Chapter Ten
Happy Holidays
Several days later Chrissy and Johnny were making wedding plans and they looked out toward their home site and gasped in surprise. Their mobile home was being set on the concrete foundation they had watched them pour earlier.
“Oh, Johnny, they’ve about got our trailer ready for us.”
”It will still be a good while before it’s all ready but they are getting along with it quite well.”
“I can hardly wait until we can live there. It will be so perfect, Honey.”
“As soon as they get some steps up to it, we’ll take everyone over to see it.”
“Oh, yeah. That will be special.
“Well, this job is in the record books, Johnny, and I for one am extremely proud of it. We did a good job and finished almost on time, despite the big snow storm the last of last month." Ed was proud of the work they had turned out and the school board had expressed their approval with a two hundred dollar bonus for each of them.
“Thanks, Ed, for firing me as a helper. I’m enjoying being your partner and I’m proud of what we’ve done, too. With this behind us, it’s time to concentrate on the holidays and the wedding. Man, oh, man—to use Andy’s phrasing—I’m really nervous about that.
“The next thing Chrissy and I need to do is decide who we’re going to send invitations to and then order the invitations. Of course most of my folks already know about it but I want them to have the invitations, too.”
“Penny and I talked to my family in California and told them they would be getting invitations and my dad and my brother and his family are all planning to be here, barring illness or bad weather. There are a few people in North Carolina I think Chrissy will want to invite, as well as Penny’s aunt and her family.”
“You’re not helping much with my nerves,” Johnny said, laughing, “but I’ll be glad if everyone can come to celebrate our love. I’m going to make your daughter very, very happy, I promise.”
“I have no doubts, Johnny. I’m happy she found you or you found her or however it came about.”
Later on after supper Chrissy and Johnny settled in the living room and made lists of family and friends. They determined they would probably need to buy fifty invitations. Chrissy’s guest list went like this:
Mom and Dad and the twins
Uncle Jack and Aunt Genny Parsons
Webster and Faye Parsons
Mattie Parsons
Emily Parsons
Grandpa Fred Wroe
Uncle Robert and Aunt Carla Wroe
Cousin Megan and Cousin Bobby
Millie Dillard (high school friend)
Sara Board (high school friend)
Mr. and Mrs. Enright (NC neighbours)
Mr. and Mrs. Harper (NC neighbours)
The groom’s list was somewhat longer:
Mom and Dad, Sean and Kathleen
Grandmother Lydia Thorne
Grandfather Patrick O’Reilly
Grandmama Keara O’Reilly
Uncle Paddy and Aunt Callie O’Reilly
Rose, Jimmy, Buddy, Colleen & Nancy Ruth O’Reilly
Uncle Francis and Aunt Adrianna Nolan and little Frankie
Uncle Chuck and Aunt Kattie Carter and Charlene, Joey, and Doreen
Uncle Morgan and Aunt Polly O’Reilly
Uncle Al and Aunt Dorrie Grantland and little Betty Ruth
“I thought we might want to ask Sheriff Lampton and the Tinsleys, too.”
Chrissy agreed and they added:
Frank and DeDe Tinsley and Devon and Maria
Sheriff and Mrs. Owen Lampton
“We’ll need to talk to the minister, too, Johnny, and make all those arrangements. Valentine’s Day will be here before you know it, Honey.”
“I can’t wait, Baby. There’s something else I want to talk to you about and that’s our honeymoon. What do you think about going to Ireland and seeing where I grew up and I can introduce you to all my friends and let them see what a beautiful wife I have?”
“Oh, Johnny, I think that would be beyond my wildest dreams. Go across the ocean! Would we fly or go by ship? Oh, this is terrifically exciting! What part of Ireland are you from? You’ve never talked about your homeland. I want to hear all about it.”
“We’ll fly, of course; it would take too long to go by ship. Well, it’s a small town in County Galway called ‘Athenry’ and it’s only a short distance from Galway. There’s a big old castle there that was built back in the 1200s. It has a moat and three towers, and we can go tour through it. I could see the top of the towers from my bedroom window a short distance to the west of where I lived. You can still see some of the walls that were built around the town about a half-century later in the late 1200’s, too. I want us to take a boat ride on Galway Bay and watch the moon go down. It’s simply gorgeous; it looks as though it melts into the water and then flows through the surface and dances on the waves in celebration of its love affair with the sea.”
