The first present we opened was the rather large bulky present covered in the sheet as shown above. I knew they did something big but had no idea what was actually under the sheet...
A few weeks earlier, when Betsy and I visited Charlottesville for a friend's wedding, my parents surprised us for breakfast. They had driven three hours from my hometown of Bassett to see us just because "we were in the same state." Something I thought was really funny, odd even, was that after breakfast my dad insisted they had to leave. I just assumed they would want to spend more time with us but he said he really needed to cut the grass. I gave up arguing and we went our separate ways.
Well, we finally learned just how sneaky my parents really are. Apparently, while in Charlottesville they went to the University of Virginia to pick up the two rocking chairs shown in the picture. OK, you need more background than this...
When I was in grad school at UVA I lived in Thomas Jefferson's original "Academical Village" in a room on what they call "The Range." It is a pretty high honor to live there. In fact, Woodrow Wilson once lived in the room next to where I lived and Edgar Allen Poe once lived a few doors down. Anyway, I had the pleasure of living on the west side of Range one year and on the east side the next year. Each room had a rocking chair... you can see the very ones I had on the Range above. My mother actually called and sweet talked officials at UVA until she could get them. When they came to surprise us for breakfast they were actually there to pick up the chairs! I guess the lawn could wait after all. ;)
And here's the sneaky family above, minus my brother Derek... I'm pretty sure he was in on it as well. In the picture is my sister, Shauna, and my parents, Steve and Judy. Oh, and we're sitting in the rocking chairs from Jefferson's village. :)
