PURLOINED PACKAGES

For the past ten years we have had our Christmas cards "created"; it's a joint effort with my niece, Tracey, who is an artist, and my husband, who is a collaborator. Tracey had been making cards with either eagle or cardinal themes. Five years ago, I was inspired by our niece Carrie, who obviously takes great care in choosing her Christmas cards. (I always say, "Carrie sends the prettiest cards!") That year her card had, "From our home to your home" and it had depicted a beautiful Federal-style house with a winter scene. I asked Gerald, "Why don't you take a real picture of our house and use it on a card?" Snow had just fallen and the trees were covered with snow and it was indeed picturesque. Gerald took the picture.

Since then we've used Gerald's pictures of our marble fireplace, bubble lights, and a watercolor of the house which was a gift of a friend who grew up in our house. This year Tracey created a lovely collage of past Christmas cards, which was a suggestion of another friend.

Several years ago I decided, for our next card, to have a picture taken of the sleigh on our porch filled with pretend presents. I wrapped an assortment of packages in different sizes with blue and silver paper and coordinating bows. I filled the boxes with newspapers and magazines for ballast.

I thought that I had them arranged quite expertly for photographic effect, just waiting for Gerald to take pictures. However, silly me, before Gerald had the opportunity to take pictures, a thief came onto our porch and stole the packages!

We didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Did the thief actually think I had put actual presents in those boxes? I hope that the thief enjoyed the papers and magazines! I do hate it that I lost the bows, because several of the bows were exquisite, and hand-made by Tracey.

Several people asked if I reported it to the police. What was I going to say? That a thief stole a bunch of weeks-old newspapers that would have been recycled?

In my after-Christmas shopping at Meijer's yesterday, I bought a perfect 4-roll pack of blue and silver paper! Yes, I'm going to try again! Perhaps the cats can guard the packages! On Stormy, on Puff, on Einstein, Louise, Sasha, on Professor, and little Taupey! (Oh, I'm confusing the cats with A Visit From Saint Nicholas!)