I have such a neat story for you.  Almost a year ago we sadly had to leave our beloved cottage on Rebecca Street after two glorious years, but then the beautiful old house on Olive Street fell into our laps.  The Olive house has a piano, and before we knew it Huck was in love. Then one day in January we walked into the house on Anne Street during a light snowfall and realized we’d found our home.  The only problem was that it didn’t come with a piano.  Since moving in mid-May, we regularly took Huck to Olive to practice on his old piano, and during one of these sessions our former neighbor came over to say we could have their piano, which was her childhood piano and which had been living across the street from us for nine months. We said yes.

Next our Brooklyn friends Michael, Laura and Alden came for a visit which coincided with Huck’s first ever piano recital. In a few minutes time, Michael, who draws artists for a living in New York, drew Huck and his teacher at the piano.

Yesterday, which was Day 2 of both my summer camp and my laryngitis (two things that do not mix well), Huck’s piano came to live with us on Anne Street.  Moments before it arrived, however, Huck received his very own housewarming gift from our dear old friend Amy of the Lou-Whos, Amy of Austin days and X-Files nights, home-cooked dinners, plays, dog parks, competitive card games and the Grand Canyon. Amy sent Huck a box of old art supplies, a math puzzle book, and his all-time favorite Palomino Blackwing Pencils, proving he has very expensive taste in writing utensils.  She also included a copy of the housewarming scribble and Thomas the Tank Engine sticker he sent to her in California many years ago, which would have produced an emotional exclamation if only I could speak.

While Troy and I were marveling over Huck’s beautiful new piano with such a wonderful past and surely a magical future that would always include a Michael Arthur original, Huck sat at the dining room table shouting things like, “This eraser is amazing!” and “I have to show you this pencil!” We have a thing on top of the bookcase near the piano that says: “Enjoy the little things in life, for someday you will realize they were the big things.”

I think that sums up my story.