For the second year in a row, I received an American-themed gift for Christmas from my in-laws. Last year I got an apron with the stars and stripes on it, not in bright red, white and blue but in what I used to call "country colors," more maroon than red, for example. I thought it was hilarious and instead of using it, it hangs on a peg as decoration.
This year I got this pitcher and glass set with amusing retro American images. I absolutely love it - I've been longing for a pitcher and glass set and I've been wanting to get into the habit of having fresh beverages in the summer. I guess the need of having a fresh pitcher of lemonade or ice tea in the fridge is the Southerner in me making itself known! The fact that they have kitchy Americana images on them only make them that much more awesome.
Since we're sorely lacking in storage space, I decided the best thing to do is to display them until I get the urge to use them. This means I had to find the perfect platter to display them on (I may dislike clothes shopping for myself but everything else is fair game).
Believe it or not, it seems retro Americana is making a name for itself in France - one prominent supermarché has a collection of trays, bowls, plates and more featuring Kellogg's Corn Flakes and Rice Crispies. The Rice Crispies girl was so cute I just had to snap her up. (By the way, you can click on the picture to go see close ups of all the glasses and other recent photos I've added to my flickr feed!)
The best part of all this is that these are things I never would have bought for myself - I never felt like I had to surround myself with American things, since it's not things that make me homesick but people - but they really make me smile and I think it's nice that my in-laws try to give me a little piece of "home."
Either that or they're subtly hinting I should go back. Hm.
One final note - as I was checking out at the grocery, the cashier, who was about my age and actually smiled at me when I arrived at her empty lane, struck up a conversation with me. This may sound normal but this never happens. I'm way too shy (in France, anyway) to strike up a conversation usually, but as the cashier rang up the the Rice Crispies girl, she commented that there was a whole collection with these Kellogg's images, if I was interested. I told her that I'm American and I thought the whole collection was very cute and I was surprised to see them here. Then we made small talk until the transaction was finished. It was so nice to have a normal conversation that I nearly skipped out of the grocery store.
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