Ting Ting Ting

Wednesday, as I was digging around in my cabinet, I came across a plastic baggie of Swedish Candle Chimes. I had thrown these in one of the several boxes of things I packed up at my mother's house when I was down there this summer.

I picked up the baggie, went into the kitchen, opened it, and spilled it's contents out onto the counter. With that simple gesture, memories of Christmases past came flooding over me.

You see, when I was younger, we always had these angel chimes. Usually 2 (there were 2 sets in the bag, but one of them was incomplete). Every night we would light them at dinner time, and listen to the ting ting ting sound they made, until someone couldn't stand it anymore and we blew the candles out.

Once my father moved out, and my mother remarried, and most of the kids moved on, the angel chimes were put in this baggie and forgotten about. They still have the same blackened bells, the same drips of wax. Angels, ponies and clowns.

I put together the little brass carousel: first the tray with the candle holders, then the metal stick with the appendages meant to hold the bells. Next, trying to figure out just how the angels attached, but we did it. 3 angels with trumpets, hanging from the 3 armed metal plate, and, finally, the top of the carousel (we are missing the part that holds the angel on top). I dug out the red candles, made in Sweden. I lit the candles with my youngest son and he was mesmerized. We listened to their gentle ringing throughout dinner.

Last night, he begged to light the candles for me. So I let him. Nostalgia washed over me. We cleaned off the kitchen table, took a picture, and I sent the picture out to all of my siblings, with the subject line "christmas."

I have gotten 2 responses so far. The first, my sister wrote "ting, ting ting." The second, another sister wrote "ting, ting, ting"!!! That same sister then sent another email, telling me that she was crying looking at that picture, remembering those days, and wondering if anyone else in the family had that same reaction.

Well, of course, I said. That's why I sent the picture.

Ting, Ting, Ting.