My Aunt Sylvia is driving me nuts!  She decided to pull up all the wall-to-wall carpeting in her living room and dining room.  She had the hardwood floors sanded and varnished.  The company she hired really did a wonderful job and the floors look absolutely terrific.  The problem is now Aunt Sylvia wants to purchase an Oriental rug in Chicago to put under her dining room set and matching Oriental rugs to put under her coffee tables and in front of her sofa in the living room.  In her mind she can see these carpets of her dreams, but the problems is that we cannot see what she wants in the many stores we visited.  We must have been in over thirty different stores and she still couldn’t find what she wanted.  I have been in so many carpet stores lately, some I didn’t even know existed.  I don’t even know if the kind of Oriental rug she has in mind exists outside of her dreams.  She turned down every selection that the sales people had shown her.  I don’t think she ever saw an actual Oriental like the one she is looking for but it is one she hopes she will miraculously find on one of our many shopping expeditions.  I hope she finds what she is looking for soon as my shoes are wearing out!

Last weekend my sister and I went up to our parent’s attic to bring the holiday decorations down.  When we moved all the boxes close to the stairs we noticed a big rolled up bundle in the back of the attic.  Being curious, we both went to check it out.  To our surprise, we found our grandmother's beautiful Oriental rug.  She always treasured that rug and told us it was the most beautiful Oriental rug in Chicago.  We dragged the rug down with the holiday stuff and asked Mother about it.  She said she had forgotten all about the rug.  She loved it but it just didn’t fit in with her décor.  My eyes widened as I thought that this rug would be the perfect addition to my den.  We had just bought a new home and the den is our last room to furnish.  I didn’t want to seem greedy so I never asked anything further about the rug.   The following week when we arrived for our family holiday celebration, the bundled rug was decorated with a big red bow and had my name on it.  Mother had seen the twinkle in my eye when I first found the rug and thought it would be better for me to enjoy it than just let it being hidden in the attic.  My sister agreed as she has her home all furnished and doesn’t need grandmother's rug.  This was the best gift anyone could have given me.  You can’t buy memories!