I promised I'd write about my birthday, so I guess I'd ought to. When I got home from work, there was a big bag waiting for me on the coffee table. Alex told me it had something that would be obvious, and something that would make me feel better. After being completely confused, I pulled out the first bundle. Having picked it up, it started to jingle. The perfect kind of jingle. The kind of jingle that (for me at least) evokes images of horse drawn sleighs, bells on bob-horses, mugs of wassail, and Santa. Growing up (and even to this day) my parents would hang sleigh bells on the front door during the holiday season. They would jingle every time someone opened or shut the door, and my parents would always ring them Christmas morning to signify that Santa had been there, and that it was finally time to come see the tree. It is genuinely one of my favorite sounds, and there it was. Alex had found antique sleigh bells for me to hang from our door. That was the present he called obvious. The present to make me feel better was an electric blanket. (I'd been shivering when I came home.) It is a truly glorious thing, and no one should ever have to live in Wisconsin without one. That evening, we ate Alex's homemade moo shu and we watched Mulan and sang along to all of the songs. It was a very, very good birthday.
Today I felt weirdly productive, so we found some homes for some new friends,
finally hung some art, installed a light fixture,
changed two dimmer switched to flip-switches, and I hung up seven strands of Christmas lights on the porch. They are very pretty, but it is still before Thanksgiving, so I will wait another week before having them on regularly. I will happily post pictures of the lights when it is not quite so bone-achingly cold.


No comments:
Post a Comment