neigh·bor (nā'bər)
n. One who lives near or next to another.


Over the weekend, another one of our neighbors (not the one I recently blogged about – another one) knocked on our front door. I did not hear the faint knocking. My mom did, and Ray went outside to see who was there. It was our neighbor across the street, a very frail old lady who is very nice but also very talkative. About that very nice part, she is really nice. She brings in our trash cans after the trash man dumps them 2x’s each week. We’ve thanked her several times and have even told her she doesn’t have to do it. But it is something that she really wants to do because we would have to run outside (literally) and knock her down to get our trash can pulled in before she does it. I’m sure that she listens for that dump truck’s squealing breaks and/or stands at her front window watching out those two mornings each week Besides bringing ours in, she brings in 2 other neighbors’ cans and her own.

Okay, so back to my story. She knocked on our front door Sunday afternoon. When Ray opened the front door, she handed over a plate of warm gingerbread, topped with thin, perfectly shaped gingerbread man cookies and a Christmas gift bag. Being the talkative type, she kept Ray there a few minutes inquiring about our Christmas plans, me, the baby, etc.

When Ray came back inside, he handed me the plate of goodies and the gift bag. I don’t like gingerbread, but I ate two gingerbread cookies off the top of the bread. They were delicious! The gift bag was jammed packed with 2 cards – one baby card, one Christmas card, 2 green Christmas candles, 3 pair of white baby socks, and a pretty hand sewn yellow receiving blanket. At just about the same time, Mom, Ray, and I all said, “Aw – that was nice”. That was VERY nice of her.

Ray asked me if I overheard any of their conversation. I told him I didn’t. He then started giving me a few highlights. Here was one of them:

She said: “Do you know what ya’ll are having?”
Ray said: “Yes, a boy!”
She said: “Congratulations! We have all boys, ya know?”
He said: “Yeah, we’re real excited!”

Ray told me that she then started telling him where each of her sons live because she thought he asked where they reside (when he told her that we’re excited)! Hearing that almost made my mom and I split our sides! I think everyone knows how awkward it is when you say something and get a completely off the wall response! I couldn’t stop picturing Ray standing there with a plate of food in one hand, a gift bag in the other, feeling very appreciative, and being very friendly in return, but not wanting to hear about where her sons live (especially since she has told us several times in the 5 years)!

~T.T.