I am second in command when it comes to our church’s Mom N Me group (which is basically MOPS, without the association) but basically, that means that I do virtually nothing because our head coordinator, my friend Jen, is so awesome that there is very little leftover to be done.
Life has been a roller coaster for Jen for the past year or so, with ups like bringing a new baby into her family, and lows that included a lot of difficult losses. Our steering committee & mentors wanted to do something special for Jen this year. I liked the idea of getting her a necklace like the stamped silver one my husband gave me for Mother’s Day, but it was difficult to find one that was affordable.
After searching many an Etsy shop, I finally discovered this Circle of Love necklace from Bella Ray Designs.
So I ordered it and it came quickly and beautifully wrapped, in plenty of time to present to Jen at the Christmas Tea, which was our plan…except that’s not the way it happened.
I was keeping the little box in my purse so that I wouldn’t forget to take it to the tea on Tuesday, but a few days ago I was helping with our church’s clothing exchange and I had my youngest with me. Abby, who is only 19 months old & thinks every present is her present, kept getting into my purse and trying to unwrap the box & play with the necklace. I wanted to hide it from her, so I put the box in a closet in the room where we meet for Mon N Me, which was right down the hall. (The room where I was working didn’t have a closet.)
When I went to go get the box to bring home with me it was gone!
I was really hoping Jen had found it and that it wasn’t stolen by the Grinch, but I had to send her a very awkward email asking just to make sure.
Yes, she said she found it and opened it on Wednesday, but once she got home she realized it was probably meant for the tea, so she had planned on re-wrapping it, sneaking it back into the closet, and pretending to be surprised, but I had foiled her plan by discovering it was missing.
The bottom line is that she liked the necklace and Bella Ray Designs is a great way to get an affordable personalized gift. Looking back at the situation, while I’m sorry to have disappointed the steering committee because they won’t be able to see Jen’s original reaction to her gift, I’m glad that she was able to take a quiet moment to reflect on our gift to her and how much we appreciate everything she does for us instead of opening her present in front of an audience.
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