You may recall that it was Melinda’s birthday last Sunday. In today’s mail she received a package from her friend Christine in France. Inside was a delightful card and a set of cut-out magnets of the “little” girl from the Royal de Luxe marionette street company based in Nantes, where we lived. It was almost exactly one year ago that the marionettes made their triumphant return to Nantes, much to Melinda’s delight.

So excited was Melinda by this gift that she immediately sat down and began cutting out the magnets. She was like a little girl with paper dolls. Then she rearranged our magnet board to include the new ones.

In terms of birthday gifts, this was a score.