365-6 present

Today is Dia de Reyes or the day of Kings. The day when the Three Kings finally arrived to pay homage to the Baby Jesus. In Mexico this is celebrated by children leaving out their shoes in order to receive gifts from the "Reyes", just like when they left gifts for the baby Jesus. Mostly the gifts are coins, candy, small toys - because really how much can you fit inside a shoe? I wish we would have had this custom here when my kids were little - would have been way less expensive.

Today upon arriving at the office i found a gift of sorts - a feather on my desk. I'm sure it was inadvertently left by the cleaning crew -- but it's a neat feather and will go into my craft supply box. Perhaps it will find its way onto some mail art.

No joke, that really happened!

I was reading Writing without period's blog and she had a post entitled ‘no sh*t that really happened!’ Well I have a few of those stories too, so here goes:

A long time ago in a tiny town in Mexico, my father decided he was deeply in love with my mother, could no longer live without her and wanted to marry. The custom back then (and still today) is the boyfriend must ask his girlfriends parents (really the father, because the woman has no say in anything over there, especially back then) for her hand in marriage. He would go with his parents or perhaps god parents if the parents are deceased or for some reason cannot go with him.

In this case my grandfather (my dad’s father) had passed away many years ago and for some reason my grandmother would not or could not go with him to ask for my mom’s hand. He must not have had any godparents in town either because he asked the village priest if he would go representing his parents. The priest agreed and off they went.

Well my maternal grandfather was a very gruff and serious man and he did not believe in his daughter’s going to school or marrying just anybody – and in this case I guess – most especially not marrying someone who did not have a house to offer his daughter, he wasn’t rich or anything. But my dad loved my mom sincerely and that is what he offered. Well it ticked my grandpa off, cause when my dad and the priest came knocking on his door – priest or no priest - Grandpa pulled out his shotgun and ran them both off! I guess he wasn’t worried about his soul going to hell for running off the priest. Many years later, grandpa pulled his shotgun out again when he ran to fetch his two youngest children who ran away from home for the big city – Mexico City, D.F. But that is another story.

Well that did not deter my mom and dad and since they couldn’t do things according to protocol, they eventually eloped and got married on a dark and stormy night [that’s another story too! I tell you we have a bunch of them in my family. I should probably write a book….]. Grandpa accepted the marriage after that and we visited many times. My parents remained married for almost 25 years until my dad’s untimely death in his early 40s. He was a great husband and wonderful father.

So what’s your ‘no joke that really happened’ story?