A Christmas Miracle

Dear Readers, this will be my last post until Sunday, January 13.  I plan on some major Christmas Vacation cheer.  So have a wonderful holiday and a very happy New Year to all of you.

…So there are a few things you need to know about my son, Nick.

He lives in Seattle.

And he’s busy.

(Like very, VERY busy.)

He’s in tech- making apps for your mobile devices- and he and and the rest of his company put in eighty hour work weeks.

That’s right. Eighty hours.

That way they can take every other Friday off.

Nick digs that the most.  It gives him a chance to go snowboarding, hiking, kayaking,  surfing, windsurfing- all the things he calls “Lifestyle.”

(It’s why he loves Seattle.)

He also has a beautiful wife Missy, who has a demanding career of her own, a darling fifteen month old son Hendrix and a very possessive dog, Lucy.

(Lucy is the only one pictured here because Nick has put a ban on ALL family photographs.  He doesn’t want them on social media and I have to respect his desire to
“control the images.”  As far as I know, however, this ban does not extend to Lucy.)

When Nick is not on a mountaintop or a body of water, he likes to spend time with Missy and Hendrix.

He calls this “Balance.”

All very good reasons why I hate to bother him for a favor.

On the rare occasion that I do ask him for something, Nick has a tendency to…. how should I put this…?

Let’s just say he kind of “shelves” the request.  He’ll do it when he gets around to it.

Maybe.

Nick calls this “Prioritizing.”

Now, don’t get me wrong.  If there is a real emergency, Nick will help out.

(Like the terrible time when Comcast mistakenly and wantonly “black-listed” my website and all my Comcast readers- including me- could not download the blog .  OMG.  I still have nightmares.

Nick was a champ.  When I S.O.S.’ed him, he pretty much dropped everything and checked out the problem.  And even though he couldn’t fix it, he still guided me in my quest to set it right.   Without his expertise, you might not be reading this today.)

But, it takes a crisis of that magnitude to get on his radar, and happily, most of the time. my life is crisis-free.

Thus I leave him alone and wait for him to find a moment to call or come visit me.

Nick’s visits to Chicago have been pretty rare lately.  I usually go out to Seattle.

(See the reasons under “Lifestyle,” “Balance” and “Prioritizing.”)

But suddenly, with Christmas coming up, I found that I needed him to do me a favor.

A big one.

I stumbled upon the fact that the Starbucks Roastery was going to have its very special “Pantheon” blend available again this holiday season.

“Smooth and sweet with notes of milk chocolate, toffee and golden raisin” according to Starbucks, this coffee is only available at the Roastery itself.

And FYI: You can’t get them to send it to you.

I know.  I tried.

“I’m so sorry, Mrs. Ross” said Ian- the guy at the Roastery to whom I had been pouring out my long-distance hard luck story.  “We aren’t set up to take phone orders.  You’ll have to find someone to actually come here and buy it and then send it to you.”

Uh oh.

I was torn.  But the desire to buy someone the perfect Christmas gift outweighed the “pain-in-the-ass” factor.

I emailed Nick:

Hi, Nick.  BIG favor. I need one pound of the Pantheon whole beans-NOT GROUND- sent to me for a Christmas gift. I will send you a check. I called them but they can not take phone orders and they said the only way I could get them was have someone come in and send the coffee to me.  Very old school.

Please, Nick. Believe me, I know it’s a giant favor but I would really be grateful.

This would be my Christmas/ birthday present, too. It would mean a lot to me.
The sooner the better. And if you can’t do it, let me know.
Thanks, love, Mom

I crossed my fingers and sent the email off.

The very next night I got a phone call.

“Hey, Mom, you’re never going to believe this but I think that, not only can I get you the coffee, but I may actually be able to bring it to you.  The timing on your email could not have been better.  I’m coming to Chicago tomorrow night.”

I was astounded.

“What!  You’re coming to Chicago tomorrow?  Why?  Whatever for?”

“You know, it’s my annual “Guys Trip.”  The one we take to different football games around the country.  Well, this year we are going to Nashville to see the Titans and the Jets play on Sunday and it was actually cheaper to fly through Chicago than come straight from Seattle.  I’ll stop in at the Roastery and buy the coffee. If I can. It’s going to be a brief stopover.  I’ll be landing at midnight and I’ve got to be back at O’Hare by ten the next morning but I’ll let you know.”

I was excited but “there’s many a slip twixt the cup and the lip.”

In other words, I wasn’t counting my coffee beans before they were roasted.

But the very next afternoon I got a text.

“Got the coffee.”

That sent me off into a flurry of texting.

“That’s great.”

“Can I pick it up?”

“Why don’t you stay with me tonight? ”

“I know you’ll be here real late but I don’t care.”

“I’ll make you pasta.”

I got one text back.

“Do you have any marinara sauce?”

And that, Dear Readers, is how I was able to see my son this holiday season.

And cook him pasta at 12:45 a.m.

And get the coffee.

Merry Christmas, Dear Readers.

And a very happy New Year.

Hope you get to spend the holidays with the ones you love.

See you next year.