love

i know i already talked about how much i love growing up and living next door to grandma and grandpa, but there's a few more things i want to add!

• sunday dinners. every single sunday! it was just a given that we got to set two extra plates on the table for sunday dinner
• christmas morning (every cousin should be very jealous of this). of course there was christmas eve and dinner on christmas day. but i loved more than anything having grandma and grandpa come over for christmas morning. we would call them first thing in the morning and they would trek through the snow to come open presents with us. grandma would ooh and aww over every gift. and grandpa would sit quietly, smiling the entire time. made us feel like the luckiest kids alive. 
• grandpa's garden. i remember picking grandpa's strawberries in the summer with the cousins so we could mash them up and make jam. i wasn't really aware back then, but now i realize how much pride grandpa takes in his garden and how he must have cringed every time his grandkids would trample through the garden to pick his strawberries. thank you grandpa for allowing us to make the good memories and not getting after us!
• grandma's flowers. grandma would always have the most beautiful flower garden. i remember going over and visiting with grandma while she was tending to her flowers. she always had so many yellow daffodils. one day when i have a yard, i'm going to be sure to plant daffodils. 
• mother goose. that movie will forever and always remind me of grandma's house!  it was definitely a favourite for the cousins to watch when we were younger. and sadly, when we were older too. we had so much fun quoting every. single. word.

there are so many memories and not enough time to write them all down, but one last one i do want to write is one summer, i was probably 13 or 14. i can't remember what we were doing but i was out in a field with grandpa. a man driving by stopped and came over to talk to grandpa. i didn't know who he was but grandpa did. they were visiting and the man turned to me and asked me if i knew how lucky i was to have such a great grandpa. he then asked me if i'd told him that i loved him. i knew i was guilty of not having told grandpa that i love him. i remember awkwardly standing there not sure what to say. luckily grandpa came to my rescue and i remember his exact words "we're not a family that says i love you, but i know that she does". that day has stuck with me all these years and i think about it every time i don't tell my family that i love them. i don't know why it's so hard to say it, but i'll put it here so you can always read it. i love you guys. you're such wonderful examples to me. you've always loved the lord and loved your family. i want to be just like you guys when i grow up. i'm proud to be a gibb and wouldn't trade it for anything. 

-brette-