Friday we received a box from Larry's aunt full of small presents for the children. We’ve had chickens squawking around, laying eggs and getting their tail feathers stepped on (that’s what it sounds like, anyway, what with all the squeak toys), ever since the package arrived. The littles were pleased with their puppets, and Hester was intrigued with the older children’s bookmarks, since a boy in her class had made her the neatest little wooden flower press, and she’d been wondering what in the world ‘squished’ flowers would look like. The bookmarks were promptly put to good use in new books just received for Christmas.
Last Sunday night during church we had a freezing drizzle, which made the sidewalks and streets positively treacherous. Fortunately, all our friends made it home safely. Larry, of course, immediately thought of something he badly needed at the grocery store--ice cream, of all things. So he and Hannah went off to get it. Arriving home a little later, he said he didn’t think he’d ever driven on roads so slick. He’d even bumped the curb once, an unheard-of occurrence, for him. We, of course, will not soon let him forget that.
We heard, via our scanner, of many car wrecks all over town, and there were even reports of people falling and getting hurt.
One evening, Caleb was eating a slice of ham. He pulled off the edge, and ate it.
“I ate the crust right off my ham!” he remarked.
Later, he was dipping a carrot into the vegetable dip. Hannah, evidently feeling mischievous, quickly gave his hand a small push, causing him to get a bit of dip on his thumb. Caleb was amazed. This sister of his is usually so helpful!
“Hannah!”
He licked off his thumb, and sat crunching his carrot, smiling at her, until she, unsuspectingly, dipped her carrot.
Quicker’n a wink, SQUISH! He pushed her hand down suddenly until every single knuckle was covered with dip.
Hannah was amazed. “Caleb!” she gasped.
He giggled.
Joseph came into the room just then.
“Look what Caleb did to me!” exclaimed Hannah, holding out her hand for Joseph to see.
Joseph, surprised, asked Caleb, “Why’d you do that?”
Caleb answered in typical four-year-old non sequitur, “Because she was dipping her carrot.”
Hannah laughed. “Why else?” she asked her little brother.
Caleb, of course, then realized what the correct reply was. In triumphant tone, he replied, “Because she did it to me!!”
Everybody went on munching their carrots.
Then, smiling at his sister, Caleb told her, “I like you, Hannah!--you’re lots of fun!”
The first several days this week were spent in intense cleaning of the house. By the time the Jackson/Jenkinson/Wright/Fricke/Haddock tribe arrived, everything was neatly in place, glistening brightly. But let me tell you this: Scrub-Free ... isn’t.
The house still looks remarkably shiny, but there is quite a clutter of new stuff and things everywhere you look.
Monday night we had our last Christmas practice. Larry intended to return to the shop later to finish painting the red and white crewcab, but he got the flu. So, the next day, when the man who’d bought it was ready to go to Florida, the crewcab wasn’t quite done. The man didn’t mind, since that gave Larry time to do a few more things the man would’ve liked done; but we minded, because the man won’t be back until the end of January, and we won’t get our money until then. Too bad; we certainly could’ve used it.
Tuesday we went to Omaha to get Joseph some new glasses; his old ones were quite worn out. Also, he needed a new prescription. The doctor there at Lens Crafters gave him a checkup, and discovered his old glasses were two points too strong for him, meaning his eyes have improved. Far-sighted children often continue to see an improvement in their eyesight until well into their teens; Hannah’s eyes have improved quite a bit, also.
Later that evening, Joseph had a headache and was dizzy; fortunately, he’d gotten used to the new glasses by the next day.
Lens Crafters makes glasses in an hour; so, while they were being made, we wandered around the enormous mall, rode the elevator up to the atrium, and ordered food from Arby’s in the food court.
Going back downstairs, we met up with my nephew and his little boy. It always makes me feel surprised when we meet friends in those giant labyrinths; but it seems like that happens nearly every time we’re there.
We watched a man air-painting T-shirts, which he did lickety-split and with great skill.
There doesn’t seem to be much in the mall that we can afford to buy. So, after getting the glasses, we departed, having a great deal of trouble just getting out of the parking lot, due to the volume of people and vehicles.
