The Eyes of Texas & Everything Else Texan for Thanksgiving

As for the trip, there were always oddities along the way, and the first was spotted in the Silverspoon’s subdivision – a tree which had the appearance of being a bloomin’ onion. Once the van was loaded to capacity, they were off with coffee and bananas to start while Theodore drove the first stretch. Wally sat in the back seat trying to snap open his banana several times, unsuccessfully.

“I can’t do it,” he whined. “Which way?”

Denae buried her face in her hands. “I haven’t taught my children how to open bananas,” she moaned, and laughed. “I’ve failed as a mother!”

The first hours were sleepy. And later, as the sun began to rise, they passed an enormous plantation garden store and the Snorty Horse Saloon and there was a long and humorous reading from Phillip Gulley. Soon, Oklahoma came into view. Ten hours later, they thundered into Texas, with Denae behind the wheel (who had lost her glasses at a rest stop back in Missouri).

“Ah, back in the Motherland,” Theodore almost sighed, setting aside the Phillip Gulley book.

First stop – Whataburger. Collette had never even heard of such a place before she had met the Silverspoons. The burgers were pretty tasty, and they munched while Curly drove them into the countryside of Mount Vernon, Texas.

It wasn’t long before Collette had her first sight of Uncle Clause and Aunt Agnes’ abode – a ranch sitting right there by the road with the country stove shop sitting back a little ways. A good sized pond lay just above the brink, a hammock under a spreading tree, and several acres of spruce and bright red and yellow woods. A shed was tucked around back and no sooner had they hopped out of the car into the balmy Texan November, then Uncle Clause and Aunt Agnes hurried out towards them, arms open with hugs for all.

Collette remembered them both from the wedding. And she couldn’t help but love them from the start. There was something so familiar about the both of them, as though they had already been a part of her family before she had married OLeif. They were wonderful. Their Texan drawl only added to the charm, Collette thought, and as they welcomed them, they led them to the store, laughing and talking. Aunt Agnes was just precious – reminded Collette somewhat of Mrs. Swiss from church. And Uncle Clause was easy-going and just happy to see them. Collette learned soon that they were known as “Mimi” and “Paba” to their two granddaughters, Felicity and Tooti Port.

Their little stove shop was warming just to look around, and Collette knew that Mom would fall in love with the place, if ever she saw it. Wood burning stoves and old-fashioned ovens. They oohed and aahed over everything, although it was soon time to head towards the cabin and unload the truckload.

Theodore laughed heartily over the enormous amount of stuff stacked into the back of the van – mostly food. “We’re not hear for a three-day trip,” he said. “We’re moving to Texas.”

Uncle Clause chuckled, “Well, when I saw you pull in with the back end of the van hanging pretty low there, I thought it might be Mexicans piled up in the back.”

And so it was off to the cabin, a few miles down the road. As soon as they pulled into the marina, Collette loved what she saw – a far-stretching blue lake in both directions, wooded, and several freshly built cabins.

They soon settled into the coming evening around music and chili for supper (once Relevance and Kitts had arrived), on the porch under the stars. More family arrived to stay on the other side of the cabin, including several younger cousins and Great Aunt Sarah-Lynne (who kept the family records and wore a matching set of earrings and necklace with large plump silver hearts hanging from each piece). She was a sweet elderly lady (the matriarch of the family, as OLeif put it). And she and the rest of the family left to eat at the Marina while the Silverspoons and Souths ate dinner on the porch and Relevance and OLeif discussed various views of eschatology.

Later, John-W & Judy Port (Clause and Agnes’ daughter), and the girls, Felicity and Tooti, dropped by with boxed quessadillas to talk over things and have some good stories and laughs. “Snickerdoodle” (Clause and Agnes’ son) from Denver and his fiancé, Penelope, also hung around for awhile – fun couple. Collette loved that family from the beginning. She remembered seeing Snickerdoodle and Penelope at the wedding, and Judy and the girls when they had visited Saint Louis, but it had been several years since then.

Sleeping quarters had already been claimed: The boys took the bunk in the room next to Theodore and Denae. Relevance and Kitts took the “honeymoon suite” (thus dubbed by Denae) on the other side of the cabin for the first night, while OLeif and Collette took the loft bed above the bunk, although Wally and OLeif wrestled for it. Collette was not altogether certain that the bed would hold their weight, but somehow it managed not to creak too dreadfully during the night.

The next morning, they awoke to the fresh cold of the lake and blue skies across the horizon. There was coffee all-around on the front porch (following cinnamon rolls) while Aunt Sarah-Lynne walked them through the family record book and Kitts played Sudoku, a Japanese number puzzle. Several of the young women of Denae’s ancestors had been married at fifteen, and some were of Scottish origin. Old photographs accompanied – fascinating information.

