Special Delivery

If you've never met my mom I'm not sure you can fully appreciate the amount of crazy that illuminates the room when she walks in. She lives out of state and I see her once a year for a few hours over dinner but she still makes an effort (more than I do) to stay in touch. One of the ways she does this is with boxes. She mails me shoe boxes full of ridiculous things that make my brain hurt trying to figure out why she would have included those particular items.

Why shoe boxes? For starters they are a practical size for mailing multiple small items. But more importantly she wants me to know what kind of shoes she's wearing. I'm serious. She loves Birkenstocks. Loves them. She wears them with everything year round. I tried to explain to her that when you live in Michigan you can't wear your Birkies outside in the middle of February. "But I wore them with socks so my toes would be warm!" Oh, of course, that makes sense. I gently encouraged her to broaden her shoe wardrobe. Now I get the boxes they come in with the little picture on the side so I know exactly what she's wearing.

The very special thing about my mom's boxes is what she puts in them. There is always ALWAYS a festive dish towel for whatever holiday is closest to the day she shipped it. By festive I mean ugly. There are usually homemade chocolate covered somethings, half melted, and pencils.

Pencils.

Unsharpened No.2 pencils. These are also festive. The best was my birthday box which did not contain actual pencils but instead a framed photograph of pencils. That went on the mantle.

My anniversary box had an open package of paper napkins and a picture of my best friend when she was in middle school. Happy Anniversary?

Despite the crazy I do appreciate the effort. I know she's thinking of me and trying to do something nice. I would probably miss the boxes if she didn't send them. Yesterday I got a Halloween box complete with a neon orange dish towel. I just shook my head and threw away the card that had a picture of someone else's baby dressed as a pumpkin.

Love you, Mom.