Gratitude emails

My cute friend, Elise, is the keeper of the gratitude emails.  She has asked a few of her close friends, some local, some far away, some she has had for years, others of us a short time in comparison.  Each day, she collects one thing we are grateful for during the month of November.  Then, she compiles, makes us anonymous and sends the results back to all of us so we may share in each other's blessings.

I wanted to share what I wrote to her today.  I ran to Salt Lake to pick up some family pictures we just had taken with Mike's family.  We haven't had our own little family picture professionally taken since the last time my family had a portrait done....Brandon was maybe 2?

After I grabbed the photos, I drove around my old stomping grounds for a minute.  I had seen a big crash on the northbound freeway and wanted to avoid it on the way back home.  So, as I winded my way through the streets of Holladay, I found myself close to my Grandma & Grandpa Gibson's former home.

I figured I had time and pulled into their neighborhood.  Funny how when you are no longer a child,  everything that was once big seems so much smaller.  The houses, the streets, the yard of my grandparent's home that I used to spend summers in mowing their lawn.  It seemed so much bigger when I was 12!

I am feeling sentimental today, so my email to Elise was longer than I have written this month.  Don't get my wrong...I send her things that I am grateful for, but in an abbreviated fashion.  For example, 'Terry's Chocolate Oranges, the Utes, Email, etc to keep in touch with loved ones, doing homework with my son, playing the piano with my teenager, Sydney's made up songs'  That sort of thing.  I guess I wanted our kids to hear some of these memories of my heart and have them written down so they won't fade like the stories Grandma was telling me at the kitchen table as we had spam sandwiches.  The only thing I can remember is that her friend's dad used to call her Windy instead of Wanda.  Tragic that I didn't record these conversations.  This must be part of my penitence.  Enjoy.

"Like someone said before I am grateful for my grandmother...and all my grandparents. I had the chance to drive by one grandparent's former home today.  I don't get in that neighborhood hardly ever, and I just sat parked in front of their house remembering all the great times we had with them.  I was remembering the Christmas celebrations where my cousins, siblings and I would 'put on a show' for the adults and we would all munch on the wonderful goodies their Greek neighbors would bring by. I remember the year we drove to SLC from Washington in a HUGE blizzard to get home for Christmas.  When we arrived and were shuffled off to bed in the blue bedroom, my brother, Danny and I kept hearing 'Santa's sleigh bells' and would jump up and look out the window.  I remember sitting on their back patio in the summertime 'having a coke' and a chat.  And remember mowing their lawn for them for $20. It seemed like a lot more lawn when I was 12!  Now I see they were super generous in paying me $20 to mow that small beautiful yard with its overflowing petunia gardens.  My grandma used to have me over for lunch once a week when the office I was working at was close to her home.  She'd fix me deviled ham or spam sandwiches (I ate them so I wouldn't hurt her feelings) and tomato soup and always gave me a vitamin.  I would get as many stories from her youth as she could tell me in an hour.  I loved every minute of that one-on-one time with her.   I'm feeling so sentimental today about my grandparents.  I'm grateful for my parents and in-laws that have great relationships and fun traditions with our kids, too.  Maybe someday they'll write a long, sappy note about the times they spent with their grandparents :)"