A Few Of My Favorite Things

I’ve celebrated lots of birthdays in my life, and I’ve received some really nice gifts through the years. However, there are two that stand out as my all-time favorites. The first is difficult to describe. It’s a miniature Christmas tree, about 9” tall, made out of strands of tiny glass beads that have been looped or crocheted into a tree form. Tiny little decorations adorn the tree, complete with a star on top and a tiny set of lights, so small you can barely see them even when they are lit. I had seen this kit at Michael’s back in the fall of 1995. I had surgery that October, and while I was recovering, my mom took Whitney shopping, and she bought the kit for me with her very own money. I was so surprised, and even to this day, it’s one of My Favorite Things. Underneath the tiny little tree with the tiny little ornaments, are tiny little gifts, a tiny little rocking horse, and a little tiny train on a little tiny track. My mom and dad gave me the base with the glass-dome thingy that covers it and protects it from the vicious dust bunnies that live with me. This is Favorite Birthday Present Number One. Not because I saw it, I wanted it and I got it… but that my sweet daughter KNEW that I wanted it, and got it for me with her own money. Back up a few years to the time I turned 30 years old. For some strange reason, I have simply never felt my age. (Oh yeah, I’m starting to feel some old-age things NOW, but still don’t feel as old as I really am!) When in high school, the kids one year ahead of me were like… ancient adults, so “mature”. When I entered the work force, I was the “new kid” and everyone else so much older. The doctors coming out of school were older. Yeah… that has changed too. Now I’m old enough to be the mother of the new doctors coming out of school!!! Anyway, I digress. The year I turned 30, it was a mental thing for me, and I remember thinking, “Yippeee, I’m finally an adult now!” Of course it is a rite of passage to be the brunt of all kinds of jokes when one reaches that milestone in life, so I was delighted to turn thirty and think that people would consider me a grown-up now, and enjoyed the Over The Hill jokes and remarks. I don’t remember any great fanfare on the big day, no flashing signs in my yard, no black roses or balloons. I don’t even remember where my husband took me to dinner, but I remember exactly what I wore, which tells me that we didn’t go anywhere fancy. My sister-in-law, Norma, gave me the most perfect gift, and it remained Favorite Gift Number One for all those years, until the Tiny Little Christmas Tree knocked it down to the still highly-esteemed Number Two slot. It was simply a white sweatshirt with a row of fluffy pink bunny rabbits across the front. Right smack in the middle, sticking out like a sore thumb, was a silver bunny. The caption read: (I’m sure you’ve figured it out by now!) OH NO, A GREY HARE!!!!! I laughed and laughed until I thought I would cry when I opened it. I wore it proudly out to dinner that evening, and nearly wore the print off the shirt from all the washin’ and wearin’. I still have that sweatshirt. It is safely packed away in a box somewhere, as I couldn’t convince myself to throw it in the Goodwill bag, no matter how much too small it became, or how threadbare. I wish I could find another one like it. The only difference would be that, 20 years later, those little “hares” have been very fruitful. And multiplied.