The Long Game!

Twenty one years ago I started something and finally got to finish it. I had a brand new baby and her first Christmas was approaching. I needed a 1st Christmas ornament, but not just any ornament as I had something special in mind. I remember the day as if it were last week. It was the first time that I had left the house…by myself! The store that I wanted to go to was 45 minutes away and I knew Moosette would need to nurse again in a couple of hours. No time to waste. I ended up getting this handmade porcelain ornament. It was perfect.

It has lots of pink on it. Not my favorite color at all but it was for my little baby girl. Turns out, she’s not a pink person either! This ornament has hung on our tree every year. When it gets put away each year I slip a little note inside. I wrote down what her milestones were that year, who her besties were, what music she listened to, favorite foods. I even included a few personal things that only a Mom would include (shouldn’t everyone know when their boobs got bigger?)

I often thought about when I would give the ornament to her. Maybe when she turned 18 or had a child of her own…21 years old sounded perfect. It took some time to fish all the little rolled up notes from the belly of the ornament. Then she read them all out loud. We all laughed. It was interesting to see when the favorite foods/colors/music actually showed up in her life. Moosette and I both cried a little too.

All in all I think I did pretty good. I only missed two years…her second Christmas and 2017. She was just entering the terrible two stage at the time of the second Christmas so I’m sure I was a little flustered…I’ll give myself a pass on that one. I have no idea what prevented me from doing 2017. Now I’m wondering what I’m going to do when I put the Christmas decorations away this year…