Silly Christmas present was a hoot

It was either the best Christmas ever or the silliest.
Hard to tell.
I’d finished 99 percent of my Christmas shopping, but the PBS Newshour was on and I was frankly tired of news.
That’s especially easy these days, and it’s even easier when you’re trying to get into a holiday mood.
So I did what I sometimes find myself doing.
I goofed around on the computer. There are only so many blogs you can read before your eyes glaze over, so it wasn’t long before I found myself back at our old buddy: eBay.
Like way too many folks, I find myself typing in an oddball assortments of searches:
•Antrim NH (that’s where Connie’s family’s cabin is). Over the years I’ve found some great vintage postcards dating back to about the time the cabin was built. I’ve also found some antique apple-peeling machines that were made in Antrim about 1900, but no one I know wants one of those.
•Jay County. Well, that one’s obvious along with Portland IN, Dunkirk IN, Redkey IN, Pennville IN, and Bryant IN. Mostly that will offer you old maps, but some intriguing glass items come along now and then. There was also apparently someone who lived near what is now the county landfill that performed quack medicine and wrote bad self-published novels. None of those has yet merited my bid.
•Monhegan Island, a beautiful spot that holds lots of memories for our family. It’s off the coast of Maine. This year I found a lovely watercolor painting done about 40 years ago and gave it to one of our daughters.
•Monadnock. It’s a mountain in southern New Hampshire, and occasionally a search will bring up something special. Not this year though.
•Stickley, arts and crafts, Harvey Ellis. Those are all related. Connie and I have been fans of arts and crafts/craftsman design for years and know just enough about it to be dangerous. Now that some good friends are building an arts and crafts bungalow, I have far too many opportunities to make suggestions well beyond my pay grade as an English major.
It was that last category that led to my biggest Christmas success.
I’d been looking at a lovely set of Harvey Ellis-designed Stickley arts and crafts andirons for my friends’ new house. The price was outrageous, but what the heck it wasn’t my money. The simple fact that the new house’s only fireplace would be electric didn’t seem much of a deterrent.
But then another antique andiron popped up on the screen.
It was kitschy and a little bit silly.
And it was just what I was looking for.
I have written before in this space about my wife’s family’s cabin in southern New Hampshire. It was built by her great-aunt in 1912, bequeathed to her parents, and is now owned by my wife and her siblings.
It is rustic and it is charming. And among its many charms used to be a pair of distinctive old andirons.
I say “used to be” because they have fallen on hard times. The chimney has leaked over the decades, and the part of the andirons on which logs are supposed to rest — the firedogs, they are called — have rusted through on one side. The old set was a mess, but they were still distinctive.
And distinctive is a nice way to put it.
Each vertical part of the andirons was shaped like an owl. And each owl had glass eyes that glowed when there was a fire behind them.
Now, that is either very cool or very tacky. Both opinions are valid, and both are welcome here.
But with one half of the andirons damaged by time and the elements, the cabin’s fireplace was diminished.
And that’s what sparked my eBay quest.
It took more than two years, but this fall — just at the start of the Christmas season — I found them.
A silly Christmas present? Sure.
But one of the best ever? You bet.