Season's Greetings

Today was my nephew's birthday, my cousin's wife Tanya's birthday, and my late Pawpaw Elvin's birthday. Most of the time birthdays pass by and I don't remember until it is too late to even get a proper birthday wish out. With Facebook and it's handy little reminders of birthdays along the side, I will never again have a reasonable excuse.....

So when I got home, I was already in a nostalgic mood, thinking about my Pawpaw... He was such a serious guy...But he LOVED babies... There must be a million pictures of him with all the grandkids and extended family in his old recliner...

My husband had taken the tree out of the basement and set it up in the dining room before leaving for work. I dug around in the basement and got out all the ornaments and let the little ones put theirs on. Each year, everyone gets their own special ornament... It was like a little time capsule to pull out the ones they love so much.. And I know it sounds hokey, but pulling out things that date back to Cory's wee baby days made me feel connected to all those who had passed. Regardless of beliefs in great beyonds and all that, I know that the presence of those I love and miss is with me each time I take the time to linger on a memory.

Sadly, my little ones don't have any memories of my Pawpaw. He passed when Cory was five. Nor do they have any of my grandma Helen (my mother's mother), my great grandma Aurelia (her namesake), my great grandpa Charlie, sweet Anna Mae, or any of the others that have gone, but as we decorated that tree together and talked about times long before they were born, you would certainly never know. They know the stories of these people, they miss them without ever having met them, and it makes them happy to hear all I can tell them.