A Christmas Trifecta
We were awaiting our daughter’s arrival over the Christmas holidays, and anticipating their stay here over the next four days through Christmas to just before year’s end. She and her husband had spent their early holiday in Bemidji, where her mother, and his mother and father live, and so were weighted down with leftovers and tons of goodies that they wanted to share with us.
The wife and I had done some Christmas decorating. She had dug out the pretty, red and green sequinned Christmas tree and set it up in the living room beneath the strings of LED lights the kids had given us for Christmas one year, which I had strung across the tops of the curtains there and in the dining room.
Out came the nostalgic Christmas scene Santas, and on went the snowman motif toilet tank and rug collections for the upstairs and downstairs bathrooms. The red tea-candle centerpiece with its green-needle edged base was set on the table.
I restrung the single-strand old-style lights along the top of the entry and hung the red pine swag with its grand red ribbon, atop a length of real metal bells laying against the house whose strikers clunk, rather than ring, when the wind blows just right; I had made the swag at a neighbor’s annual wreath-making event a week earlier. I am so proud of that thing.
I had no more than stepped from the doorway in anticipation of the kids arrival when the wife, said “They’re here!” And sure enough, I could hear car doors shut and voices where just moments before I could not. The daughter hurried in to embrace us both as her husband waved from a distance, hurriedly donning his comfortable black leather coat he’s worn for many a winter, to begin unloading the car of luggage and gifts.
After several trips back and forth, the two of them emptied their vehicle and filled the kitchen floor of all things red and cheery, including a new air mattress, humidifier, individual pillow carriers, and it just so happened, two six packs of Guinness Extra Stout that we’ve long joked is “the price of admission.”
Amid a lot of laughter and excited conversation, the telephone rang. Caller ID indicated it was a local lumber yard and I encouraged the wife to answer it since she was closest to it, as I was happily engrossed in conversation with our long awaited company. She answered the call, then lunged it toward me, saying, “It’s for you!”
Covering the receiver, I said to the kids and my wife, quietly joking, “I bet I’ve won their door prize drawing . . . of a door!”
“Hello?”
And sure enough, the woman identified herself, laughed, and said, “You’ve won our door prize drawing! A door! All you have to do is decide whether you want the hinges to be on the right side of the left side!”
“NO WAY!” I said, laughing. “I did! I won the door!”
Well, that blew my mind! I might have friend Joe to thank for it because he wanted to stay for the free food and coffee they offered, whereas I would’ve foregone the opportunity and ordered that pulled pork/grilled cheese sandwich from Kate’s Kitchen that was on my mind instead.
Hot dogs, potato salad, herring, coffee, cookies and brownies didn’t quite measure up, but then he said, motioning toward a small box with small pieces of paper by it, “You going to put your name in for the door prize?”
“What’s the prize?” I said, eating some warm herring and washing it down with potato and pasta salad.
“That door, I think,” Joe said, sipping some coffee.
“The door prize IS the door? C’mon .....” I replied, not believing him because contrary to popular belief he doesn’t always tell the truth. I knew this may be a “Really Dad?” moment on his part, but I just put my name in anyway, for the hell of it. I'd never win.
Sure enough, here it was, official-like. I had won a door.
“You can let us know and you can pick it up Thursday or Friday,” the woman said. “Happy holidays!”
Well, I couldn’t imagine the holidays being any happier. This bit of news, other than Marion Solom improving while in the hospital in Grand Forks, couldn’t make the holidays any happier in my book. What would that take? Winning the lottery?
The kids got settled in, changing into their comfy clothes and making their home upon the couch that was just big enough for the two of them. My wife snuggled onto a arm chair nearest the TV, her feet upon a footstool; I was in my LazyBoy, at a bit of recline like old guys my age do, when my daughter said, passing us each an envelope, “Here is one of your Christmas presents, why don’t you open them now?”
We were surprised, knowing it wasn’t officially Christmas yet.
My wife said, “Well, there’s an envelope for you too, hand it to her, ‘Dad’,” she said, pointing it out to me. “Then we can open these together. It isn’t much.”
Daughter said, “No, open these first, please. Tell us what you think...”
We opened the envelope. Inside was a Christmas card photo of she and her husband in front of their new house -- and inside that was an ultra-sound of their new baby!!
