The Awesomeness That Is Christmas …

{Me and my Photobro circa late 1970s.}

Happy Friday! As far as old pictures go, I’ve got a good one today and all I can say is Oh man! it’s a goody. There are so many things I love about this picture from my past, I almost can’t list them all.  But I’ll try:

• The fact that my smile is huge.  I tell people I’ve smiled like that since I was a kid and they don’t believe me.  But it’s true.  I was {and am} a happy girl.
• Our felt Christmas stockings, made by my mother.  I still have mine in a box downstairs.  The angel has lost her head and the tree is missing a few of its sequin ornaments, but it is a treasured item anyway.
• The beautiful wrapping on the presents under the tree.  Seriously, my mom as always wrapped presents to perfection. Sometimes it seems like a shame to open them.
• The fabric on that wing back chair.  I really love it. And I’m not even kidding.
• Our pajamas.  Guess what? They were made by my mom! Guess what else?  I still want to be wearing a nightgown like that right now at age 38.  Mom, wanna make me one?
• That brass thingy on the table.  It had angels on the top and when you lit the four candles, the angels would fly around in circles.  As a child I was mesmerized and had secret wishes that I could fly just like those angels.
• My haircut.  Because it reminds me of my niece Beatrix and the haircut she had when we first met.
• The ornaments on the Christmas tree.  There are drums and little soldiers and bears.  They are a great nod to my dad’s time at West Point. They’re all felt and were {you guessed it} handmade by my mom. I still have several of these ornaments and they hang on our children’s tree in the basement.
• That kid standing next to me.  He looks like his six year old son Samuel. Or his son looks like him.  My Photobro and I have stood together for a long time. In my whole life we’ve only been “apart” for eight years – two when he was serving a mission for our church and six years when he lived in New York City and San Diego.  And aside from a few rough patches in High School, we’ve always been close friends. He makes me laugh a lot.  He also makes me squirm sometimes.  I love him so very much. Christmastime is always awesome when he’s a part of it.
• I have to giggle at this one – when we were little my Photobro and I used to talk about how awesome it was that both of our names were in the word Christmas.  Do you see it? Yeah, we’re silly.

Here we are recently.  He’s still too cool.  And I’m still grinning like an idiot! {actually, that’s a VERY tame smile for me}

Have a great weekend!