The Best Gift ever for me was a ping back one.  One Christmas I did not know what I would give my daughter-in-law, Karen.  Then it dawn on me that she liked to make evergreen centerpieces for her friends, and Karen lives on the flatlands of Montana with no access to cedar, fir, balsam, or blue spruce.  I pestered my husband to driving up into our nearby mountains and help cut evergreens for Karen.  We packaged a large box full and sent it to her.  She called and excitedly claimed it was her best gift ever.  Homerun for mother-in-law.

    About three years later my granddaughter, Karen’s daughter, decided to have a late November wedding and, of course, they wanted to do a Christmas theme.  I was asked to send lots and lots of greenery.  Okay.  I didn’t want to go into the mountians alone, so pestered my friend, Jo, to go with me.  “No way,” she said.  “Nope.  Nah.  Never.”  By the time we finished our 18 holes of golf, she had relented.

On the morning we left for the high country, I called her to tell her the time our adventure would begin, and I added, “Be sure and wear bright colors, something orange if you have it, so we won’t get shot by hunters.”  Stupid thing to say.  After much of her bemoaning and my cajoling, she loaded up and away we went.  We cut scads of lovely, fresh, aromtic boughs, just dripping with essence, and I mailed them off.  Jo’s gift of going into the cold, high country, during hunting season with me has been a gift I chuckle over and will always remember.  Jo is a good sport.

This is one of the 26 center pieces needed for the wedding.  They also wanted me to make all the black table runners.  Gotta love those flatland women.

  Marie F Martin