WHAT??? WE'VE WON THE LOTTERY!!!
I’m sure tears shot from both my eyes. The wife leapt from her chair as I sat there dumbfounded, not believing what I was looking at.
“That was taken on Halloween. I’m four months on now,” she said, embracing the wife and smiling from ear to ear, her whole being alive in energetic excitement.
I got to my feet finally and embraced my daughter, a tear escaping down the side of my face, my thoughts reeling.
I had never queried her about having children; not wanting to pressure her about it in any way. I never thought she would have children as she wasn't one to naturally display a fondness for children by picking them up or snuggling with them or playing with them at length, although children were naturally fond of her from what I had observed over the years. They often watched her as she passed or entered a room, and then would timidly come close to get a little of what it was she had. She didn’t turn them away; she was friendly and kind, but not proactive. Being raised as virtually an only child myself, I understood her behaviors.
Her mother and I visited about this very thing about a month ago, so she was every bit surprised as I was when they presented the image to her, earlier that same day. Her drop-dead, wide-eyed reply, “No f****** way!” wasn't typical of a new grandmother and so created such a phenomenon in my son-in-law's family, that when the deacon's wife astonishingly repeated it out of the blue, hours later, that family almost fell flat on their behinds in laughter.
My wife had had her earlier suspicions. She ventured the daughter’s ‘illness’ cancelling long-awaited deer season was a ploy of some kind, but didn’t ‘put it out there’ as it was just hopeful speculation. The kids had both their careers firmly in place; they had purchased a new house in August or so, a larger new car had shown up recently ... there were too many suggestions of something brewing. But, I had missed it completely. I think I had won the lottery! How could I dream of more?
It was about then, the son-in-law queued up Monday Night Football from his iPhone (Did I mention he is my favorite son-in-law?) and the wife learned the Vikings were playing the Packers; she ran to the bedroom and came out with her blue and white pom-poms and wearing her Vikings jersey. HOOYAH!!!
It was a Win Win Win Christmas!
We were awaiting our daughter’s arrival over the Christmas holidays, and anticipating their stay here over the next four days through Christmas to just before year’s end. She and her husband had spent their early holiday in Bemidji, where her mother, and his mother and father live, and so were weighted down with leftovers and tons of goodies that they wanted to share with us.
The wife and I had done some Christmas decorating. She had dug out the pretty, red and green sequinned Christmas tree and set it up in the living room beneath the strings of LED lights the kids had given us for Christmas one year, which I had strung across the tops of the curtains there and in the dining room.
Out came the nostalgic Christmas scene Santas, and on went the snowman motif toilet tank and rug collections for the upstairs and downstairs bathrooms. The red tea-candle centerpiece with its green-needle edged base was set on the table.
I restrung the single-strand old-style lights along the top of the entry and hung the red pine swag with its grand red ribbon, atop a length of real metal bells laying against the house whose strikers clunk, rather than ring, when the wind blows just right; I had made the swag at a neighbor’s annual wreath-making event a week earlier. I am so proud of that thing.
I had no more than stepped from the doorway in anticipation of the kids arrival when the wife, said “They’re here!” And sure enough, I could hear car doors shut and voices where just moments before I could not. The daughter hurried in to embrace us both as her husband waved from a distance, hurriedly donning his comfortable black leather coat he’s worn for many a winter, to begin unloading the car of luggage and gifts.
After several trips back and forth, the two of them emptied their vehicle and filled the kitchen floor of all things red and cheery, including a new air mattress, humidifier, individual pillow carriers, and it just so happened, two six packs of Guinness Extra Stout that we’ve long joked is “the price of admission.”
Amid a lot of laughter and excited conversation, the telephone rang. Caller ID indicated it was a local lumber yard and I encouraged the wife to answer it since she was closest to it, as I was happily engrossed in conversation with our long awaited company. She answered the call, then lunged it toward me, saying, “It’s for you!”
Covering the receiver, I said to the kids and my wife, quietly joking, “I bet I’ve won their door prize drawing . . . of a door!”
“Hello?”
And sure enough, the woman identified herself, laughed, and said, “You’ve won our door prize drawing! A door! All you have to do is decide whether you want the hinges to be on the right side of the left side!”
