A Gift for Our Hosts

 

Michael and I have a really great general physician.  Naturally, every doctor’s job is to take good care of their patients.  But somewhere along the way, ours began going way above and beyond the call of duty.

He cooks for us!!

He’s cooked many meals for us by now.  Although I am sure his lovely wife has helped at times, for some of them. But he LOVES to cook, and loves to share recipes.  And he has taken to preparing our whole family meals.  Seriously.

It all started when I was having a freak medical issue in the week prior to this past Christmas, and I had gone to the emergency room late one night.  Well, he got word of it, and called me at home at the crack of dawn the next morning. He was amazing in his overseeing of me from that point.  He was even calling me at home, checking on me, getting updates, etc.  Even on Christmas Eve!

Then came New Year’s Day, when he called us on the phone, out of the blue, to say he was coming over to our house to bring some treats he had made!  Well let me tell, that put a fire under us!! Because we had stayed up way late the night before partying with our kids (because it was New year’s Eve), we slept in late, had bedheads, were still in our pajamas, and our house was a post-party wreck!!  And our doctor is on the way, to our house? 

Right now??

We got it all together, in fast-forward high speed motion, just in time for the knocking at our front door. (You have to know, I’m a freak about my house being clean and orderly.  It was HUGE for me to go to bed with my house in the state it was, but I wanted to be a liiittle bit more chilled for the New Year.  That lasted long huh. Didn’t even get to noon through day one. lol)

(Yes, we did play it off like we had been up for hours, in our clean and organized home.)

He came in, and brought us 2 treats he had made, bearing also other gifts for the kids, and us as well.

After that, Michael and he had a pizza cook-off. See, Michael made them his home made pizza and delivered it to them, which was supposed to be a thank you for the treats and gifts.  But then …. Dr. made his own home made pizza for us to try, and delivered it too!  It was GOOD!  Very different than how we usually have it.  Michael made the mistake of asking me which one I liked better, and watched me be torn in deciding. He was hurt, as he reached over and grabbed another slice of Dr’s, too.

Since then, Dr. has brought our family many meals and desserts he made himself, and has had us over to his and his wife’s beautiful home too.  They are the kindest, sweetest people, and we have become good friends with them.  Granted, they are older than we are, by just a bit.  They have 4 (grown) children of their own, and have several grandchildren too.  They make us feel like part of their family.

The doctor and his wife don’t seem to like attention on them, but their thoughtfulness really stirs our hearts.  Remember the beautiful 4 tulip painting that was a gift, because the giver thought was so symbolic of our children? That was from our doctor and his wife too.   They are more thoughtful and generous than you can even imagine.  Michael and I have spoken to each other many times, about how we would love to be in a position to do for others, what they do for people.  They are so humble in their ways, it seems difficult for them to even accept gratitude.

I am simply calling him ‘Dr. and his wife’, because I feel a little nervous when I post about them.  He mentions our blog now and then, but I am not sure they read here.  I would never want them to feel….exposed, or talked about (even though I have nothing but kind words about them.)  But again, they wouldn’t want the attention.  They would totally hush me, or something. lol.  Otherwise, I would have had a big Vittles post on their meals for us by now. I’m afraid to break out my camera when we go over there! lol

So, to the point of this post.  We were invited for a cookout at their home a couple of weekends ago.  Dr. kept calling it ‘Kid’s Day’.  He had been wanting our children, to meet their grandchildren, and us to meet their children (who could come.).  He had been planning it all summer long, and it was a big deal to him.  He was as excited as a kid about the whole day (and so were we!).   You could tell he had put some real planning into it.  We had a great time.

As usual, they refused our offer to bring anything that day, either.  “You better not” is usually Dr.’s answer, when I ask, “What can we bring?”. He likes to plan and cook all of the courses, so I guess it’s almost like taking away some of his fun!  But still, I did manage to talk them into a letting us bring a dessert, which I will be posting in the Vittles section soon!

I also put another little something together for them.  It’s the simplest of gifts, but it still felt good to give.

A simple basket.

A simple kitchen towel.

A really good bottle of olive oil.

And vegetables we grew ourselves:

Big Boy tomatoes (with a little evidence of all of the rain we have gotten), cherry tomatoes, a cucumber, and a couple of jalapeno peppers.

They were delighted with the gift basket.

It was a gift that came from our heart, because it came from our gardens, and it was for them.

I’ve said it before, but we are really blessed with the kind of people who come into our life.   These friends are certainly among them.