It’s been a long and glorious Christmas Day, but without question my favorite moment of the day came when our niece Lorelai watched her folks open up a very very special gift – something that Kathy and I actually purchased but which very much came from Lorelai and would not have even been possible without her.
It was actually my idea, and I got it when I walked into a Hallmark store and saw a big display of recordable storybooks – that is, children’s books in which you can record the words for playback, using a simple one-button unit that’s built right into the cover of the book. Every print ad and commercial I’ve seen for them depicts parents or grandparents doing the reading – but as I looked at the books and thought about how beautifully Lorelai reads aloud, it dawned on me that what would be so cool is if Lorelai did the reading rather than the other way around. I shared my idea with Kathy, who heartily agreed that it could work out beautifully.
The next step was to bring Lorelai on board. I called over to the Amborns, and when Polly answered I explained that Kathy and I needed to talk with Lorelai semi-privately about a possible gift which she would give to her folks. . . something which would require us to take her on a short outing. She then called Lorelai to the phone, and I asked her to step into another room so her mom wouldn’t overhear us. (Lorelai seemed to find that to be pretty exciting.) I didn’t try to explain the specifics; I just said that I had an idea for a really neat gift for her mom and dad – and Kathy and I would pay for it, but it would be something that Lorelai would have to create. She seemed to find that intriguing. But what she seemed to like most of all was when we decided to come up with the ruse that would allow us to get together with Lorelai without her folks knowing the reason why. We eventually came up with a plan that I would call and ask Polly if we could take Lorelai “out for ice cream.” But instead, we would be taking Lorelai to get this gift made. Lorelai seemed to love that little touch of espionage!
So last Friday was the day when we picked up Lorelai to “get some ice cream” – when in fact we went to the nearest Hallmark store to show Lorelai the recordable story books and allowing her to pick the one she most wanted to record. There was the classic “The Night Before Christmas,” entertaining books about Curious George, Winnie the Pooh, and Frosty the Snowman – and several other well known children’s books. Our first choice, though, was the book version of “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” and after some heavy-handed lobbying and some minor league bribery, that’s the book that Lorelai ended up “choosing.” 🙂
From there, it was just a matter of finding a quiet and private place where Lorelai could do the actual recording. We settled on a room at Carthage where I knew there was a comfortable chair and a warm sort of ambience – and all seemed perfect until we discovered that in order to do the recording, we had to flip a switch hidden inside the battery pack – which could only be opened with a tiny-sized Phillips screwdriver. Arrrrgh! My frantic search eventually took me to the art studios, the last of which yielded what I needed…. and at last , we were in business!
Kathy wisely advised Lorelai to read through the whole book out loud (it wasn’t long) – and she read it flawlessly except for the word “multitude” (as in “a multitude of the heavenly host). Otherwise, she knew every single word and read the whole book smoothly, flawlessly, and expressively. (She is an absolute prodigy when it comes to reading.) But when it came to the actual recording, page-by-page, we found that Lorelai had a tough time keeping her hands still and away from the little built-in microphone, partly because her nose started running uncontrollably. But fear not! Kathy came up with the idea of Lorelai hitting the record button and then holding on to Kathy’s wrists while she read, in order to keep herself still and calm. And it worked like a charm – plus it created this truly lovely image of aunt and niece doing this together. We only had to re-do one page – – – every other page was read perfectly the first time. (There are a whole lot of high schoolers who would not have done that well.) And the best part was that Lorelai knew that she had done something really neat that was going to add up to a completely unexpected gift for her mom and dad.
Fast forward to today. Very early in the gift-opening, Lorelai went over to Kathy and quietly asked her if she could give her folks the book. Kathy replied that she could do whatever she wanted, but that it would be really nice if she saved such an extra special present for later- maybe even for the afternoon’s grand finale. Lorelai understood what she was saying, but scurried over to me for a second opinion. I told her I agreed with her aunt, but that if she was going to jump out of her skin, she should go ahead. And you’d better believe that’s exactly what she did! And just seeing how she stood there trembling with excitement as Polly unwrapped the gift was an amazing sight to see. It was as though Lorelai was fully enveloped by the joy of giving – and for as thrilled as she was by all that she received today, I’m not sure that pleasure could have possibly equalled what she experienced in giving her folks this extra special present. But this was an example not only of the blessed-ness of giving versus receiving (she has given gifts before) but also of the great sense of adventure that can be wrapped up in the actual making of a gift … especially when it involves a fake trip for ice cream and a frantic search for a tiny Phillips screwdriver.
pictured above: Lorelai records “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” Notice how she’s gripping Kathy’s wrists -which helped her to keep her own hands still. (She was mightily tempted to keep rubbing her runny nose, which in turn would cause her to brush against the small built-in microphone.) Isn’t this a pretty picture?