And as they chatted over family roots and such, OLeif and Relevance discussed the latest happenings at UT. Relevance was telling of a certain fellow student from school, Ashwin (Osh-vin), Indian, and “freakin” smart, and of how he had recently become a Christian and was involved in a Bible study with him – a fellow who had earned his undergraduate degree from Bombay, and another graduate degree from somewhere in the Netherlands.

“He is scary smart,” Relevance was saying, lauding the fellow’s apparent intelligence.

Denae (who was looking over old family records with Great Aunt Sarah-Lynne) almost snorted, “And, what – our grandpa drove a 7-up truck?”

But before long, it was time to head over for Thanksgiving – at ten o’clock in the morning. Upon arrival, they were once again welcomed and hurried to prepare food for lunch. In the end, Collette only managed to cut of a stalk of celery for the vegetable tray, and it was out to the yard to play a round of croquet with Relevance, OLeif, Kitts, Tooti, and another little cousin. The game was interrupted for family pictures after Thompson and Cynthia had arrived with various other relations.

And then, dinner was served. Never before had Collette seen such feasting. Fluffy mounds of green and pink and white salads (“foo-foo” – named by OLeif and Wally), generous portions of turkey, stuffing, ham, cranberries, various vegetables, deviled eggs, thick bread, and exhaustible reserves of sweet tea. Pies, cakes, and cookies for dessert… More than once did she hear said that day:

“Eat up, Collette. You need to eat like us so you can be one of the family – a true Bracken.”

There were so many families and people there, that Collette did not know where to begin with them all. She decided to frame the family reunion picture taken and hang it on the wall back in the apartment. They were all amazingly easy and friendly people, and soon after lunch, several began scooting off, even though Collette had not had the chance to meet them all, nor the one with her same name, who had married into the family and wore spiked-heeled red shoes, a scuff-ruffled red sphagetti-strapped top, pearls around her wrist & large gold hoop earrings, long shiny brown hair, and a tattoo on her back from the Sistine Chapel – God reaching down to man.. She was the quintessential southern beauty. Somehow she managed to carry her son around in the grass in her shoes without sinking into the ground. Although, the weather hadn’t seen rain in so long, that the ground was hard and the grass was the consistency of wheat, so sinking was not a high possibility. Even the lake was down four feet from its normal level. They were all saying that West Texas had, instead, seen all the rain that year and their fields were green, as opposed to East Texas where the bluebells bloomed in the spring. But aside from all that weather business.

So the kids took turns exploring the woods behind the pond on Darcy’s four-wheeler (on which OLeif gave her a ride as well), playing croquet and volleyball, eating more pie, and oddly enough, the woods were filled with more color than Missouri had seen over the fall.

Then Karl came over to play cards (the husband of Thompson and Cynthia’s daughter, whom she had met on eharmony). He was wicked good at cards (both hearts and spades), and he beat them, hands down, nearly every round (once shooting the moon without even knowing it till the end).

As they played, the Bracken women sat around for their traditional unveiling of the feet. Apparently all Bracken women had an abnormally crooked toe, and they enjoyed displaying this “unusuality” to one another at every family reunion; Karl’s wife was included.

“My wife has ugly feet,” Karl said matter-of-factly, as he played his next card. “She’s a beautiful woman, but she has ugly feet. Butt ugly feet.”

Collette had to laugh loudly at this, as did Kitts and Relevance.

Meanwhile, Wally was strumming and singing to the wild Irish tune of “Bonny Bonny Banks of Loch Lomond” while the rest were inside watching the game – Dallas vs. Denver. One thing was certain about these Texans – they all seemed to give hugs, and they were enormous football fans – college, pro, or else.

There was a hay ride with everyone as the sun went down that evening, along with Milo, the Port’s young pup, who ran off to chase rats in the old shack at one point, where old carnival equipment was stored (at least, that’s what Collette heard). And John Wayne and OLeif continued to fish in the pond.

Thanksgiving evening ended with hearing of Aunt Agnes and Judy’s trip to New York City, several rounds of Spades, the kids taking turns dipping their hands in a wax machine (a skin-softener of sorts, as far as Collette could make out), and finishing the football game. Eventually the sun set low enough for Denae to further forbid the boys from driving the four-wheeler. And it was put aside for the night.

Friday was a day of pure relaxation. After fried eggs, sausage, and coffee in the other side of the cabin (as Aunt Sarah-Lynne and the others had already left), they headed back over to Clause and Agnes’ with Snickerdoodle & Penelope and the Ports. There was another football game (this time Texas won), another large lunch of Thanksgiving fixings, more rides around the woods, card games, and music. And in the afternoon, they were greeted with a surprise visit from Theodore’s older sister, Annabelle Prospector, and her husband, Pete. They greeted everyone heartily, particularly as they hadn’t seen the Silverspoons since Israel was an infant. They seemed quite spunky in speech, all in all, and after Pete had taken a nap for the trip home, OLeif, Wally, and Izzy played them some music. After “Danny Boy,” Annabelle put her arms around her brother and hugged him, with tears in her eyes.

