Add in Another
Sunday, April 22, 2012
A single white glow through the trees, right from the East, like a burst into the New Earth.
On the way to church, Collette reminded Puck about opening birthday gifts that afternoon…
“Make sure you thank everyone and don’t put the presents aside too fast just to open the next one.”
“Yes,” Puck nodded in agreement. “I could never throw it off. Now that I’m a five year-old, there could be a vase coming.”
Puck comfortably sat himself squarely behind the women’s table in the foyer.
“What are you doing?” Collette asked him.
“I’m waiting for company,” he replied. “I’m signing people up to clean that dust off the wall.”
He pointed to a large dust ball stuck high above them.
Ben-Hur was briefly back in town and strolled into the service, slapping an arm wrestle with Puck who was clamoring after the muffin table.
Rain fell.
“Who took the sausage off my pizza?” OLeif asked.
“Linnea did,” Rose charged.
“What?” Linnea grinned guiltily. “I only took one piece off of each slice.”
“There are four missing on this piece.”
“It wasn’t me!”
As the leftover boxes were scavenged, the family adjourned to the living room for some “Andy Griffith”, before the grandmas arrived to celebrate a belated Puck birthday.
Mom and Puck took a walk with the new bike as OLeif and Collette waved them off from the front porch. Rose’s head popped around the rose bushes…
“Sneaky, eh?” she asked with satisfaction.
“You were walking barefoot on concrete,” OLeif replied, laughing.
Rose removed herself inside for a snack of colby jack cheese and a glass of milk, citing something about eating because she was bored.
“OLeif, could you hand me a glass of water?” Collette asked. “I’m not sure what happened to mine.”
“Mom probably removed it,” Rose answered absently. “Or gremlins.”
Mom and Puck returned for Puck to wash his bike.
“Wow. Wonder why I’m so good at riding,” he said to himself, coasting through the living room.
“Puck…”
“I’m just graduating [congratulating[ myself,” Puck giggled, shaking his head.
“I’m a Christian rider,” he said later. “I have a cross on this bike.”
“What are you going to name your bike?” Collette asked.
“Fast Buddy.”
And later, as his uncles examined his new wheels, impressed…
“I hope people still recognize me because I’ll be going so fast.”
Dad returned with Grandma Snicketts not long after Grandma Combs had arrived with five large balloons, one of which was printed with the number 5. It didn’t take long for the happy fellow to unwrap a world map puzzle and Snoopy blanket from Grandma Combs, thank Grandma Snicketts for her card and ten-dollar bill in the mail, and a set of Dr. Seuss in Spanish from the rest of the family.
Dad grilled up the ballpark franks, accompanied by fruit salad, original Sun Chips, and Doritoes. A large Dierberg’s bakery cake and Tippin’s key lime pie was prepared for dessert as Puck snuffed out the #5 candle on the marble cake.
Rose called in later that night. Joe, Magnus, and Cassidy were over. And…
“You want a kitten or two?”
“Uh oh.”
“Yup. I think she’s going to have some. I have to take her to the vet.”
“How many do they usual have?”
“The vet said two to nine.”