A belated--but very special--Christmas gift

As I mentioned in my previous post, Shane and the boys and I took an impromptu trip to Chicago last week. Shane and his brothers decided at Thanksgiving that, for Christmas, they would get a corner cabinet thingy for Lynette, who has been looking for one for months and has never found one she liked. Roger and Jason would provide the funds, and Shane would provide the labor *grin* for the cabinet.



So, Shane spent several days designing, building, and finishing this cabinet for his mom. He is certainly not a cabinet maker, but he really went to town on this one, putting special curves and finishes on it--and adding his Mom's favorite thing--hearts--into the design. The corner was too tight to do one solid cabinet (and still be able to fit Lynette's microwave properly) so Shane built an upper and a lower cabinet instead of just one unit.


Shane's brother, Jason, who lives in Minnesota (and we don't see all that often) was in town for business last Thursday--so, it seemed like a great opportunity to head up, install his Mom's cabinet (that she knew nothing about, by the way), and see his brothers all at once.

We got there about 1 o'clock, and Shane began the installation: (The microwave cart that you can see in the background

to the left is what used to be in that corner)

Lynette walked in to find her boys and most of their families in her living room!

She had no idea, and was very surprised and very happy!
And then she walked into the kitchen....and spotted the cabinet.

This was her reaction:


Yes, there were tears involved....

And a look at her boys, as if to say,
"You guys did this?"


A hug to the builder :-)



And, basically, for the remainder of the evening,
you could find her doing this--just staring up at it!

It really was fun to see our family, and a great surprise for Lynette. She is a wonderful person and a great mother-in-law, and was very deserving of something nice for Christmas. Thanks to big Roger (Shane's dad) for helping us pull this off--we couldn't have done it without you!