Remember the 1984 movie "Splash" starring Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah? (Does it kill anyone else this movie is 23 years old.......!?) It's a classic mermaid tale (snickers to THAT oxymoron), a love story replete with drama and angst and laugh-out-loud comedic moments.
My favorite scene in the movie is when Hank's character, Allen Bauer, gives Madison-the-Mermaid a gift. Being a mermaid and all, she has never before received a wrapped gift. She clutches it to her heart..she thinks it's beautiful! She adores it! With a face refulgent from having received THE BEST GIFT EVAH, she thanks him with a smile that would illumine Manhattan. Of course, then, rather confused, he explains there's something INSIDE the wrapped box. She obliges him by opening it, and for the life of me now, I don't remember what he gave her...a necklace? anybody??
THAT is how I feel when I receive a beautifully wrapped gift. Gift bags stuffed with tissue paper are fine (I use them more often than not...), and even they can look beautiful. But nothin' says lovin' better than wonderfully whimsical paper and rivers of ribbon, cascading in tangled corkscrews, playfully inviting you...DARING you...to imagine what lies beneath.
And the truth is, it doesn't matter! You KNOW you'll love the gift, because if someone took the time to wrap it like this (or have it wrapped), it's just gotta be good. Got.to!
So, where is all this coming from? :) Welllll, it IS my birthday month and when my in-laws were here for a visit recently , they brought an early birthday gift. I didn't open it for two days because I LOVED looking at it and imagining what was inside. My mother-in-law predicted my response, she told the sales girl who wrapped the gift that I would LOVE it before I opened it; I didn't disappoint her. My squeals of delight spoke more than a comprehensible verbal response. I'm looking at this picture, and it just doesn't do it justice--black and white polka dotted paper and gingham ribbon scream "happy".
Before they left, I had to open it. I would've been happy to look at it a few more days "as is", but that would've been rude.
What was inside indicates how well my mother-in-law knows me...
For years, maybe decades, I have not touched a dish, pot or pan, or cleaned a tub, toilet or sink without rubber gloves. They're a must-have. After a lifetime with no nails to speak of, and following a winter where my hands cracked because they were so dry, I began this habit...obsession. Give me a pair of gloves and I'll wash dishes for days and scour every tile floor on the planet by hand, but without them, you're on your own.
This little cercie is one of those things I'd NEVER buy myself, but I've looked longingly at them in specialty kitchen stores for years. Are they not the cutest thing you've ever seen in kitchen attire (no smart comments about French maid costumes, lol)?
They're Gloveables and the owner/designer has a pretty great story, too.
Sarah also included one of those stinkin' adorable linen tea towels (embroidered with the first line of Psalm 23), but--don't tell her this--it only took a day or two for "someone" to drip something brown and icky on it :/. The spot DID come out, but I've yet to iron it, so no pictures for here (and I couldn't find it online). Guess I'll put it away and bring it out when we have company...otherwise it's just a magnet for frustration.
Yep, I'm a BIG fan of the little things. That's why my "p r i z e" (and I use that word VERY generously here;) ), from Uncle Mark made me s.m.i.l.e. Even if the buzzard sent me a postcard with drool dripped down the front.
