Cookies and Office Trifles
Thursday, December 14, 2006
The news that morning revealed that the British police had finally deducted that Princess Diana had not been murdered back on August 31 of 1994. It had been purely an accident, according to the research. Collette remembered hearing about it on the news at the time. It was hard to believe that it had already been twelve years since that frightful day for Great Britain.
That morning the sun rose as Michelangelo would have painted it – a brilliant rose and gold, glowing in the east.
Back at the office, Ivy and Collette gathered around as Judah oiled up the brand new paper shredder and watched stapled papers and a CD crunch through the top while Bud Cross put handrails on the staircases. And Rosemary brought in a plate of homemade double chocolate chip cookies.
Later in the afternoon, someone called the office to see if anyone knew of any non-Orthodox Russian churches in the area. Judah could only think of a Haitian, a Spanish, a Chinese, and several Korean. Bud suggested one in the city, but it was Orthodox, which didn’t fit the criteria. The questions people called in with sometimes…
Meanwhile, there was going to be a wedding at Grace, December 30th, for someone outside the church. Collette found out that morning that the person getting married was either the son or the daughter in a home schooled family that the Englishs and Snicketts had known years before. They had participated in putting on a production of The Sound of Music in the English’s backyard, also with the Blots family.
Then Ivy trimmed the pom-pom on Judah’s homemade red winter cap, which he had woven together from an unraveled sweater. A solitary thread had been sticking out from the rest of the pom-pom all day long, and it was driving Ivy crazy.
Following work, Mom picked up Collette for her to come over and finish baking the cookies (as Rose was feeling too ill to finish them). So she, Frances, and Linnea rolled out another seventy sugar cookies and gingerbread cookies.
“Ah, a pig!” Joe selected one of the cookie cutters from the old ice cream bucket of cookie cutters. “This one’s for Rose.”
“I’m going to make a Greek cross,” Linnea said.
Frances watched her make it, “Are they really equal on all sides?”
“Of course,” Linnea said, concentrating, “didn’t you learn anything from the Christmas program?”
Linnea referred to the Chrismons themed Christmas program at church the week and a half before, regarding Christmas symbols: crosses, crowns, suns, chis, etc.
Frances punched out several of his own creations, combining gingerbread and sugar cookie dough into stars and a Christmas tree with gingerbread ornaments.
Carrie, meanwhile, returned from work, as the family worked through several boxes of pizzas.
Frances and Linnea continued the cookies and Linnea cut out a free-handed Latin cross. There were several dog bone shapes for Troops, and Mom read through some more Christmas letters at the kitchen table, including one from their old friends, the Ravens. It appeared that some romance was blooming for Collette’s and Diana’s old childhood friend, Garret. And Janek was in his last year of law school. How people changed over the years from Christmas letter to Christmas letter.