Familiarity

My Mom's 60th Birthday is coming up and we are having a family celebration in Ohio at a local winery.  I'll be bringing back some Buckeye reds for one of my favorite Hoosier wine snobs, and I'm sure some flavorful whites for yours truly.  Conversation and laughter over vino is the best, pretty much regardless of venue.

My sister and I decided that we wanted to purchase some emerald earrings for our Mom from us.  "Us" equals Sarah Beara, her husband, my two nieces, Liv and me.  Our Dad already bought an emerald necklace for Mom, so now he's just got to figure out a special place to take her so she can wear it (hint, thank me later).  I'm looking forward to family time with everyone as I don't see them nearly enough.

Sarah looked in Ohio for a pair of emerald studs but had no luck.  They are for Mom's second ear piercings - the double piercings on top - as she will not ever wear anything other than the hoops Dad got her forever ago on the bottoms. 

Our Mom is wonderfully simple like that.  It's the little things that please her:  dish towels, Hallmark cards, lilac anything, and home decor.  I realized this today as I was texting Sarah back and forth with pictures of the four pair of available emerald studs, trying to determine which to purchase.  The girl behind the counter said:  "I like these the best."  To which I instantaneously replied, "She won't like them.  Too shiny." 

Sarah and I agreed in less than 30 seconds which ones looked like Mom.  I paid, text my sis back a "Done!" and answered an affirmative to the girl when she asked if I would like them wrapped.

"Here is our old wrapping paper, I have one piece left of that print which I like the best, and here is our new wrapping paper."

"Oh, definitely the new.  She'll like that better." 

Sure I was in a hurry and on a mission, but I even had to correct the cheap blue bow she tried to put on top of the pretty paper.  Mom would have cringed.  It dawned on me as I left the store that I just rattled off careful observations about a tiny pair of earrings and some patterns on wrapping paper.  And it somehow made me happier than the purchase itself.

Guess I got some of Mi Madre's genes after all.