Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Going Home

We spent last week at home in Missouri with Mother and Daddy. We were going to drive up on Christmas Day, but the weather prevented that. So we arrived, safe and sound, the day after and begin a wonderful week.

My Sweet Daddy has just turned 80 and while we missed his big birthday/retirement blast, we had very sweet visit with them after all the hoopla was over {yep! At 80 he has retired from the ministry, but he's still preaching a lot on Sundays...go figure!} We got to see the slide show from the party, and read through all the cards and letters he got.

I looked through the house and saw some decorations from Christmas Past and many new ones. My mother decorates for Christmas like nobody's business, and there is always a special glow about her house for the holidays. I convinced her to let me help her de-deck the halls, which was a precious deposit in my memory bank...one I'll cherish.

We watched football games and basketball games. We ate at the table upsatairs and sat for hours just talking about how we'd run the world if we were in charge. We ate downstairs in front of the TV and cheered our boys to victory and defeat. We rested and we napped. Rocket Man did a little repair work with Daddy and Mother and I went shopping. We ate out with Uncle Chuck and Doris.

In short, it was a lovely visit and so good to be back home. I never lived in Eldon, Missouri, but my grandparents lived there when I was small and it has always held a special place in my heart. We did the mandatory drive past the old house on High Street and I remarked, as always, that it is a shame that the house has been so altered. We went to the Post Office and I remembered going there with my grandfather and buying stamps. We went to the drug store, as we always do. We even got to meet a dentist, because I had a crown fall off. I love that my Mother can just call the dentist in that small town and get me worked in within a few hours and what could have been a disaster was a rather pleasant experience!

I love going home. I love that there are several towns and locations that feel like home to me. But the best going home is when we get back to Huntsville, Alabama. That is where home is most real to me. The home that Rocket Man and I have built for ourselves. As I've said before, it isn't anything that Better Homes and Gardens is going to be doing a double page spread on anytime soon. In fact, I'll be lucky if the city doesn't cite me this month because my leaves are still in the yard. But in this house...in these rooms...in this place there is a wonderful feeling of being in the most sacred of homes. It is not the house I love...not the home...but the life I live there with the man I adore.

Going home is soothing to my soul. It meets a need in me whether it is to the Bootheel of Missouri or to Central Missouri where I strain to see the familiar roads and landmarks of my early childhood. Even better than going home is coming home. To our life and our resident children and our work. I feel very blessed that we love living in Rocket City, USA and that we love the life we live here.

Going home...then coming home. It was a lovely visit.

~Mollianne

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