Sian (From High in The Sky) hosts a Storytelling Sunday each month. This year she's chose a theme-"Pick Your Precious" and it's given me a chance to think about some of the things I have that mean a lot to me. I'm guessing my children don't know much about them, so I'm hopeful it's meaningful to them as well.
I grew up in my Great-Aunt Edith's house. We moved in with her when I was in third grade and lived there until we moved to New York when I was a junior. (Aunt Edith moved with us. She was 93 and had lived in the same town all her life and the same house for over 60 years.) She never married and lived with her sister, Aunt Lily, until Lily passed away the year before we moved in with her.
When she and Lily inherited their parents’ estates they decided to invest some of the money in some fine china. It was kept in a glass-fronted china cabinet, and she always promised me I would inherit it some day.
They had two sets of Haviland china. One of them was quite ornate, and when I inherited the china, many of the serving pieces had been broken. The other, a delicate floral pattern was still nearly complete. There are place settings for twelve with both tea cups and coffee cups. They seemed to have purchased every size of platter, soup tureen, and serving dish that was available. Tracy had to add a shelf to our dry sink (another precious item---also from my great- aunts’ home) in order to be able to store all of it.
In addition to the china, there are quite a few single dishes and serving pieces that don't match the other sets. This is one of my favorites.
I love these delicate dessert plates, too.
I don’t use it too often---it must be hand washed, and our entertaining style is a bit more casual than this lovely china, but I treasure it. I wish my kids would be interested in it some day, but I doubt it. They’re even more casual than we are!