Posted by Colleen June 5, 2009
We Were Just Missing Alice and the Mad Hatter
Most of us have little bits and pieces that we’ve collected and held on to over the years; souvenirs, scrapbooks, an old favorite T-shirt. I’ve got a few boxes filled with things like that up in the attic. I guess I hold on to it all for sentimental reasons. I doubt my children will actually want the ticket stub from my first visit to the Sears Tower in six grade. Even though I’ve kept these things, most of them I could part with pretty easily if I had to.
One keepsake I have that I do cherish is the china tea set from my childhood. I don’t recall exactly what, but it was a reward for some skill I mastered. I remember going to the store with my mom to pick it out. I think I was about four, so it must be almost 30 years old. I’m kind of proud of the fact that after all these years the entire set is still intact, save one missing plastic spoon.
I keep it in a little cabinet on the wall. (O.K. That’s a little dusty, isn’t it? Good thing this isn’t a post about housekeeping.) I hoped to pass it on to my own daughter someday. Well, the daughter hasn’t come along yet, but David started begging me a year ago to play with it. I said no, of course terrified that he’d break it, and because I wasn’t sure boys should have tea parties.
David asked again the the other day to play with it. I was feeling a little guilty about the lack of attention he’s received since Wade arrived. I thought sitting down with him to have a tea party would be some good one on one time, and maybe a chance to teach a few table manners. It made his day when I told him he could play with my precious little dishes.
Tea parties with boys aren’t quiet the same as with girls. There were no dolls or teddy bears for guests. But we were joined by an imaginary E.T. And David’s idea of setting the table for tea was, in typical boy fashion, to initially line up all the little cups and plates in a neat row.
We sipped water, and string cheese was our main course.
David had fun pouring water from the little pot. We sat and talked. Mostly about E.T. I don’t know that he learned many manners, but he had a good time. And nothing got broken.
You can see above that the dog also joined us. She wanted in on the cheese action.
As we sat there with our little cups of water, I wondered if someday David and I wouldn’t sit again at the same table. Only he’d be grown, and we’d talk over mugs of steaming coffee. Perhaps Wade would join us too. The conversation might be about the antics of their own children.
For now the dishes are tucked away, safely back in their cabinet, waiting to come out again for another special day when David and I need to just slow down and talk over a cup of water.
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