TheBanyanTree: a Christmas tale

[auntiesash]

Ohmigosh - this is such a sweet story and such a great idea!  I think I
could drag my boy over to Mimosa or CeramiCafe.  That would be fun.  We
could make something for my dad, maybe.  Sweet!

On Tue, Nov 30, 2010 at 8:53 AM, Julie Anna Teague <jateague at indiana.edu>wrote:

> 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
>
>
>
>


-- 
Everyone is from somewhere
Even if you've never been there.
So take a minute to remember
The part of you that might be the Old Man calling me.
- *Jethro Tull*