Snapshots from Christmas

Once, long ago, my family moved from my parents' first home on Price Ave. in Erlanger to Edgewood. I was ready to enter the third grade, which meant Donnie was entering first grade, Stephen was three and Jennie was two.

During the move, my mother carefully took one of her prized possessions and put it in my sister's car seat, buckling it in for safety. (On a safety note: Don't worry, my mother did not drive with my sister in the car without buckling her in. For proof: see Thanksgiving when Jennie was a baby, where her car seat went skidding off the seat as we turned into Oakbrook on the way to my grandmother's house. Oh, wait, maybe a bad example.)

The possession? Her Cookie Monster cookie jar.

The Cookie Moster cookie jar lived through the move (so did my sister, who was not with my mom at all during that particular car ride). However, it was not to last.

Stephen, the little coniver that he is, decided on day that he wanted cookies. Stephen is an entrepreneur, willing to devise new systems to deal with things.

At this time, story goes, Stephen was three or four. Instead of asking for cookies, he utilized the Lazy Susan cabinet as a ladder to climb up closer to the cookie jar, which he immediately (and accidentally) pulled to the grown and smashed into a million pieces (for more Stephen the troublemaker stories, see "money stolen to buy from ice cream man" or "why little girls who can't sing shouldn't: my first experience with booing").

Mom has never forgiven him for the Cookie Monster debacle.

This Christmas, Stephen hit one out of the park, and found for my mother a replica Cookie Monster cookie jar!

All of us had known about this exercise in brilliant present giving for many months, but mom had no clue. We were very excited to watch her open the present. Her expression says it all:

As if that expression of joy and glee isn't enough for you, here is a picture of the jar itself:

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, being home brought lots of fun pictures that I am only now uploading. I will try to post a few for the next couple of days.