24 DEC 25
Giggle giggle... giggle giggle... it's early... but not really that early because it's Christmas Eve and parents should be able to sleep a little later sometimes... giggle giggle... giggle giggle... “SHHHHHH!! THEY CAN'T KNOW WE'RE HERE!!”... an aggressive whisper from Oxbear's side of the bed... “SHHHHHH!!”... both kids then suddenly stomp down the hallway so loudly that the dead could be raised by it... “SHHHHHHHHHHHH!!”
It's about half an hour later and Patience is watching with full mesmerization her oldest brother scorching her breakfast toast with the volcano-red flame of his new butane lighter...
Somehow this transfers to one of the Soulard potatoes exploding into the tile floor in a rain of starchy shards as the boys decide this would be the perfect moment for a spontaneous old-fashioned food fight... pieces of potato are being slung back and forth across the living room...
But biggest brother has things to do... and as he scoots off to help his old youth leader haul bags of cement to his new house...
...I shut myself in my room to begin wrapping the load of gifts waiting for Christmas paper... and realize that... things have been a little too quiet for maybe a little too long...
The clang of the utility ladder rings somewhere in the back yard... a clue... pause scissors and tape to peek out the back window... yup... there the two clowns are... standing on the roof of the garden shed rocking it back and forth as it teeters at a 45 degree slant on old tree roots...
Eventually they find an activity less likely to incite neighbors knocking on my front door... and the silence of slicing and stapling copious paper chains in red and green and white and two shades of blue to decorate their “secret fort” completely preoccupies them almost until it's time to drive north to Florissant for Christmas Numero Uno...
We're all five of us there near four o'clock with most of the extended family for lasagna and fried chicken and green bean casserole and things... as tiny cousins run between knots of conversation before a pile of shiny gifts are unwrapped and a display of truffles and trifle and cake is unveiled...
Then Puck scoots to his best friend's grandparents' someplace else in Florissant for Christmas Two of the day...
...and the rest of us bus back south in time for Oxbear to elder at the nine o'clock Christmas Eve service...
...while Yali and Patience busy-busy themselves with more chains of paper loops before bedtime listening to evening reads on a mild Christmas night...