I know, it’s Friday and not Thursday, but I didn’t want to gip you out of this weekly gem. Since I have put myself on the great buying-of-old-stuff restriction of 2012, I won’t be showing any new loot, in fact I’ll be sharing some really really old loot today. As in, something I’ve had since childhood sort of loot, and I wouldn’t really call it loot, I would call it more of a token.

My mouse ornament, my sweet mom bought her for me when I was 4 or 5 years old. I remember going to a local craft store with my mom and big sister one year after Christmas. I carried this little ornament through the whole store, and incessantly begged my mom to buy it for me, there may have been a few tears shed and some pouting. In the end I had to leave her behind, maybe it was the tears and the pouting that prevented me from taking her home, or maybe it was the choice my mother had to make between buying another little trinket for her whining 4 year old or feeding her. Either way, I remember having to set my Christmas mouse back on the shelf and say goodbye (dramatic much?). 

One day, my mother surprised me with this little token, I don’t remember how all of it went down, but I do know that every year since  this little mouse was on our Christmas tree. And when I grew up, Mom gave me my little mouse to adorn my own Christmas tree, and every year since then she can been seen amongst the fake branches of my hypoallergenic tree. Until one year I was taking all the Christmas decorations down, but this one little mouse caught my eye. For some reason, I couldn’t bare to put her away with the other Christmas mementos, she needed to be out all year. I wanted to be able to look at her not only at Christmas time, but anytime even in the middle of September.

You see, this little mouse represents not only that one time when I was 4 and wanted something new, it represents the love my mom had/has for me. She went back to that store to surprise me with something she knew I didn’t need. It may have been something small, but at the time it was a sacrifice to buy extra things that we didn’t need. I realize that now as an adult, and can greater appreciate the sacrifices that were made for my benefit. As a kid I was just thrilled to have that mouse that I wanted, but now I cherish that mouse because of what it represents.

Are there things from your childhood that you’ve held onto, a token perhaps? Do they hold great memories?

Do they represent something special for you?