A New Year

Today is the last day of my holiday break, January 4th, 2009. To say it was wonderful would be an understatement. Having this time allowed me to pretend I was retired, something I long for. I had time to do the things I want to do. And then there were things that came up that made it memorable. Like the Christmas gift that led to rearrangement of the living room which led to rediscovering the home vhs movies from when the kids were small. We've been slowly making our way through what was an entire cupboard full, watching them and labeling them. One night we were sitting and watching as the tape went from one scene to the next, but this time when it jumped to the next day of film the scene was my grandmother's house. The moment caught me so off guard that I whispered the words out loud. "It's my grandmother's house." I have so many dreams about that house, and nightmares. But then, there he was. David sitting in the rocking chair in front of the picture window playing with Lori. It knocked the wind out of me. I started to cry. Here he was, alive, frozen in time. I'm used to seeing pictures of my brothers since their deaths but I've not seen either of them on film. And then that was it, just a few blessed moments. In that whole segment there wasn't a shot of my grandmother or my father either. I was concentrating on all of the children. The lesson here is to mark the moments with everyone, not just the growing and changing children. So starting now I will become a better historian, documenting our lives so we have a way to look back on the days we lived and know how we lived them. Here we go-2009! Let it be a happy one! Happy New Year!