As predicted last month, Mom and Dad’s new house will not be finished in time for Christmas. Although they may have all the roof complete and tiled, in between the holidays, all the inside work— the interior partitions, with the drywall to be installed and mudded, and all the tilework, not to mention the kitchen and bathroom cabinets and painting the whole place— will take another three or four months.

Mom has already picked out the paint chips for the inside; a very deep creamy-yellow. I saw it in a page in a catalogue and thought how perfect it will be in the house, once finished. In the late afternoon, when the sunshine comes through the solarium, the inside of the house will glow like a Japanese paper lantern. They already have collected a large storage unit of furniture and linens and things, to fill up the new spaces, replacing as much of the china and knickknacks from odd places like the AmVets thrift store…
“Very nice things there, “Mom said, “If you know what to look for.”
I think that the things from thrift stores and swap meets, and second-hand shops replace more nearly those things left to the fire a year ago October, all those things a little worn with use, dear with familiarity, not particularly valuable in themselves, but comfortably shabby.

I have already sent Mom her Christmas present, which was much appreciated: a large cardboard hatbox, filled with framed photographs. Some time ago, I had re-photographed many of the family photographs, or taken copies of them. (And oh, how I wish now I had taken many more!) Over the last month I bought a mixed lot of frames (at the thrift-store) and proper mats, and scanned and adjusted my collection of photographs— a good many of the originals turn out now to have been left in the house. The frames and mats are all color-coordinated so they can be hung in a group. For now, they are in the storage unit, but Mom appreciated them enormously.

Blondie and I will celebrate Christmas here in Texas; she is able to come home on leave, and we plan to re-do her bedroom with new paint and curtains, and stencil the floor as I have done in the rest of the house. Something about all that house-building and painting, and refurnishing… it’s catching, I think!