Last year my sister’s roommate, Mandy, who is a great ceramacist, made Dom and I a couple of really cool personalized mugs as a wedding present. We call them the “it comes in pints?” mugs, after one of my favorite lines in the Lord of the Rings movies, when Merry and Pipin discover the enormous (for hobbits) pints of beer at the Prancing Pony in Bree, a moment Tolkien forgot to include in the books but Peter Jackson thoughtfully restored in his cinematic adaptation.
I think they actually hold about a quart. But they are for us what pints are to hobbits. Some time after we were married Dom actually poured a beer into his and was dismayed to find how little it filled the mug.
So now today a package arrived addressed to “Bella Bettinelli” and, as Dom predicted while I was slicing through the copious tape, it did indeed contain a ceramic piece, lovingly crafted for our little girl: a tiny mug that is almost as big as the girl it was made for.
Mamma mug, Daddy mug and Baby Bella mug
“Oooh, for me?” says Bella, grabbing at the mug.
“How kind of Auntie Mandy. It’s just my size!”
“But I want to hold it all by myself, mamma!”
(I had to wipe out the drool after she was done exploring. I think given a few more minutes she might have filled it!)
