A Christmas Present

For Christmas this year I was really lucky to get so many gifts I absolutely love...clothes that fit, a AWESOME Caps jacket, some girly stuff and then two wonderful blankets. The first blanket was an early gift given to me by my husband. The damn thing is electric and it has different heat settings. Man does he know me! I am always in a constant state of being cold and for once...I am not cold when comfortably snuggled in with the setting all the way up. I also received another blanket...but this falls under not only comfort but sentimental mush which is something I am a sap for.

On Christmas day after my little family was done with all our Christmas activities at our house, we drove the LONG mile to my parents home. I had opened a few gifts when my Mom placed in front of me a rather large bag and smiled her little Mom smile at me. I was curious as I sort of already knew most of my presents per an annual Christmas shopping trip my sister and I made with her earlier in the month, so she certainly had my curiosity. I opened it up to reveal...the blanket. Its not just a blanket but a hand made crocheted blanket my Mom has literally been working on since I was a child. I remember her hand stitching the different squares and carefully storing them in old bread bags to preserve them from the rampaging children (aka my sister and I) in our old North Carolina home. From time to time when I would pass these bags of crocheted squares while going up to the attic in our North Carolina home or passing them in the basement once we moved to Virgina and wonder what my Mom was going to do with them. I now knew. She was saving them up, diligently working on a project that took essentially twenty years plus in the making to give my sister and I a priceless present made from her hands.

I stretched out the blanket marveled that the squares that used to be in pieces were now elegantly stitched into place into a beautiful blanket. My Mom pointed out different squares commenting how she used this yarn to make us doll clothes for my sister and I or used this yarn to make us all beautiful little dress capes to wear on special occasions. The sentimentalism (if you will) of all the different pieces and the fact my Mom made them was almost overwhelming but beautiful.

So I wrote a post on a blanket, but something more then a blanket. I marvel at my Mom's craftiness as I certainly don't have her talent (nor patience...geez it was a twenty year project) in making not one but two blankets for both my sister and I. It has already become a family treasure and something I will always cherish and think back on. Thank you Mom.