Black Friday

Mom and Dad left for Branson that morning while Puck sat in a pile of wrapping paper with Francis, and played peek-a-boo behind a sheet of Happy Birthday paper.
And on that Black Friday, Lucia arrived to participate in a little non-Christmas shopping after Collette and Carrie made a morning trip — groceries for the weekend, including: pizza rolls, bagel bites, chicken strips, Texas toast, and ingredients for Death by Chocolate Dessert (a trifle of chocolate brownie, chocolate pudding, Cool Whip, and Reeses Peanut Butter Cups). Carrie-Bri would allow no more junk food than that. She was known for polishing the pantries to make tasty nutritious dinners.
When Lucia accompanied them to Target, the masses were already crawling. But the three girls had little to purchase except for shampoo, baby cereal, and a pair of boots for Lucia.
This was followed with hair trims for Carrie-Bri and Lucia. Carrie wasn’t ready to part with her multi-colored dreads (which Collette was still hoping she might save for a future work of art), so they were managed to be saved in the process of scissorfication.
Puck ran about the house importantly as usual. His Uncle Joe and Aunt Rose were at work, which left Francis and Lila to participate in his entertainment of the morning and afternoon while Carrie and Lucia had their hair freshly colored over a rewatch of MUSE at Wembley.
And after Puck had heard Joe sneeze several times that morning, he began to fake sneeze during the rest of the day.
Christmas lights were out again.
“I like that,” said Francis that evening, as Collette and Puck were getting ready to leave. “There’s something great about seeing people’s Christmas lights outside.”
Then he strapped on his helmet and escorted Collette and Puck out of the neighborhood on his beloved go-kart.