give flowers to my neighbors at Thanksgiving

Usually, the freshest and least expensive flowers in my area come from Albertson’s, since I can’t really afford to go to an actual florist. According to the florist, the delivery comes Monday, so I thought Tuesday would be a decent day to pick flowers out so I could arrange them. But there wasn’t a great selection since most of the flowers with the appropriate Thanksgiving colors went towards making their prepackaged bouquets. I half-seriously considered buying prearranged flowers, but I thought it would be defeating the purpose of my goal, since I wanted to arrange them myself.

In the end, I bought large sunflowers, orange gladiolus, red and orange carnations, plants with deep saffron colored spikes as their flowers, and some filler. I washed and filled two glass vases with water and plant food and cut the stems to appropriate lengths. I tied a thin satin ribbon around the vases to reflect the color of the the red flowers and tucked in a note card.

I put one vase of flowers on the old lady’s porch and handed the other vase to my gardener neighbor, who was about to open the gate to his yard. He was touched, gave me a hug and said his wife would love them.

I took pictures of the flowers before I gave them away. When the sunlight hits the colors, they look so rich and vibrant.

I was told that the flower delivery would arrive on Monday, but ideally, I’d like to get my flowers Wednesday morning since I have class on Tuesday. And Wednesday, I’ll be meeting my parents before the trip and I’ll also have the rental car by then.

Since I’m not going to be home for Thanksgiving, I’m going to give away the flowers on Tuesday. These are the people on my list:

1. Parents; also bring sister’s present & yoga video
2. Vilma
3. Paul & Irene

Yesterday, my neighbor’s grandson came out and started edging the strip of line along the sidewalk for us. Without being asked. I don’t like to think how our lawn looks to either of our neighbors, but they seem to pitch in every so often. I was writing at my computer in the window facing the street, and slowly, I just unplugged the mouse, and moved my computer underneath the table. I was so embarrassed.

But they are definitely wonderful neighbors, and I’m going to make them both some cheerful bouquets before we leave on our trip. Maybe I’ll make some for my mom too, if we drop by to say goodbye to them.

I want to arrange some flower bouquets to give to a few of my neighbors in gratefulness for their helping with our sometimes unkempt or dry front yard. They do so without asking for anything in return, not even a word of thanks. I would love to give them something lovely to look at. And what better time than Thanksgiving.