Today is my ma-in-law’s big day. So you all know what that means, right?! It means a birthday shout out for our birthday girl, Gitte D.

For starters, I will forever and always be indebted to Gitte because she is the mother of the boy I adore. She and Stephen raised him to be a person of integrity, intellegence, and goodness. My life is blessed daily, moment to moment, from and by the goodness of her son’s heart.  So danke for giving me one of the greatest, if not the greatest blessings in my life.

Also, her mug is stamped all over two of my very favorite faces. Behold!

If you’re finding it hard to see the resemblance, let me see if I can help you out, a bit:

Another shared characteristic, other than the brown eyes etc, is a deep and abiding love of cats:

Millie has to make due with toy cats because her mother is anti-kitty litter and her dad, despite his love of cats, suffers from allergies. But fear not, when Millie goes to Granny’s house – there are always a few cats in the mix.

Gitte is as smart as a whip. She speaks several languages. Knits like a champ. Collects interesting and beautiful pieces of art. Reads endlessly. Is terribly generous with her time and means. And serves her guts out. She has served in local politics for over a decade – and quite frankly, she is awesome at it. Once, when elections were upon us, Jan and I had the priveldge of walking around her local village to hand out a flyer to remind her constituants to vote. Anyone we talked to GLOWED and the love for Gitte FLOWED as they pledged their support to her. “Nobody works harder than Gitte. She’s got my vote.” was the general consensus.

Yup.

She and Stephen reside in Bath. In the past 15 years that they have lived in Bath Gitte has organized two incredibly popular and memorable events. The Bath Christmas Market & The Pig Parade.

Check out this cool Christmas market, peeps:

Doesn’t this look fun & romantic? Well, it is!

Last year Gitte arranged a fund raising project for another project she’s working on (the Two Tunnels project – so many projects, so little time) known as The Pig Parade. Local businesses commissioned local artists to decorate a pig statue which was then placed somewhere in Bath.

Would you like a behind the scenes peek? Here is the pig prototype. Nice snout. Makes me want to oink.

This is Gitte with the artist who designed this fine fellow.

(He was a jolly – we met him about two years ago, in his studio)

Here are the pigs in their natural habitat.

Before they were auctioned off all the pigs were brought to the Royal Cresent. This picture of Gitte with the pigs was in the Telegraph (an English newspaper, like the Wall Street Journal). I love this picture.

The pig project raised a couple hundred thousand pounds. How cool is that?!

She has since moved on to a new endeavor. Building a new shop in their village, but that I will save for another post.

This is just the kind of thing that my mother-in-law does, and does and does.

She is a doer.

She is a contributor.

And when she sets her mind set on something you better believe it will be done. If you’ve got Gitte on your team you are going to get action! It is such fun for me to watch her hatch a plan, then work until her plan becomes a reality. She is a marvel.

I also mentioned her knitting. When Millie was first born we received packages monthly with her creations.

Cool no? And she whips these suckers out like it’s nothing. But I know it is something. I once tried to learn the basic knitting stitch and I couldn’t even do that. She can also sew, and do wood working, and added to her vast skill base is a fierce determination. So, if she has not yet mastered the skill needed for the given task, her determination and her will power will see her through.

She is also a wonderful grandmother to our girls. That same “can do” spirit comes to our house and she, like a whirlwind, goes about doing good. She and Stephen were here only a week ago – and she was the glue that held things together when I got food poisioning that knocked me silly. While she was with us she (and Stephen) played endlessly with the girls, taking them to the park, to school, an other adventures. She swept off the deck, put up a corner cupboard, fixed a kitchen cupboard that had fallen down, watered the flowers, washed the dishes, went to the grocery store…you get the picture, I’m sure.

When we moved from Boston to New Jersey Stephen and Gitte came all the way from the UK to help us move!!! And they had us totally unpacked, and I mean totally unpacked – NO BOXES left – in 48 hours. I have never seen anything like it. By the first week with her help we’d unpacked and re-painted two rooms. It was amazing. My friend Annie called in the midst of the move and told me, “If they get bored, send them to my house! I’ve got lots of projects for them.”

Gitte is a woman of substance, depth and true grit. She is a leader in the truest sense. She leads by example.

She is also a classy dame – with fabulous taste; evident in a lovely wardrobe, a beautiful home, and a super fun car.

She is also a wonderful hostess. I have heard her say she can’t cook, but everything she’s ever cooked for me has been pretty darn tasty. Check out this spread, come on! It is a thing of beauty, says I.

As is often the case with these tributes, this one just scratches the surface of the wonder of Brigitte Dawson. She is a woman that I love. And it is an honor to celebrate her on this day, her birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY