For Kinsley, Christmas was a huge deal. She loved Christmas and spending time with family. For those of you that know her, you know the things she was thankful for were family, food and soccer. I am pretty sure that is what she wrote on the board in 2nd grade. She was very thoughtful and made homemade presents for everyone including her siblings for practically every occasion. Since Kinsley has left us, I have made a point to include her in everything we do. I think I do these things for me as a way to remember her and keep her with us but I also want her to know looking down on us, just how special and awesome everyone thinks she is.
We had a huge to do for her birthday, our family and friends gathered in Ocean City, something we did for Kinsley’s birthday every year. The kids always have a choice if they want to have a party and ever since I started giving them this choice Kinsley has always picked Ocean City with family and friends. She wanted everyone to have fun, going to the beach, going to dinner and the boardwalk was right up her alley. This year we went in her honor, we sang, we lit sparkles on the beach, ate cupcakes, and had a banner fly across the beach on her birthday. You should have seen the amount of videos sent to us of everyone celebrating her birthday too. Her grave was covered for her birthday, it was so amazing to come home to see how many people visited her for her 1st Heavenly Birthday.
I have made a wreath for every holiday/season I can think of. For Halloween, we carved pumpkins to place at her grave and I got spooky lights. Halloween is something we love to do. The kids won the Halloween Costume Contest in North Beach the last year Kinsley was with us and we've been planning for the next Halloween since that day. Pictured is our family Halloween costumes without our Wicked Witch. For Thanksgiving I placed a wreath of photos of her and a jar where we placed letters we all wrote to her,reasons we were thankful for her, or favorite memories with her. I told myself I wasn’t going to read the letters the girls wrote to her but I couldn’t help it. It was heartbreaking to read Rylan’s letter to her sister. I think she just wanted to know about Heaven and if she was ok.
For Christmas I decided I was going to put up a tree with solar powered lights and have people from all over come to place ornaments on her tree. The turnout was amazing. The amount of people who came to see her and place ornaments on her tree was truly remarkable. People mailed ornaments from all over with well thought out stories behind the ornaments.
There was an ornament mailed from Canada with a heartwarming story about their loss and paying it forward, her classroom teachers put ornaments on the tree that made them think of her and “fur Fridays”, there was a pair of red chucks placed on the tree with her initials.Players from her soccer team placed soccer balls and personalized ornaments that look just like her with her soccer number. The amount of touching thoughtful ornaments was unbelievable. They all had their very own meaning and it was neat to see how each person who placed an ornament on the tree expressed their love for Kinsley in a different unique way.
As a parent I keep saying I am so proud to be her mom but I can't express enough just how proud I am of the girl she is. She was a unique kid, a ball of fire with a heart of gold. These ornaments mean so much to our family because it is a representation of Kinsley herself and the effect she had on so many. I question my parenting every once in a while but at the end of the day she was a product of us and she knew more about living life on this earth than some people will ever know. She has taught us all something and has touched so many. My hope is that she sees her very own Christmas tree, with her very own ornaments and knows how much she is missed, loved and what an awesome badass little girl everyone thinks she is. Merry Christmas in Heaven my sweet angel baby.
Not all of the ornaments are pictured. We appreciate everyone who added to her tree.