It was watched my mother as a girl, and a teen ager, becoming who she will be. It has watched my mother become a mother, and her mother become a grandmother.
It has watched me become the many facets of the girl I was and am and hope to be. It has seen us through the coolest winters, 10 foot snow firsts, hot chocolate, snow forts and sleep overs.
It has watched newly weds learn how to become a family, and parents and has watched 20 years of marriage become 30 and 40 and 50 and then some. It's watched us say goodbye to my grandpa, for now. It has been with us through the Christmases where sadness has hung in the air like too many ornaments on one branch. It's been with us through so much laughter and love and becoming. So much becoming.
My grandparents are just incredible humans. I have never doubted their love, not even for a second. They have always been such a safe and warm place, they have held our family together in more ways than one. To have the same ornaments hang on a new tree make my heart swell.
This guy has gotten a new life, as of late. This little guy who was given to me, as an adult to hang on my tree, is now watching my Wisconsin roots planted firmly here in Minnesota soil.
It now hangs on the A-team's tree, and i cannot think of a more perfect spot for it. It will now hang on these tree branches as it watches a whole new wave of people becoming through laughter and tears and the in between. It will watch a 10 year old boy become 12, and 15 and then 20 and then....it will watch another marriage go from 12 years to 24 year and then some.
It's funny how life spirals on itself and there are little things along the way to help you remember. I was so overwhelmed by school and being broke, which is the worst. I was so caught up in the idea that i couldn't get the people i loved so much really great presents and i have so much to do between now and christmas....i just totally lost track of my damn mind.
Then I took some time to breath. It's real important to just own when you've been a jerk, which for me, is more often than not lately. but it just gave me a lot of perspective.
Sitting in a living room (in really great slipper because your pal is the best ever) unwrapping christmas ornaments that drip of history and nostalgia and christmases past. Handmade, and homemade. Hearing the stories, laughing , being overcome with so much simple sweetness and really marveling at how our lives our woven together. To add ornaments from my side of there river. And there they hang.
Kindred.
I was just super overwhelmed by how moving the whole thing was (also, hormones, so many feels). I like it when i'm able to tangibly see how our lives have come together. How before our paths collided that we were kind of always more similar than different.
And to know the stories behind the ornaments, to hold it in your hand so carefully.
Sometimes reminders of what important are just really beautiful and really simple and if you're lucky, they're sparkly, too.
I am just so thankful. So incredibly thankful for this time that it makes me weepy.
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