When do we stop?

Stop being a kid at heart?

Stop doing the little things that define each holiday like carving pumpkins or coloring Easter Eggs?

I still try to bully everyone to do these things every year because, somehow, by letting go of those little defining traditions I feel like I am letting little bits and pieces of myself atrophy and die. And I always want to do them with the people I love the most.

I remember coercing (in a nice way, of course) one of my elderly Aunt's to hunt for Easter eggs one year. I will always remember her little wrinkly face alive with childlike joy as she hobbled with her cane across the yard in pursuit of treasures.

This Halloween my Dad came over to carve pumpkins with the Granddaughters and my husband and I.

Dad is 80 years old. He said he can't remember carving a pumpkin in 50 years.

It was so fun!

Watching his face light up and his joy in scooping out the seeds.

It seems crazy that it has been so long since he did this.

But now, when I look at these pictures it seems like the look on everyones faces as they carved their masterpieces was the same, really.





Nothing much different between the three year old, the sixty year old, or the eighty year old.

And it made me determined.

It made me determined to continue doing these things long after anyone does them with me. And doing them even if everyone thinks it is childish and silly.

I will be the solitary, wizened old woman with forgotten glasses on top of my head wearing my Ohio State socks and no bra sitting in the nursing home trying to carve my little pumpkin with a plastic knife and spoon. I don't want to wait fifty years between carving pumpkins or coloring Easter eggs or hanging up my stocking.

I don't want to...and I won't.

I promise myself this.

And if you happen to be in the same nursing home as me we will, together, carve Halloween masterpieces no matter what anyone thinks.

Every year...no matter what.

But you'll have to bring your own plastic spoon and knife.

Sigh.