Start a Tradition of Your Own...

This picture hangs above the doorway between my Dining Room and Living Room.

If you look closer, you can see it's actually a puzzle...

My sister has a thing for Thomas Kincaid... she started buying these puzzles a few years ago and kinda "stock piled" a few, waiting for the time to put them together.

One year for the holidays, she brought one to my parent's house.  The whole family was together and spent a couple of days at the 'rents house putting this together.  My brother-in-law was the puzzle master!  He could sit at the table for HOURS (with an ice cold beverage in hand!) until he found that one piece that no one else could find.  He was definitely the detail man of the process!

After this one was complete, we decided to make one each year for a different member of the family.  A new tradition of our own to start.

My parents have another puzzle (Christmas scene with lotsa' snow!) that we all made the following year that hangs over their couch in the den.

We started a third one a while back, but it sat in my sister's kitchen for so long after the holiday, it was finally put back into the box.  The kids were getting older, my nieces were married with children, and the holidays were beginning to change.  It was becoming difficult to get everyone together for any length of time...
But mine is special.... it's the original that started the ball rolling... and it's one of my favorite things...

2003 was the year that my ex-husband walked out the door.  That Christmas was my first as a single parent in a long time.  I love that I've got the kid's signatures on the back ... my oldest signed his last name- I guess in case we wondered who "Ryan" was during our golden years!  Davis & Carson had issues just signing their first names (love the do-over).  My parents signed it as well, and my Dad made the frame for me and put it all together.

Unfortunately, my sister & brother-in-law had left earlier in the day and I never got their signatures on the back.  Wish I had... the holidays were Ronnie's favorite time of year.  But I do have the memory of him sitting at that card table for hours on end, looking for the right piece. And every time I look up and see this, I think of him and my family... and how lucky I am.

This year will be my sister's second holiday season by herself.  I think it's time to blow the dust off that third puzzle box and make a memory for her!  And I know, if I find that "one piece" that's missing, it will be because Ronnie told me where to look!

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