I can hear my pulse. That’s how quiet the house is on this second day of January. For the last 16 days, our world has been glorious chaos with giggles and argues and Ama requests and whining and look at this, Ama’s, and sounds of video games and how do you spell’s and feet stomping and tromping…

And now, not a creature is stirring.

But there is evidence in every room that wonderful happened here.

I am looking back through photos on my phone that fill my storage space and realize that a lot has taken place in the last two weeks when grandchildren and family were here for Christmas and beyond. Oh, how time flies when moments are fun and exhausting and stressful and memorable and…priceless.

Yesterday, as we drove home, Sam received a phone call from a dear friend of ours. When we asked how she was doing, her response was, “Well, I’ve moved into an apartment because I have Alzheimer’s.” It was heartbreaking but so uplifting that she could talk about her diagnosis and inevitable changes to her lifestyle, accepting her future with gratitude for two sons who are caring for her needs.

So, I am grateful today for picture reminders and for bullet points to list the things for which I am grateful that may otherwise be forgotten in this mid-50’s mind of mine.

• Arrival hugs
• Christmas pjs
• Bedtime stories
• Prayers in the darkness and goodnight kisses on foreheads
• Grandchildren perched on the stool at the kitchen island
• Toothpaste in the sinks and little toothbrushes everywhere
• Big curls
• A whole row of grandchildren at the local movie theater
• Chemo treatment #3 done
• Extra privileges when you’re the oldest
• Goofy faces that are automatic with Grandma glasses
• Gigi’s slippers
• Noisy car rides
• “I wanna make a craft” sun catchers and charms and fingerprint animals and styrofoam flowers
• Sleepy babies
• Expecting child #8 surprises
• Matching outfits
• Being silly at the table
• Learning to tie shoes and write names and memorize address and mom’s phone number
• Watching Sam try not to laugh at the hilarity
• Hearing the oldest two read to their little sisters
• Ice cream every night
• Watching A Christmas Story and explaining the frozen pole and “the F word”
• Counting Nativity scenes in yards as we drove around town looking at lights
• Child-sized shopping carts at the grocery store and filling them up
• Going to the goat farm
• Watching the family act out the Nativity while the oldest child read the story
• A house full of family on Christmas day
• Board games with the cousins
• Air mattresses everywhere with Rachel the favored one
• Listening to the quietness as Rachel read a bedtime story to 6 children
• The privilege of keeping the 4 oldest for another week, all to ourselves
• Addition flashcards online at Ama’s computer to break up the day
• A flooded basement and the best plumber who came at a moment’s notice to replace not one but 3 sump pumps on a frigid teen degree night
• Straightening the curls “like Mom and Ama’s hair”
• Snowball fights with 1/2 inch of snow and the little tiny snowman with black olive eyes
• Aunt Sara and her mom coming to visit
• The last night at Ama’s and all 4 in Ama’s bed for a late night of “The Good Dinosaur”
• The feeling of little hands in mine as we walked through the store
• Hearing “I wanna be YOUR kid, Ama!” over and over and over and over again
• Goodbye tears
• And Braum’s ice cream, re-loaded and ready for the next grandchildren visit