Tuesday, November 10, 2009

It's The Memories That Make The Holidays Bright


With all the holiday talk going around I began to take a trip down memory lane. I started thinking about all the Thanksgiving dinners and Christmas meals I have been blessed to be able to share in with my Husband over the years. Then visions of Christmas morning gift exchanging danced in my head. I'll never forget one particular Christmas when Hubby pulled a fast one over on me.

In case you didn't know, I am a huge fan of Gooseberry Patch. I have been collecting their cook books for years now and just adore them. I even have a special set of shelves built into our kitchen island just to display some of them. These shelves are not used for just any books either, only my GBP books are allowed to grace those shelves.

Anyway, Hubby asked me one year what I wanted for Christmas and at that time, Gooseberry had a slew of new cookbooks out that I didn't have. So not needing anything really, I told him that any of the GBP books would be a welcome gift. That was all that was said and then we went on about our merry holiday preparations.

Christmas morning arrived that year and of course there were more gifts under the tree than really need be, but hey that's part of the fun. So we sorted through the packages and dispersed them to the correct recipients, and of course began to tear into them. Hubby has great taste let me tell you, so every Christmas he picks out a new purse for me, a pair of shoes and a few outfits. As I opened my gifts I was always in awe of what beautiful things he had waiting for me. Then came one interesting box. It was a little weighty but shaped slightly odd. I opened it to find the box read "Hickory Farms." Oh how I love their cheeses and sausage. I planned to use this on our appetizer platter later that day. There was another box that had yet to be opened so I proceeded to tear off the gift wrap and found an unmarked box that was very similar in size and shape to the Hickory Farms box, so initially I thought it was another goodie box of cheese and meats. The box had no markings on it so I knew it couldn't be so I proceeded to open the lid. Before my eyes I saw all the items that would normally be in a Hickory Farms gift box, but yet it wasn't in their normal gift box. Something was mighty fishy to me. So I looked up at my Hubby and he was just a giggling. So I grabbed the first Hickory Farm box and opened the lid (I hadn't prior to this) and instead of finding cheese I found 3 Gooseberry Patch cookbooks! Hubby switched out the contents to throw me off guard and boy did it work! He such a silly man.

It's the little things and memories like this that mean so much to me. Family is so important and such a wonderful part of your life. Even though you may not always get along with your siblings, parents, cousins, in-laws or what have you...we need to always keep our family members in our prayers and in our hearts. Even if it's only a few times a year, try to put differences aside and cherish those that GOD has placed in your path. After all, we can pick and choose our friends and our noses but we can't pick our family. *grin*

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