Thank you!

This is the first of a series of posts thanking people for A+ presents this holiday season. I'll start with my mom, because she is the grand marshal of gift-giving, a veritable Santa Claus. This year she gave me three things that fill my small world with light and love and wonderful, wonderful happiness.

The first is a set of fleece sheets. That's right. Fleece. Sheets. She felt so sorry for her grown child, sleeping in a house with the heat turned low and turning to rice buddies for warmth in the winter months, when even flannel sheets feel icy. Pittsburgh is slowly changing over toward winter misery, what with icy rain and days that don't creep above freezing. Corey and I climb into bed each night and nuzzle under blankets that feel like sweat pants. An entire bed coated in sweat pants! The fleece doesn't ever feel cold to the touch. It's immediate warmth from the moment you dive in each evening.

I worried that the fleece sheets would be staticky or make me sweat in the night, but these thoughts were in vain. Fleece sheets are better than chocolate. Better even than dark chocolate. If my house were on fire and I had time to grab only one thing--fleece sheets or my sleeping husband--I'd take the sheets. Seriously. They're that good.

Next she bought me a new pair of slippers. The old slippers I had were blue, over-the-toe old lady slippers that were ugly and kept the majority of my foot pretty cold. These were also from her, and I wore them for years because they were Uggz. Then they fell apart. Now I have new ones, with sort of hard soles that I can even wear to the grocery store if I want to traumatize my little sister. I'm wearing them right now. My feet are happy about it.

The final wonderous gift from Ninny was a set of YakTrax. These are little metal thingies that you stretch over the bottoms of your shoes for walking around during slippery days. Today was one such day, with the sidewalks coated in ice, a sheet of glass. I strapped on my Yak Trax and scooted down the hill whistling, silently judging the old ladies who stumbled on the steps on Hampton. Ha! If only they had moms who loved them like mine does, they'd have no problems.

Ninny became concerned for our unborn baby ever since I told the story of how Corey fell asleep on the sofa instead of salting the walk and I slipped one evening. I don't even need to worry anymore provided I have my YakTrax in my bag. I'm good to go, even if wearing them leaves scratchy marks on my hardwood and makes me walk even more awkwardly.

So, from the bottom of my warm, safe heart, I thank you Ninny for these miraculous Christmas gifts. I think you have outdone yourself, if that's even possible.