Mom's Christmas Gift

This Christmas has been a tough one. We all have those struggles. I am sure you understand. We started to not give gifts at all. Then my creative side started talking to me. (you knew I talked to myself, didnt you?) I asked what I could give people that did not cost a lot. I took some old pictures and placed them on a collage board for my dad. I had them printed on the board and it looked amazing. These were pictures he had asked for before  Pictures of his Mom and Dad, and his brothers and sister. Of course, searching through old pictures brought up so many memories.  This gave me the idea of making a memory book for my mom.

This is the adventure I brought you here for so let's begin. My Mom loves to read. Also, write for that matter. I wonder at times why she has never tried to have her own book published. I knew that she would love to read my view on some of the memories we shared  So my first idea was just write a few memories and I would be done. Then, I came across so many choices. What memories would I write about? Do these need to be typed, handwritten or what? Should there be some sort of order to this? The questions piled. Lol I have so many ideas but where do I start. Then it hit me.. simple.. keep it simple.. Mom loves simple. First decision was, I started to type the memories but it did not feel right  I wanted more feeling in it . So I decided I would hand write them all. Going back to the simple technique, I grabbed a tablet and started writing. The words flowed and came easy for me. They always do when I love what I am writing about.  Now I have my first memory down. Next one.. I wrote again with ease. Then tears started falling. Not from sadness but from the memories and of course I added my thoughts on them. I had to stop several times just to get it finished  I then decided I would look up some ideas of things to write about. The first idea I found was a list of things you learned from your mother. With this I realized how much I acted like my Mom. I also learned how different we are as well. I also got an idea to write about what I would tell my Mom at this point in our lives. This again made me reflect on my own life. Then I decided I just really needed to get the memories on paper. Back to simple it was. I laughed so hard and i cried hard too. I had the best time remembering and putting this all on paper. I even wrote it knowing others would love to read it so I added what Mom was more then likely saying about this story. Let me add here that there was mistakes while writing but I knew mom would just consider that more personal. I never rewrote a thing. I ended up with a small book. The last section I wrote saying how much I enjoyed all our memories and there was no way to share them all here. I then provided a list of memories (just short phrases) and told her to let's sit and talk about these soon. It took several days to write all this down. I would take the tablet with me everywhere and when a memory came, I started writing.  I put it in a binder and waited.

My Mom absolutely loved the gift. She has told me over and over and over that she loves it and has read it but is now going back to read it again. I think I have already heard more about this gift then I ever have from any store bought item. The most amazing part was writing them. I really enjoyed the adventure of going back in time. Some memories are just ours but most are about the family. I am so thankful for the family I was given. We are not perfect but we love each other and we can tell. We dont have to say it. We can feel it.

To me this was the best gift. I was so excited for her to read it when I gave it to her I could hardly wait for her to finish reading. My next excited will be when we sit down and talk about the extra memories I added. Then we can make more everyday  Who knows, I might give her a few more pages to add to her book.