These are little treasures as opposed to the wonderful wooden artifacts and furniture I was gifted, they are personal gifts to me from Mr P’s mother that she squirreled away for me as a thank you for my help.
She knows of my love of glass, especially as she heard all about our adventures in Murano several times over! In light of this, and Mr P’s love of wine, we were gifted a beautiful set of cut crystal wine glasses that have been in the family for many years.
They have followed her on her travels from France to Morocco to Portugal and then back to France again. I am so glad that after all that traveling I managed to get them back to Portugal all in one piece. They are quite exquisite and have a gorgeous feel to them and an incredible tone when “pinged”
What is particularly remarkable is that I have a complete set of 18 matching wine glasses — none of them ever got broken in spite of all their travels!
Next is a simple, but beautiful, nativity set fashioned out of pebbles found on a beach by an artisan in France.
I am not a religious person, certainly not one of the Catholic persuasion, but even I can appreciate the message of Christmas through these simple figures.
Mr P is, of course, Catholic by birth and upbringing and, his take on Christmas is that it is about family, be it of blood or friendship and these figures resonate with him, too. I was honored to display them on my mantlepiece over the fire.
Last but not least , Mr P’s mums private — as opposed to family — gift to me, a stunning piece of Moroccan jewelry given to her by her husband when they first arrived in Morocco.
It is made of silver with an emerald as a center stone.
Needless to say, this necklace sits very well with me — I prefer silver to gold and emerald is my birthstone. I would wear this all the time if I could, but it really is quite heavy to wear all the time, especially when doing chores in the house or outside gardening. She really could not have given me a better present.