Deck of Memories

Here is a picture of the present deck on the back of the house - not so glamorous. It will be one of the first projects for our contractor, Brian (who is WONDERFUL!!). We are hoping to do a lot of the work on the house ourselves, but the deck is one project we don't want to try. I'm not a prophet but I'm pretty sure I would foresee pain, part of the roof collapsing and a lot more work to clean up our mess if we tried our hand at it. But this deck has some wonderful memories connected to it. When thunderstorms would roll through in summer evenings, we would, as a family, sit on this deck, shelling peas, watching the lightning. There were many birthdays, 4th of July parties and just family time spent on their deck. Another fond memory was Christmas Eve at Grandpa and Grandma's house. After we had eaten dinner (our tradition of shrimp and cocktail sauce for appetizers and spaghetti for dinner - don't ask me where those traditions came from, we're Norwegian..... not Italian) and after all the other presents were opened (including the matching PJs for the three of us kids) there'd always be one present for the three grandkids still at large. It was a special gift, Grandma would say, as it was from Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer. There'd be glitter or something marking the path where we'd find the presents and often they'd be hiding on the deck (because Rudolf doesn't have hands, so there'd be no way he could open the door, of course, hehe). So many memories for such an insignificant place as a deck! We are looking forward to sitting on the deck and reminiscing about old times.... and making some new memories, too! God is too good!