And the Winner is…

A few days late, I wanted to announce the winner of the Thymes Frasier Fir candle, graciously donated by my friends at The House Downtown… Since Connor’s not much of a reader, I had to pick the winner, who is Debbie! This is the story she told:

My husband was in his last year of college in Boston when my brother called to tell me that the rowhome next door to him, here in Baltimore, was for sale. We scraped together a pitiful down payment, figuring we would have no problem renting it to JHU students for one year. Not quite. Anyway, we arrived home on Christmas Eve, totally broke from paying our Boston rent, Baltimore mortgage and college tuition. After midnight Mass, my mother-in-law suggested we stroll over to take a look at our house. It turned out, my in-laws had decorated the outside with Christmas lights and had made up a mattress on the floor of the master bedroom, with a lamp and a radio playing Christmas music. The kitchen was equipped with a frying pan and stocked with a loaf of bread, a pound of bacon, orange juice, a dozen eggs and two dishes for dining at our card table on Christmas morning. We will celebrate our 21st Christmas in this home in a few weeks.

I loved this story, especially returning to the house after midnight mass. I always love that time, just as the mass is finishing up, singing the last carol, saying Merry Christmas to everyone.  Then heading home in anticipation of Christmas day, which will begin in just a few short hours. I know my parents stayed up late to get everything finished up before we all got up in the morning.

Debbie… e-mail me and we’ll figure out how to get this amazingly fabulous candle to you!

More Christmas tomorrow with lots of pictures of Sunday’s Christmas Parade, which was an extravaganza!And it started less than 500 feet from my house!