“NO WAY!” I said, laughing. “I did! I won the door!”
Well, that blew my mind! I might have friend Joe to thank for it because he wanted to stay for the free food and coffee they offered, whereas I would’ve foregone the opportunity and ordered that pulled pork/grilled cheese sandwich from Kate’s Kitchen that was on my mind instead.
Hot dogs, potato salad, herring, coffee, cookies and brownies didn’t quite measure up, but then he said, motioning toward a small box with small pieces of paper by it, “You going to put your name in for the door prize?”
“What’s the prize?” I said, eating some warm herring and washing it down with potato and pasta salad.
“That door, I think,” Joe said, sipping some coffee.
“The door prize IS the door? C’mon .....” I replied, not believing him because contrary to popular belief he doesn’t always tell the truth. I knew this may be a “Really Dad?” moment on his part, but I just put my name in anyway, for the hell of it. I'd never win.
Sure enough, here it was, official-like. I had won a door.
“You can let us know and you can pick it up Thursday or Friday,” the woman said. “Happy holidays!”
Well, I couldn’t imagine the holidays being any happier. This bit of news, other than Marion Solom improving while in the hospital in Grand Forks, couldn’t make the holidays any happier in my book. What would that take? Winning the lottery?
The kids got settled in, changing into their comfy clothes and making their home upon the couch that was just big enough for the two of them. My wife snuggled onto a arm chair nearest the TV, her feet upon a footstool; I was in my LazyBoy, at a bit of recline like old guys my age do, when my daughter said, passing us each an envelope, “Here is one of your Christmas presents, why don’t you open them now?”
We were surprised, knowing it wasn’t officially Christmas yet.
My wife said, “Well, there’s an envelope for you too, hand it to her, ‘Dad’,” she said, pointing it out to me. “Then we can open these together. It isn’t much.”
Daughter said, “No, open these first, please. Tell us what you think...”
We opened the envelope. Inside was a Christmas card photo of she and her husband in front of their new house -- and inside that was an ultra-sound of their new baby!!
WHAT??? WE'VE WON THE LOTTERY!!!
I’m sure tears shot from both my eyes. The wife leapt from her chair as I sat there dumbfounded, not believing what I was looking at.
“That was taken on Halloween. I’m four months on now,” she said, embracing the wife and smiling from ear to ear, her whole being alive in energetic excitement.
I got to my feet finally and embraced my daughter, a tear escaping down the side of my face, my thoughts reeling.
I had never queried her about having children; not wanting to pressure her about it in any way. I never thought she would have children as she wasn't one to naturally display a fondness for children by picking them up or snuggling with them or playing with them at length, although children were naturally fond of her from what I had observed over the years. They often watched her as she passed or entered a room, and then would timidly come close to get a little of what it was she had. She didn’t turn them away; she was friendly and kind, but not proactive. Being raised as virtually an only child myself, I understood her behaviors.
Her mother and I visited about this very thing about a month ago, so she was every bit surprised as I was when they presented the image to her, earlier that same day. Her drop-dead, wide-eyed reply, “No f****** way!” wasn't typical of a new grandmother and so created such a phenomenon in my son-in-law's family, that when the deacon's wife astonishingly repeated it out of the blue, hours later, that family almost fell flat on their behinds in laughter.
My wife had had her earlier suspicions. She ventured the daughter’s ‘illness’ cancelling long-awaited deer season was a ploy of some kind, but didn’t ‘put it out there’ as it was just hopeful speculation. The kids had both their careers firmly in place; they had purchased a new house in August or so, a larger new car had shown up recently ... there were too many suggestions of something brewing. But, I had missed it completely. I think I had won the lottery! How could I dream of more?
It was about then, the son-in-law queued up Monday Night Football from his iPhone (Did I mention he is my favorite son-in-law?) and the wife learned the Vikings were playing the Packers; she ran to the bedroom and came out with her blue and white pom-poms and wearing her Vikings jersey. HOOYAH!!!
It was a Win Win Win Christmas!
Keep the luck alive. Powerball is now at $200,000,000. Go buy a ticket.
ReplyDeleteLucky grandpa!🤸🏿♂️
ReplyDelete