Happy Year
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Collette had intended to fall asleep well before midnight. And her intentions had been well-built: under three layers of covers by 10:15 or so, a MacArthur sermon to cut up the silence a little, some good thoughts to sort through…
But the pillow arrangement was irritating and uncomfortable, and then, far too early, the fire crackers, or more like fire bombs began splitting into the night, right as she was about to doze off…
Slam!
Collette jumped. That got the adrenaline flowing… Then again, not long later, just as dreamworld was approaching…
Slam!… Slam! Slam!
That was exactly what it felt like: a slam to the senses. And it irritated her sinuses. Not to mention the yelling, screaming, car horns, etc. Then OLeif returned, and with the squeaky floorboards… And… needless to say, Collette did not fall asleep until after one o’clock in the morning, after all…
OLeif made waffles for breakfast, an enormous plate: loaded with fat waffles for the Puckster, and lathered in butter, slathered with maple syrup.
Meanwhile…
Dad had to go into work.
Mom, and hopefully Dad, were to spend the afternoon with Uncle Mo, Aunt Petunia, and a slew of other old high school buddies.
And Collette, OLeif, and Puck were off to the Silverspoon’s for the holiday.
When Kitts and Relevance arrived, Kitts had a small Celtic harp with her, and began to tune it, while OLeif showed Puck tricks with Curly’s buckyball. Then Gloria returned with groceries to get the spaghetti started. Izzy was up after twelve. And Puck lunched off the old Wah-Hoo board until Sebastian devoured the rest of his smoked turkey. Just one reason never to own an animal… And The Twilight Zone marathon rolled on as it seemed to happen every New Year’s Day on the Syfy channel.
Lunch…
Discussion of names, what they each would have been named if they had been born the opposite gender, etc. And how Gloria should have an enormous bowl of buckyballs at their house.
“It would be a nana thing,” said Kitts.
“Oh, I though you were going to say ‘spaghetti’ and not ‘buckyballs’,” said OLeif. “And I was going to tell you that M’nMs would be better.”
“Buckyballs beat M’nMs,” said Kitts.
“But they don’t taste as good,” OLeif replied.
As the afternoon rolled in…
OLeif and Puck read the children’s Bible together. When they got to the page about the fall of Jericho, it took awhile for Collette to convince Puck that she had not visited Jericho at the time of its destruction.
Then Puck waited around for the gang to finish off the red wine from lunch so that he could ‘play with the bottle’.
As everyone gathered together for Twilight Zone and a fire, Kitts wrapped up Puck in a sheet, twisted him up, and let him unwind, suspended in the air, like a carnival ride, giggling. And when Kitts grew tired, Izzy took over.
And there were, inevitably, more games around the kitchen table for everyone but, predictably: Theodore, Collette, and Puck. Puck, who saw the wine bottle still on the table, nearly emptied, and presumed that his daddy had drunk the entire thing by himself.
“And he would get a stumma-ache!” he declared loudly.
But it was soon time to leave, and before the sweet potato fries had been prepared, as the chunks of fire still blazed in the brick. And quick goodbyes were made, with rounds of hugs from Puck. Relevance and Kitts would be flying out to their respective universities the following day, and Curly would be driving back to Nashville, to be reunited, no doubt, at a later time in the spring, perhaps at Izzy’s graduation.
The evening…
Back home for the usual sort of OLeif-Collette night, with more 30 Rock re-runs, seltzer water for those who cared, a small Domino’s pizza with bacon and Feta, and the comforting quiet of the little house on the little hill.
And in good news to know of the day, John Piper, as promised, had made his return after an eight-month sabbatical. It was good to know that he was back again.
Note from Christmas at Grandpa’s…
While everyone had been gathered together, and the kids were rummaging through the soda cooler…
“Oh,” said Uncle Balthasar, “Tuuli forgot to put Collette’s beer in there.”