We spent Christmas with the Barretts this year, and it was a laugh and a half as always. A classic was when Cindi tried to tell a joke, and Laurel, still in a bit of a mission fog even though she'll deny it to her death, TOTALLY missed it. All the rest of us had already heard it, but I guess the joke didn't make it to Laie.
C: "Hey, Laurel, did you hear that the Pope has bird flu?"
L: "Sorry, but that is really funny to me."
C: "He got it from the Cardinals."
L: "Ha ha. You are just bitter because the Braves didn't win."
Everyone else thinking: What do the Braves have to do with the Pope?
I finally pointed out that Cindi was talking about the cardinals of the Catholic church, not the sports team.
Towards the end of the week, we decided to end our circumstances-necessitated clothing fast and actually went shopping. Mom seemed particularly interested in making sure I got clothes I needed for work, after seeing the state of my clothes when I did laundry while she was here helping us move earlier in December. Usually, when I shop in the week after Christmas, I don't find anything. Nothing cute is left in my size by the time I hit the stores. For some reason, every store I went into this had cute stuff in my size, and awesome deals! It was such a rush.
Mom had been looking for a kitten before we all came home and found the perfect one only to have it taken by someone else a few hours before she went in to buy it. So, we were on the hunt. While we were at the outlets on Friday, we got a call from Charles. He said the kids had found the perfect kitten outside, a stray. Mom was skeptical because she has numerous requirements for a cat. Must be a boy, must not claw things, must purr easily, must like to be held and play with people instead of running around, etc. She told Charles to put their other cat, Misty, in another, room, get a little bit of litter for the kitten, and put him through his paces. She hung up the phone and said, well, I'm giving the kitten from the street a chance, we'll see. I could tell she was a little excited.
A few minutes later, Charles called back. "Your children are brats! They stole the cat."
"Well, tell them I told you to take care of it and they have to give it back."
"No, I mean they STOLE the cat. They took it out of the neighbor's yard."
Luckily, the neighbors got their cat back, and Mom called a couple of days ago taking votes for a cat they found at the humane society, which I think they took home Friday or Saturday. I voted for George or Ralph. I still don't know what they finally picked. I think Checkers and Oreo were also somewhere in the mix, which I don't like as well, but any of the four is better than the name on its tag . . . Flava Flav.
Barretts and Pretes on Christmas Eve
Charles the Grinch
John models his stocking
And as an aside, if anyone knows how to get pictures to post somewhere other than at the VERY beginning, I'd be interested to hear about it.
