Something to make you think (edited)
We found some that were really cute and reminded me of a pair of pj's that Alex wore when he was a baby.
Alex asked me if I still have them. So I went hunting for his pumpkin pajamas in one of the baby clothes totes I have in my closet. We spent about 30 minutes going through all of Alex's baby clothes. Alex was amazed at how tiny everything was. Then he asked me if I would save them for when he has a child.
I said, "of course. That's what I kept them for."
Actually I kept them so I could go through the tote every once in a while and see how tiny he was. :)
When I shop thrift stores and find the old ones with the embroidery on them, I'm thrilled.
I don't just fold them up and put them in the linen closet for special occasions. I use them. Who ever has a special occasion for pillow cases?
I've thrown them over curtain rods for window treatments. I've seen them made into doll dresses. But I love using them on my bed, under my head.
It makes you feel a little special.
I remember one thanksgiving when I had my husbands family over. It was my very first thanksgiving at my house even though we had already been married 7 years or so. I was so excited. I pulled out a table cloth that my mother in law gave me and set the table with all the good dishes. When my mother in law came in she said, "your going to take that table cloth off the table before we eat aren't you?" ........ Ever feel like your a little child with a brand new pretty balloon and someone comes up right in front of you and pops it?
I wondered, at that moment, what I was supposed to keep it for. Was it one of those things I was supposed to put in a drawer and let it dry rot? Was I supposed to pass it down to my daughter in law and tell her not to use it? "Just put it in a drawer honey, and every once in a while you can pull it out, look at it, and put it back." I still have that table cloth. I still haven't used it. My mother in law has been gone for 10 years and I haven't used it.
If you like your old things and you don't want to use them. That's fine.
If you give something to someone, it now belongs to them and they can do what they want with it.
One year I got a sewing table. My mother had fallen in love with it and told my father in law to buy it for me.
It cost more than what he wanted to spend, so after he gave it to me he said he was taking the rest of the money out of my birthday and Christmas for the next year.
I didn't care for the table.
For the next year I got to hear about how much it cost and how he was taking the money out of my birthday and then how he was taking the money out of my Christmas. I already had a sewing table that I loved, but every singe time my father in law came to my home he asked me why my machine wasn't on the sewing table he bought me, why I wasn't using the sewing table, etc. After about 7 years I finally put my sewing machine on the table and my father in law stopped asking.
When I graduated from high school my Omie gave me a pair of tiny diamond earrings. Every single time she saw me, until the day she died 21 years later, she asked me why I wasn't wearing the earrings she bought me.
Each of these people are precious to my life and came from a time when you saved the good stuff in a box or drawer and passed it down to your child and their child and their child, etc. If I really think about it, I am guilty of doing the same thing. I collect all kinds of things that are too precious to use. But I will try, when I get older, not to give someone something and then tell them they can't use it or that they have to use it. Once it belongs to them, they can do what they want with it. Let's hope I stick to that. ;)
Many hugs and big old kisses. :)
Shannon
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