7 years ago today...

Sorry it has been a couple of days since I have been on blogging, but Molly and I have been out of town for the past couple days in NYC for our anniversary. Yes, today is our 7 year anniversary. Today 7 years ago, many of you and other friends and family joined with Molly and I to officially begin our life as husband and wife! And what a party it was!! There are lots of details that I don't remember, somethings pass in blurs and other images from that day are seared in my memory.

I remember vividly getting ready with my brothers and my friend Ray Stuart in one of the rooms at Highland and thinking how amazing it was to have such Godly men in my life supporting me on that day. I remember the moment the church doors opened and I saw Molly and the GORGEOUS dress her mother had lovingly crafted for her. Being the traditionalist that I was, I didn't want to do our pictures before, because I wanted to wait to see Molly until the aisle. I also didn't want to know anything about the dress. Although, I did have dreams about it being covered in a band of red sequins...thankfully that dream was not true!

We would like to thank each and every one of you for being a part of our lives, whether it has been in our single or married lives you have had an impact on us, and we thank you sincerely for that. For the lessons you have shared and the love you have freely given, we can not say thank you enough!

Sorry for the lack of pictures on this post. I can't seem to find the images we had scanned in at some point :( maybe I will find them later

Cats and Dogs, Living together...Mass Hysteria!

It may sound strange to say this, but this ornament brings back fond memories of Christmas mornings spent with my brothers. Now you may wonder how a dog in a dog house and a cat on top of the dog house would evoke such emotions, but bear with me, they are in fact my memories. If you notice the year on the dog house, it is 1989. For those of you that can do the math, that would have been the first Christmas that my little brother would have spent with the family. He was a mere 3 months old, and now, as a 20 year old, it is strange to think that he has been around that long. Maybe I am really in denial because I don't want to admit, that he is in fact 20 years old.

My little brother and I had a love/hate relationship until his early teenage years. He came on the scene and stole my position as the youngest child and grandchild and he was, to put it mildly, a punk. I mean look at him now, can't you tell he is a punk? Maybe not...I digress. Having that kind of love/hate relationship with him, I avoided or pestered him for most of his early years and did little to foster a friendship with him. I am thankful, however, that cooler heads have prevailed in the last 10 years and my brother and I have been able to become friends.

My older brother, Brandon, and Nick and I have a very strange relationship...as exhibited by the dog and cat in this ornament. Living in peaceful coexistence, even though at any moment we could have snapped at each other. How my mother survived summers with all three of us, I will never know! Hopefully she will be able to provide much needed counsel in the coming years as we, God willing, will have sibling issues in our own house.

Christmases in our house were always spent waking up as early as possible....Yes even 4 am on occasion, because I was too anxious to wait to see what Santa had for us. We would all sit around the Christmas tree and begin the carnage that most refer to as unwrapping gifts. In the orgy of tape, ribbon and paper, we three would often find time to see what the other was opening to assess the "playability" of the toy being opened across the way. But the real fun came after all the paper was cleared away. We would display our treasures and pick out what we wanted to play with first and spend time as brothers enjoying our gifts. Even though we are now in our 20s or 30s (Brandon...old man!) I feel like we can still have those moments together! Albeit, now we have more sophisticated tastes so we quote obscure movie lines while opening presents...as indicated by the Ghostbusters quote in the title...

On a side note, I had a moment today where I was swept into a flurry of emotion. I was in the kitchen listening to a song and for some reason my mind settled on my cousin Gene. Gene passed away about a year and a half ago and there was just this deep desire to talk to him and more importantly to hug him. Gene was like a bigger brother to all of us and I hope he felt as much a part of us as we felt included in his circle. He was a bear of a man and there was something about getting a hug from Gene that was special. It wasn't your average hug, it was a full body hug. More than once I think he realigned my spinal column with his hugs! I think its funny how memories can flood back into your mind at random times and for some reason my mind was consumed with Gene. I miss seeing him at family functions and I miss his laugh. In this Christmas season, I hope you find yourself consumed with loving thoughts of family members past and present. May those happy thoughts comfort you in the days to come...

A Special Talent...

While some people may boast of talents in acting, writing, singing, stalking, etc., my secret talent lies in an age old trick known as guessing my presents and guessing everyone elses. I know, I know...don't everyone jump up and get all jealous, but it is a little trick I have up my sleeve. I get the "gift" honestly. My mother has always had an uncanny ability to pick out her gifts, and it never helped that I was unable to keep a secret when it comes to presents.

