christmas wishes

So this is the obligatory "Christmas was great," post.
I told a friend of mine that this Christmas I was treated like a spoiled only child, because I got such nice gifts - at least that's how I feel. For almost two years now, I've been putting off replacing any cookware. "It's a big investment, and I don't want to pack it." Still, my favorite piece bit the dust. Small black flakes regularly came off the bottom of my next favorite pot. And a few months ago, when I starting playing around with suet recipes, I melted one of my rubber spatulas onto the bottom of the pot also.
These pots have mileage is what I'm trying to say. 21 years. Purchased before I went to college, they've lived in Table Mesa, Boulder on the Hill, Toccoa, and now metro Atlanta. A good run for pots purchased with Greenback stamps from Piggly Wiggly. My parents ended all that benevolent reign with 4 shiny new Calphalon pots. 3 of them have a 10 year warranty and 1 has a 20 year. We'll see if they perform as well as the Piggly Wiggly line.
And after mixing things in a plastic entree container, my mother decided I also needed some mixing bowls. I got five. And because I mentioned that I needed to get a larger kitchen rug so I could get another one for my front door, I got one of those too. And on and on and on. I even got a new birding book from my dad, who mumbled something as I read through it, something about being damned if he was going to get me any guidebooks about Colorado.
I didn't quite catch that comment though. I'm sure he's coming around.
It would be easy, with all my riches, to concentrate on the great things I got for Christmas. What made me most happy however was that after months of trouble, my dad was feeling better after an epidural shot. Instead of being flat on his back the whole time because he was hurting, dad was able to spend time with us. He doesn't have the final solution yet, but he's improved, and that made a big difference. And significantly, two years ago my mother wasn't in the kitchen but in the hospital, breast bone split open like a chicken, getting a quad bypass. Even before that, she spent hours nodding off on her sofa, uninterested in everything around her. She barely read, she wouldn't walk, she wouldn't cook. Slowly, she had drifted away.
This year, she was experimenting with new recipes in the kitchen, baking her Christmas presents this year, growing a batch of winter lettuce in her container gardens. I remember once during the holiday that I smiled at them and remarked that I was debt free. I got the same smile from my mother later in the week when she remarked that if she loses one more size, she will be the same size she was when she got married. Part of that stems from changing eating habits, and part of that is because she started walking the dog. The dog loves it so much he begs to be walked twice a day instead of once. She complains that she's created a monster. But she's walking him twice a day, whenever possible. Because he's like their kid and is as spoiled as I am.
So, I'm delighted to get cookware with a 20 year warranty. I really am. But I embrace my family's improving health even more, because I know we don't get a guarantee with that, ever.
The new year will hold lots of changes, I believe. Some will be the result of planning and hard work. Some will be things we don't expect. It seems important to me, then, to reflect on what I'm thankful for right now.
Merry Christmas, everyone. Hope you had a great time.
--Laura