December 17

Puck started his morning at the house with one, and only one, peppermint Joe-Joe’s chocolate cookie, and a round of games on the old foosball table which Joe had brought up from the basement.
Meanwhile, Carrie had hung a pair of Linnea’s underwear from the kitchen ceiling as punishment for Linnea leaving them in Carrie’s bedroom.
Shortly later, Joe drove off with the foosball table to bring to Rolla for the Christian House.

And by eleven forty-five, Collette left for the church office to print the bulletin. It took a solid four hours to complete, but fortunately, the somewhat uncooperative machine also folded and stapled the documents, which saved time in the end.
She wasn’t able to leave the office, however, until Sinai reminded her about the time she had ‘yelled’ at the angry nursery man next door to the church for cussing at some of the kids. But that story had been told all too often…

She left at four-thirty to pick up a happy Puck who had been busy running around in the mud with Linnea and Gretyl in the afternoon, and was deeply involved in watching The Muppets Christmas Carol, when she arrived.

On the way home, Puck asked to listen to the ‘reindeer song’ as he talked about how ‘Jesus helped de people make de woads (roads),’ and that he was born in ‘Saint Loo-liss’.

The evening ended with Lemonheads, mint Oreos, and The Proposal, before Puck woke up with growing pains. Collette slept on the floor in his room to comfort him, after which, shortly later, he began giggling in his sleep.