A New Year

With most of my family, I celebrated the New Year today with another Christmas exchange. Several years ago my nephew-in-law (married to my niece) instigated one of my best ever Christmas presents by organizing all the family to pool their resources and buy me a guitar. Then he wrote out a series of clues for a charming scavenger hunt, having gotten that idea from my family's long-ago tradition.

Because he's the only currently dedicated instrumental musician in the family (he plays bass, guitar and drums and DJs), I decided to give him one of my most special gifts: an Appalachian dulcimer that my father made for me for a Christmas in the mid-1960s. Daddy got the directions from Popular Mechanics (one of two magazines he faithfully read; the other was Popular Science). Although I can't remember the exact year he made it for me, I know that it was soon after my mother died. I suspect that he made the dulcimer as much as a healing project as for my pleasure. (At the time I was a dedicated folkie who played the piano, baritone uke, harmonica, banjo, recorder, and guitar).

I haven't played the dulcimer in years. Instead, I have displayed the instrument as a work of art. This year seemed the appropriate time to share with Owen two things we both love: family and music. I think it was my best Christmas present in years.