Eggshell with a star

This is kind of what it looks like, but with a yellow star painted on the other side.

A year after we were married, Chris had a study abroad in Amman, Jordan. I went with him. That's where I met Katie and Bridget.There are a bunch of stories I could tell you about that trip, but all I really want to tell you tonight is that I bought a fragment of an eggshell there. There was this place Chris and I went to quite a few times called Wild Jordan Cafe. They had really amazing smoothies. Seriously amazing. And they had this gift shop where I bought a fragment of an ostrich egg shell that had a star painted on it, and then a hole drilled in it so you could hang it up. I don't think it was meant to be a Christmas ornament, but it certainly looked like a super one. I really loved it. When we packed our stuff up to come back I packed it really really well. I put it in a little box lined with toilet paper, and then rolled that box in toilet paper and then wrapped it up in all my clothes. I was confident you could drop my suitcase a number of stories and that ornament would not break.

When we got back to the states, I found a little paper slip in my suitcase saying that TSA had searched my bag. My clothes were unrolled. The toilet paper was unwrapped (well, torn). The box was unwrapped. My ornament was unwrapped. It was broken in three pieces.

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(Isn't there a section of pages in one of the Twilight books that is totally blank to show how devastated and empty Bella feels when Edward left her? That'e exactly how I felt about my eggshell.)









A little piece of me died that day. So sad. They had to break it? Chris was really angry on my behalf (seriously, so nice a husband. I think there was a recent conference talk that said the defining characteristic of love was loyalty.? Someone should look that up for me, because that is an interesting statement.). Anyway, Chris thought I should write to TSA and complain, and I was about to, until I realized I would have to tell them how upset I was that my eggshell had been broken in a cross-atlantic flight. I can't imagine they would have taken me seriously. "Sir, I am irate! Your heavy handed baboons broke my eggshell!"

Luckily, before I had tossed all the pieces away, Chris superglued them back together (seriously so nice a husband). So I still have it, and I told you all that because today I hung it on our Christmas tree. It looks swell.

We actually don't have that many ornaments that aren't the shatterproof balls I bought the other day. I mean, we don't have that many ornaments with a history. But the girls and I will be making some this next week. And our town has a Christmas Market this Saturday.

Oh UPDATE!!! I ended up making a combo of Peanut Butter Blossom Angel Eyes and brownies for the Kindergarten bake sale. They were awesome. I think I knocked their socks off with my American Stupendousness. Actually, I think I did impress them, because I brought cookies at all. They have pretty low expectations of the American parents I think.
See ya, lovely people (heh heh).