Who's Better?

Friday, December 17, 2010

Another chill morning with the snow and ice still on the ground after five days.

On the way over to the house, Puck was thinking new thoughts…

“I want four bunnies. Four bunnies that go boing, boing, boing!” he declared.

And then they passed that beautiful old field sloping down into the woods that was now, unfortunately, for sale.

Over at the house…

“Do you want me, Sun?” Puck asked Carrie-Bri, coming over to the couch.

“Of course I do. You’re my favorite,” Carrie replied.

“You’re my favorite, Sun.”

Then Puck was playing ‘milk man’ with the milk carton carrier.

Rose had laced her and Linnea’s bunk bed in multi-colored Christmas lights.

And Francis brought up his term paper.

“This is the biggest paper I’ve ever written,” he said, letting it land on the coffee table.

“I was expecting a thud,” said Rose, who was leaving for Ivy’s to learn how to care for the cats for four days after Christmas.

Carrie, who had felt well enough again to bake a batch of gingersnaps, had put together Grandma Snicketts’ digital photo frame, complete with some of her favorite vintage tunes, and slides from when Aunt Corliss, Uncle Clarence, Uncle Balthasar, and Dad had been kids.

When Puck saw a picture of Dad as a little kid…

“Francis! It’s Francis!”

Then Francis, who was always looking for some scrap, or non-scrap, to burn, took the wine cork that Puck had been carrying around with him.

“Don’t burn that, Uncle Francis!” he exclaimed. “My daddy would cry if you burned that!”

Meanwhile, Linnea was wrapped up on the floor in a blanket like a cocoon.

And when Puck brought up one of the Christmas gifts…

“Hey, that’s mine,” said Carrie.

“She was shaking it last night to see what was in it,” said Rose.

“Yeah,” said Linnea. “She said that if I told her what it was, she would tell me what one of my gifts was!”
“I did not!” Carrie protested, pretending to be shocked.

Collette next persuaded Linnea into the kitchen for algebra, wherewhich Linnea arrived with a mug of hot cocoa that splashed onto her work page.

And Rose brought out the new Ugg ‘chucks’ in golds and naturals, that Carrie had bought for her.

The afternoon…

Mom, Francis, and Puck headed out to the barn to decorate it for Christmas with loads of greenery, wreaths, red velvet ribbons, and lamps.

And for Collette and Rose, the next few hours were for running errands with Rose: library for a shelf of books (including how to draw fantasy landscapes, and another on how to make candied peel, shear sheep, sweep chimneys, churn butter, and make soap and candles), drive out to The Meadows for nothing, to Home Depot for a beautiful white and purple speckled orchid for Carrie, and Drain-O ‘to kill all the bugs in the sinks’, as Rose put it, Target for milk, black leggings, and toothbrushes, and Lion’s Choice for King Beefs before returning to the house.

When Collette walked inside, Puck hopped off the rocking chair and came over to give her a hug.

“I love you, Mama,” he said.

Later in the afternoon and evening…

Hair braiding.

Rounds of grilled cheese for the boys.

And a battle of ‘Who’s Church is Better’, Grace or Memorial…

“Our members volunteer for nursery duty.”

“Well, we have cats and stinky silos and a snake!”

“Yeah? We have a bell tower. And owls. And beer is donated.”

“We have more land. And cornfields.”

“We have a city park two times bigger than Central Park.”

“We have eleven missionaries.”

“We have gluten-free bread.”

“We have an harmonica.”

“We have a pipe organ and bagpipes. And three cellists. And we have fires at our church.”

“Well, the fire marshall doesn’t let us have fires…”

“That’s because the fire marshall goes to our church. And we have real wine at our church for communion. And Hamlet goes to our church. We have four pastors. And we have Eustace.”

“We have Judah.”

“Eustace is more funny. We have secret passageways. And an elephant book.”

“We have Super Smokers at our church.”

“A.G. Edwards went to our church. Boom!”

“We have someone in a famous band at our church.”

“Who?”

“Tennessee Coca-Cola.”

“That’s Bluetooth who’s in the famous band. And we have someone from a Rolling Stones cover band.”

“Well, our church has something yours doesn’t.”

“What? Debt?”

“No. A barn.”

“Thanks be to God!”

Sometime later… waiting in the Dairy Queen parking lot for Linnea-Irish to be picked up by the Englishs for basketball practice…

“Who are we waiting for?” Puck asked.

“The Englishs.”

“What are their names?”

“The Englishs.”

“What do we call them?”

“The Englishs.”

Then he wanted the lights on in the car so he could ‘see space’.

And while Joe fueled up the Odyssey, he had practically convinced Puck that his gum was made of grasshoppers.

And home to comedy night. It was a good one.