Lucy's Christmas Gift

It’s been waiting.     It came from the old house to the new house when we moved.     And then it waited.    In the basement.    In pieces.    And when those pieces came to Linderhof, they were put back together, missing pieces recreated and then it sat in this basement.    Waiting.   It knew some day that it would get a new lease on life.    That it once again would be sat in and loved and climbed upon and be part of the family.

“It” is an old rocking chair.    A child’s rocking chair.     That was mine when I was a small child.      The earliest picture I have of it is when I was 5 and mother took it outside, I sat in it and held my baby brother.     That picture was our Christmas card that year.

The banged up rocking chair was given to friend Shirley Ann’s husband, Jack.    Who, is indeed a Miracle Worker when it comes to wood.     He’s built furniture for Shirley Ann.    Beautiful pieces of furniture.     He’s done a lot of the wood work on their beloved house, recreating what wasn’t there.     What better hands to put this relic of a chair into!

And he rescued and refinished The Rocking Chair.     It looks like new except for the patina of age in the wood (the knicks and dings that children so often do to furniture).     

The rocker . . . it’s been waiting all these years for Lucy.    It was her Christmas present.    A joint present — from us and from Jack!

Jack and Shirley Ann came over Christmas night for a visit.      Lucy was proud of her chair and had to show it to Jack!       She pushed it close to him and then climbed in!      There isn’t any better gift than a gift from the heart and that’s what Lucy got Christmas morning.      On the bottom, we put my name and birthdate, Lucy’s name and birthdate and that picture of me in the rocker.      And Jack signed it, too!      That’s a very special part of a very special chair!

Lucy loves her rocker.

It was packed up when they left,

And at Andy's family's Christmas it remained in the car.

Sarah said that her face lit up when they brought the chair up and put it in the living room!

She pushed it here and there

To get "just the right place" for it!

Then she put her stuffed dog in it,

And climbed in herself.

Very satisfied with her chair!

At Christmas, I feel, the purpose of a Nana

is to gift memories!