The Best Gift I’ve Ever Received

Happy holidays to those of you who are still reading here!

I know I’ve pretty much dropped off the radar this past year, but taking care of a baby does tend to take up all of my time!  And let’s be honest, the past couple years I wasn’t posting much anyway due to work. I still keep up with my blog projects list, continuing to add to it and wondering when I’ll get to work on it — always that elusive “some day.”

But what has been keeping me posting every once in a while is the Stonyfield Organic Clean Plate Club – I love the quarterly topics and challenges they come up with and am proud to be part of such a great group of bloggers. One of the topics available to blog about this quarter was “the best gift you’ve ever received,” and it was different enough from the others that I wanted to choose that as my selection.

I know you’re probably thinking I’m going to be all cheesy and say that Baby N is the best gift I ever received. I mean yeah, I am completely obsessed with him and totally in love with him, but I’m trying really hard not to be one of those new moms that ONLY talk about their baby.  So yes, he is one of the best gifts I have received, but that’s not what I’m going to write about today.

I think I will also modify the topic so that it is ONE of the best gifts I have ever received just because I suck at picking the favorite “whatever” whether it’s my most favorite book, favorite food, etc.

What I almost immediately thought of when I saw this topic was something I received for my 30th birthday from one of my aunts, who I’m very close to.  She wrote me the sweetest letter reminiscing about memories from when I was growing up, about how proud of me she was, and how I’m her favorite niece.  (Okay, I made up the last one!)  I’m a huge softie in the first place, so you can imagine how hard I was bawling after reading her letter.  In fact, I’m getting teary-eyed remembering how teary-eyed I was that day.  It meant so much to me that my aunt had taken the time to not only share these memories with me, but to include some childhood pictures as well.

It drove home that it’s not always about physical gifts, it’s about experiences and memories — those are things you will keep forever and that nobody can take from you. This is something that I keep working on for myself and that I want to teach Baby N as he grows up.