Silver and my son.....

As a tradition in our home, my dad used to sit at the kitchen table before every special occasion and clean the tarnished silverware. It gave him great satisfaction to see something dull and sometimes even black become a gleaming presence at the table.

Well, dear dad is no longer with us but his grandson has taken on the task over these past years. I'm sure he does it just so I don't have to, but nevertheless, it is a job I have appreciated him doing.

Matt is a very practical son. One year as a Christmas gift, he bought us "special" silver cleaner. It cleans it well and the silver doesn't tarnish near as quickly. I figured he may have been thinking ahead somewhat, knowing that it would be me doing the silver cleaning when he wouldn't be around to do the job. It was very good thinking, I must say.

Tonight, in my pre-Christmas cleaning frenzy, I covered our (now-black) silver cream and sugar set and our (now-black) silver candle sticks with the marvelous product. In a few minutes they will be gleaming again and fit for the presence of "kings" and "queens" that will dine with us in a few short weeks. How exciting.

Then husband and I got our tree in the stand and sitting upright.

Husband sat down and looked at the tree and said to me, "I love you."

I said, "Ya, you love me now but wait until we start with the lights!!!":-)