Jet Lag Post

Hello everyone.  We are back in Japan after spending two weeks in Kansas City with our family.  The 3:00 am wake up this morning is getting to me and it's only 9:00 am!  I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year.  We enjoyed being with our girls and parents.

One thing we ended up doing was going through my MIL's collections and splitting them up between the sons and their families.  She's been gone almost a year, which is so hard to believe.  She loved beautiful things and I thought I'd show you some of them.  None of these photos were taken with the blog in mind, so they are not the best, but they will give you an idea.

I really wanted this lovely portrait of her when she was four.  It is rather large and since we are not living in our home right now, my BIL took it.  He didn't know that the doll in the basket was still in her possession so we found it and he took it with him.  This was hanging on a large wall above the stairs, it is almost full size.  

I did however leave with this beautiful painting.  I believe it was painted by a cousin or Aunt. My daughter is willingly storing it while we are in Japan. It's such a sacrifice.

My MIL had a lovely collection of dolls and some half dolls.  I came home with the half dolls.  These photos are not inclusive.  I brought some of the little ones without their pincushions to Japan with me.

My MIL also had a lot of beautiful jewelry, mostly costume. This ring however, was promised to my husband from his Grandmother. My MIL wore it all the time. I believe she had it reset at some point, but the diamonds were her mother's wedding setting. We ended up with other jewelry, but I haven't taken more photos.  

Lesson learned, document everything!  Write names on photos.  Maybe I should say, print off the photos AND then write the names. Write down your stories. Tell your children where things came from and who gets them. Be specific. It was difficult not knowing what was real and what was costume jewelry.  Fortunately, we had no arguments between siblings regarding who wanted what.  Probably because it was all brothers. I didn't put up a stink about the portrait. Aren't you proud of me?

* Sorry, Melinda that I didn't get a chance to meet up with you.  Between the weather and a health scare, the time ran out.