“Oh, that sounds unbelievably awesome and romantic!”
“Do you kids know what time it is? It’s almost eleven o’clock. Don’t you think we should all call it a night?”
“I’m sorry, Dad, I had no idea it was that late. We’ve been working on wedding guest lists and the time just flew by.”
“I’m sorry, too. We’ll say ‘goodnight’ and I’ll be gone.”
“I’ll be glad when we don’t have to say goodnight and go to different houses to sleep.”
“It won’t be long, Honey. Goodnight for now. I love you, Christina.”
“I love you, too. Goodnight, Jonathon.
Chrissy was going almost every day up to Grandmother’s to help her get ready for Christmas. She also made a point of stopping by a minute coming or going to see how things were going with their mobile home. She and Grandmother made candy, cookies, and pies and Chrissy helped her do a bunch of cleaning. They wiped down walls, cleaned windows and facings; they dusted and vacuumed; they took down all the drapes and curtains and washed them; they removed crocheted spreads from furniture, washed and starched and ironed them and put them back on; they put clean sheets, pillow cases, blankets and quilts on all five of the beds; and they plugged in air fresheners all over the house. Some of the rooms hadn’t even been opened for months and months and months.
Lydia had almost decided not to do the bedrooms yet and wait until after Christmas and closer to their wedding date; but Chrissy said, “We’ll be extremely busy a little later. Don’t you think they’ll still be fresh enough in February, if we do them now?" And Lydia had conceded the point and now it was done.
The three bathrooms had to be scrubbed from top to bottom and they had got out the good towels and washcloths and washed them, dried them and hung them up. Lydia decided she needed a few more bath towels and she put that on the shopping list, which had become pretty long and was getting longer every day.
They took all the good china and crystal out of the china cabinet, washed every piece of it, and set it on the sideboard to sparkle.
“Of course, we won’t need all of it for Christmas. Let’s see, there’ll be seven of us for dinner and there’s a place setting for twelve; but it looks pretty setting there, doesn’t it?”
Chrissy agreed that it did look beautiful. Grandmother still wasn’t aware that Bruce and Janet, Sean and Kathleen, Johnny’s parents and siblings, would be there on Christmas Eve.
They had put all the leaves in the dining table and put on the new Christmas tablecloth and all the placemats Lydia had bought when they were in Owensboro for the twins’ birthday. Then Lydia carefully removed a box from the center drawer of the china cabinet and opened it to reveal a set of twelve gilt-edged crystal napkin holders in the shape of angels.
“Oh, Grandmother, those are without a doubt the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. They look so fragile and delicate with the gold edged wings and, look, each of them holds a book that serves as a handle to move them with. The ring itself is attached to the
wings in the back and whatever color napkin you put through the ring looks as though it’s almost absorbed into the clear crystal. They are so lovely.”
“This sets them off, too, don’t you think?” Lydia said as she lifted an angel centerpiece from its wrappings. The angel was about nine inches tall with a place for candles on each side of the crystal figurine. Lydia placed two red tapers in the holders on either side and put a candle ring with holly and red berries and lots of greenery around the whole centerpiece.
“Those are absolutely perfect, Grandmother. You’ll have the prettiest table in the country if not in the whole world. Mom will be speechless. Where on earth did you get them?"
“They were a gift from Great-Aunt Ruth Remington. Grandma Wesley was my maternal grandmother and Aunt Ruth was her sister. Because Mama had named me for Aunt Ruth, she gave them to me as a nativity gift. They had been in her family for three generations. She said the thirteen angels would be good luck and would watch over me. I think I’ve only used them twice but I’ve cherished them all of my life. I wanted to use them one more time. She was never married and her money passed to me when she died as well. I’ve never used any of it. George made a decent living and he always said I might want to use it for something special sometime. Of course, it’s drawn interest all these years. I don’t know exactly how much it amounts to right now.”
At least Chrissy could quit worrying about whether or not Grandmother Lydia could afford to spend what she wanted to. Chrissy was humming Christmas songs while she cleaned the silverware and put around the place settings. They had already cleaned the chandelier over the table and the refracted light glinted and gleamed on everything. The whole table was extraordinary!
