photo: Martha G. Brady

I’m sorry it has taken so long to get a post up this week! We got home Monday night. I should have had one up by now. I tried one thing and it didn’t get done…yet.

Now, I’m taking a challenge from a son-in-law. He asked how many wedding gifts are left. I never thought about it! So I did. And this is what I came up with.

Candlestick

When I got this gift, I wasn’t really excited all that much, but surprisingly I have used it almost every place I have lived! In case you can’t tell, it is made of metal, the color is like oxidized copper…sort of. It is a candle holder with a snuffer. Who would have thought it would still be around?

It is tall and adds height to arrangements that need more height. It is fairly neutral and almost any color goes with it. It won’t break so it was often on the coffee table when the kids were small. It often worked for them like a toy. Can you believe they used it like a phone? They never saw those old fashioned phones from before my time, but they would take that snuffer and hold it to their ear and talk to the candle!  Who knew?

It was a flexible item. It has held up with a few scrapes and scuffs but is now on grandchildren and holding up

photo: Martha G. Brady

well! Depending on the candle, it looks quite nice, sometimes awesome!

Sheets

Believe it or not, this sheet has lasted since our wedding! It was my favorite. We had a double bed then. That is most likely why it is still here. We have had a queen bed for many years now so don’t use it much. More recently, we had a double bed in our guest room so it was still used at times.

We used it all the time in our early years with the matching pillowcases. A white on white design would never have been something I would have chosen, but I have loved it more and more with time! It matched any place we moved and looked great!

Casserole set: 2 of 3

photo: Martha G. Brady

Yes, this is two pieces of a three piece set. As you can see, the color is mostly worn off. I’m guessing that it wasn’t able to tolerate dishwashers. You can still see some of the color near the handles and edges. The darkest one was orange, the middle one was more of a lighter orange and the lighter one is yellow. The orangest one broke but it wasn’t very many years ago…within the last 5 I think!

This has been an awesome set. With the family, it was usually used for leftovers. Now it is often used to make things for two. They have been well used for the full 46 years for sure! What a great set!

Corning Casserole dish

Finally, this corningware shows the kind we were given then. I’m not sure this one was given to us then, but it is like one we would have been given. I couldn’t have lived without corningware. We tend to make less casseroles than we once did…because we are more prone to gain weight than we once did! But we still use corningware for all kinds of things. It has held up through multiple moves and changes in sizes of our family!

photo: Martha G. Brady

As for our wedding china. We ended up selling it when we left Jamaica because it was no longer made so if anything got broken, we wouldn’t be able to replace it. We sold the silverplate too because it went with the china and I wasn’t sure I was as into roses then as I had been when we married. (That pattern was also no longer made.)

The everyday china we had (aqua) was no longer in stock or in style so we sold it as well. It was easy to sell there for replacement value so we did fine on it. The problem was that we went 2 years out of work…after being missionaries…but that is another story for another day.

I also have 2 silverplate trays that are packed away now. I have used them off and on over the years. But they are too tarnished to pull out and take a picture of.

As far as I know, besides us, that is all we have left from the wedding day. It was an interesting exercise. I’m sure I would have had quite a different set of leftovers if we hadn’t moved so much, especially overseas!

What about you?

What gifts do you have left that you enjoy?

What do you have left that is irritating or reminds you of something about your wedding that is an irritant?

Maybe it is time to forgive the person or people involved…and let it go. Ask GOD to help you forgive in a way that removes the resentment…that’s what true forgiveness is.

The only person who truly suffers from hanging onto this pain is you!