Those glasses, six of them originally, were a wedding present from my dearest Aunt Allie. All through my early married life, whenever I was blue, this Aunt would come up with just the right present. One fall it was 100 crocus and grape hyacinth bulbs that I planted on the bank in front of our house. Another time, it was two gorgeous sterling silver candlesticks with etched glass chimneys. She was a gem and I miss her as much today as I did when she died at 63 in 1973.
Have you ever noticed that some people, like my Aunt in the sidebar, just have a knack for giving presents? And they don't have to be as elegant or extravagant as Allie's, but they just touch the heart and soul. My Office Roomie is like that. Her little surprises are always just right...a card that says "You're special", or a jar of jam, or a special tea, or a wonderful bath gel. And there is never any particular reason for these little gifts; she is just a thoughtful, generous person in every way.
DB is also like that. He has given me the most amazing things that WERE extravagant (my laptop comes to mind), but my favorites are like this cheddar and Ritz and Scotch sitting beside me on the mouse pad. Or, when I come home from a long meeting with dinner still to make and he says, "How about spaghetti at George's", and we go out to eat. He's full of these little gestures that make the heart warm and the lips curl up.
I think I mentioned that we haven't had the furnace on, yet. Well, we gave in last night. The snow and hail and 25 degrees outside and the 58 degrees inside got the best of us. (Of course, if we had stayed at the Dollhouse, we would have had heat.) My big excuse for giving in was that our tenant, who suffers greatly from scleroderma, has the most pain when she is cold. They have some electric heat upstairs, but their bedroom and bathroom are heated by our furnace. This a.m., she said, "Thanks for the heat!"
DB and I left very early for church, as I was serving and reading at 8 a.m. He lit the candles for me, another little present that I appreciate greatly. I have a great deal of trouble reaching the candles behind the altar because I am too short. I can do it, but with an audience already in the Chapel, I sweat over the process. He makes it look easy.
The service was made even more special by the presence of Mr. and Mrs. Priest's 2 1/2-year old "helping" her Mom. Dad was at the Youth Retreat with the Junior and Senior High children, so Mom and Maggie were on their own. Usually there is someone in the Chapel that early with whom Maggie will sit, but none of her adult favorites were there today. So she joined us behind the altar rail. At one point, while Mrs. Priest was saying the words of Consecration, with her back to the congregation, Maggie was leaning on the Altar rail, observing the people, one leg crossed over the other, looking as if she were observing the monkeys in the zoo. She brought many a smile to otherwise staid faces. And I'm sure our Lord was smiling, too.
It was a happy day when we hired these three, Mr. and Mrs., and Maggie.
When Mrs. gave Maggie the host, Maggie turned around and said to the congregation, "I'm eating the Bread of Heaven!"
After this crazy weather, there is a sunset! During the day, I heard someone say they had seen a "snowbow". The snow on the brilliant autumn leaves is a wonderous sight. Several big trees have been toppled, however, and many homes have been out of power. That's a big problem here in the rural areas where we are dependent upon our electric pumps for water. I wonder if Lyra remembers the night we drove home from youngest son's home, a 6 1/2-hour drive, in the snow most of the way. It was Halloween.
I've come to the end of this delicious Scotch, and to the end of these rambling thoughts. There's more laundry to sort. Tomorrow is the welcome day off and I plan to take a long walk, and tackle the cobwebs in the house.
I almost forgot; yesterday while we were waiting for the fridge to defrost, DB and I had three lively games of cribbage. We were sitting in the Dollhouse, warm and cozy, while it alternately rained, hailed and snowed outside. It's little moments like these that I treasure. I wish I could bag them up and put them in the freezer to take out when the stress level for either of us has reached dangerous levels. He beat me all three games, by-the-way, but they were close.
6:00 PM
Lovely, lovely. DB just came into the computer/sewing/laundry/desk/glory-hole area to ask if I would like some of my single malt and some good Cuba cheddar with crackers whilst I write here. Yummy! It's been that kind of a day. I've done two nasty cleaning-out jobs, and am feeling very virtuous. And now my reward is single malt in my one remaining Finnish crystal brandy glass.
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