I know the paper does not publish the week between Christmas and New Year’s so maybe you can run this column next week. There is so much to share that I do not want to skip a week.
Christmas is such a great and busy time of year. On Monday evening I spent a long time cleaning an iron pot which I had sold for a Christmas present. Good thing I did as the buyer came in the next day. Also delivered some “old fashioned” Christmas stockings to some of my neighbors. They were “old fashioned” because they contained oranges, apples, candy and nuts which were things we used to get. Oranges were often a luxury when we were growing up. Also wrapped presents which helped me get more into the Christmas spirit.
Wednesday, Wendi Mattson, Dylan McCurdy and Sam Meek all stopped by the store. Always good to have friends stop by. Also started prep cooking as I fix most of the Christmas dinner for my family.
Thursday I closed the store early so that Ed Newton and I could celebrate Christmas Eve. We went to Macomb for lunch then went to visit with Dot Burdett then were off to the Candle Light Service at Living Faith United Methodist Church in Bowen. Nice service and good crowd.
Sorry to hear on Christmas day that Bill Brattain passed away. He was the father of Cindy Ramsey. He used to fill the pulpit in the Plymouth Methodist Church from time to tome. He lived in the yellow house at “Cuba Corner” in the Friendship neighborhood where I grew up. Our sympathy to the family.
Christmas found me in the kitchen preparing turkey, rolls, ham, mashed potatoes, cranberries, gravy and dressing, I have done it often enough that everything gets done when it should. Peg and Gary Webster, LaHarpe; Ila Robb, Industry; Marcella Hardin, Manito; Rachel and Roger Steiner, Bettendorf and Curtis, Shawna, Calvin and Felix Steiner, Macomb were lunch guests. Had a great time. Ate and exchanged gifts and did a lot of visiting. We decided to try just bringing just one 10 dollar gift for next year and drawing numbers or something for the exchange. Should be fun to try to pick out the perfect gift for next year with only one to choose.
Back to the store on Saturday and had a great day there. Many thanks to all who shopped at Plymouth Rock Antiques during the holidays.
Have another Saturday story to share. I got a call on Saturday morning requesting a room for Saturday and Sunday nights. The caller said his name was Juan and gave me no more information. About 4 Saturday afternoon a young Amish couple came into the store accompanied by Juan. That told me he was driving some Amish and made me feel much better as I now knew what was bringing him to Plymouth, IL. As these Amish were from Wisconsin and were from a very conservative Old Order group, they could not travel on Sunday. As a result I had a lot of time to visit with Juan. He was not from Mexico as I had assumed but rather from Argentina. He left Argentina when the economy collapsed several years ago. He spoke five languages. I suspect he runs a multi national company also. I know he grows hundreds of heirloom tomatoes and peppers, makes his own sauces, raises horses and is an accomplished gourmet cook, a wonderful wood carver and takes world class photographs. Also he did not want to “bother” me to fix him breakfast. Now this was the perfect guest! They had to leave Monday morning about 6:30 am and we were having freezing rain during the night. The weather forecast indicated they would be driving through storms all day Monday including bands of 10 or more inches of snow in northern Illinois. I prayed that they would make it home safely and I hope they did.
Lesson for the week-do not judge a person by their name! The B&B business is such fun because one never knows who they are going to meet.
As I am writing this on Monday instead of Sunday-hope you are having a good week. The weather has to improve because it can’t get much worse than several inches of rain, sleet, high winds, hail and more yuk. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.
Happy New Year to you all!