Smells and Memories

Isn’t it funny how certain smells can take you right back to a memory or a moment in time? Ivory Soap will forever remind me of my grandparents house in Connecticut. I hold a bar of that soap in my hands and suddenly I am a little girl in a bathtub full of bubbles, looking up through their bathroom skylight as my grandfather points out Castor and Pollux in the night sky. Oatmeal cooking makes me think of staying over at my Nanny & Grampy’s house in Montreal and my Grampy stomping down the stairs saying “Somebody’s been sitting in my chair!” to his little golden-haired granddaughter who is shivering with excitement and terror, her bowl of warm oatmeal in front of her.
Tonight, as I mixed up the dough to make my Gingerbread people for the Christmas Tea on Saturday, Bethany came up and leaned over the bowl to take a big sniff. She looked at me with her eyes shinning and said “Mommy, that smells like Christmas!!”
I know that there are all kinds of scientific explanations for why smells trigger memories... but all I do know is that certain smells are like little keys back to precious moments in time. Tonight I got to treasure mine and watch one of MY daughters make her own memory that I am sure this smell will take her back to many times.