Then and Now: Apple Picking

Happy Anniversary.

4 years ago.
I love you dear friend, sweet love, heart of my heart.

Then and Now

We are lucky to have families that are flexible with holiday dates. Because of this, we get to have multiple celebrations in multiple cities and get to see everyone we love.  Christmas and Thanksgiving and Birthdays get celebrated on dates of our choice.  It is liberating to give the dates on calendars a shove this way and that.  And in this ever growing family, on both sides, it has become rather important to give ourselves this freedom to change dates from year to year.

There are a few things that remain the same no matter which date we decide is Christmas and which cake we add candles to.  In the big picture these things revolve around the feeling and the love that we share as we sit around a table or a tree.  On the smaller scale, there are traditions (especially on the Gould side) that ground us, things that we can lean on as the wind and the times change.

Frosty is one of these things.  I love driving up to Gamma and Gampa G's house and seeing Mr. Snowman leaning up against the porch with his scarf and broom.  He has a smile that says in a subtle shrug "I thought you guys might be driving up today..."

Here is the 2011 and 2012 family photo with Frosty.  It seems that Cheyenne has grown and I have shrunk (I'm gonna hope this is a trend every year!).

Until next year dear Frosty, we will miss you.  Thank you for being a constant in our Christmas memories.

 P.S. - A then and now of a red

christmas bow!

Cheyenne 2011
Lyla 2012

Growth

What a gift it is to have gone on this same trip and sat on this same tree exactly one year later.  I have learned more... grown more... this year than any other.  Chris and I talk all the time about how before we became parents, there were so many threats about how our life will change and how "hard" it will become and how little time we will have for each other and ourselves.  These things couldn't be further from the truth in our experience.  Our life has only evolved and grown. Change is not the word that I would use.  For change and growth are both so very important, but they imply very different things.  Being a parent has not changed us.  We do all of the things we did before only now we get to share them more fully and we believe all of the same truths that we did before and now they just seem even more deep and important.  Trees grow taller and wider and the roots grow deeper, but they don't change.  And time has just become more rich, more complete.  Being a mother has been having time for myself - because I am more myself than I ever have been.  Time for each other and time for ourselves have never been more real and plentiful.  Time is exactly what we have and it is filled to the brim and just grows each year*.


we all truly have grown
even the trees.

*That is not to say that time doesn't fly so fast that I can barely catch it by the tail before it is gone into memory-land...