It has been close to 2 years, but I remember every detail of that morning. We were on our way to spend Christmas with our daughter and my parents in sunny Florida. We were so excited to get out of the cold of Illinois, knowing we would have 2 weeks of swimming, sunning and family. The trip was well-organized as they always are. It is “my thing” to really plan well for vacations. I make lists of the things I don’t want to forget, I had the packages all wrapped and in shopping bags. The suitcases were filled with enough clothes for the entire trip so that we wouldn’t have to think about doing laundry at the hotel. We packed an overnight bag for our nights on the road, as we have always done in our 30 years of family vacations. It was what my parents had always done and it made it so much easier to pull into a hotel exhausted, and grab just the overnight bag. We were staying at a Marriott Courtyard hotel, in an upscale area with a Marriott resort and golf course. It was almost new, and we had stayed there a few months earlier. We were on the first floor, next to the exit.
I slept in my ugliest pajamas, the gray ones that my husband put in the dryer and turned into highwater pants. After all, it was just for the hotel on the way there. I was still sleeping when he went out to take something to the car the next morning. The first thing I heard was my husband opening the door to our room, looking at me and saying “it is all gone, I have to go to the front desk” and then he was gone. Stunned isn’t the word for how I felt. I couldn’t process what he was saying. I called my dad and couldn’t even speak. He talked to me while I walked (in my pajamas and barefoot) out to our SUV which had a broken window…and everything inside was gone. All of our Christmas presents, all of our luggage, my husband’s laptop which he had hidden under the seat, the CD’s which I had downloaded from iTunes, they even took our dirty clothes bag from the night before. They took the bag that held my scissors, and extra wrapping paper in case we bought more gifts while in Florida and my knitting bag. We had nothing left. We had the clothes that we had in the room to wear that day. They left our winter coats and our cooler. Everything else was gone and we were alone in a strange town on a Sunday morning, 8 hours from our destination, with a broken window.
I wandered into the lobby sobbing, where the front desk manager offered nothing except saying “bless your heart” way too many times. The desk clerk told us the same thing had happened to someone else parked in the same spot the week before. I found they were a bit late with that information. My husband went to a Home Depot store nearby and got plastic and tape to cover our window, the store opened early for him. The manager on duty didn’t even offer to help with covering the window, on a blustery cold morning with winds of 50 miles and hour, so I helped in my pajamas. He did finally offer us breakfast for free, as if we could swallow food. The actual manager of the hotel eventually gave us a free night’s lodging, and was very nice. That was after I wrote a letter complaining when I got home. The front desk manager should have been fired. He never walked out to look at our car, nor did he go talk to the police when they arrived.
We were lucky that we had a long-term relationship with our insurance agent. I could call her on a Sunday morning. She told us to start making lists of everything we had with us and go replace it. Our homeowner’s policy covered everything except for a $500 deductible. Our automobile policy covered the window repair, after a $100 deductible. We found kindness in the hearts of strangers as the hotel we checked into (another Marriott) guarded our car overnight, until it could be repaired. They also offered to go get us toiletries or things we needed. The salesclerks in the Chicos store that first night, asked my size and what I needed and liked, and they brought things to me…enough to get me through a few days of shock. The waitress in the restaurant that night asked a simple, “how are you”? When we told her, she used her discount on our meal. People really stepped up to help strangers in trouble, and we were so grateful.
We never leave anything in the car that we care about now. It is a pain to carry in all of our luggage for a long trip for just one night, but we do it. I make a list now as I pack of what I have with me. It isn’t easy to remember exactly what you have and how many of each if you have to provide it to the insurance company. We were able to replace all of the Christmas presents with almost identical items. We didn’t let it ruin our holiday, just the first few days of it. We counted our blessings that my husband hadn’t caught them in the act, or they might have killed him. We realized that stuff is just stuff and that isn’t what matters in life. We also learned that there are horrible people who will steal someone’s Christmas without batting an eye. We decided that they must need those things more than we did, although I’m sure that iPod, computer, cell phone and all those gift cards were cashed out pretty quickly. We also realized that there are wonderful people, who will step up and help a stranger.
1) Take everything into a hotel room that you care about.
2) Carry your insurance agent’s phone number (and home number) with you when you travel.
3) Make a list off what you have in your car and in your suitcase.
4) Save receipts when you buy clothing, it really helps when you are filling out the paperwork for the insurance company if you can prove what you spent on your shoes, jeans etc.
