Remembering...

My mom sent me these pictures from 30+ years ago.  Pictures I've seen before, but have found new meaning now that I'm a a mom.  Below, I'm sitting on Santa's lap down in my Grannie's basement apartment (my sister now lives down there.)  I love how Santa is reading the Christmas story to me.  Nothing like mixing it up!  I see a lot of Pyper in this one. 

 Here I am at 3, Pyper's age.  I see a lot of Pyper and Raegan in this picture.  I remember that bucket...particularly catching a garden snake while my dad worked on our home's cement and stone stairs out in the front of the house.  I remember my dad catching the snake, and I put it in that bucket, but let it go because it smelled so bad!  Ha!  The things you remember...

I'm between 9-10 months old in this picture.  Walking between Grannie and my mom.  Clearly, I don't remember this, but boy do I remember my Grannie.  December 5 marked 5 years since she's been gone, and I miss her daily.  More so during the holidays.  Like when she misplaced her false teeth on Thanksgiving Day in 2007 and was so upset that she wouldn't be able to eat (one of her favorite past times.) Or making haystacks for Renae and I as her special Christmas treat.  I made them this year for the girls, put them in the freezer for Christmas and told them of how she would be so pleased that we were carrying on the tradition.  My favorite memory was the Christmas of 1999 when mom, dad and Grannie came down to my apartment in Cleveland, Tn and we baked cookies and danced in my small kitchen.  I am hoping to build memories like that for my girls.