Write It Down

My farmer called me this afternoon and said that he was going to go to hang out with some of the guy's tonight. Of course I am lucky enough to have him home every night. There are some late night's during his busy times, but when he goes to work, it's behind the house in the barn. No commute, no out of town trips, he is home with me every single night. That's our life, that's our lifestyle and I could not be happier. BUT with that being said I did get a little giddy at that phone call. You know how it is, being home by yourself is just different. I sipped on some wine (let's be honest I do that when he is here too), watched those crazy reality t.v shows that he despises and cleaned the house while listening to music-really loud. Now it's only 8:30 and I already miss him, or can't wait to hear about his day, but i am going to use the remainder of my time to write about a couple of traditions that I am starting this year.

I am getting the remainder of my Christmas decorations down. I took a majority of them down right after the first of the year, but I left a couple of greenery pieces up. I am ready for my house to be back to normal.

This year my mom filled me in on a little tradition that she has been doing for years. Every year, as she goes through the house and takes her Christmas decorations down, she sits down and writes a little note and packs it away tightly in the last box. She writes about how that Christmas was, some of the highlights of the season, what the family is up to and how next Christmas might be different. Then the following year when she gets everything back out she reads about the prior year and reflects about how things have changed, or stayed the same. It's such a great thing for her to do and just another reason as to why she is the glue that holds us all together.  I imagine someday I will be that same glue for my family (who knows, maybe I am that glue for my farmer already) so I need to do things like that. I need to have great family traditions… This year, I will write it down.

My other little "write it down" tip I have comes from my sister. A few weeks ago I was in at her house on a Saturday morning playing with babies when she got out her 2012 and 2013 planners. We started flipping through the weeks of the prior years. We laughed and we cried. 2012 for her had one of the toughest moments of her life, she lost her father in law.

She was lucky that 2013 was so great to her family, it included the best moment, the birth of her twin baby boys.

We wiped each other's tears as we have been doing our entire lives. Although the tough pages are hard to look at, it's still a memory - it's still part of your life. There might always be pages where it hurts to look, but the good pages, like the picture above, that's what makes it worth it.

I hope that I have encouraged you to write down your memories, because someday you will be sitting in the living room with your daughter telling her about your own traditions or laughing/crying with your sister  about the incredible year that you have both had.

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