Christmas, Candles, & Wheat Bread
Wednesday, December 22, 2004
It was another Wednesday and a morning for work. Collette would go in twice that week as there were three bulletins to type, edit, print, and process. Every Christmas it was like that, and she and Ivy would be burning the midnight oil, relatively speaking. The skies were gray to boot, bringing heavy promises of snow in the looming darkness. A white Christmas would be a wonderful thing for St. Louis.
Collette hurried around that morning, preparing for the day. There were several grilled cheeses to make for their lunches. Hers were on white. One of OLeif’s was on white, as one slice would be the heel (which he liked) and the other was on wheat. She rolled up the loaf in the bag when she was done and shoved it back into the cabinet. Wheat bread didn’t deserve to be tied with a twisty-tie. She despised wheat bread. There were certain types she didn’t mind having as toast, but the heavy type weighted down with wheat grains and kernels and crunchy tidbits made her stomach curl.
The day was a day for business and getting things done. But the evening would be rewarded with shopping in the bitter cold among the carolers and lanterns and roasting chestnuts and thirty Santas from around the world. And of course, it was always ended with dessert by a roaring fire at Cracker Barrel. And this year, there would be no peach cobbler or fudge brownie with nasty little nuts to pick out of it. No, this year it would be a hard cold root beer float. And the blazing fire and hearth would bring enough warmth to thaw the freeze out of her.
It had been a good day, a hard day in other ways. But she had seen Nana Thyme again (the English’s grandma), Grandma Combs, the English girls, and even Idewild who was working at Cracker Barrel that evening.
At work, Ivy introduced Collette to the concept of fluffer-nutters (which Collette thought absolutely revolting), and they were each given a candle from Mrs. Swiss – Collette’s candle had pine cased inside, and Ivy’s with holly – both very lovely. Mrs. Swiss was just that sort of thoughtful person.
And Joe the Younger enlightened them all – Ivy, herself, and Judah (or ‘Jasoni’ (as Ivy named him, or “Hoky Polky” as he had been secretly dubbed by Carrie-Bri, herself, and Rose, at home)). Joe was telling them of his friend, Luciano, from Brazil.
He tickled himself as he recalled, “We gave him so much grief over the way he said the word “beach”, that he just quit saying it altogether. He would start saying things like, ‘You know – the place where there’s sand and water.’” He imitated his Spanish accent. “He just never could say it right. It was so hilarious.”
The tap dripped continuously in the kitchen sink to keep the water from freezing in the pipes. Bitter cold had come, and even a good deal of snow was predicted.
Judah was suddenly inspired and a wide grin spread across his face as he suggested to the others quite happily, “Oh, I hope it snows us in. We’ll all just spend Christmas Eve here together.”
“Yeah, one big happy family,” Joe roared with laughter.
“I was thinking we’d start breaking down the furniture for a bonfire. Firing up the laminate.”
Joe was laughing quite hard by that time, “Yeah – Who cares about the fumes? We’re all together. Toxic fumes – never separated a family before.”
The two boys were quite a spectacle together and they never failed to provide ample entertainment for both herself and Ivy, weekly. She knew that Judah would take it hard when Joe, Angelina, and baby Younger finally left in January.
But the day was good and quick and warm inside. Even the computer seemed to be cooperating with Ivy.
“Well, thank you for telling me, Mr. Computer,” she said pleasantly with a little happy squeak on the end, after it had shown her what to do on the program.