Christmas End
The evening of December 25th saw the arrival of Relevance and Kitts from Texas. Denae had already prepared the red table cloth and large red candle and sconce for the centerpiece. And, the traditional Silverspoon Christmas meal: seafood. Primarily shrimp – coconut and raw. Denae knew that Collette did not eat shrimp and made a hamburger for her instead.
The conversation began by centering on various scientific things.
“So Prospector, my sister’s husband,” began Theodore, “well, their water heater went out last night. They had to move it.”
“We figured out the thing had to weigh about 400 pounds,” said Curly.
“How do you figure that?” Asked Relevance.
“A gallon of water weighs eight pounds. And it’s a fifty gallon water heater.”
“Are you sure?”
“So,” Theodore continued, “Prospector calls over his neighbor named Bubba, to help him move it. So Bubba picks up the whole thing and says, ‘So where do you want it?'”
“Are you sure water weighs eight pounds a gallon?” Asked Relevance.
“I don’t know,” said OLeif. “You’re the math person.”
‘Well hold on; let me do the conversion in my head…”
“I know it weighs eight pounds a gallon,” said Curly. “They always told us at Philmont. Eight pounds a gallon.”
And on it went until Theodore said:
“I want to change the subject.”
The rest of the meal was spent discussing everyone’s best Christmas memories. In the Silverspoon household, Christmas had been boss. Every year their excitement for the magic of Christmas morning could not be contained enough to prevent them from waking early to see if it was “time yet to wake up Mom and Dad” to open the presents.
After dinner, everyone gathered into the living room to open the cascading pile of gifts under the tree. There was a new violin case for Collette (for which she had been waiting eight years), hats and “happy socks” for Kitts, a Magic Bullet for both OLeif and Collette and Relevance and Kitts, a miniature bendable camera stand from the boys for OLeif, a set of blue glasses from Relevance and Kitts for OLeif and Collette, and many other things. The highlight of the evening came when Curly and Izzy were surprised head-over-heels with a new Wii. OLeif and Collette hit the feathers early at 10:30pm while the others stayed up late chatting and bowling.
The next day, OLeif and Collette took Relevance and Kitts to the mad-hopping Galleria – Teavana – for the second part of their Christmas present. They picked up Carrie-Bri on the way. The topic of conversation generally centered around politics and television programs. By the time they had returned, Puck was in his high chair banging his sippy cup on the tray to the fast-paced tune of “Waltzing Matilda” led by Curly on his guitar.
Christmas began, was, and ended well.