One Christmas in particular jumps to the front of my mind in which this gift was a problem. For those of you who remember the restaraunt Sizzler, as you left the restaraunt, they had some fantastic butter mints. My mother has always been notoriously hard to purchase gifts for and my father has always experienced the full brunt of that difficulty. The Christmas in question, when my dad asked my mom what she wanted, she responded that she wanted a box of Sizzler butter mints, knowing in her heart that it would not be possible and really meaning it in jest My father, however, was determined.

Surprisingly enough, the venture was an easy one. He approached the management at the Sizzler on New Cut Road, which I think is an abandoned Hollywood Video now, and they agreed to buy and extra case and let him buy it from them. My father triumphantly brought the box home and wrapped it and placed it under the tree, happy that he was able to outsmart my mom and get her exactly what she wanted. However, that would be all thwarted by me!

One day my mom and I were sitting in the front room of the house wrapping Christmas presents and I just couldn't hold the secret in any longer. The smell of Butter mints was oozing out of the box and it was more than obvious that there was something in the large box underneath the tree that was emitting the fragrance. As we were wrapping, I ever so deftly mentioned to my mom that it smelled exactly like Sizzler Butter mints. I even went as far as to ask her if she thought it smelled like Sizzler Butter Mints as well. Little did I know that she was already well aware that the box contained said mints and was impressed with my father that he had gone out of his way to get her exactly what she had asked for that year.

Yes, this was a time where I used my "gift" for ill and not good, but it is one of those funny things that I remember about my proclivity for not keeping a secret. Molly has dealt with this as well because I have not been able to hold some of her gifts until Christmas and have practically burst before giving them to her. I guess its a good thing that Santa keeps secrets so that I won't end up telling Ainsley what Santa is going to give her. Here's looking forward to those great memories!

Santa Full of Cookies - Day 3

Happy Tuesday everyone!

As I mentioned the other day, there are many reasons why I have originally gravitated to an ornament, and in this case, I can say I picked it out because it was just so cute. It involves two of my favorite things: Santa and cookies! The ornament is dated 1992 and apparently at the age of 11 I had impeccable taste in decor. What can I say?

This ornament, however, has had a very interesting struggle. When I got the ornament in 1992, I did not know at that tender age that it would set off a firestorm of conflict in my house. In the days before we got our own storage boxes at my parent's for our ornaments (yes we all had individual boxes marked so that we knew which ornaments belonged to whom) my mom would simply write our names inside the box whenever we received an ornament. Upon receiving this ornament, my mom wrote my name on the inside of the box and placed it in the pile to pack up for the next year. In the ensuing months between the dismantling of the tree and the reassembling of the tree that most of you refer to as January-November, my mom must have conveniently forgotten who the ornament belonged to, and had fabricated a lengthy story about her ownership of the ornament. I however, could not be swayed and stood by my conviction, and her handwriting which plainly displayed my name.

As the years went by it became a playful back and forth in relation to the ornament as to who it belonged to and how I could possibly feel okay with taking an ornament from my mother. I never backed away from my convictions and pressed forward knowing the truth. As we were preparing the tree in 2001, many things were flying through my head. I had just proposed to Molly 1 month before and we were preparing for our wedding in December of 2002. (Monday the 14th will be 7 years!) I knew it would be my last time setting up a tree with my parents, and it was a bittersweet moment. As I put that ornament on the tree, I remember my mom making some comment about how this would be the last year that I would place the ornament on their tree and I, as I often do in these cases, got really emotional. It was at that moment that I set a plan into motion for Mom's Christmas present.

My plan was to find this ornament and buy it for my mom that year. I turned to the only place I knew to find random gifts at the time: EBay. It didn't take long to find one of them, but I knew I was going to be paying a premium price for the ornament and the shipping. However, I knew the present would mean a lot and I bought the first one I could find. On Christmas morning, I left a note on the present saying that now my mom could always have that ornament on her tree, and she opened her own Santa Full of Cookies. It was one of those moments that I think I completely shocked my mom and I know that she was touched by the gift. Now every year, when I put up this ornament I can think back to years of loving banter between my mom and myself and the memories of putting our Christmas year up as a family. Here's hoping that Ainsley, Molly and I will have those same types of experiences in the future.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Memory of the day!

First off, I hope you each had a great Monday! I know mine was a little hectic, because I feel like my kids are already ready to go on break (and I can't say I am not ready just as much as they are). Have a lot of other things going on around school and I know the light is at the end of the tunnel for the upcoming break!

