In the midst of opening boxes filled with ornaments and decorations that wanted to be on the tree or mantle, atop a table or settled onto a shelf, I’d temporarily placed some glass ornaments on top of the old chefferobe. It was there the sunlight found them, bouncing off the pretty glass globes in the most alluring way. Prisms of light danced around the walls and the cut glass basket magnified the assortment of ornaments. They were like bowls of crystal candy and I could not help myself. Out came the camera as I tried to freeze a few moments in time.
The glass basket was a wedding gift of my mother and father-in-law’s: a common present in the 1940′s. It often sat on their dining room table, sometimes with flowers from Tom’s mother’s garden. I always admired it and was happy to have it one day come into our home where it has sometimes held flowers and, this year, held Christmas ornaments.
The sugar bowl was a gift from a friend. Linda found it to match a pitcher that came from Tom’s great aunt, Ethel. It is the thistle pattern and was just waiting for this orange ball to stop by and rest. I love it when old things marry well with new.
The chefferobe is an old dresser that sat for years in the bathroom of the family’s old farmhouse. Towels and linens were kept in it. The mirror tilts. I can imagine Ethel fixing her hair in front of it or her brother Richard shaving. It is Ethel’s pinwheel and molasses cookies that fill our house with the fragrances of the holidays each year and it was Richard who often did the icing.
The glass ornaments are from Tom’s and my life together. Some are blown glass, others hand-painted, all gaily colored holiday magic and whimsy. I appreciate the way these little works of art sat in and on the past while catching the future in the early morning sun.
