First, I hope all had a wonderful Christmas, and are looking ahead to a great 2010, Happy New Year!
This is the first day back to work for my husband, who took a vacation week off. We spent it at home, going out on a few day trips, eating out a lot, resting, and enjoying the holidays and a couple of family birthdays.
This year for the first time in a few years, I mailed Christmas Cards, including a Christmas letter that I do each year. As I do the cards, I read all the letters from past years, which brings back many fond memories…have always wished that I’d taken up journaling, but this is the next best thing.
This morning I sat down with several cards that were still sitting under the tree and hadn’t been added to the pile we’ve received by mail over the past weeks, and started reading each one. Some were to my husband, I don’t always take the opportunity to read his cards from our children, feeling at times like it’s something between the children and him, but today I did…and have to say I found myself in tears reading the wonderful things they wrote to and about him…and then reading what they wrote in my own cards. It made me appreciate my husband more, looking at him through my children’s eyes…and myself more, as I often go through the “if only” kind of thinking…if only we had done this, my son would have a great job right now, if only we had done….and the list can go on. But reading cards like the one my son wrote reminds me that we have given him the best thing he will need as he faces lifes challenges, a deep understanding of what the true meaning of CHRISTmas is all about, and the impact that can have on his life.
Then I went and gathered all of the cards received over the weeks, and put them in a basket where they stay throughout the year…all other cards received that year are added to the basket. As I was doing this, I realized I was adding to last year’s cards as well, it seems like it wasn’t all that long ago that we received last year’s Christmas cards.
Yes, this is us, the picture taken in the fall of 1978, a little over 30 years ago, so this is our 30th Valentines Day together. We went back and forth on that a bit today, me thinking it was 31 years, and he reminding me no, it was 30, as we took a quiet country drive and stopped at some spots along the way that have become part of our memories. Memories are a wonderful thing about being with the same person for so many years, you have more and more of them that bind you together if you have built a good relationship.
I got my beautiful single red rose, something hubby gives me each year, and a few other little more intimate, sweet secret things that have become special to us as a couple, those little things that are private, and bind us simply because they are nobody’s business but out own. He got his candy that he loves, and we shared time together riding, talking, stopping to eat along the way. We chose a simple place to eat, and as we went in I thought, I wonder how many others will be spending Valentines Day so simply…not trying to impress one another…just enjoying one another…as I looked around I saw many couples of all ages and of kinds. The older ones didn’t need to speak a lot, they were content just to be together. There were very young couples who didn’t know one another as well, talking, and gazing into one another’s eyes. Then there were those in between who shared their evening together with a little one, maybe they couldn’t get a babysitter. The beauty of relationship was all around.
As the years go by, my husband and I learn to treasure each other more, and to thank God for the gift of our relationship with one another.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to someone who has made MANY a movie, but for most, the greatest accomplishment is, at least should be, the making of a family. I can’t even imagine how painful it must be to lose a child, one who you have had to take care of in special ways because of his special needs, and then have to do so in the spotlight of the press, the media. I will leave the death of John Travolta’s son to the media, and just share a fond memory.
We all know that John Travolta made tons of movies, but the one that hits home personally is one of his early movies, “Saturday Night Fever”, oh, and wasn’t he in “Welcome Back, Kotter”? The TV Show? Yes indeed, sorry for the senior moment, I just googled it, and he was.
Anyway, back to Saturday Night Fever…that was back in the “disco” days….are you “old” enough to remember “discotechs”? When I started dating my Colorado Mountain husband, who had only been in NJ for about a year at the time I met him, he had only been on a couple dates after his move here before I met him, and the movie he took his date to (she was someone I went to HS with) was “Saturday Night Fever”. Now I confess, I have never seen the movie in the theaters, it was later movies by Travolta, at least a few, that I liked…but knowing he had seen it, I had to watch it on TV at least once. You know how it is when you’re first dating someone, and you just HAVE to know all the details of whoever they dated before…it was during those times. Gosh that seems so long ago, and it is! 30+ years!
Here’s the classic clip from the movie for you, enjoy if you like this sort of thing, and even if you don’t, continue to pray for the Travolta family.
Yes, this is us, the picture taken in the fall of 1978, a little over 30 years ago, so this is our 30th Valentines Day together. We went back and forth on that a bit today, me thinking it was 31 years, and he reminding me no, it was 30, as we took a quiet country drive and stopped at some spots along the way that have become part of our memories. Memories are a wonderful thing about being with the same person for so many years, you have more and more of them that bind you together if you have built a good relationship.