Rounding the end of one aisle, we met up with an old dilapidated jalopy, full of people, trying to back out, and having the devil’s own time doing so. The brakes seemed to be hair-triggered, along with the accelerator, while the steering seemed to be non-existent. Or maybe the driver had never driven before.
They jerked backward in fits and starts, with the driver cranking on the wheel with all his might and main, nearly bashing in the sides of the cars beside them, periodically jamming on the brakes with such force that their old boat rocked violently to and fro. Finally finding himself in the aisle, the driver put the vehicle in drive, whereupon it took a sudden wild leap directly toward us, causing Larry to shift posthaste into reverse.
Larry, meanwhile, was keeping us all entertained with his running commentary.
Zooming backwards, he exclaimed, “Woooo, man! Don’t you worry none, man! We’s a-gettin’ right outa yo’ way, man!”
I tell you, he sounded so utterly hilarious, I laughed till the tears ran down my face.
Leaving Omaha, we traveled to Fremont, where we hunted fruitlessly in Payless and Wal-Mart for new red shoes for Lydia. She wound up wearing some hand-me-downs which had been through five little girls before her. Oh, well; they still looked cute, all shiny red with little bows on the toes.
At Wal-Mart, we got, among other things, two 50-gallon Rubbermaid bins with big lids for some of the children’s too-small clothes which the littler ones haven’t yet grown into. We mustn’t get rid of them, you know, because we’ll need them before we know it. But, mercy!--this house is full! Larry got a couple of racks on wheels on which we are able to hang a lot of clothes, which will help the general state of several of our too-crammed closets. We slide these racks between the permanent long rods Larry put up in the ‘shelf room’ downstairs; then, when we need to walk between the rods full of clothes, we can simply roll the racks out of the way. One way or a-tuther, we’ll fit ourselves (and all our mountains of stuff) into this house!
A friend of ours works at a place where they all wear identical shirts. These shirts are regularly sent off to the cleaners, then returned with new hangers, which the workers are welcome to keep. But most of them toss the hangers into a pile to be discarded of. So, our friend collects sacks full of them for us every now and then. Our hangers do not seem to have the same prowess of Erma Bombeck’s, which multiplied celeritously every time she closed the closet door.
Another thing we got at Wal-Mart was a set of ping-pong paddles and balls. Thursday evening when the Jackson bunch congregated, Larry backed the vehicles out of the garage and set up our ping pong table. Someone else brought their ping pong table, too, so a couple of rip-roaring ping pong games were going on most all evening.
After everybody departed, Larry and I played ping-pong with the children; and after sending them to bed, Larry and I had several fierce duels with each other. I actually beat him!--twice! (I’m not telling how many times he beat me.)
At the Fremont Wal-Mart, I met a woman, with her husband, with whom I’d gone to school, and whom I had not seen for twenty years. We had quite a nice visit.
On the way home, we were admiring Christmas decorations.
Caleb, sitting beside me, abruptly pointed at a brightly-lit house, exclaiming, “Look at that--”
––and right that minute, somebody turned all the lights off.
“Aaaaa!” I cried. “You pointed those lights right off!”
Of course, all the rest of the way home, he pointed vigorously at every lit house we came to, trying to prove he hadn’t caused those lights to go off.
“You missed them,” I explained. “Somewhere, up on that hill behind them, some people are scurrying around their house, trying to figure out why their lights went off!!”
“Hee hee hee,” giggled Caleb.
Tuesday night I made the program copies, about 125 of them. It takes longer than you’d think, trying to fit it all on the page just right. I didn’t get it even, either.
Victoria is crawling like a trooper. She sallied under the piano, turned around to see where everybody was, but didn’t see anyone; so she yelled, “HEY!” She’s a vocal one, all right.
On Christmas eve, it snowed several inches, just right to make everything look Christmasy and pretty. The program was Wednesday night; it lasted an hour and thirty-five minutes. I find it difficult to keep it short enough, there are so many children. It all went well, and the audience seemed to enjoy it. Afterwards, the young people passed out all the presents, which takes an awfully long time, there are so many.
After coming home from the program, Caleb was playing with a new little car. The motor made noise, but the wheels wouldn’t turn.
“That’s because it’s in neutral,” explained Caleb.
We usually have a get-together with my side of the family after the program; but there are five new babies in the family, and my brother is not a late-night person; so we re-scheduled for Friday night. But we let the children (our children, that is) open their presents from us Wednesday night.