It was only a week before Christmas when the ladies made time to go to Owensboro for their last minute shopping. Everything was so crowded it was pathetic. Johnny had gone with them to help with carrying the packages. Ed had opted not to go. He was quite busy in the workshop he had set up in the storage shed and he was being very secretive about his activities. He had even put aluminum foil over the windows so that no one could see inside and he kept the door locked even when he was inside. Everyone surmised that he was doing something for Christmas but nobody had any idea what or for whom; not even Penny.
They had used Ed’s Rendezvous to go shopping because with the third row seats folded down that left bunches of room for the boxes, bags and parcels full of goodies they came back with. They had separated the packages when they loaded stuff into the SUV so they already knew what went where. They put all of Penny’s things in the library and that door was locked immediately. Chrissy and Johnny took Grandmother and all her things home. Chrissy liked how sneaky Johnny had been about buying gifts for his family.
“Look, Grandmother, at this set of crystal vases,” he had said. “Don’t you think Mom would love these?”
“Yes, they are lovely. I wish they could have been here for Christmas, too, but I’m sure glad they can come for your wedding.”
“I think I’ll get them and wrap them up and we can have Christmas for them when they do get here." Johnny knew she would feel bad when they showed up Christmas Eve and she had no gifts for them. “Dad loves to smoke a pipe. I’ll bet he would enjoy this set. What do you think Kathleen would like, Chrissy? She’s seventeen now so she’s near your age.”
“Here’s a set of three cashmere sweaters that I think are beautiful. Do you know what size she is?”
“The last pictures they sent—about six months ago—she looked about the same size as Mom and she’s about your size. What size do you wear?”
“I guess about a size thirty-four in a blouse. Is Sean about your size? I’ll bet he would love this leather jacket.”
“What do you think, Grandmother?" When they turned around, Lydia was nowhere in sight. They were a wee bit concerned and began to look all around to see where she had got. They were on the verge of being totally alarmed when they found her nearly a half hour later in front of a gift wrap counter loading gaily wrapped packages onto her wheel chair.
“Grandmother, we were getting worried about you. We thought you were right there with us and when we turned around you were gone.”
“Listen, Kids, I’ve been taking care of myself for longer than the two of you put together have been alive. I think I can do it for a few more days. Anyway, how am I supposed to shop for Christmas with people sticking to me like glue?" They noticed one of the tags on a package had Sean’s name on it and another had Janet’s name. Johnny realized she had taken his suggestion and he was glad.
When they had carried in all the packages—all of them wrapped at the store—they began to bring in the groceries, decorations, and everything else. Lydia took an electric candle and set it in one of the front windows and Johnny and Chrissy put one in each of the other three windows. Next, they climbed the stairs and decorated the windows on both the second and third floors. Soon all the windows had a lighted candle.
“Let’s go out front and see how it looks,” Chrissy suggested. When they had run out past the front porch and saw how terrific it looked, they went in and urged Lydia to come look, too.
“It does look ‘welcoming’ don’t you think? I want lights wound around both of these bushes on either side of the front door, too, and I bought a wreath for the front door. That should make it almost say, ‘Come in and join us at this happy season.’ I didn’t know I had missed this so much; this celebration; the decoration and all the trimming and everything. I feel like I’m alive again after being in hibernation like a cross old bear.”
“We’re going to need a Christmas tree, too, Johnny. Where shall we put it, Grandmother? We’ll have a better idea what size to get if we know where it will be set up.”
“Come, I’ll show you. If we put it in that corner between the front window and the side window, it will show up from both sides of the house. You’d be able to see it coming up the road from the side window and when you’ve turned the bend down there coming up the driveway you can see it from the front window. Okay?”
“It’s perfect, Grandmother.”
Chrissy had never realized how much their house and Grandmother’s house were alike. They were both three stories high with a wide front porch at the front and on both sides of the house. Where the Thorne house had dormer windows, though, theirs had two turrets with curved fronts in the front center on both the second and third stories. Grandmother’s house had windows on all four sides, though, and looked much more like a southern plantation mansion. The west side of the Wroe house, though, had only blank walls because of the secret passage.
“This house looks like a picture postcard, Grandmother,” Johnny said as he threw his arms around her and hugged her tight. “I’ve never thought of it that way before; probably because we never use the front rooms at all. We’ve mostly used just the kitchen, the breakfast nook, and our two bedrooms. Mom will be proud to see it looking as grandiose as when she was a young girl. She would tell us kids about what a showplace it was and what wonderful parties you had here. She would tell us about the graduation party you gave her when she graduated from high school with all the streamers and lights indoors and out where you had set up a dance floor and had music for her and all of her friends. She dearly loved this place. I know she’ll be happy to see it again. You and Chrissy have done a wonderful job of fixing it up and cleaning it up for her homecoming. Thanks to both of you.”
