Christmas Came Early For Me

I can’t believe it’s been more than a month since my last post!

I have two stories today and neither of them include any spinning but I have to share them.

The first story starts out sad but ha a happy ending for me. Lou and I have friends in Pennsylvania, Mark and Deena. Mark’s mom is Aunt Pam. Well, she’s not actually our aunt but that’s what we always called her. I met Mark and Aunt Pam about 25 years ago when I started dating Lousmith and she was one of those people you immediately love.

Aunt Pam had a house full of stuff that I admired. Lots of lovely antiques and china and glassware. She also liked Christmas very much – as I do. Well, she had a set of dishes from Spode called Christmas Tree. Every year she would get me a piece and I started to slowly collect thedishes. My mom saw how much I liked those dishes and she would buy a few fro me here and there too. My collection consisted of a few serving dishes, 8 dessert plates and 8 mugs as of last week.

The sad part of the story is that earlier this year, Aunt Pam died. We miss her. A lot.

The glad part of the story is that Deena called and asked if I would like to have Aunt Pam’s Spode collection. I may have done a little private dance. Deena and mark saved the dishes for me over these last few months while I figured out the logistics of gettign them from Pennsylvania to Michigan.

Well, this trip to PA for Thanksgiving worked out well because we had to take two cars because Chelsea and Baby Cohen went along with us.

The drive from here to PA usually takes us about 11 hours. We left to come home yesterday morning a little before 8AM and were home by 7PM. The car ride was long. But Lou unloaded the boxes of dishes from the back of his car and I couldn’t help unwrapping them all to get a close look.

There are an amazing number of dishes there and I am in heaven! There are a few pieces I want to add just to round out the set but there is a full dinner service for 8 there with dessert dishes enough for 16!

My new kitchen was putting me in the cooking mood and these dishes are just adding to that! I need to fill those serving dishes.

Now I am in the holiday spirit and the tree is going up today!

But first, here’s the second story.

When my book was first available in late August my mom called and asked for three books. I asked why she needed three. She said one for her, one fro her friend and one for a woman she works with. I told her I was going to give her one but the other two ladies would have to pay for a copy like everyone else. I told her i couldn’t afford to buy books and just give them to all of her friends.

Now I feel guilty. My mom actually wanted one for herself, one extra copy for her shelf that she wouldn’t read and one to make a gift for me.

She took the book to a local artist who makes art out of books. She didn’t give the woman any instructions. Yes, those are sheep and a spinning wheel made from pages of the book.