Larry gave me my favorite present of all--an electric blanket. It has dual controls, and sensors here and there to detect if your feet, for example, are cold, whereupon it sends more warmth to that area. It’s light blue, and soft as a cloud. Sure and wouldn’t you know it, we got the controls switched around; so the first night when we climbed into bed, Larry’s side was piping hot, which he positively does not need; and my side was still cold.
One of the funniest Christmas presents we have in the house is Joseph’s new watch/virtual pet, which Larry and I gave him. It started out a puppy, and only his face could be seen on the liquid crystal display screen. But after a couple of days, during which Joseph cared for it diligently, the pup turned a year old, gained several pounds, and, much to our surprise, turned from only the head of the pup to the entire dog. He now paces back and forth across the screen, unless he’s sleeping, tail a-wag.
Joseph, after going to bed very late Christmas Eve, was awakened by his pup crying in the middle of the night--it needed to 'go out'. Joseph pushed the proper buttons to let it ‘out’, whereupon it did its duty. A small ‘mess’ appeared in the corner, steam marks and all; and Joseph was required to ‘clean’ it up before the watch would quit beeping and let him go back to sleep.
Saturday night Joseph slept through the puppy’s ‘crying’, and, by Sunday morning, the poor little critter had lost 25 kilograms! The dog must be played with periodically--there are several games which can be played--or the row of hearts on one particular screen start to empty, showing that the poor thing isn’t being properly loved. Also, he must be fed, watered, and given treats occasionally. Today Teddy gave him three milk bones and six pieces of jerky, after which the pitiable thing suddenly made an awful face, opened his mouth wide, and threw up. Joseph not only had to clean that up, but he also had to give it medicine, which is administered with a syringe. Doggy was really sick. (But he did gain three pounds.)
Sometimes Joseph tries to give it dog food when Pooch isn’t hungry; the creature turns his back to the bowl and shakes his head. After staying awake, with a short nap sometimes, for about twelve hours, the virtual canine retires to his dog house, where a ‘Z’ is soon issuing from the peak. He stays there overnight (unless he gets sick or something), for about twelve hours.
Joseph is now trying to teach Puppy Dear to sit. Sometimes he obeys; sometimes he doesn’t. But he’s definitely getting better! We have all found this positively intriguing. I’ve even offered to dogsit for Rover when Joseph returns to school next Monday.
Have I taken leave of my senses??
Christmas day, we had our usual dinner at church. Just as soon as people are done eating, I like to take pictures, which I then give them next Christmas. I took several rolls, mostly of the children, and I got oodles of cute photos.
In spite of giving us that stove, Lawrence and Norma gave me two albums and six rolls of Fuji film; and they gave Larry a 30-piece set of Craftsman screwdrivers. They gave Hester and Lydia beautiful porcelain dolls, and they gave clothes to most of the other children. And to Teddy (!)--they gave a 16-inch scroll saw! He’s tickled pink. He’s already carved Caleb a name plaque, and is working on one for himself.
My sister and her husband gave Hester a tape player, and Lydia a little ornate bench, chair, and table for her dolls. They gave Victoria several dresses, a robe, and a little white hat with marabou around the brim. She looks like a little dolly in it.
When we went to my mother’s house to exchange gifts, Victoria was very sleepy.
I opened up a package with two quilted bibs in it, and she said gladly, “Bankie!” (blanket)
She snatched one, rubbed it on her cheek, and promptly fell sound asleep, sitting bolt upright. She was ten months old on the 24th; isn’t that hard to believe?
Saturday afternoon we went to Wal-Mart looking for after-Christmas bargains, but the shelves were nearly bare. Leaving empty-handed, we headed for Walgreens. I found a shelf full of little Christmas ornaments and key rings, with characters such as Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse, etc., for half price. We bought a whole bag full for the children to give their friends next Christmas. We’d just about decided there were no wrapping paper nor Christmas cards, when Dorcas found it, high on a shelf, nearly out of sight. It was all half price. I filled the cart clear full.
Tonight we are going to Grand Island to look at some elaborate Christmas displays before they take them all down. So I’d better get myself in gear! It’s suppertime, and Victoria is probably awake by now.
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