Christmas - The Surprise!

eChristmas: The Surprise!

The story goes something like this...

Close your eyes!

About a week before Christmas, Joel called me from a local second-hand shop asking me if he thought he and the others should purchase an old, treadle powered Singer sewing machine, which he thought would be the "perfect" Christmas gift for Mama. I asked him the price, condition, etc. He seemed to think it was a "good buy", and in fairly good condition for is age. So... about 2 hours later, he and the other children returned from their Christmas shopping spree with the Singer. And what a beauty it is. It is in need of some minor repairs, but we were quite confident that it could be fixed in plenty of time for Christmas.

No Peeking now!

We all pitched in and helped with the polishing, oiling and the general repair of the old machine. Dad even got involved, purchasing a new belt, and helping with some of the other mechanical type repairs. Mom almost gave away her own surprise, because we had it stored in the garage under some blankets, and she was snooping out there, while on her way back from a walk. Phoebe said as casually as possible, "Mom, I don't think you're supposed to know what's under those blankets."

Oh my goodness!
On Christmas Aunt Jill, Taylor, Andre & Stefon came over to eat dinner, and visit. [Aunt Jill is Mom's sister]. After we had opened all the other gifts (we saved the best for last), we asked Mom to close her eyes and turn her head. The others in the room could see what was beneath the blanket, but all tried valiantly not to give it away. Soon the order or "you can look now" was given and all eyes turned towards Caleb & Phoebe and what was behind that blanket. The blanket dropped, and Mom completely taken by surprise, jaw dropping, and tears running, jumped up and with hands covering her mouth, ran over to the machine to caress its worn surface. Of course, she was enormously pleased with our selection, and I'm so glad that I had the camera in the position I did to capture that special moment. The machine still needs a few things tweaked to make it do what its supposed to do, but Mom's not really doing much sewing right now anyway. The table is very pretty, old wood and wrought iron, and makes a great side table for the living room, for right now. We, her children were very glad that we could surprise her with something she could actually use and was on her long time "wish list". We love you Mom!

Mom and her "new" machine.