Prune the Holly Bush, Dream of Tsunami, Attend Fifty Weddings...

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

(1:51pm) So it had been a long, good week since the 3:30am departure for Texas the previous Wednesday morning, and the new week was already humming with Christmas plans and such. From earlier:

Sunday came around with a visit to Christ Presbyterian where Pastor Marshall had returned from a ten-week sabbatical to preach a wonderful sermon on the first verse of the book of Romans. He also spoke of his concern for the Evangelical church, after having visited a good number of churches in the area (Reformed and other); his conclusion was that preaching had fallen on hard times, and that the church had returned to evangelical narcissism, as it had done so over one hundred years before… It was sad to hear such things, which is why the church prayed for revival, or should pray for it, anyway.

Afterwards, there was lunch at Fuddrucker’s, and “Walk the Line” with the rest of the Silverspoon family. Wally and OLeif briefly discussed “wickel, wickel,” and the family managed to consume six large burgers and two baskets of potato wedges and onion rings before the hour had passed, while the Rams played on the television in the corner. And the film was excellent – Joaquin Phoenix pulling an amazing performance as the man himself. Collette was encouraged to know more of Johnny Cash’s story – his terrible life during the first half of his life, and then his coming to Christ and the rest of his time there on earth… It was a good story.

Then, back at the house, OLeif and Collette returned to see the red Christmas lights strung along the front (though a little faded from the wind and snow of the past several years or so), and Christmas tree and lights, poinsettias, and candles inside. What an enchanting sight. It was great to see everyone again after a week had passed, and there was much laughing and story-swapping over dinner at Cracker Barrel for a belated birthday dinner for Mom.

Monday brought a bouquet of white lilies and red Gerberas for Mom, from OLeif and Collette, as another belated gift. Mom had also received a lovely boxed glass lamp, with Battenburg lace pressed around the inside. And Mom was to attend the annual “Mom’s Birthday Lunch” with Denae and Mrs. English that Monday afternoon.

In other news, Carrie had found a special ring on thinkgeek.com which would open soda bottles (or beer, depending upon the occasion, of course) – very nifty. And Rose was already preparing to assemble a wardrobe for her pug, while Joe had just wrapped up his finger-printing merit badge (he and Curly both) with Curly, Sr., after Fazoli’s Sunday afternoon. There had also been a fall festival at “Giggle”’s or Julian Milk’s house which Joe and Rose had attended the previous Wednesday evening. And Joe had purchased a “lightning machine” which detected sound and worked excellently with his sub-woofers in his dynamo stereo system. Lucia, of course, had a great time showing off her “new dance moves” to Carrie over Thanksgiving, to the beat of Joe’s stereo, one being named “The Lawnmower.” And Rose had pruned off the top half of Carrie’s holly tree and had gleaned off all the red berries, saving them in a compartmentalized bead box. She had also planted a small evergreen tree in a pot on her windowsill, hanging miniature Christmas ornaments on its little branches, as a Christmas tree for the birds.

And Joe told Collette about the dream he had the night before:

“I dreamt that OLeif and I were talking. And OLeif said, ‘Andy, shut up. I have to go get some crystals.’ Like computer crystals or something, from this store. And then a huge tsunami came in and I flew with it, and all the boats were flying right by. And then I saw you, and you said, ‘Andy, you said too-nami instead of tsunami,’ and then you laughed and walked off. And then I dreamt that Curly and I were crawling around inside the air conditioning vents until someone said, ‘get out.’ And that was it.”

Outside, the wind was blowing fiercely in the gray of a late November afternoon, and Frances and Linnea played around outside, setting Troop’s dog cage up on end and getting inside with a pile of blankets as a windbreak.

Monday evening, after Mom had returned from her lunch with the ladies, she and Collette drove out to Old Saint Charles for Collette to purchase two magnets for Ivy’s birthday, reading:

“Notice to Guests: You can do whatever you want, as long as the cat is happy.”

And:

“A cat is fur with a personality.”

And so they talked about what was going on with the English family. Diana was not to backpack in Europe (as she was to purchase a car instead), Eve was leaving in January for a two-week mission trip to Haiti to work with a medical team (she hoped), and Tor was to have heart surgery that coming Friday, though it was nothing critical. With ten kids, there was always bound to be a bit of excitement.

Monday night there was a trip to Trader Joe’s while OLeif and Collette discussed everything as usual. And one interesting thing that came up, as they drove through the Chesterfield Valley, was the outstanding fact that within the next five years they would be invited to fifty+ weddings (an almost modest guess). It was pretty crazy to think about, but such was the present time of life.

Tuesday, there was a birthday lunch for Ivy at Chevy’s with all seven of the office staff. And in greater news, Apple had (by their time) three days till her wedding day, and Collette was very excited for her.