TheBanyanTree: a Christmas tale

[Julie Anna Teague]

So, Sunday, in my ongoing efforts to simply enjoy the heck out of this 
beautiful season of fun and family and gifting and baking and pine 
boughs and twinkling lights that I love so much, my 20 year old son, 
Andy, and I decided to go to this pottery painting place called The 
Latest Glaze.  I'm sure they have something like it where ever you 
live--you choose a piece of cast greenware, paint it, they fire it, and 
it comes out in beautiful colors.  This is something we had not done 
since Andy was ten years old.  We still have cups and bowls and plates 
and all kinds of goofy things we made back then.  I can still see one 
plate he painted when he was 9 or 10, which I pull out every 
Christmas--funny snowmen and words around the edge in 10 year old 
scrawls, "Let's have fun in the snow together!"  It was just something 
fun and creative to do on a weeknight or Saturday afternoon, it was fun 
time spent together, and you end up with a silly memento.  But you 
know, eventually a boy turns 12 or 13 and wouldn't be caught dead with 
his mother in a pottery painting place, not to mention that there are a 
world of new things at that age to do and be interested in, and 
painting pottery fell out of favor.

But Andy was gone for a few days--he and his girlfriend Liz took a trip 
to St. Louis after Thanksgiving--and so when he got home on Sunday he 
asked me if I wanted to do something together.  Heck yes, there won't 
be enough days in this lifetime that I get to spend with that boy.  We 
have a loving relationship that is one of the brightest lights and 
biggest blessings in my life. And we always have a pretty good time 
hanging out. Somehow the pottery place popped into my head and I asked 
him if he was game to paint something together for Liz for Christmas.  
He thought she would think it was stupid, since she's a ceramics major 
at IU, but I assured him he could tell her it was totally my 
hair-brained idea.  So then he got into it.  He tells me they've been 
cooking these "one pan" meals and putting it all into one big bowl that 
they then both eat out of.  Gag....er....I mean...how sweet ;)  I'm 
picturing Lady and the Tramp.  Ok, it was pretty cute of him to tell me 
that, so we decided to paint a really big, colorful bowl and paint 
noodles on the inside. Two of the noodles curl up one side of the bowl 
and form a heart.  (My idea, but he did approve.)  It was really quite 
cute.  And the whole time there, we were singing Christmas songs with 
the radio, talking, joking, and just having the best time ever.

When we got home the boy said, "Thanks for doing that with me mom.  
That was fun."  And thus, my friends, this Grinch's small heart grew 
three sizes that day.

Julie