I've been spinning my wheels around here trying to get unpacked from our trip, catch up on everything and get the house looking like fall. I finally spent a few hours this afternoon working on the latter. I tend to keep things and reuse them when it comes to decorating. I have tubs of ribbons, bows, flowers and our storage room has nails with wreaths hanging all around it. I went to the basement and grabbed a large grapevine wreath from a few years ago. The first thing I did was tear off all of the old, ugly fall stuff and throw it away. I did keep a few of the leaves.
I had 8 tall stems of leaves with golden berries that I had once used in a tall vase and I slipped them into the wreath forming a circle of leaves and berries all the way around. I secured them with my glue gun. I then added a few of the salvaged leaves, and a few bright orange berries that I had saved from another project, again using the glue gun to attach the items. The final touch was making a new bow from fall ribbon. After I attached the bow with wire, I added a few extra streamers, using the glue gun to hold the ribbon in place. The picture below is what I started with. The top picture is the finished product.
If you can make a decent bow, you can dress up the Christmas tree, make plain wreaths look beautiful and make inexpensive gifts look upscale. Bow making is awkward at first, but once you get the hang of it, you will be asked to make bows for everyone. I can't tell you how many bows I've made for people. It is easier to show someone how to do this than to tell them, but I'll try with the help of a few pictures my husband took last December. I'm sitting cross-legged on my couch, please ignore everything except the bow!
Get your "ingredients" ready. You will need ribbon (wire-edged works best), some fine wire (I have used extra pieces of ribbon, twist ties from bread, hair ties and rubber bands, but wire is best), and scissors. This is a roll of 5 yards of ribbon I picked up for a quarter after Christmas one year. You can make a bow with 3 yards, but I like to have at least 5 yards. If you are making huge bows, you will need more.
I am right handed, so I take the end of the ribbon and roll it to the back with my right hand, while holding the rest of the ribbon about 2 inches down in my left hand.
Make a complete loop and hold it tightly with your left thumb inside the loop and your other left fingers under the ribbon.
This step is very important. It is what makes a florist bow look good, and the ones we all make look slightly "off". Twist the ribbon behind the loop completely over. The above picture I'm starting to twist. When the twist is complete, grab it with those left fingers. Yes, your hand will be starting to cramp, it will get worse.
Above I am still holding the loop in my left hand, the ribbon has been twisted which keeps the pattern to the top and I'm starting my first bow loop with my right hand.
The loop is made by folding the ribbon under the piece extending from the small loop my thumb is holding, and you catch the underside of the loop with your fingers. See how tightly I'm holding it? The next picture is important!
We have made one loop of our bow, and we are holding it tightly in the left hand. Now we have to TWIST it again, completely over to bring the top/pattern of the ribbon to the top again.
After you twist the ribbon after the first loop, you make a loop on the opposite side the same way. Make the top of the loop, and fold the ribbon under and catch it with those left fingers.
Then you TWIST again, the secret is in the twist. and make another loop, grab it and twist until you have four loops on each side. You can make a bow with 3 loops per side, I think 4 looks better, but I have certainly made many bows with 3 loops each side. The more loops, the more full the bow. The bow on my fall wreath has 6 loops per side.
At this point there are 4 loops on each side of the bow.
Grab the tail of the ribbon that is still on the spool, and extend it as long as you want the streamers to be, then fold it up and bring the other end up to catch in your left hand. See above and below.
What you are seeing above is the back of the bow, held tightly in my left hand. The 8 loops are on the underside, the "tail" of the ribbon has been brought up into a loop of its own and I'm holding it in place. The ribbon that is left over that I'm going to cut off is extending to the right.
Take a piece of wire (8-10 inches) and bring it up through the streamer loop from back to front, insert it into that small center loop that was the first loop we made in picture number 1. See below.
This is where it is easy to lose the bow, so hang on tightly. The wire has to be twisted behind the small original loop and hold all of the bow loops in place as well as the streamer tails.
When it is twisted tightly and everything is in place, cut off the extra ribbon (still attached to the spool or lose if not on a spool. See below.
Next, you can either cut the streamer loop to have 2 streamers (cut on an angle) or you can leave it as a streamer loop for a different look.
Fluff up the loops, and you are done. This isn't my best, as I was posing for pictures rather than thinking about the bow, but you get the idea. Don't be discouraged if you let go and it all falls apart, just start over-wire ribbon is very forgiving. It takes a little practice to be comfortable with it.
