Nerissa's Shower

Nerissa’s and Bristol’s twins were arriving in about 10 weeks.
So before Nerissa no longer felt like socializing, a baby shower was hosted for her by Aunt Tuuli in New Town.
There were the usual games: guess how many chocolate kisses are in the baby bottle, baby bingo, and some new ones – baby madlibs. A favorite of Rose’s. There was also – be the first to melt the miniature plastic baby in the ice cube without using your hands. Rose won that one. She was awarded a white cotton-scented candle. Lydia won the baby bingo and was given a yellow melon-scented candle. Carrie was ready to tear her hair out before the games even began.
“I don’t even know how you like those things, Mom,” she said. “I’m ready to have a panic attack in there.”
But it was good to see family again. As Theresa retold the story about how they first discovered they were going to have twins,
she explained that the doctors told them about the “vanishing twin syndrome”. After the doctor had left, Bristol turned to Nerissa and asked:
“Don’t they eat each other sometimes?”
“NO, they don’t eat each other,” Nerissa said, laughing.
“That’s such a Snicketts boy thing to say,” Collette thought.
Then there was cake. Carrie scarfed hers down after scraping off all the frosting when she noticed that the running shower time was already almost at three hours. Collette was at least pleased to see that Carrie was not yet hyperventilating on the way out to the car in the drizzle of the afternoon skies.
“Wasn’t that just a cute party?” Mom asked.
Meanwhile, OLeif and Puck had spent the day with the Silverspoon’s, although Curly was in Tennessee for the weekend, and Izzy still in Colorado at the High Adventure camp. Puck feasted on ham, bean salad, corn sliced off the cob, strawberries, tomatoes, and other delights. OLeif strained his eyes out over finishing the church website and discussed homeopathy with his dad until Denae had had enough of the conversation and whisked off Puck to run errands with her to the fabric store.
And Collette took another evening walk in the gold and electric green of passing storms and mid-summer shadows.