Christmas ornaments are my favorite.  Every year I find one Sandifer house ornament of the year.  Every time we go someplace new for vacation we get a fun ornament as our souvenir: a Buckingham palace guard from London, a river boat from New Orleans, etc.  And for every big milestone I get a Wallace silver sleigh bell with the year engraved.  Someone gave me one in 1977 so I picked up the tradition for Terce and I, getting one in 2008 engraved with our anniversary date, getting one to celebrate the year we bought our house, and so on.  We have ornaments from both of our childhood trees in our collection and very special ornaments my grandma sent from the Met for our bridal shower.  The tree is so special to me.  It is like a little family history.

One of my absolute favorites, from T's childhood.

Last year when William passed away, I knew I would want and need him to be part of the Christmas tree too.  He has a 2013 silver sleigh bell, and my mom gave us a silver angel that says William, 11-2-13.  I love these.  So much.

To continue the tradition, this year William's new ornaments are the cutest Jonathan Adler animals -- an elephant and a giraffe.  I figured that if he was about 1 year old, he would like zoo animals.  I couldn't resist a third one when I was shopping, and got Dempsey a terrier ornament that matches them.

Dempsey willingly sitting with his tree. 

Thank goodness we have a fake one or he might have tried to eat it.

William, we love you and miss you.  All.the.time.   

Love, S.

William's 1st Birthday

On November 2, William would have been 1.  I can't write about this yet because it breaks my heart. But I can say that every day I wonder what he would have been like.  What nicknames would we call him?  What would his favorite food be?  How would his 1 year old personality be developing?  What would we be teaching him?  Would he have a favorite bedtime story?  What would we have planned for his birthday?  Would he be walking, running and chasing Dempsey?  Would they be best friends or still getting to know each other?  Countless questions.

And as I wondered those things last Sunday, we received a bunch of really thoughtful texts and emails. I am forever grateful that so many people will remember him too.  The texts and emails and pictures made our day a little bit less lonely, and for all of that love I am so grateful.  I think someone special was behind it too, and that means so much to both my husband and I.  Friends and family, we couldn't do this without you.  

Here are a few of the pictures we received. 

We're starting a tradition of going to the bookstore around the corner on William's birthday to pick out books we might have loved reading to him and donating them to the Children's Book Project. The organization's mission is to make sure Bay Area kids have access to books at school and at home.  As they write, "Many children in the Bay Area live in homes without books and attend schools and programs where books are in short supply. Research shows that children to whom books are read have an easier time learning to read than those who don't have this experience. In addition, evidence shows that reading aloud to children actually helps their brain development."

Lots of love,
S.