Comforting reminders and memories.

After arriving back home after our extended two week long visit to Las Vegas, I needed something to kind of give me closure with leaving and being back home, which is a new one by the way! New in the fact that we moved in mid-December and new that I've never really been sad to leave Las Vegas since we moved to NYC, until now.

So I headed to the closest grocery store before the big storm hit. (I've been doing lots of things "before the big storm hits" the past week and a half... and we weren't even here for the blizzard on the 26th.)So, I picked up some stew meat, got the girls from school, came home and got out my Grandma Thelma's stew pot.

Before I knew it, I was feeling better, our apartment smelled delicious and then I noticed Ella sitting in a chair, with her head resting on the table, staring at me through our new kitchen window, with her big, beautiful eyes. That little girl sometimes, I can see my reflection in her and it makes me get the chills. I was immediately brought back to my childhood, in my grandma Thelma's orange kitchen, adorned with owl decorations and yellow flowers. The kitchen that had a similar window as the one Ella was looking through right now, where I'd sit on a bar stool and frost Vanilla Wafers with colored frosting, make my latest craft, and like my brother Jason says, learn the right combinations of yes, no, please and thank yous in order to get something to eat. I spent an entire summer before 4th grade being drilled on my times tables (I am the bomb at those by the way, thanks to her...the only math I know :)

There have been several instances this week where choices that we've made, simple as most of them are, have affected us and comforted us. Tonight, I picked up Ella's library book from school and felt like I needed to read it, even though it was WAY passed their bedtime. Strega Nona as told by Tomie dePaola. As I often do while reading to my girls, I had to stop and hold back the tears, as it was about a Granddaughter and Grandmother and her "magic" pasta pot. She wouldn't let Strega Nona know the ingrediente segreto - secret ingredient until she had "retired and moved to live at the seaside." She left Strega Nona a note that said, the ingredient was Love.

We extended our stay in Las Vegas to be there for Grandma Thelma's funeral. She passed on December 30th. She lived to be 91 years old.

I remember my mom sharing all throughout my life of her memories, sitting on the same bar stool, watching her mom cook, while doing her homework. She always said that was where and when she learned to cook. I'm pretty positive this is why both houses I grew up in had an open kitchen with bar stools. I was lucky enough to get to learn from both of them, having it leave a lasting impression on me and now I'm getting to enjoy these moments with my own daughter's. I guess it's a real tradition when I didn't even realize why I had to have the kitchen with the open window into the living room, until being reminded of these simple special memories that had part in making me who I am.

(It's a little white and sterilized looking, but I've got some not-so-permanent plans...)

Here is one of our new views of Broadway, from the 10th floor. It was snowing.