“I—uh—I wasted many, many years. I wish—“Lydia had trouble saying what she wanted to say but they understood anyway and they both urged her to sit on the couch and they sat on each side of her while the tears flowed. Only moments later, though, she wiped her eyes with her fists and smiled up at them, brightly, if somewhat watery. “But that’s in the past and the past is gone. We’re going forward! I love you both so much. Now, since we’ve got a lot still to do, we’d better get to it.”
On the Friday night before Christmas, Johnny and Chrissy had a night out planned. Johnny wanted to take her out t
o dinner and there was a play at the Theater Workshop they wanted to see. They did go to dinner at O’Charley’s and then back to the Executive Inn Rivermont for an evening of love. It was only their second time together but it was even more special than the first. Chrissy had been especially apprehensive the first time. This time she was looking forward to their time together and they had a thoroughly enjoyable evening to say the least. They knew this could very well be the last time until after their wedding. With Sean and Kathleen there, it would be difficult if not impossible to get away by themselves. And they made the most of it. They still kept their intention of being home by eleven. When they got back to Chrissy’s, no lights were on in the house, and they spent a few more minutes in the car before she went in.
“Just think, Hon, my folks get here tomorrow. It’s been almost three years since I’ve seen them and I never expected them to be here unless Grandmother passed away. Now I’ll have them all together again with everybody happy. If I had wished for a gift for Christmas, that would have more than fulfilled it. Speaking of Christmas gifts, I wanted you to have this to wear tomorrow.”
“Johnny, we said my ring would be my Christmas gift. What’s this?”
“Open it and find out,” Johnny suggested.
“My goodness, Johnny, are those diamonds? Real diamonds? Oh, Baby, I’ve completely run out of superlatives. This is—this is—what can I say? Thank you so much!" He clasped the necklace around her neck and the three gems sparkled against her chest.
“The three diamonds are for ‘yesterday, today, and forever’ and that’s when I’ll be loving you." He kissed her tenderly and was about to open the door when she remembered her gift for him. She dug it out of her purse and gave it to him.
“It’s nothing even close to what you’ve given me but it comes with all my love.”
“And that’s worth more to me than diamonds or gold or anything." He opened it and smiled to see that it was also a neck adornment—a gold chain. She, in turn, fastened it around his neck, they kissed again, and she went inside.
Christmas Eve dawned cold and cloudy. Not too many people were up around there, though, who saw the dawn. Ed had been up late the night before. In fact, it was after four o’clock when he had crawled in bed. He had had to wait until Chrissy and Johnny got home to start taking things out of his shop and setting them up. As soon as Chrissy went in the house—he nearly froze waiting—Ed began to carry things out to the front lawn. He was really pleased with his efforts as well as being proud of the new stuff he had tried. For the last several months, he had been doing research and creating patterns for what he wanted to construct. Now he carried out the little rough shelter that would house the manger. When the manger was in place, he carefully placed the small hand-carved Baby on the hay he had purchased from Frank Tinsley. The other figures were one-dimensional cutouts of Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, the wise men, and all the animals. He had two sheep and a baby lamb; a donkey; two oxen; and three camels. In addition, two angels appeared to hover above the shelter where the manger set and in the center at the back was a small pipe, at the top of which rested a large star. He had fashioned the star from wire and screen mesh for the center. When a button was pushed, the star seemed to shine of itself and spotlights located some distance away illuminated the whole scene beautifully. The cutouts were all painted meticulously on both sides and the full effect was stupendous. Ed had every right to be proud.
When he finished, he got in his work truck, loaded up more stuff, took it to Lydia’s house, and set up the same scene for them. He was almost afraid he would be caught setting it up but he had no interruptions and finished his work by about three-thirty. The only thing left to do was the wiring work so that it would actually light up. He’d have to go inside to do that. He planned to do that later in the morning after he could figure everyone would be up. He wanted it to be working properly before Johnny’s family got there that evening.