Well, back to the Christmas memories! This is a "fairly recent acquisition" in the Braun ornament collection, but the story for it goes back farther than the ornament itself. I remember when I first saw this ornament in last year's Dreambook, I knew it would be added to the collection. Not only do Molly and I have a deep love for teddy bears, but this father daughter teddy bear scene has taken on new meaning as Ainsley has entered our lives. Just taking a look back at the pictures from the last 16 months, Ainsley has enriched our lives in ways that I don't think people can understand until they have kids. She is an interesting and confusing meld of Molly and myself and we both marvel every time she does something new, cute, or all of the above.

This ornament also holds special significance because of a particular bedtime song that we play every night before Ainsley goes to sleep. The song is "Waltzing with Bears" and if you haven't heard it before, you need to look it up, and if you have kids, you should add it to the list of songs you sing to your own child. It is always the first song that plays when we put Ainsley to bed, and I wonder sometimes if she even gets to the second song before she is out cold. We have definitely been blessed with a child who loves to sleep! It has also been very cute to see how she responds to the song when we are not at home and are trying to put her to sleep. Several times when we have been out of town, it has only taken one or two verses for her to go to sleep in a strange place.

All of this to say that Ainsley has truly made Christmas a new experience! And while last year she probably had no idea what was going on, both Molly and I look forward to Christmas this year and seeing our little girl light up on Christmas morning!

A Christmas Memory a Day...

While Molly and I were putting the ornaments on the tree and decorating the house this year, with the help of the illustrious Lindy Ebbs, I thought about how each of these tiny pieces of plastic and other materials held some sort of memory for me. Upon entry into Molly and my house, it may seem a bit overwhelming during the Christmas season especially when you look at our tree, or should I say trees. We have two prelit 9.5 ft Christmas trees that are chock full of Hallmark ornaments. Some I have gotten over the last 7 years of Molly and my marriage, but there are a great many that I collected long before Molly entered into my life. Each one of them carries significance and each of them has a story to tell. In some cases the stories are about Christmases spent with family and friends, in others it involves a childhood or adulthood obsession with something, and in still other cases, it involves an ornament or decoration that was just too darn cute to pass up. But in all cases, these are memories that I cherish, and I want to share with you. I will *hopefully* be sharing one memory a day over the next couple of weeks, and my sincere hope is that it inspires you to look around at the things you have hanging on your walls or tree and think about the people who have touched your story.

Today, I want to start off with something that is not in fact an ornament on my tree, but a decoration on our staircase. This is Randy and Ramona. You might recognize the reindeer as Hallmark decor staples. These are dated 1986 and I am pretty sure Hallmark has put something out with them every year. But it is not the date on these stuffed reindeer that set them apart. It is from whom they came that set them apart. Attached to both Randy and Ramona is a small tag with a To and From tag placed by Hallmark and on that tag is a name that to me can only signify one person in this world: Nannie.

Nannie (Mary Frances Smith) is my mother's mother and for those of you who don't know, lived with my family and me for most of my childhood. I would say she was a quiet force in my life, but I don't know that quiet is the best way to put it. Let's just say she was a force. She cooked a mean sausage gravy (one that I am glad to say I can almost recreate); baked fantastic jam cakes, German Chocolate Cakes, and Banana Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies; told fantastic stories (esp her story of cutting a dog's tail off just to prove to a boy that she would do it. Fearless I know!); and genuinely loved her grandchildren like they were own children. While I may not have always liked what she had to say to me, I can say with all assurance that she has influenced who I am in every way.

Unfortunately, Nannie was diagnosed with Alzheimer's about 10 years ago and has steadily declined over that time period. She is currently in a nursing home in Louisville and I am thankful that she is still able to recognize me and Molly when we go visit, and I think she is starting to pick up who Ainsley is. God knows every time that we visit that I wish Ainsley could remember all that goes on, because I want her to know this woman who has had such an influence on my life. I wish my Nannie knew that we could have chosen no better middle name for Ainsley than Frances because my hope is that she can become the woman that Nannie is. I also would be remiss to acknowledge that Ainsley is able to have a Grammie that is who she is because she was raised by this fearless woman.

I can really say that I can not explain to anyone the feelings I have had when Nannie has visited with Ainsley and just the rush of emotions that I experience. Whether it is Nannie playing Pattie Cake, Nannie playing Trottie Horsie with her, or the tenderness that Nannie shows towards Ainsley and vice versa the experience is one that makes me choke up.

These stuffed reindeer who are 23 years old this Christmas are gentle reminders of the Christmases that I spent at home with my parents, brothers and Nannie. Those are the kinds of things that make Christmas for me.

Thanks for reading! Have a great week and hopefully I will "see" you tomorrow!