I'm glad I didn't go

Today was a big Christmas home tour in my home town.  There were 11 old Victorian homes on Main St. that were open and decorated...and one of them was my parents' old house.  My parents bought their dream home and we moved into it right after my freshmen year of high school.  My dad spent the next three years restoring the inside, and then the next few years building a giant back porch and brick patio...all keeping with the design of the house.  I moved out the fall after I graduated from college (seven years after I moved in) and my parents lived there another nine years before moving into the current house.  Neither of them really wanted to move, but my Dad's health made it necessary.  It was a 3000 sq ft home with all the bedrooms upstairs...and being an older home required a great deal of upkeep.  I haven't been back to that house in nine years since the day they moved out.  I really debated about whether or not I wanted to see it again, and while I could've made the trip, the schedule of the last couple of days and the rainy weather made pajamas and football seem a whole lot more enticing than a 75 minute (each way) drive and the possibility of an emotional reaction.

I just saw some pictures that a friend took when she went through.  The current owners (same as the ones who purchased from my parents) have made surprisingly few changes, especially considering they've lived there nine years.  The paint colors and even wallpaper borders were exactly the same.  My dad's back porch (it was where he loved to spend his time) looked the same also...and I'm so glad I didn't make that trip to see it in person.  Even though I actually lived in my childhood home (just around the corner from the Main St. Victorian) longer than I lived in this open house, some of my most favorite memories are right there.  While I'm amazingly grateful for those memories, I'm just not ready to come that close to reliving them right now, and to seeing changes that may have been made.  As it turns out, I'm really glad I didn't go.