December 15, 2010 is almost three months since my last entry. Good grief. I thought when you retired you have time for stuff like daily blogging, blocks of time to read or knit, time to work on 'my book', etc. etc. NOT.
Here it is...10 days before Christmas! Yes, the tree is up/with the help of one lovely teenage daughter. Upon viewing the finished product(I had been outside doing the outside decorating), I told her the story of 15 years ago, her Ganny (Mom) and I were decorating the tree and saying, "Just think, next Christmas we will have two extra special little hands to help us!" Now, she's big enough to do it all by herself. Ganny would be proud!
Someone asked me last night what I wanted for Christmas....I hadn't actually thought about it...really. Well, ok, a little bit. I 'need' nothing. But I do want something. In fact, I have helped it to become a reality.
You see, I have this husband who is a wonderful, talented, accomplished woods craftsman. I have only one thing that he has made me. It is a little wooden box and lid made out of 'leftover' crown molding he got from the scrap pile of one of those BIG houses he was working on in Kingsport. Amos, the guy he worked with, encouraged him to make it for me...yep, we were courting back in '87.
Since then I have not been a recipient of any of his handiwork. (This isn't counting the numerous ways he has repaired things, built things (the porch), etc.) I'm talking 'little stuff' here. He built Maggie a beautiful walnut rocker, without directions/instructions, for her 1st birthday. An family heirloom it will be. He built his old friend Charlie, in Virginia, a harvest table. NOTE:Charlie had every person who came to his house to autograph, with a Sharpie marker, the underside of that tapered legged thing of beauty. I thought I'd DIE when he wanted us to sign it on the day of it's 'christening'....Rosy just smiled and said, "It's his table, he can do anything he wants to it." I guess that made me feel a little better, but not much.
Now, back to the 'helping my Christmas present become a reality'....I have a small collection of antique rolling pins of various sizes. None are really of great worth, I suppose. My two favorites, of course, are my mom's and my Mamaw's, which I use to make biscuits. (Yes, I do make homemade biscuits on a occasion, thank you very much!) I like the way they look in an old crock sitting in the floor of my kitchen. There is one missing, though. One made by my man. I've hinted for few years how nice it would be to have a rolling pin made by him. "Honey, do you have any walnut or cherry wood that would be big enough to make me a rolling pin?" Now, I haven't just hinted once or twice, but MANY times. But NO rolling pin has ever made it under the tree.
Well, about a month ago, I ventured to a local business that sells wood and visited with the owner and his wife a bit and told them my plan. He wandered around in the halls of the old Rock Hill School to find just the right piece of walnut that would make a very nice rolling pin. I paid them for the wood and came home and wrote my resident craftsman a note on notebook paper.
"Dear Mr. Gillenwater, Here is a piece of walnut. But inside of this raw wood, there is a beautiful rolling pin made by you. That is the only thing that your loving wife wants for Christmas. If there is extra wood left over, you could always make a biscuit cutter. BTW-she thinks you are the greatest! We hope you have a great holiday season. Signed, Santa's Helpers".
I took the wood and note and placed it on the seat of his riding lawn mower which was right at the door of the garage...his man cave/domain. He would have to be blind to not notice it. He would have to be totally unconscious not to take heed of the message. He had to move it, of course, the next time he used the mower to mow the leaves. I have made a couple of trips to the garage but haven't spied that chunk of walnut. I honestly didn't look too hard for it.
Hummmmm, wonder if 10 days is long enough to make a rolling pin or it he lives in a state of unconsciousness?
