Christmas 2023 Feature by Shane Chevalier

Monday, December 25, 2023

Christmas Day is upon us once again and today is even more special than any ordinary day because that’s when my Mom and Dad come to visit from heaven and sit in the wonderfully built chairs at their little heaven cabin houses I created earlier this summer.

Earlier this year, in August, I lost my dad when he suddenly passed away unexpectedly in Edmonton. Just a year earlier, in August 2022, I lost my mom to cancer. Just as 2021 ended, December 28 that year, doctors at UHNBC located a tumor on mom’s brain. They flew her to Vancouver General on December 29 and after spending the rest of the holidays away from Prince George, on January 4, 2022, a doctor at VGH gave me the grim news that it was cancer and there was nothing that could be done.

After spending over a month at UHNBC, in February 2022, our family agreed, along with mom, that we would be moving her to the Prince George Hospice for end of life care. Every single day for 6 months I was at PG Hospice to be with her until she passed away peacefully on August 22.

The Hospice team was amazing to my mother and to our entire family! We cannot thank them enough for all they did to care for mom for 6 months. After mom passed it was utterly strange not going to hospice house when those times came each day. It took weeks to get on a new routine of not heading over there.

When Christmas 2022 came along, the best thing to do for myself was to carry on with the spirit of Christmas no matter what as it was mom’s favorite time of year. She just hid it until Christmas Day itself! It was different not experiencing how Christmas was before that’s for sure. So much so that I took Christmas down and put it away a week earlier than ever before, on December 28, 2022. I always take it down on January 7 as that is when the holidays are officially over in the household.

This Christmas however, that spirit of just how wonderful the season is, I know it isn’t for all, has arrived. For the first time in 10 years I decorated the entire upstairs with Christmas. A total of 6 Christmas trees inside, 2 large ones and 4 small trees, an awesome Christmas village, a full outdoor display on the front lawn, and I snowed in the heaven cabin houses with cozy lights and white fluffy sparkles. My sister added in a chair for my dad just like what mom has on her cabin heaven house and now they’re together again along with my big boy german shepherd, Blu, who is also very missed during Christmas.

I am very thankful for all my family and friends during the past two years and of course I MUST thank all the PJXM subscribers and visitors who continue to view the stories on PJXM News. I tell ya, without any of you fine folks who view PJXM on a daily basis, the site wouldn’t be here today!

In 2024, PJXM turns 15 years in April. A very proud achievement as it fully began back in Fort St. John in September 2009!

I wish everyone a very Happy Christmas Day! Check out the photos below!

P.S. It is snowing outside in Prince George on this Christmas Day!

Shane Chevalier, owner of PJXM News.