Something for the Grandkids
Four inches on the ground, still falling.
Farm-fresh eggs fried in pork sausage fat, farm-fresh bacon.
We watched the weather report for fun. That’s what Snicketts do. Considering that a foot of snow was still possible with wind gusts up to 25-40 MPH and negative three for the high on Monday followed by a wind chill of 20-30 below zero, we were definitely in for some Arctic conditions. Also, church was canceled.
El Oso had prepared a batch of eggnog the night before in celebration, whirling the hand-cranked egg beater in the glass pitcher, click, click, click. Tapping in the nutmeg, making up for holiday drinks missed during the odd-ish Christmas we all experienced this – last – year.
Puck sprawled on the hombre rug still in his jams, pulling apart a buckyball.
“Mom, you know I don’t love my neighbors as much as my toys, I mean my toys as much as my neighbors. You know how it says to love myself as my neighbor, I mean my neighbor as myself. But I love my toys more than I love myself.”
“But God loves you more than your toys.”
“Well, I love God more than my toys though.”
I guess that could count for a two-minute Sunday School lesson. Then El Oso led a devotional based on Spurgeon’s writings for all four of us before Izzy left to test the roads and drop off a stranger at Wal-Mart. I read up on Peter Kreeft’s “Catholic Christianity”. El Oso helped Izzy pack up his car for the dorm before he trundled off into the 20-inch drifts or whatever. El Oso measured with a yardstick. And the wind howled.
Puck wanted a cuddle. I never turn down a Puck cuddle, never. So we cuddled nap-style on the couch by the fire, his chubby pillow cheeks crunching goldfish crackers.
It was about two o’clock. Puck made it about nine minutes out there, literally up to his waist in the deck drifts while El Oso shoveled the rest of the driveway and Sebastian watched faithfully from the front walk, crusted with snowflakes.
Puck was truly excited, dancing around in the powdery whiteness and wind. “I bet my grandchildren will be freaked out when they hear the story!”
He thinks a lot like his dad.
The snow faded as it grew dark. El Oso, giving me a break from cooking and dishes, also made milk chocolate brownies over more episodes of “I Love Lucy”. These unexpected mini vacations.
Around six o’clock, Rose informed me that the mayor had “closed down the city”. So no work for anyone in the morning.
And the wind rattled down the chimney.