Remembering our second Christmas practicing to be “parents”…
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Christmas Two
Alright already, I cheated, I admit it!
It was Friday night. It had been a long week. So I canceled all of my appointments and meetings and stayed home. One night didn’t seem like too much to ask for. After supper, family was trying to decide how to spend the rest of this night together when we remembered the new Christmas tree we had built yesterday, and realized this would be the perfect time to decorate it…an old fashioned family fun time.
While mom popped the popcorn, dad looked for needle and thread, baby drank out of the sugar bowl to be certain she had enough quick energy for what was to come.
We started. Dad threading, mom straightening, and baby refereeing. The phone rang…baby jumped holding the thread…mom grabbed for baby…leaving needle halfway between first and second joint of dads index finger. That’s one.
When the bleeding stopped, things worked rather smoothly. After threading for about 15 minutes dad lifted thread to inspect work…empty. On the floor between mom and dad was dog, munching happily on de-threaded popcorn. Dad reached for dog…forgetting needle…two. Baby jumped on dad to rescue dog…three. Mom grabbed for baby who tripped over end table bumping dad in the process…four.
Deep breath, count to 10, back to popcorn. 20 minutes of threading later, dad realized thread fell out of needle some 19 minutes ago. Mom laughed…dad reached for mom…five. Dad threaded needle. Three popcorns threaded and dog got sick (popcorn and Peekapoo are incompatible). Mom ran to put dog outside…baby ran to help mom…baby’s foot took thread with it…needle stopped at dad’s index finger…six.
The family night was over. Dad was washing his hand in Bactine…mom was still laughing at dad…baby was feeding the last 11 pieces of popcorn still on the thread to dog. In the morning we threw it out. The popcorn, not the dog. It was a difficult choice.
