A recent acquisition for my vintage Christmas photo collection.
Yesterday wasn’t one of our many Christmas gatherings, but it was filled with lovely memories that I want to record and cherish, so it gets an entry all the same!
Yesterday Benjamin and I shot our little sister’s senior photos. She’s the only child I’ve yet had the privilege of watching grow up from infancy to adulthood and it’s been a true gift to watch her grow. She’s a bright, funny, wonderful human and we had so many laughs yesterday during the shoot.
Later that day Benjamin cut his finger and when he asked his dad for a bandaid, his dad came back with one and told him to stick his finger out. He proceeded to put it on Benjamin’s cut finger. It was the cutest.
Our second home as newlyweds was the pool house in his dad’s backyard. We fixed it up and it was such a darling space. It remains one of my top 2 favorite places we’ve ever lived. After we moved out, a couple of tenants didn’t take such good care of it and it fell into disrepair. Recently it’s been refreshed and renovated and we saw the remodel yesterday.
The tree at Christmas 2 of 4. While the day itself didn’t get its own blog post, the lovely tree still needed to be featured!
I stood in the bedroom looking into its little backyard and cried big fat tears for all the good memories there. I thought of our rabbit Millie, who lived just outside that window. I thought of our sister when she was still a kid and would come over. Pepper was young and Benjamin and I were newlyweds. The light shone through the trees outside the bedroom window in just the same way that I carry with me in my memories. It was good to see new life in it, but the part of me that cherished my time there so much will never stop missing and savoring the sweet moments we shared there.
After the tour, we had lunch with Benjamin’s dad, step-mom and sister and we laughed and laughed together. Then we joined his dad to go visit his Grandma. Gosh she looked great. It was so good to see her! I had the great pleasure of watching Benjamin walk into the community room where she and other residents had gathered to listen to a Christmas string quartet. I watched as he surprised her and her face lit up. It was beautiful.
After the quartet and visiting, she invited us to dinner. We sat with her at her assigned table and enjoyed the company of her lovely tablemates, Sally and Dolly. Benjamin’s dad shared stories with her friends about Grandma. It was such a pleasant meal with truly lovely company.
These are the reasons we’re here and I’m so grateful for all of these opportunities to reconnect.