Letting Go?

When I was a girl, my Grandma Winegarden made me a doll house. It was one of those wooden kit kinds – but she went far and above just gluing some wooden pieces together- she made pretty yarn carpets and painted the house a cute white and blue. It was a Christmas gift and I LOVED it! 

 I still have this doll house…at first I thought maybe I’d have a girl one day to pass it down to…but it’s quite apparent that we just make boys. =) Through our many moves, the doll house has started to fall apart…and at this point it’s pretty much in pieces. And yet, I still can’t bring myself to get rid of it. I mean, no one is making me…it doesn't take up that much space – but it’s broken into little pieces…probably to the point where it can't be fixed.

So why can’t I just let it go? I suppose it’s the memory of my Grandma Winegarden that I've attached to the doll house. She has been gone 13 years now and I miss her terribly. 

Through the years I've been able to part with a lot 

of her things – 

dishes, decorative items – but there are a handful of things that I just can’t seem to let go. Things like the white and blue plastic canvas church she made for me, the set of bells (she gave me one every Christmas) and the doll house.  Why do we attach such strong emotions/memories to physical things? I don’t think I’m alone in doing this (or maybe I am?) Do you have items that have memories so interwoven in them that you find it hard to let them go?

I brought the doll house out of storage today to take a look at it. It's in pretty bad shape. Maybe it really is time to let it go...but it sure did make me smile to see the house "played" with one more time...(even if the boys were pretending a tornado hit the house and they had to fix it!) And ya know what - I think it would have made my Grandma smile too!