I should have known to sift through all the Styrofoam peanuts, plastic bubbles, and newspaper stuffing when I opened my daughter’s package, but I was probably relieved that I finally got into it at all. She has inherited a gene (from her father) that entails a packaging process that keeps the most delicate item undamaged from accidental slippage on a freight car, football tosses by delivery men, or even a five-semi pile-up on the highway. The recipient often needs a sharp knife, a pair of scissors, and a certain angle of the tongue to get to the present within which is always intact. I’m guessing that’s why I missed the second smaller present inside until we needed a box (always recycled) to pack something else.
The envelope that fell out of the peanuts intrigued me. It contained a wooden knife and a half-page explanation from our best (and only) son-in-law. I share pertinent parts:
Swedish Butter Knife– What makes it Swedish? Beats me. And it probably wouldn’t hurt if you used it to schmear something other than butter. I say slather some cream cheese on a cracker and dare King Gustaf to make a fuss. . . The “blade” and tang are from a piece of oak salvaged from a farm south of Kilgore, Texas. I saved a few scraps of wood before the site was leveled to build a new middle school. The walnut handle is from a tiny little sawmill in Mt. Enterprise, Texas. . . Treat it as you would a wooden cutting board. If you see it drying out, just rub a little mineral spirit into the grain.
Smaklig Maltid! (tasty meal in English or bon appetit in French)
A couple of munchkins must have smelled the cream cheese since they showed up at my door just as I started spreading my crackers. They agreed that the cream cheese and crackers spread by the knife were tasty, and to tell the truth, I’d rather have their approval than King Gustaf’s.
And the next time my daughter sends a package, I’m going to shake out all the stuffing just in case I’ve missed something.