillsborough's finest!).

I finally started one!

So I am entering the blog world. whoo-hoo!

I have been wanting to keep a journal for a long time, but am really lazy, so even though this isn't as personal, it may be a little easier to keep up with things.

I really want this to be a blog about my family. I lost my mom, dad, and little brother to a car accident that happened almost one year ago on Christmas Day. I've been going though A LOT of emotions- good, bad, sad, lonely, tired, loved, supported..... and a whole lot more.

My older brother and sister and I were together this weekend, and just remembering some funny stuff. I want this page to be about the stories and quirks that my family had growing up. I want to put up pictures and then talk about the times in them. And my memories may spark other's memories of the same thing!

Tough times- but trying to hold my head up high, and let my parent's & Ivan's lights shine through my life :)