memory

There are only a few gifts I got growing up that I distinctly remember.

I remember getting my play kitchen as a little kid.
Specifically, I remember the brown refrigerator, and the unrealistic-looking plastic food.

I remember getting the winter coat I desperately wanted as a teenager.
It was hideous with large blocks of patterned triangles all over it.
I was so happy when I opened that ugly coat!

I remember opening one particular gift very vividly too:
A cross-stitched sweatshirt.
You see, my mom went through a huge cross-stitch phase.
She cross-stitched on all kinds of things.
That year, she cross-stitched two bears with a heart between them on a blue sweatshirt for me.
A cross-stitched sweatshirt.

Not exactly my favorite gift of all time.

But, what I wouldn’t give right now to still have that goofy cross-stitched sweatshirt she made me!

It’s a little silly, I know.

Sometimes you don’t realize the things that will stick in your mind about someone you loose.
Many times it is small little details that I remember the most.
There are many things I remember about my mom.
This is just one of those very small details I remember about her at Christmastime.

She spent hours making me a crossed-stitched sweatshirt.

For Christmas