Little by little I am going through each room in my home…slowly packing away Christmas decorations…wrapping each in tissue paper…before I safely tuck them back in their boxes…for storage.

Each piece…each decoration… now holds the memory… along with all those past holiday celebrations… of my family…the laughter we shared this season…the excitement…the giving and the sharing.

They are now captured in these decorations forever.

Some of these decorations are looking so worn and frayed…as many are over 20 years old…some are cracked… the glass balls… looking like they are ready to burst…like a light bulb…but I just can’t part with them.

They hold too many sweet moments… when they girls were small tots… their first holiday season… crafts they made in grade school… how could I ever part with these beautiful mementos of my life….of my family…of celebrations past and present?

No… I will keep them…for as long as they hold up…and even after they fall apart…I will keep their little bits and pieces of broken and frayed beauty…and put them in a memory box…or pretty glass bottle…and when the time is right…pass them down to my daughters…so they can start their own memories… and share in mine.

Happy New Year to all!