Friday, November 20, 2009

Even Santa Gets Grumpy

Okay I’ll admit it; I lied. Richard actually wrapped thirty-two picture perfect packages to load onto Santa’s sleigh. And you may not know this, but even Santa gets grumpy – especially when every time he thinks he’s on the last gift I remember someone that I almost forgot. I could use a few elves right about now; they could begin by sweeping the floor.

We’re taking Mamie, Charlie, Deborah, Mountaintop Mary and Don to dinner at Coker Creek Village the night before we head south. Since our trip is a ten-hour ordeal, we plan to leave before dawn; so everything had to be stuffed into the van before dark. With careful balance and placement, we got all the gifts in with room to spare for Mamie to ride over to the village with us. Between the seats, I found room for some of our Irish potatoes and a couple of butternut squash. The ice chest still has to be loaded and put in the van, as do our toiletry bags. If I grease them up really well, they should slide right on in.

Adam emailed me that he thinks our trip with an overloaded sleigh will be a good test of the integrity of our new motor mounts – the ones we’ve already replaced twice. Richard is threatening to put heavy duty shocks on the van and add extra air to the tires.

Mamie’s ninetieth birthday is the Saturday before Thanksgiving, but we won’t be here to help her celebrate. When I asked her some weeks ago about her favorite cake for her birthday, she requested a pie instead of a cake. A year ago, I had given Mamie a slice of a pear and custard pie made from her son Junior’s pears. She declared it the best pie she ever ate. I happened to have one jar of pears left from last year’s harvest in Junior’s yard, so I recreated the pie to present to Mamie when we pick her up.

We’ll also take the last of our leftovers to Mamie. She says that she’s gotten to where she checks her outside egg refrigerator before cooking to see if we left her any supper. To go with her birthday pie, we hope she enjoys the pork with ginger-cran-pear chutney, whipped sweet potatoes and turnip greens as much as we enjoyed them when they were just made.

We’re hoping that all these mini celebrations of her birthday keep Mamie from guessing that we’re giving her a surprise party the Sunday after we return. As far as any of us knows, Mamie is the oldest person in Coker Creek, so we think she deserves a little recognition for simply surviving. We’re organizing the party because Junior, who would have done it, isn’t still physically with us. Mary Jane called to say that the mayor is attending the party to proclaim the day “Mamie Murphy Day.” I think Junior will be smiling about that.

And, I'm pretty sure he'd be laughing at the sight of his little mama stuffed in with all the gifts as Richard goes on about needing new shocks.