Thanksgiving...Christmas...There will be a constant stream of "Hey mom...can you make us some cookies? Hey mom...can you make some brownies for the movie? Hey mom...Hey mom...Hey mom!!" It seems that my kid's heads dream of sweets and the holidays aren't the holidays unless the house smells constantly like a HOME...The treats, the hot chocolate and the Christmas tree lights mixed together with board games and movies at night...will hold them over until Christmas morning. So here's the thing...My mom passed something on to me last week; my grandmother's stand mixer. Truthfully, I can say...If side by side...I had the choice of the newer KitchenAid or my Grandmother Carter's mixer...I would choose the latter. I can't really explain the feeling it gave me to turn that machine on and use it for the first time. That mixer goes back all the way into my childhood...maybe even before I was a gleam in my daddy's eye... And wouldn't you know? It still looks brand new. In my mind I could almost picture the many times she must have stood in her kitchen and used that mixer for the things her family loved...or used it to make something to take alongside her pastor/husband to a church member in need or who had lost a loved one. I know that she spread a lot of love around using that little machine. This may seem silly to some...but to me...my mom passing that mixer on to me...meant a whole lot. I guess I could sum it up by saying that I can only hope...that like the passing of that mixer down thru the family line...that the heritage and the love that was passed from Grandmother Carter to her children, and from my mom to her children...will continue to be passed from this mom to my children. I look at the two women before me...My Grandmother and my Mom...and I just hope that one day...I will have given to my children what was given to me...Love, Heritage, Faith...How a mixer could invoke feelings so strong...I can't explain...Maybe it was because of the amount of love that has passed through this family, from generation to generation. For that I am thankful...I just hope as time prods along and I continue to grow up (yeah that may never happen)...that I will one day be able to measure up...alongside those two ladies...My Grandmother and my Mom...