In Celebration
Sunday, February 18, 2007
“Let’s go to Donut Tyme before church tomorrow,” OLeif had said, Saturday afternoon – yes, sometimes even OLeif was tempted with sweets.
Yet another stumbling sugary delight planted in Collette’s wake.
Meanwhile, Linnea had been making plans over the last months.
It was only the other day that she had said, quite seriously, “I’m going to teach the baby everything – sign language and math and Francis can teach him grammar. It’s going to take a lot longer though. Because he’s not a girl.”
Linnea was still convinced, from the first time she knew the baby was going to be a boy, that his mental capacity (like all boys’) would struggle in attaining the same speed of learning as opposed to a girl’s.
Back on the ranch, after church, Grandma Snicketts came over in the afternoon, bearing many gifts for just about everyone, as usual. Although Francis received the majority, of course, for his birthday.
He was given two bags of goodies in celebration of his turning twelve – these bags included a six-in-one hammer gadget (like a nesting doll hammer of various screwdrivers), a bag of glow-in-the-dark rocks, and a foot stool whose feet were actually army boots and the seat made of camouflage.
When the bag of glow-in-the-dark rocks popped open and went all over the floor, Trooper lunged for one, which Joe dislodged before he swallowed.
“Summer camp!” Francis said suddenly, looking at his bag of rocks with much mischief.
“No, you are not bringing those to summer camp,” Dad said.
And that put an end to that.
After all the gifts were opened, Joe took the tissue paper wrappings from the bags and tied them around his head and neck. Carrie took one of the bags – a metallic blue – cut it into flat pieces and began to trace circles around various circular objects onto the paper. She had plans to paste the circles on her bedroom walls and ceiling.
Meanwhile, Dad’s birthday balloons (which were only supposed to have remained aloft for four days), were still floating from his chair at the kitchen table, as full of helium as they had been two weeks before.
And there were bowls of chili for dinner followed by a large ice cream cake emblazoned with American flag and bald eagle.
The evening ended with a viewing of America’s Funniest Home Videos. Collette, who was writing in the kitchen at the time, kept hearing the thunderous uproars of laughter from everyone there gathered. It even tickled Dad’s funny bone.
Rose was at the computer for the first half of the show, looking through pictures and mumbling something about having to wear a beard for the madrigal dinner… Collette didn’t ask her questions.