GerbersPeeking

Originally uploaded by Rae Z

This morning the Bald One and I were politely bickering at our kitchen table over the comics section of the paper – he won, I consoled myself with flipping through the latest Land’s End while I waited. Muffins were baking and we were plotting our day. That’s when the doorbell rang.

About this time of year I participate in a single Secret Santa drawing. It takes place on a message board that grew out of iVillage’s Living Together board. We get together once a year in different cities and have a good time talking on a daily basis online. We’ve seen weddings and divorce, babies and heartbreak. I love having this group as a part of my life.

The doorbell was a special delivery of flowers from my Secret Santa. Infuriatingly, the card just said that…no great reveal of who I have to thank – so I called the person who might know and had plotted with my husband to keep me home this morning. Turns out, she was the evil genius behind these red & white beauties being delivered to me.

What you might not know is I love flowers. One of the thrills behind having a yard (despite the tons of work) is that I can have flowers growing around me and can bring them in at any time. The Bald One rarely gets me flowers because they die and they’re often helped to an early death by the cats. So I don’t receive very many flowers, despite how fantastic they might make me feel. The other reason these are fabulous is they’re the same type of flowers from my wedding, just in Christmasy glory. And that was the special request behind them. So thanks again to my most-fabulous best friend…

[A word about the photo: you may have noticed the glowing eye right above the ribbon. That belongs to Gabriel, our mafia lord of a cat. He was rather perturbed that I got up to take a photo of this vase of edible delights instead of staying at the computer with him wrapped in my arms and helping me type. So he had to check them out and see why they were worth disturbing his comfort.]