Dad's Side of the Family

Saturday, December 26, 2009

It was time, once again, for the Snicketts-Black Christmas gathering for Christmas number six. This time, it was to be in New Town at Uncle Balthasar’s and Aunt Tuuli’s house. Everyone was planned to be there except, sadly, once again, for Uncle Clarence and family, who would be stationed, still, in South Carolina for the holidays. In fact, Samwise would be in China, celebrating the holidays with his girlfriend, meeting her parents for the first time. And nothing had been officially stated yet; however, Collette wondered if Esther might have a ring on her finger.

First, though, it was back to the Silverspoon’s for the morning for a pan of cinnamon melts made and sent over by Bluebell, and fried eggs and bacon.
As everyone slowly began to wake up, Theodore brought out the Parade magazine which displayed the photo of Mollie in her coffee filter dress as photographed by OLeif. And then Kitts came out with her new Amazon Kindle, a Christmas gift from Relevance. Puck was busy with Play-dough, eating more walnuts, (‘Crack a ole-nut,’ he would say), and throwing around his bouncy balls with Izzy.

After a round of enchiladas, it was back on the road again for OLeif, Collette, and Puck in the one degree below freezing temperatures.
But Uncle Balthasar’s house was warm and already full of people, including the rest of the Snicketts’ family, Grandma Snicketts, some long-time neighbors of the family, Bristol and Nerissa and the twins, and Travis and his girlfriend. Puck soon acclimated to Starlight and Sunlight and then the entire Black family arrived, plus Esther’s boyfriend, and Puck quickly found a new best friend in Liselotte. After a brief dinner and gifts in the basement, they stormed up and down the carpeted stairs together, giggling and talking incessantly about the cat, to which Brit was allergic.
“Da cat’s gonna get out!”
“Cat’s gonna get out da door!”
…they called out back and forth to each other. It was a great floor show, especially when they got out Puck’s new plastic tool set from Grandma Snicketts and began working on the wall of the staircase. Liselotte started slamming one of the plastic nails into the wall. And Puck carried on right along after her with the pliers.

Meanwhile, Santa Claus (aka Uncle Balthasar) had been at it again. Fifty dollar bills for all the grandkids and great-grandkids. An endless outpouring of generosity. Not to mention the additional contributions from Grandma Snicketts for everyone. It was a generous evening, altogether.

Then came dessert, which included Fernando’s favorite of the evening.
“It’s like ice cream on a cookie,” he said with enthusiasm. “This is amazing!”
Fernando was, hilarious. He had a funny kind of giggle which contributed to all of the conversation at their table, which included Uncle Balthasar trying to pawn off the sledge-hammer of a dining room table, which Grandma Snicketts had once sold to him — in payments. There were many comments on how nice the table was.
Meanwhile, Puck and Liselotte had transferred themselves to the sitting area with the twins, to jump on a giant brown pillow in the middle of the floor.
And the festivities ended shortly later with Jashub walking back down the street to the Black’s house to crash before popcorn and a drive back to Columbia. And it was time to get Puck down for the night for an early awakening the next morning.

In other happy news of the day, Laurel Peach was engaged for Christmas.