All too soon, it was time for Annabelle and Pete to leave, and after a family picture, they scooted off in their old pick-up truck, back to their horse farm.

Later, Collette took a walk in the woods to collect a brilliant handful of autumn leaves while the boys continued to ramp on the four-wheeler by the pond.

Meanwhile, Clause scooted out his fancy lawn-mower (which turned on a dime), and had Denae climb in the pilot’s seat to try it out. He showed her how to steer with the handles. And yet, suddenly she got the controls confused, and managed to just miss running over her brother by inches; she then continued to chase him up the pond bank – completely unintentional, of course. They were all hooting and hollering with laughter at the sight, and OLeif, who was fishing at the time, rolled over on the ground laughing hysterically.

“Pull back! Pull back!” Clause continued to yell after her as she spun donuts around the lawn, nearly missing trees. “Pull back!”

Before dinner, they all piled into the van and suburban and drove over to Braum’s Ice Cream shop and laughed over ice cream cones. On the way back, they drove by an elderly black man’s house on Baker Street who had decorated his entire lawn, stem to stern, with Christmas lights and Christmas creatures while Elvis sang Christmas tunes in the background. His one yard lit up the entire neighborhood. Apparently he had begun the display with a simple lit-up “Jesus” sign of some sorts, and people had begun giving him donations to continue adding lights – thus the full yard. Two buckets were hung on his fence for more donations, to which they contributed. It was quite a cheery sight.

Back at the house there was another meal of burgers off the grill and several opted to use the hot tub on the back patio while others played cards. The evening ended listening to Relevance play his classical guitar and then they hit the feathers, all quite beat.

Saturday, there were goodbyes after pancakes, eggs, breakfast casserole, juice, and coffee. It was a gray morning, but everyone had enjoyed a wonderful time. There was promise of reuniting once again soon, and Collette left with good memories. The trip was topped off after Denae found a Bluebell Ice Cream man stocking the shelves at a nearby grocery store while Theodore fueled up the van. And so the friendly brownie-colored man hopped into the dry ice of his truck and pulled out a half-gallon of cookies and cream for Collette after she had her picture taken with him next to the truck. And then it was back to Saint Louis. Oh, the memories people make…

What had further been happening over that week following Thanksgiving?

1. Christmas decorations had been set up at the apartment, including the manger from Grandma, the little Christmas tree (smaller than the little one Joe had just purchased for his room), and the 12 Days of Christmas boxes from Ivy the year before.

2. The Canadians had found a stray dog in the same place that Shamrock had first been found.

3. Sissy Gleep dropped by the church office to put an envelope of Women’s Christmas Outreach Dinner checks in [Jeff Young]’s box, and Collette decided that she acted precisely like Barbara Streishand – pretty cool.

4. The radio advertised a poinsettia company featuring customized poinsettias, introducing the very first “peach-colored” poinsettias.

5. Snow had blown in briefly the gray morning of December 1^st – a snow globe snow.

6. Mercy’s [Reed] had finally made it to Russia.

7. Judah’s 72-year old grandma was to be married that month.

8. Rose had designed a “Wickel” t-shirt for Wally, and was considering making one for herself with the caption – “I’m a crunchy clam.”

9. Joe remembered (without prompting) the Precious Moments wallpaper from the nursery at their first church, Immanuel Baptist, when he was only an infant.

10. There was a bowl of Ivy’s special potato soup for lunch Friday, along with a burrito made from a tomato and basil tortilla from Trader Joe’s.

11. The stripes were being painted on the parking lot at church that very afternoon.

12. There was to be a showing of “Arsenic and Old Lace” put on by Liberty Christian Church that evening, where OLeif and Collette would be taking Magnus, Curly, Wally, and Molly, and meeting Joe and Rose at the school.

13. And most importantly, Tor’s heart surgery had been successful!

(15:36pm) Meanwhile, it suddenly occurred to Collette as she sat there at her desk that wintry Friday afternoon, that it was Apple’s wedding day! Surely, it was still not quite 9:00 in the morning in Sydney (they were seventeen hours ahead of Saint Louis), but within those next hours, Apple would find herself at the altar! It was a fantastic thought, and Collette would try to remember to pray for her as she awoke the next morning, although it would likely be too late by then. She could not recall what time she was to be married, but she would check the wedding announcement at the apartment before they left that evening. How exciting!

“…keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds (which) can be done only by reading old books.” – C.S. Lewis