Let me start with Christmas Eve day. We visited Daddy's grave. Me, Vicki, Joseph, Squirt and Scooby loaded up and went to the graveyard. Joseph had carved a cross to put on the grave. So we go. It's a beautiful cross. We placed the cross on his grave and I told my Daddy that I am doing my best to take care of Mamaw, just like I had promised him I would. We came home and Christmas Eve played out as usual. We had the Everhart family get-together at Doug and Kathy's. We took all the traditional pictures. We always take pictures of the children, the grandchildren, and then the children with their own individual families, and then any other random pictures we can think of. There were lots of cameras flashing. It would be several days before I would look at the pictures.
Mamaw spent the night with us Christmas Eve night, and as it turned out (because of the snow), she spent several more nights with us. Christmas Day was a good day. We had our traditional Christmas morning breakfast, spent the day lounging around and opening gifts, and then went to Papa Bear's parents' house Christmas night. We came home around 8:00 Christmas night and I immediately curled up in my jamas. Vicki and Joseph got in around 9:00 and we were all in bed shortly after that. Before I shut the door to our bedroom, I made sure the doors were locked and the lights were out. I had 2 nightlights plugged in (one in the hallway and one in the bathroom) because our guests tend to get up through the night for potty breaks. In the middle of the night, actually 3:00 in the morning, I was awaken to "beep, beep, beep." My eyes immediately flew open. That's the sound our alarm system makes when a door has been opened. I laid there for just a minute, wondering if I had dreamed it, then decided I better get up and make sure. I opened the bedroom door and immediately was blinded by the hall light. My first thought was that Vicki, for some reason, had gotten up and went out to her car for something. She usually doesn't turn on the hall light when she's up through the night, but that was my first thought. I looked at the control at our bedroom door and, sure enough, it indicated that a door had opened -- but it actually was the basement door. I woke Papa Bear up, he threw on some shorts, and I followed him down the basement steps. The basement door was wide open. He slammed it shut and we briefly looked around the basement to make sure nobody was down there. Once back upstairs, I looked out the sunroom window and noticed that no tracks were visible near the basement door. I was relieved, but still wondered who had turned the hall light on. The next morning, when I mentioned it to everyone, they all insisted they didn't turn the hall light on. As a matter of fact, Mamaw said she had gotten up around 2 to use the bathroom and the hall light was not on then. The logical side of me feels sure ONE of them turned the light on as they got up through the night, but they all insisted they didn't.
Moving on to the pictures. Christmas Eve pictures. These were taken with Mamaw's camera.
Mamaw's camera is fairly new. We gave it to her last Christmas, but due to Daddy's illness that began in February, she had rarely used it. There were probably 20 other pictures on it, several from Christmas Eve, and then some from Scooby's ballgames, but none had anything unusual in them. And although Doug and Kathy have mentioned "Carrie" that visits their house occasionally, I've never seen, heard, or felt anything there, and have certainly never had anything show up in pictures before.
So what am I saying? I'm not sure. I just know, deep down, if there is any way possible in the next life to show your family members you left behind how much you love them, my Daddy would do it. He was always fascinated by that thought, and we had many conversations over the years about that type of thing. I'm just saying.
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