By Margi Washburn
By now it's Friday and I'll bet most of you have forgotten what last Saturday afternoon and night was like.
The wind blew, the snow fell and driving in that stuff was a bona-fide nightmare, especially if you have a car with no front-wheel drive.
There are probably many families who throw one party a month to celebrate multiple birthdays. Lots of kids have several sets of grandparents, aunts, uncles and other loved ones who buy gifts for them throughout their birthday month so they're pretty cool with having their party a little later. Just don't try and skip it altogether because they know where you live and they have your number.
It was dark when I got off of work Saturday. It was also one of the nastiest weather days we've had and we hadn't bought the gifts yet. Before we could do that, I had to throw in some supper and gulp it down. My phone was in my purse so I didn't notice that the grandkids had called three times to ask us where we were. I called to let them know it would be about half an hour.
Really dumb move.
We set out for the store to get a football and a soccer ball. There were two grandsons and a niece to buy for. You can probably see where this is going.
The snow came heavier as we left the house – in the car with no front-wheel drive. “Should we take the little red car?” I asked.
“No, I think this one'll do fine,” said hubby. I hung onto the door handle and prayed.
We slid our way to the store and I sent him to buy the sports equipment. I headed for coffee creamer, gift bags and birthday candles. He was very proud of his find and showed me the bargain he'd made – a football with a pump, just like our grandson wanted, along with the soccer ball his brother had asked for. I tried fitting the toys into their bags and it looked like everything would work.
We checked out, slid our way to the car and I noticed we should have picked up the kids five minutes before. And the snow was coming down harder. I felt a bit of panic as I dusted snow off the car windows.
As we made our way around the S curve, I almost asked The Question. It wasn't necessary. “You think we should go home and switch cars?” he asked.
I made the call to the grandkids. We got home, unloaded the trunk and put the gifts in the other trunk. Little Red was out of gas so we stopped to get some before picking up the kids. One of them was chipper, the other little guy looked like he'd been ready to call it a night.
We told him that his cousin was looking forward to seeing him again since it had been a while. “Yeah,” he said, “she'll probably tackle me like she did last year.” Who knew that eight-year-olds had such good memories?
We got to their great-grandma's house and while grandpa wrapped their gifts in the car, the kids caught up with one another. The gifts were brought in and placed on the counter and that's when it hit me: we forgot our niece's gift. I had a blank card in my purse; the money went in it and it went into the pile.
The kids decided after opening gifts and eating cake and ice cream that it would be fun to play outside – in the dark and the still-falling snow. Out they went with the new soccer ball and football. It didn't take long for the youngest to come in and stare at us with big sad blue eyes.
“My ball is lost,” he said.
Well, if you're going to play with a soccer ball in the snow, in the dark, you're likely to misplace it for a while. But grandpa found it and all was well.
A few minutes later, our niece came in with snow all over her hair. “Why didn't you wear your hat?” I asked.
“I don't have one,” she said.
“It's hooked to your coat.”
She smiled. “I like snow in my hair. It makes it look all glittery.”
I could see that.
Eventually the kids found their way back to the kitchen where we were gathering up things to go home. We said our good-byes, gave hugs and piled into the car. We dropped the boys off and we thought that this had been just another party, no big deal, until I heard the oldest birthday boy say,
“Hey! Grandpa got me a football and it has a pump!”
It was a beautiful night after all.
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