About nine o’clock he dragged himself out of bed. Penny hadn’t waked him. She knew he had worked late last night; she didn’t know exactly what time he came to bed but she knew it was quite late. After breakfast, he took his electrical tools and walked up the hill to Lydia’s house. Johnny was at the back of the house coming in with a pail of milk when he got there. Through the window, he could see that Lydia was at the stove cooking. He got Johnny’s attention without Lydia knowing he was there and told him to take the milk in but without alerting Lydia, he needed him to come out the front door and help him with something. A couple of minutes later Johnny emerged from the house and nearly dropped in surprise.
“It’s great, Ed. Did you do this all by yourself? The painting and all, too? I didn’t know you could do anything like this. It’s unbelievable! They look completely authentic and the Baby; it’s not just a cutout; you hand-carved this. It’s superb, Ed.”
“I didn’t know if I could do it or not. But I found pictures and made patterns and well, there it is. It looks even better lit up. Can you help me run the wiring? I’d prefer that your Grandmother see it for the first time when it is lit up." In about twenty minutes, the star and the spotlights were shining brightly. Then Johnny went inside to get Lydia. When they came back out, Ed was nowhere in sight.
Lydia was totally entranced. “Who in the world did this?” she asked incredulously. This is fabulous!”
“This is Ed’s gift to us for Christmas, Grandmother. He wanted it to be something unique that he had put his own time and effort into and this is it. I had no idea he was doing it. It is great, though, isn’t it? And it will be even more spectacular after dark. With the lights on it will probably show up from a long way off. I’d say it might be visible from the main highway but certainly from halfway up our road.”
They finished breakfast and Lydia called Ed and Penny to say how much she loved the nativity set. Penny was thrilled with the one at her house; but she hadn’t known that he made one for Lydia, too. He was such a sweet man. And she knew he had put many hours of work into it—painstaking, backbreaking work. She was definitely surprised and delighted with the most unique and thoughtful gift.
That afternoon Johnny was having a really difficult time disguising his excitement in knowing that his folks would be there soon. They had expected to arrive around six o’clock and they had insisted they would stop for something to eat before they came.
“Grandmother, would you mind if we eat a few minutes early this evening? I don’t know why my system wants food this early but it does. I don’t want a lot; just a sandwich would be fine if you can eat this early. I might go down to Chrissy’s for a few minutes if you don’t mind. I guess I’m feeling a wee bit restless.”
Grandmother agreed to eat early, by five-forty-five they had eaten, and Johnny had cleared the table and put everything away. He had gone to the living room and checked to be sure that everything was still as it should be. The Christmas tree they had cut, set, and trimmed did look gorgeous and he had all the gifts they had bought under the tree, including his special gift to Grandmother. He had purchased a round-trip ticket for her to go to Ireland with his folks when they went home. He had wanted Lydia to see what a happy home his mother had in Ireland and some of the sights that were his birthright.
Johnny slipped on his jacket and went outside. It was already dark and he wanted to see if the Christmas scene Ed had made looked as magnificent after night as he was sure it did. Then he wanted to lure Grandmother outside so she’d be handy when his folks came. He went in, got her coat, and entreated her to come out with him.
“Grandmother, let’s go out front and look at the Nativity Set and get a good look at it after dark.”
“Okay, but I thought you were going to Chrissy’s,” she said as she put on her coat. Johnny looked at his watch: five minutes before six. He hoped they were on time.
“I may after a bit but I do want to get a good look at our Christmas gift at night." He did hope he was timing this right. He was so anxious and excited he could hardly contain himself.
“Johnny, what is that noise? Is it an airplane—? Why, it’s a car coming up the driveway. Who would be coming to visit on Christmas Eve?”
“Well, maybe it’s Santa Claus, Grandmother. Who knows?
“Is that the Wroe family coming up here? Is that why you wanted to get supper over with early?" She slapped at him playfully and her mother’s laughter was the first thing Janet heard when she alighted from the car and started toward Lydia.
Johnny had told her only that he had every reason to believe that she would be welcome to come for a visit. As far as she knew her mother's inhospitable, dour personality needn’t have changed that much. Therefore, she was stunned to hear her mother’s merriment when she started up the walkway.
“Come in, come in; I wasn’t expecting you tonight but you know you’re always wel—Johnny, that isn’t Penny. That looks like—but it can’t be—. Is that you, Jan? Is it really you?" Lydia swayed from the shock but then she was rushing toward her with her arms open wide.
