Some of you might remember the sorrowful drawing from last year, when a fictional family mourned the death of their mother having to decorate the Christmas tree without her for the first time, but also celebrated Christmas alone with at least a muted bit of joy midst of sorrow.

As a reminder:
- https://www.furaffinity.net/view/59204675/
- https://www.furaffinity.net/view/59204755/

This year, there was to be a continuation of that subject. How close happiness is to sorrow is something I experienced myself within the last months, so this piece had me reminiscing while painting a lot. Similar to the "tree decorating", this scene is hard to look at, as I can empathize with it; as I'm sure many of you could too. And this scene also shows that life doesn't stand still and doesn't care about what has been taken away and when it took it away. You have to come to terms with it. But nobody tells you the best way to do that.

Unfortunately, I messed up the snow a bit - the scene is way darker and more desolate than I intended, but somehow it fits the thoughts one has in such a moment. And once again there's the father, who has to figure out how to cope with the situation. And there is the eldest daughter, who at her age needed her mother more than ever, as there's the little boy, who doesn't understand much of it all, but by now knows enough about life to interpret his sister's facial expressions.

Yes, sometimes life is just unfair.