by AnnetheCatDetective » Wed Dec 11, 2013 5:23 am
My mother bought me one-- which I suppose I should pretend not to know about until she gives it to me-- that we saw in Target and I flipped out over it.
Backstory: When I was growing up, one of the most special ornaments on the tree was always Dad's Teapot. It was a little blue-green glass teapot, so delicate that I was afraid to touch it when I was little. It was beautiful. It was at least as old as he was, and when he started a family, my grandmother sent it with him to be one of the first ornaments on our little family's tree at home. And the rule was, whoever of us three kids was the first to get married and have a baby would get the teapot.
When we were very, very young, I think everyone assumed it would be mine, because I'm the oldest.
Well, flash forward. I'm a child-free-by-choice person. It's been years since any breakable ornaments have gone up on the tree at home thanks to rambunctious cat activity. Four years ago, Dad dies. We start spending Christmases with my mom's sisters and don't even do a tree in our own house.
I squeal over this blue-green little teapot ornament in Target because it looks like Dad's Teapot. Mom says 'well, we have the real one', and my sister pipes up to say it's going to be hers because I'm never going to have children, and that's The Rule.
So my mom bought me a replica teapot for when I have my own tree, which was really nice, because I was definitely the huge Daddy's Girl(/Boy) of the family (I mean, my dad and brother were close and did a bunch of stuff together, and it's not like my sister didn't have a good relationship with him or anything, I just mean much of my life, my dad was the only person who understood me and we liked all the same stuff), and so everything that reminds me of him is just really special.
And it is a cute teapot. Plus, way less breakable than the real one, so it should be cat-safe.