Someday...

I love to get rid of things. I mean, sometimes I just get the craving to throw stuff away, so I go through things I've already gone through just so I can get that "high." Weird, I know - but those of you who are obsessive-compulsive/perfectionist will understand. Anyway, I digress. In all my years of getting rid of things, there are a few boxes of my childhood toys that I haven't been able to part with. Before I got married, I went through all my old toys and saved the ones that meant so much to me, thinking that SOMEDAY I would share them with my own children. I kept my Barbies and Sylvanian Families, my Cabbage Patch dolls and a few stuffed animals. The girls love to get out a box every once in awhile and play with "Mommy's Antique Toys." Well, I have a bag labeled "Stuffed Animals" that they haven't seemed interested in - till tonight. After begging me to open it, I explained that the toys probably aren't very interesting; they're pretty old and probably falling apart. But we opened it anyway. The girls gasped, wrapped the stuffed animals and dolls in their arms and swung them around. Then the dolls talked to ME (in Kiera's voice), asking me if I missed them. Although maybe half of them I don't remember at all and could probably take to the DI, seeing some of them brought tears to my eyes. My very first doll as a baby; my "Charlie" doll that I drug everywhere with me, the E.T. doll I rescued from its "abusive" owner (he punched it and tied up its arms, which broke my 8-year-old heart). I have dolls that my grandma made and original Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls. And what a treat it is to "stroll down memory lane" and tell my own girls stories about my beloved dolls and animals and how I used to play with them. Sure, it may seem like unnecessary clutter to some people...but I never could have imagined when I was boxing them up so many years ago just what a treasure they were!