La Matonella

When Dem and I were in Italy a couple years ago, we found this little ceramics shop called "La Galleria" in Montelupo Fiorentino. Betty, the genial proprietress, supplied us with wonderful ceramic show plate that now hangs on our kitchen wall.

Well, I went back to Italy in May to unwind from law school, and decided to drop by La Galleria and buy Dem something. While I was picking up a beautiful, large ceramic bowl, I notice something called a "matonella." I was a ceramic tile with a scene hand painted on it. This particular matonella had a baby scene, complete with baby in bed, a scale showing baby's birth weight, a clock indicating baby's birth time, calendar with baby's birth date, and a little portion for the colors of the parents' favorite soccer team (it is Italy, after all). Betty informed me they recently begun selling these, and I told her I would order one when we had our first child.

Needless to say, when Elliot came into our life, I up and ordered the prized matonella. But, instead of soccer colors, I sent Betty a BYU football logo and asked the artist place it in the scene. He kindly obliged. And here, finally, is a photo of possibly the coolest possession we own.