A Couple of Memorable Gifts

I have a couple of memorable gifts. The first is a Christmas quilt made by hand by my Grandma before I was born.

Seen here being commandeered by the cat.

She's made one for all of my siblings too, as well as matching stockings.

It's a family tradition that we put our quilts on our beds for the month of December and curl up with them for Christmas morning, so I have many memories of opening stockings with it draped around my shoulders or, as I grew older, smirking with my sisters while my Dad opened presents from "Santa" that were the very specific things only he would've known to buy himself, hmmmm....

The second one is much more recent, but needs two points of context. For my time as an adult I've been used to a) not having any hope of financial assistance from my family, though maybe a food care package from my sisters if things got really dire, and b) until about a year ago, having my significant other's family intensely dislike me.

A couple of months ago I had to do some sudden repairs on my car and my savings got tied up and unavailable, until at one point I had $3 in my account. Luckily I had some bonds I could cash in, and I used some of the money to go visit my boyfriend as a way to help me de-stress.

While I was there, his mom approached me and let me know she wanted to help; completely unused to this sort of thing, I half-heartedly objected several times before gratefully accepting, then stared at the folded check on the desk like it was an alien. I decided that, hey, at least that would cover my gas there and back... and then opened it up and almost fell out of my chair. It wasn't the money itself that was memorable, but instead the relief it gave me from stressing out about bills, and the feeling of (please read this in the voice of a beauty pageant queen) "you like me, you really like me!"


(As an aside that I just think is amusing, when I wandered up to my boyfriend wide-eyed and told him about it, he immediately apologized that I might've felt embarrassed; when I got home and told my sister about it she was surprised and made as big of a deal out of it as I had. Different upbringings, I guess...)

Gifts I'll Never Let Go Of

I only ever received two memorable gifts, though only one actually sticks out. The one that I think about when I think about a memorable gift is this necklace that my mother gave me a couple years back, I think it was for Christmas, but part of me thinks it was my birthday. So it's not really memorable in the sense that I remember receiving it, I didn't even start wearing the necklace until much later. It's this very small silver heart-shaped pendant with an angel carved into the front and the words "Guardian Angel Protect Me" engraved into the back on a thin silver chain.

Usually I never take it off, but due to a lot of x-rays and travel that requires me to remove jewelry I've left it off for a bit. It's a little like a good luck charm for me, I never feel comfortable without it. While the memory of receiving it is fuzzy, the gift still means a lot to me.

The other gift I really don't remember getting. It's my stuffed bear, Teddy. He was my first stuffed animal and I've had him since before I can remember. At this point in life he's a bit banged up his head twists all the way around and I don't know if it could do that originally, as if he became part owl over the years. One of his limbs is a little askew on account of it falling off a very long time ago and needing to be reattached. Teddy has been through a lot with me. I'm not ashamed to say that I still keep him close by, he's very important to me and holds a lot of memories. I sort of hope that one day if I have kids they can grow up with him.

Those are the most memorable gifts I have. They both are very close to me and mean a lot, they are strong connections to the past and to my family, iPods and computers, while somewhat necessary to communicate to many, do school work and are a part of everyday use just really don't compare to the sentimental values those two objects hold for me.

Memories: lots and lots of food

So this is probably going to sound weird, but the things that remind me the most of my childhood are all food. Boxed macaroni and cheese (with or without canned chili), the smell of apple pie, or - interestingly enough - nutmeg.

I know, right, nutmeg? I actually didn't know what that smell was that made me feel so nostalgic until very recently, when on a whim I sprinkled some nutmeg over sugar cookies before they went in the oven. I recognized the scent the moment I smelled it, and it made me feel all warm and fuzzy and nostalgic inside.

My family's been big on cooking for other people as a form of affection, and since we were kinda poor for most of my childhood, many many of those meals came from the blue box of mac and cheese or were baked cookies. They're both major comfort foods for me, if I've been really stressed out or need a mood boost I don't want a $10 bowl of pasta or a nice cut of steak, I crave a $2 bowl of over processed, almost fluorescent orange "pasta" (I use that term loosely...) or handmade brownies.

Aaaaaaaaand that should tell you why my family has weight problems. Well, that and our occasional dinner of "heart attack pie" - apple pie with a pack of maple sausage and cheese in it. :P