Emma was 6 when she and Pat began a tradition of working together on surprises for us. For several weeks before Christmas that year, Emma would steal away to Pat’s house after school once or twice a week to work on their top secret project. When it was done, Pat found a box for it and she and Emma wrapped it in Christmas paper. Emma came home one afternoon with her pretty package and proudly placed it in under the tree. She couldn’t wait for us to open it on Christmas morning and when the time finally came, she made sure that her gift was the first one we opened. I can still see the look of excitement, pride and joyful anticipation on her face as we ripped into the paper.
Inside the box was a wall hanging with 3 beautiful appliqué birds: a bluejay, a cardinal and a goldfinch. Each bird was sitting on a little perch made from real tree twigs. In addition to being a beautiful decoration, the wall hanging captured a little bit of who Emma was at that time; a budding naturalist who could already correctly identify more species of backyard birds than most adults. The back of the wall hanging includes Emma’s signature in her 6 year-old scrawl: Emma, December 1998. I remember Peter lifting the wall hanging from the package and exclaiming, “Oh, Emma. This is so beautiful! Did you really make this?” And I remember the big smile on her face as she replied, “Yes, Daddy. I really made that. Do you like it?”
We love it, Emma. And we love you.
One Christmas, the only thing Aleigha asked for was a rock collection like Emma's!
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