Making and Appreciating the Memories

Today is our last day off in a four day weekend stretch, and it has been lovely. We have soaked up the chance to rest and get a few things accomplished around the house. 

Not surprising for the two of us, these days have been picture-filled. Silliness and randomness, mostly, but still picture-filled. 

We went for a walk, which we do every day that we possibly can. We walked the same trails and streets we always walk. But I still took a picture, because I'm reminded that someday I'll want to look back and remember when we lived in this town...or when my hair was this color...or when that tree still stood. And I want to always remember the joy of working a job where on AND off duty days alike can often include a walk and decompression talk. 

And then I took a picture with our Starbucks drink because (1) we haven't been to get coffee since before my sugar detox in October and (2) it was our first holiday drink of the season and (3) it was a day of the week. And then Ryan decided to make this face, which is totally Ryan and just cracked us both up!

So then we had to have a picture laughing about the last picture.

And so it went all weekend...laughing and memory-making. 

Last night we decorated the Shafferland tree. It's my favorite tree to decorate each year, because it is the only one we decorate together. It holds all the ornaments we've collected throughout our eight years of marriage, and I've taken a picture of each one. We write the story of the ornament on the back of it and read the stories while we decorate the tree.

We now have almost 90 ornaments (and four more yet to get to finish out 2020 memories) - and we read every single story as we decorated. 

I was nearly in tears by the end of our decorating fest, because we had recalled SO many dear-to-us memories as we decorated. 

* The year we read through the Bible chronologically.

* Our afternoon on a private beach in Nassau - a treasure we stumbled upon after surviving the terrifying bus ride from our cruise ship. 

* Our evening touring the Biltmore while it was decorated for Christmas...in the middle of a huge snowstorm. STUNNING to see it in the snow.

* Our visit to Mt. Airy, North Carolina, where Ryan had his "hair cut" by the son of the real barber named Floyd.

* A section of the trunk of every Christmas tree we've ever had - and the name of the place where we got it - and what we named it!

I'll spare you the 80 some more memories, but we had a wonderful time reading through them all and remembering our many adventures near and far. 

The pictures...the ornaments...the pieces of our home remind me of pieces of my heart and soul that I treasure deeply. 

Make the memories...even in this strange, strange time. Make memories even of silly and random things. And then go back and enjoy them. They're made to be remembered, after all.