This Old Box

You do realize that some of these boxes are ancient? I was talking to myself while unloading the contents of the green plastic containers onto the kitchen table. I've had more time to do this lately. That is, talk to myself. Brody's other grandma is in town. And like Santa Claus coming to town... she and Bro Bro are off on a sleigh ride enjoying each other's company.

This leaves Nana Connie in the step house doing something she is very good at.  Daba calls it... fimble-ling. I call it putzing or puttering. Sort of like fluttering, too. I flit from one thing to the next. (Brody probably learned some of his behaviors from me. See my recent post IF YOU...)

Anyhow, this morning, there I was studying the ornament boxes. You know the ones I'm talking about.  The ones you find... after Christmas... lying around the house or tucked under the tree, days after the presents have disappeared. These are not trash!

An old Steve Madden slipper box and a Mikasa stemware box with dividers!

A whole year has gone by and once again I am delighted to see my ornaments and the odd boxes keeping them intact. I am particularly fond of the Raggedy Ann box. You know this was something I bought for Kenz, I told Daba, who was now nearby cooking us some peppers and scrambled eggs. He didn't care about the box. He doesn't get it.  An old box to him is well... nothing to write home about. (And he'll probably think I'm nuts when he finds out I am blogging about them.)

Believe it or not, the cellophane on Raggedy Ann is intact. I turned over the box to check the price.  Aha! Now I remember where I bought it.  It wasn't in a big box store, but at a real toy store, one that several years ago went by the wayside. The tag is bright orange. It was eight dollars and fifty cents. Knowing me, I must have bought it on sale.

My Raggedy Ann box is not ragged. The doll, however, is long gone. Kenz was a newborn when I gave it to her, nine years ago. Ann didn't make it through my daughter's own move in 2009 and she may have even disappeared long before that. But hey, I got the box. I love the box. I have others, too. They are keepsakes of the traditions. They have purpose. They have storage rights. Since this will be the first Christmas in our apartment after living in our house for 28 years, I may be more sentimental than usual. The boxes and all the trimmings survived the shuffle! They weren't sold at the yard sale or donated to the Salvation Army.  They have arrived again this holiday season ready to give branchfuls of memories.

I have the Precious Moment box (and the ornament) Ant Jean gave us in 2005. I also have the box for the cactus ornaments I bought for my sister Joni.. gotta be... a decade ago. I remember I couldn't send them to Denver for fear they'd break, so I mailed them in different box. The Dillard's  cactus box is just sturdy enough to hold my mirrored disco balls. Dillard's Department store is gone too! It became Macy's, but in between it was some other store.

 I'm grateful for the little treasures that follow us through our lives.  My Christmas stuff is exactly as it was last year, even though so many things have changed...

And now, let the moments of joyful preparation continue...