Little Things that Make a House a Home

(Edited to add typo of French city name and add photo)

As our home slowly disintegrates into chaos and emptiness and is disembodied among countless boxes and suddenly echoing rooms, I want to take a few minutes to think of some small objects that represent the feeling of home a little bit.

First, their story. Back in July-August 1999 I spent a month and a half in France by myself studying French. No... I was not in Paris, but at a small school in the province of Haute Savoie, right at the border with Switzerland. I was taking a summer language program in the very place my parents went to school and lived when I was born (see items 1-14 here for more info). One of our short trips that summer took us to one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to -- Chamonix and the Mont Blanc, the highest peak of the Alps (although I wouldn't really see the Mont Blanc well until a year later when I went up the Aiguille du Midi [Mid-day Needle] with my husband, but that's another story). After the school group returned from visiting the Mer de Glace [sea of ice - a glacier, some summer photos], we had some time left to explore the town a bit and I found this fascinating store in a corner. It mostly sold decorative items for the house and I thought these two "door plates" (what should I call them) were lovely, so I bought them:

This one for our bedroom door

And this one for the bathroom door
(I already had the one you see pictured in this post, but I reasoned that someday we'd have more than one bathroom ;)

Well, fast forward to January 2006 during my husband's now infamous two week trip to France in which he broke left his arm/wrist by slipping on the ice on the second day he was there -- on his way to the ski station no less. He was going there with two of his colleagues to inquire after the prices for skiing, but unfortunately skiing on the Alps never materialized for him since his two new acquaintances (two women, BTW) suggested that they not walk on the road, but take a shortcut through the snow/ice -- I kind of blame them in my mind to this day ;) -- and he slipped and fell on his hand while descending a few steps. All this his endless embarrassment later since when he came back had to explain to everyone that his fractured arm was not from skiing in the Alps, but from foolishly falling on the way to the ski station :(.

So, on that trip, my husband got a chance to return to Chamonix and Mont Blanc, this time in the winter! After they came down from the Aiguille du Midi and had a hot chocolate they walked around the town a bit and look what K bought for the boys:He had gone to that same store and he really didn't know that it was the place where I had bought those first two. When I saw it I was was absolutely thrilled! Not only because the boys love trains and he had found the perfect door plate for their bedroom, but also because now we had three cute matching plates!

I can't wait to stick them to the doors of the new house even though I know that this may take sometime since we're planning to either paint of replace them... On the day I can see them there, though, I'll know that I'm home.