No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

FAMBB sent a lovely set of blue napkins along with her thank you note for my Christmas brownies.  She's been sending me Hanukkah gifts since my post several years ago bemoaning the lack of the holiday's tchotchkes here in Tucson. I smile at the pillows and the towels and, this year, the napkins.  It's obviously getting harder for her to find cool things, too.

But it was her letter that stumped me.  She's been making my brownies for her family ever since I sent her the recipe years ago.  They are named after me.  The kids love them.  I really don't have to send them to her every year.  She'll know I love her without the chocolatey evidence.

I wonder if she feels obliged to reciprocate and is singing the I-Can't-Find-Any-Hanukkah-Stuff blues?  That would make me laugh.

I never wonder if she doesn't like them; according to Mr. 10 everyone should like these brownies - they are the best in the world. 

Is she trying to pare down and assuming that I am too?  In that, she is absolutely correct.  I am holding fast to my New Year's Resolution; I'm going through closets and drawers and shelves with a ruthless purpose.  I do not want anything extra in my life.  Perhaps sending brownies to a woman who likes to make them herself is exra?

But, I like checking in with her.  I like addressing the package and picking out a return address label and putting all those initials on a box filled with love.  She reads The Burrow, so she's caught up with my life.  But the personal touch of writing her name on a card and sending love and hugs her way makes up for the decades which have passed since we've seen one another.

Do you have a good friend you haven't seen since you were 20?  I do.  I don't want to lose the connection.  I don't want to overburden her with unwanted sweets.

I think a donation to Heifer International is in the offing.  I have a year to decide between the rabbits and the chickens.