Presents

Sunday was another present-fest for the Puck. After sitting calmly through church under another damp sky, Puck returned to the house and almost immediately found his pile of presents.
“Presents!” he declared, bringing one of them out to the living room.
He started to tear the paper until Collette told him to wait.
After the girls had returned from church, Collette joined them on a brief trip to the library, where she reserved Hebrews for Dummies, French for Dummies, and Italian for Dummies, and Rose picked up a DVD called “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes”. Then to World Market where Rose purchased a box of tea and a small bottle of sparkling cider.
Several hours later, once everyone had returned from their various services (including one where Linnea was admitted with the four other communicants as a member of the church), and the grandmas had arrived, it was that time.
Puck immediately shed his shyness when the pile of gifts was set next to him on the floor. They included: travel cartoon DVDs, a Skittles car and large pack of Skittles, a t-shirt that read “I’m SO Two!”, and a large silver matchbox Mercedes. All from Grandma Combs.
“I’ll be able to say that I gave him his first Mercedes,” she joked.
“I gave him his first Ferrari,” Joe added.
Grandma Snicketts gave him a book about animals and their “daddies” and, of course, the continued subscription to “Highlights” magazine, which came once a month. Puck read these to himself for long pockets of time, looking with great interest over the pictures.
And both grandmas had sent him cards in the mail.
Then came the gifts from the family. A mini sonic screwdriver, a Doctor Who action figure with five miniature adipose “fatties”, a handmade “fatty” courtesy of Carrie who had sewn, stuffed, attached little black button eyes, and outlined in glow-in-the-dark paint, “So Dear to my Heart” (the old VHS version), another “Brave Little Toaster”, “The Three Caballeros”, and another vacuum! This vacuum, when given batteries, would actually semi-clean the floor. And Mom and Carrie had attached large googly eyes to the front.
Puck could not be happier with the wealth of birthday offerings, and he happily played with all of these things for the rest of the day, calling out “thank you”s from time to time.
Then, after grilled hot dogs, bratwurst, chips, and fruit salad, they sang him a rousing chorus of “Happy Birthday” over a large Italian cream cake lit with two candles, which he happily blew out, to the best of his ability.