A Letter from Amanda Root

I am SO happy. Last week, I went to the mail box and came back in with a pile of packages and a small stack of mail. As Mom and Sarah are already working on my Christmas present, I wasn't allowed to open the packages, but the mail! That is another story. Usually it is junk mail which I have the fun of ripping open and then throwing in the filing receptacle (commonly called the "garbage can"). Well, this time there was a nice little white envelope that had a British stamp on it and no return address. This means a fan mail response! We opened it and it was a reply from actress Amanda Root, who played Anne in the 1995 Persuasion! Oh Boy! I was thrilled. No, I was more than thrilled . . . I was ecstatic! She was the one I had been hoping would answer, of all the people that we wrote to.

I had had to really search for her address and we had written to her in June. I wasn't even sure that she responded. We couldn't have been happier with her response. She sent us each a lovely signed photo and she wrote a note in answer to our letters which was just wonderful. She really is a wonderful actress. Although Pride and Prejudice is my favorite Jane Austen story and film, Amanda Root's Anne is my favorite film heroine. She really captures the character and the emotion of the part. The scene at the Italian concert never fails to send me sniffling in the corner of the sofa and the end where she reads the letter is so wonderful. You just have to see it!

So, right now I am working on the scrapbook page for her. She is right next to Ciaran Hinds (who played Wentworth) and they will have a spread with a bunch of Persuasion photos. Ohhhh, I couldn't be happier. God knew the perfect way to make my beginning of the year happy!

"Shout joyfully to God, all the earth . . . " - Psalm 66:1

Christmas, New Year, Auction, Lord of the Rings, Poirot, and Scrapbooks!

Our Christmas / New Year's events are all over! Now comes the time that we call "After Christmas". At least, during the year that is what we always call it. You know, "After Christmas I am going to do . . .". We had a very fun December. Sold a lot of stuff on eBay earlier in the month. This year, on New Year's Eve, we all went to the Auction house for their big auction of the year. They didn't have lots of box lots or anything. A lot of guns, a lot of glassware. But there was fun stuff to watch. It started at 10:00 in the morning and we left at 5:30 before they were quite done. They had some really nice furniture. Sarah got a sheet music cabinet that is really nice.

New Year's Day dawned grey and rainy, but warm. 57 degrees actually. Heat wave! Perfect day for our traditional movie marathon. "Trilogy Tuesday" is what we call it, no matter what the day is. We all sit and watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy all the way through. This year we started earlier than last year (We didn't even get to watch the last disc last year.). As always, the movies were wonderful. My favorite scene is the Flight to the Ford in Fellowship, however, the one that Sarah and really wait for is "Scene 56" in The Return of the King. Which is were Eomer finds Eowyn on the battlefield and she is in the Houses of Healing. We waited so long for it to come out on the extended DVD. We actually finished before 1:00am! It was very fun.



The next day, Sunday, we went to church at Providence, then we stopped and picked up a set of Scott's Stamp Catalogues from Steve. Goody, goody. That was a Chritsmas present for the family. They are 2009 and in colour! Then we went to Panera for lunch. That is always fun. When we got home, it was upstairs for me to start wrapping presents! As I had not wrapped any yet, I had a stack. Sarah needed up in the back room with me to put the finishing touches on Mom's present, so I wrapped all the presents and then put the ribbon on while she was with me. Actually, she even helped!

It was so nice, relaxed, no rush. (I have a feeling that that is "On account of, because"). Sarah and I had been working on a present since March. Mom had been wanting a felted doll since Sarah made the first ones, so we decided on a little Poirot. We finally found a box at a thrift store that was perfect! It opened the wrong direction, so I cut the velvet lining and the styrofoam insert out and re-glued them in the other direction. As well as re-padding under the velvet so that the doll would fit correctly. Then I got a gel pen and drew the Poirot logo on the top. It really looked swell! Sarah did a fantastic job on the doll and we even got a real sterling silver chain to make his watch chain! The lapel pin is a little company tag off of a chain that I had to cut up for parts. Sarah and I had sent for an autograph from David Suchet back in May and he had been kind enough to reply. However, that was before we had the box and the photos that we had sent were way too big! So, we sent a new photo the size of the box, hoping that it would get here in time. If it didn't, we decided to print a plain photo, but the effect wouldn't be the same. On December 28th, a plain number 10 envelope arrived, and Sarah recognized it right away! We couldn't have been happier that day. It was perfect! He did such a nice job signing in the space we left. Really, really nice. Mom was totally surprised and thrilled! God really blessed us in the fact that everything we needed fell together at just the right moment. The box, the lapel pin, the autograph!

Sarah got her Secondhand Lions pull toys that I had started last December. I had really dreaded having to paint the giraffe, as there is not cartoon of the giraffe. Dad just drew it in the style of the others. Well, once I really got started he looked so nice that he quickly became my favorite and I was sorry when I was finished. He, however, is too tall to be a pull toy, so we are going to make him into a table lamp. They turned out really cute. Couldn't be happier with them. Dad's cut out jobs are so nice.



I will do a post about my scrapbooks later! Too much for this one. On an ending note, we went up to Mansfield on Monday and took a bunch of metal things to a coin store (they buy precious metals. Like recycling!). Single earrings, broken chains, Dad's old gold crown, etc. Well, Dad and I dropped Mom and Sarah off and we ran a few errands. When we got back, they had finished looking and were adding it all up. We all expected about twenty dollars. Sarah and I started looking at some of the coins, and when we saw them start ringing up on the cash register, we headed over to see the final amount. She was counting out the money on the counter and we couldn't have been more shocked when it turned out to be $138! You could have knocked us both over. Not bad for a little pile of junk lying around the house. So, our year went out with a bang! Although, I am Praying that God gives us a slightly less eventful year this year!

"Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen"