For Zachary James Pratt

Happy Birthday my beloved son! You are 21 today. It has now been nine long years since we last saw one another on good terms. I still remember your sweet young face, the one everyone loved no matter where we went. Your smile and your bright and infectious personality always drew people in. I miss that so much. I hope you have had a wonderful celebration and that it was everything you dreamed it would be. Cody and I would have loved to have been there to help you welcome this new chapter of your life. You are an amazing young man with a lot of courage and I wish you nothing but all the happiness in the world. Christmas has come and gone. Two actually. We had one here in California on the 19th so that we could all be together before Jeff and I left for Washington. Cody was able to come after his shift so we could all have dinner, pulled the Christmas crackers and do stockings together. This year we had sticky toffee putting and it was wonderful. As with every holiday it was bit...

Happy Thanksgiving Zach, I hope you had a wonderful holiday and not too much turkey LOL. Uncle Gregg and Auntie Kim hosted this year and Nana and Granddad came as well. Poor Cody had to work but I guess his work put on a little buffet for them and he did get some extra pay. Aunt Christine came with us too as the girls were working and she was on her own this year. We had a lot of fun sharing memories of old times and laughing as we always do. And of course there was football watching as well. I even took a selfie with Granddad, his first one! We didn't stay overnight because I was working the next day and we were planning on decorating the house for Christmas. We are lucky to have such a wonderful family and others even envy it, but we all miss you very much and it is never the same as it was. The rest of the weekend was spent putting up the palm tree Christmas trees in the house and stringing up lights outside which was mostly done by Jeff. It was very cold that day s...