December Ditties - 2018 - December Reflections

Favorite photo of 2018:

There are a lot of photos to choose from as I took over 3,000 photos during the course of the year so far.  These two stand out though, not so much for the quality of the photos but for what they represent.

The first one was taken at our daughter's graduation from Sonoma State College in May of this year.  Coincidentally it was also the date of our 34th anniversary.  The promises we made to each other on our wedding day have held us together and enabled us to raise three wonderful adults.  It is not always smiles and there are definitely days when it is really hard, just like our daughter's educational experience, but it is definitely worth it in the end. 

I took this second picture at the Phil Collins concert my son and I went to in October.  I love the way Phil's son is looking at him and I know that they were both very proud of each other at that moment.  Again, I'm sure it is not always easy for either of them, but the love comes through here I think.  

Here are the prompts again for #decemberreflections2018 in case you want to play along.  

Making Memories in May - 2018 #SoCS

Well, Linda G. Hill has given us the Stream of Consciousness Saturday #SoCS prompt of Grill.

Last Sunday at the ungodly hour of 4 AM we were up to go witness this happen:

Yep, our youngest graduated from Sonoma State college with a degree in Psychology.  Now she will be coming home to analyze us all.  Well, not really but you know I'll always have it in the back of my mind. 

It was a very nice ceremony and even though the graduating class this year was the largest ever, they spread the ceremonies out over two days so it was pretty quick, as these things go.  

After the ceremony we drove back home and were able to use the GRILL to have a little backyard party for her.  

Not everything was grilled...

but most everything got eaten.  

Oh yeah, last Sunday was also our 34th wedding anniversary but nobody grilled us about that.  

Seems graduation trumps anniversary.  Happy Saturday all.  

Making Memories in May - 2018 - #SoCS

I'm jumping into the Stream of Consciousness Saturday as directed by Linda G. Hill this week.  Her prompt is empty/hollow and that struck a chord with me right now.

Tomorrow our daughter graduates from college.  It seems like only yesterday we were driving her up to live in the dorms as a freshman.  She has absolutely astounded us by handling everything in regard to this college experience on her own.  All she asked us to do was sign the papers, attend the orientation and help her move up.  We never helped her decide which classes to take or check on her to make sure she was doing her homework.

For a brief minute we were "empty" nesters.  I took over her bedroom as my scrap room and we had a friend of ours move in to the other "empty" bedroom.  Now that she is graduating, she will be returning home to live until she decides what she wants to do with her degree.  She is going through a lot of different emotions now and I can't help her with any of them, other than to be a good listener when she wants to share.  Mostly she wants a little time to relax from all the "adulting" she's done for the past four years and that is okay with us.     




I'm not/can't give up my craft room (I've accumulated so many supplies there is no other place in our house to put it all) so we've had to ask our friend to move out to make room for her return.  We'll have a few days when the room is "hollowed" out so that she can paint it.  We will no longer be "empty" nesters and that's okay with us.