With Grandpa
Sunday, December 27, 2009
The roads were iced that morning. There was some slippage on the drive to church. And as they arrived, OLeif realized that he had left his violin at home, so he dropped off Collette and Puck and returned home for it, and back to church just in time for the service to begin. Afterward, he took Francis to breakfast at Steak ‘n Shake to accompany Judah and Henri between services, as there was no Sunday School.
Back at the house there was a brief amount of lolly-gagging and discussion, catching up on the stories of the family from Mom, who always managed to find out more information about all the cousins and aunts and uncles than anyone else… And when OLeif and Francis returned from church, it was time to set out for Grandpa’s.
When they arrived, Grandpa, Martha, Amanda, and Eriic were already gathered around the table with Uncle Balthasar and their family with trays of little sandwiches, vegetables, and potato chips, and a cooler of soda, which was where Collette made her mistake…
Trying to balance a plate of food in one hand while holding back the lid of the cooler in the other, she grabbed at the first can that looked like a Sprite under the ice and made her way to the table, popping open the can while trying to keep an eye on Puck. She took a sip, more like two gulps…
That’s a very unusual can of Sprite, she thought to herself, setting down the can for inspection.
Bud Light.
Bud Light!
Collette almost choked laughing. The first time she had ever tasted beer. For someone who hated the taste of alcohol, this was a funny experience.
“Look what I did, OLeif,” she said, pointing to the can.
“Well, I was gonna say something…” said Travis, laughing at her.
“Mom, that’s your fault,” said Bristol.
“Well, I was just kind of grabbing sodas from the machine before we left,” said Aunt Tuuli, laughing. “I guess one slipped in there. Just trying to broaden your horizons, Collette.”
“It does look just like a Pepsi,” said Bristol.
The whole experience was rather funny.
And then the Blacks arrived, everyone but Jashub who was back in Columbia, and Esther and her boyfriend who had been dropped off at the airport. Puck was very happy to see little Liselotte again, and they began to play together, as well as with the twins, who were both in pink and wearing tiny diamond studs. They were all smiles and hunting down the cookies. Puck talked to Starlight for awhile, not yet fully comprehending that Starlight was too little to talk yet. He pretended to take off his nose and handed it to her. Starlight took the pretend nose from her hand, smashed it with her other hand, and handed it back to him.
“Thank you for da nose, Starlight!” he said politely, putting it back.
Collette spoke a little with Lilli and then with Brit about old memories from the summer that Brit and Jashub had stayed with them twelve years ago.
“That was a great summer,” said Brit. “I remember a lot of Little Ceasar’s pizza and Dairy Queen ice cream. And it always made me sick because I ate too much.”
Collette remembered the same. “We thought it was so cool that you got to stay with us,” she said. “All our friends were so jealous.”
There were also gift cards for everyone to American Eagle and Express for most of the kids, Outback Steakhouse for Collette and OLeif, and an LED gift card (with snowmen and lanterns that glowed) to Target for Puck.
It was good to see Grandpa after so many months. And though he was not doing well as he had been earlier in the summer, he seemed happy to be at the Christmas celebration.
Two hours later, everyone returned for Little Caesar’s, where Joe, Wally, and Curly were already gathered. And Clover dropped in to join Carrie-Bri at the coffee house.