Dear Arianna, January 23, 2013

Dear Arianna,
    Today's letter is about surprises and art.  I had ordered a very special surprise gift for Mommy that was originally planned for Christmas, and then for Three Kings Day, and then, well for any day that it would show up.  You see, it was a hand-made gift and it took time for the person to create it and send it to us.  The package arrived yesterday, but Mommy didn't want to open it until I came home, and as you know, your Daddy had school last night and you girls were asleep when I arrived.  So, it waited for today, and instead of studying for tomorrow's test, which I probably should have been doing logically, we spent the evening with Mommy's package.  I love the look on Mommy's face as it seems to say, "Oh goodness, what has Daddy gotten us into now?"  I never even told you what I got her.  Only the Three Wise Men knew.

     It took a long time to take off the tape and paper, only to discover that it was not a box, per say, but a crate.  It reminded me of your Grandpa's favorite movie, "A Christmas Story" where the Daddy in that movie asked for a crowbar to open up his "major award".  Don't worry, I didn't get Mommy an erotic table lamp like the Daddy got in that movie.

 We didn't use a crowbar, but a table knife worked just fine.  And I didn't end up in the ER!

   

    After I pried off the top, Mommy took it to the kitchen so that your kittens wouldn't step on the nails and hurt their paws.  That gave me time to lift the package out of the crate before Mommy got back to the living room.  As she came back, I handed the package to her.  It was no surprise now that it was a painting, but what could it be?  Mommy didn't know what it was.  And because it was shipped in a crate, Mommy didn't even think about it being a painting as it sat in the house last night unopened.  I wonder what other things could fit in a crate that size and shape?
    When we went to Paris, we visited both the Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay, which are two of the finest art museums of all the world.  Of all of the painters and sculptors that  we saw, Mommy's favorite was the Impressionist painter Paul Signac.  And her favorite painting of all of the trip was Signac's "Entry to the Port of Marseille" (or "L'entrée du port de Marseille" if you ever learn French.  I first thought that I would get her a nice print of it for Christmas, since she was said they didn't sell the print in the museum's gift shop.  Searching around the internet, I found a painter in Hong Kong who will do true oil-painted reproductions of artwork on canvas.  I guess they learn to impersonate the Masters when in art school and it seems as good a way for an artist to pay their bills as they work on their own creations as any.  Probably more fulfilling than IT work!  So, that is what I got Mommy.  An oil painting reproduction of her favorite oil painting.

Mommy looks a little worried when she realized it was real oil paint

Then she got excited when she really saw what it was.

    Now, you know your Mommy can be reserved with her emotions at first and doesn't really like surprises, I think , but I knew she liked it when she was insistent that we attach the mounting equipment and put it on the wall (she was sad when she thought we didn't have a piano wire to hang it with), so I took down my olde tyme baseball porint and took its piano wire to mount it on Mommy's new painting   Then we cleaned the mantel and hung the painting.  I think it looks quite beautiful up there, don't you?  It mad Mommy very happy and you were very happy that Mommy was happy.

The mantel cleaned and the picture hung.

"Entry to the Port of Marseille" 

[L'entrée du port de Marseille], Paul Signac 1911 

    Now, you were part of all of this, too.  Helping us by rounding up your kittens and being very excited in general, and, of course, when the camera came out, so did your posing.  Here you are looking beautiful for the camera and making sure that Misty didn't get crushed by a crate:

Pretty Girl

    And I even captured nice pictures of Betsy and Misty:

Queen Betsy

Art Lover Misty

    All-in-all, we had a wonderful evening of art, and if you are worried, my baseball print made it to the other wall in the living room.  Spending the evening with you and Mommy as a family really took the blues away that I was feeling.  I love you, my wonderful family, and I love making you and Mommy happy.

Love,

Daddy.