Although you four are all no longer here on Earth to celebrate the upcoming holidays with the rest of the family, the memories we still have of each of you remain.

They remain within the many holiday traditions our family still has; from the use of the old nativity scene we still put up within our living room each year to the special dessert recipes that are still prepared and passed around after each holiday meal.

Each of you remain here in spirit. Still apart of our family's holiday celebrations through the medium of shared memories and of continuing Christmas traditions. Family holiday traditions such as watching old home videos, looking at photos of past holiday gatherings, and placing the many ornaments that were given during the past holidays onto the Christmas tree each year.

The many memories we shared of going to Christmas Mass and then opening up gifts on Christmas Eve while listening to classic Christmas songs will always be an integral part of the holidays.

Simple holiday traditions such as decorating homemade cookies, placing a pickle ornament in the Christmas Tree or even just eating a simple piece of herring on a cracker for the hope of starting the coming year with good luck are a few holiday traditions that are still practiced.

Each of these special memories we celebrated together during past holiday seasons now remain within our hearts. They are special memories transferred into physical reminders within the treasured ornaments that were exchanged at every Christmas Eve gathering.

These ornaments may have been a material gift but they were also a spiritual gift meant to symbolize a new Christmas memory as well as to mark a new year ahead for me as your grandchild. At the time I was too young to understand this abstract concept.

Each of your years of celebrating the holidays were coming to a close as mine were just beginning. Celebrating Christmas since each of your passings has changed my perception of the holidays and the traditions we practice over the years.

However, this is expected because life is constantly changing. Although by looking back at the many special memories I shared with each of my passed grandparents during the holidays I know their spiritual presences will forever be ingrained within each of the holiday traditions my family and I have continued to celebrate. Therefore even if my grandparents are no longer present physically they continue to teach me valuable life lessons during the future holidays via the past holiday memories we all shared together.