Gift Wrapped

This month was my grandfather’s birthday; I drove by the cemetery where he is buried when I was home this weekend. For the first year after his death I gave excuse after excuse not to go out there to his gravestone. I couldn’t bring myself to go because of fear of letting go. My grandpa and I were so close. His house was my second home in high school, cause I never had time to drive home. The problem with that is that I needed a bottle of Fribreez stuck in my car so I wouldn’t smell like smoke when heading to activities. (smoking…number one reason I hate it is because as a child I breathed in a lot of second hand smoke….he started when he was a young boy a box came along with their pay in the Army….my grandpa lost a lung when I was early on in grade school…that didn’t really teach him did it, he tried lots of times to quit) My grandpa and I loved to watch CMT, when I was going throw my country music stage (you know you had one too), we use to do craft items like jewelry or buttons. He use to sit in the living room with me with legos covering the floor and would build with me until it was his nap time. Monday I had bacon for lunch…we had the same taste in foods of all kinds, bacon was one of our favorites….he knew how to cook it just the way I liked it. I remember one time at Thanksgiving dinner I asked for seconds on mashed potatoes and he literally fell off his chair (for a long time I hated potatoes) Even our dessert tastes were the same…apple pie only he didn’t like cinnamon as much as me. 4 years in a row I crashed on his couch after prom so I could get up and walk a block to church. My grandpa never really went to church, but we talked about it some times. He was baptized as an adult and sometimes would go when the boys were young. I miss him greatly….I bet you are wondering why I’m writing this well I was wrapping up my dad’s gift tonight and it brings up memories for me…every Christmas we use to go get a Budweiser stein (special edition that comes out at Christmas) My grandfather use to be a big Budweiser junkie…lots of paraphernalia. My dad now owns the collection even though he doesn’t really drink. When we built the addition to our house we built a shelf for just the purpose of displaying these steins…the go all the way across. I guess I buy the stein for my dad because in a way it is bringing my grandpa to our Christmas celebration. This is my tradition.

Sorry if my posts have gotten a little long…just thinking of all the memories that come with the season!

Merry CHRISTmas