Pickin' and Grinin'

With no kids at home, Christmas is REALLY understated! Last year, Cam's family was living with us and the year before, Collin spent Christmas eve with us because Cam & LaRane had to speak it Church Christmas morning so we helped out by keeping the 2 year old home with us. This year we were on our own! It was still really nice but just a different kind of nice. First off, not so many presents under the tree when we woke up and we skipped doing Christmas stockings but we did get to sleep in and shower first thing.

I have been sooooooooo excited about the present I had for Paul! Ever since going to the Blue Ridge Parkway last fall, I knew that I wanted to get him a BANJO! Back when he was 19 or 20 he began playing the banjo (he is also an excellent piano player). He spent hours in his room, "strumming his old banjo". He even took it with him when he went on his mission to Austria (I don't think he'd get away with that these days). He ended up selling it to an Austrian guy. Shortly after he got back home, he bought himself a guitar and spent alot of time learning songs from groups like "The Kingston Trio" ("Hang down your head Tom Dooley", "MTA", "Merry Minuet") and "The New Christy Minstrels". He learned one of their songs called "The Preacher and The Bear"and his Mom loved him to play and sing that song every chance she got... he still plays it occassionally. When we were first married, he would keep his guitar behind the door in our apartment and one day someone came in and pushed the door open too far and it smacked a hole in the guitar. After that he bought a really nice 12-string, steel-string guitar and he still has that one. He doesn't pull it out very often; it is a real treat when he does. I have wanted him to play it for our grandkids so they will know that about him but it tends to stay in storage.

Then when we were in North Carolina last fall, he got very excited about folk and bluegrass music again and that is when I decided that I wanted him to have a Banjo again. I found the most amazing shop here in our city that I had no idea even existed! It is just a rare jewel of musical history. I think it has been in the same location for 30 years or longer. It is called Intermountain Guitar and Banjo. The walls are covered with vintage and collectible guitars, banjos, mandolins, dobros and ukuleles. There are rooms and showcases with rare and new and used instruments as well. It is open by appointment only. I can hardly wait to take Paul back there and show him this unique shop.

Paul was totally surprised when he opened his present! But it only took a couple of minutes for him to start strumming -- pickin' and grinnin' (banjos totally make you grin; even if you are just listening)-- like he'd never been away from his banjo! His fingers have been kind of sore but he's working on getting his calluses back. Who knows, maybe we'll have a Hootenanny here real soon. It will be something the grandkids will never forget!