30 Days of Thankful 2014 Edition- Day 7

Day 7- The Time I Had

Today I spent my afternoon with my mom at my father's/grandma's house. We were there for almost five hours and literally didn't get a single thing done. We spent the entire time going through closets, boxes in the closets, boxes within the boxes in the closets... Mostly we just assessed what we were going to need to do and what types of things we were looking to get rid of or keep. I disappointingly didn't find a single Members Only jacket anywhere! What gives?! I'm almost positive my grandfather owned one.

Anyhow, despite the circumstance and the grief and pain associated with it, I found going through the junk to be somewhat cathartic- making peace with my grandma's passing. Among the things that really are "junk" (why are there two Whitman's Sampler boxes full of shards of broken stained glass?) we came across some real treasures. Old photos of my aunt (my grandmother's only daughter who passed away far too young from cancer just last year), handwritten recipes on cards in a recipe box (grandma was Polish and now I have her stuffed cabbage recipe!) and a bright yellow vintage scarf I remember playing with when I was a kid (which is now mine!).

Going through the memories, I was so grateful that I had been able to grow up close to my grandparents. They lived in the same town as us so we spent nearly every weekend with them. Countless birthday parties, holidays, and family BBQs were spent at their house. We enjoyed our time with them and they loved having us over. The best part is, I'm only their step-granddaughter. They never treated me as anything less than their REAL granddaughter. They may have been old school, but they exuded love at every moment I was with them.

There may have been some messy parts of our past when we got older, but I'm thankful my family and I moved past it so that we could visit grandma a few more times before she finally went home to be with my grandpa and Aunt Cher.

A few of the treasures I found today:

My favorite find of the day! An old ad for my grandpa's shop in Connecticut from 1965! That's him in the photo and that's the shop below it. How cool!

Someone totally dug Tom Jones!

I didn't open the back to discover the information inside. That will be for another fun, adventure-filled day.

My very young and very gorgeous Aunt Cher! There was no date written on this photo.

I used to love playing with this scarf as a kid. Now I get to keep it and enjoy it as an adult!