“Janet, it is you! Oh, I had wished that you could be here for Christmas and here you are. I’ve missed you, Baby Girl! I’m so sorry for all the—“
“Mama, I’m thrilled to see you, too, and there’s no need for apologies. Let’s just let the past stay right there in the past. We have a lot of present and future to enjoy and I’m thinking we’re going to enjoy it thoroughly. Mama, this is your grandson, Sean. I named him Sean Thorne O’Reilly so that there would be something of our family legacy to carry on. This is Kathleen Lea. I named her after me. I figured if 'Lea' was good enough for you to name me, it would be good enough for my daughter, too. You remember Bruce, Mama.”
“These are the rest of my grandchildren. You’re all grown up, already. And, of course, I remember Bruce. Could a contrite old woman have a hug and a peck on the cheek?" Lydia reached for him and held on tight.
“Hi, Mama! Just try to keep me from hugging you! I swear you haven’t aged a year in the last twenty-five. Johnny, I think your Mom needs a hug from you, too. Then you can help me bring in the luggage and stuff.”
“Let’s get Grandmother in the house before she catches cold and I’ll come back and help, too." Sean was somewhat uncomfortable with all the sentimentality; but he was glad to see that his Grandmother, who had been portrayed to him as grumpy, grouchy, and totally unforgiving, seemed to be in a good mood.
“You realize, I’m going to have to cry, don’t you, Jan? It’s just a simple necessity for something like this. How long has Johnny known that you would be here tonight? I may have to murder him and dismember the body. He could have told me.”
“It would have been worth it, Grandmother, just to see how surprised and happy you were." Johnny had been coming in as she spoke. “As to how long I had known, about a month or six weeks, somewhere in that neighborhood. We wanted to surprise you. Does it matter which room I set up for whom?”
“I would like Janet and Bruce to have the room that was Janet’s when she was a child. I think the room on the third floor would be nice for Kathleen and the other room on the second floor should work fine for Sean. I can hardly believe you gave Sean your maiden name, Jan. I figured you’d hate that name after—oops! In the past. Keep reminding me, Janet. I’m an old lady; I forget easy. I do agree, that there’s no need to rehash everything but I do feel that I owe you an apology or explanation or something.”
“Mama, I understand you were afraid of losing me; but I loved Bruce and I had to follow my heart, just as you had to follow yours. Now, enough already.”
“You sounded exactly like Grandmother when you said that, you know? Just exactly. It was uncanny how many times she has reminded me of you, Mom, and sometimes I’ve missed you so much I could hardly stand it. Nevertheless, you’re here, I’m glad, and I am so anxious for you to meet my Chrissy and her family, too. Chrissy will be here in the morning to help put together our Christmas meal and her folks will be here to eat with us. Chrissy and I will have our whole family here. Now I’m getting sentimental.”
“Gee, Bro, it sounds like you’ve really got it bad for this chick. I’d love for you to meet my girl friend, too. She’s studying dentistry there at Dublin where I am, and we may sometime set up shop together; don’t you think that would be just too neat? Her name is Marcie. She has a fantastic figure,” he made the hourglass moves with his hands with emphasis on the top half of the figure, “big blue eyes and hair so blond it’s almost like white honey.”
“Sounds super, Sean. I’m anxious to meet her, too. Maybe we can get together for a double date when Chrissy and I get over there on our honeymoon.”
“Hey, Son. You’re planning to come home for your honeymoon? What does your girl think of that?"
“She is so looking forward to it. And I am, too! It’ll be especially good to set foot on the old sod again." His brogue was out in full force this evening. Then the phone rang and Johnny answered it. “Hello.”
“I know I shouldn’t be bothering you, but we were anxious to know your family arrived alright. You can just say ‘yes’ and hang up if you need to.”
“Yes, but I’m not hanging up and you’re not bothering anybody. They got here at six o’clock as they expected. Tell your dad everybody loves his Christmas scene. I love you and I’ll talk to you before I go to bed, if it won’t wake anyone if I call.”
“It’ll be fine, Sweetheart. I love you, too. Bye.”
The Family O’Reilly talked far into the night trying to catch up on everything they had missed in the past time lost. Finally, they convinced themselves that they would have more time tomorrow if they got some sleep tonight.
Next morning, Johnny was up early to get the milking done before anyone else was up. When he brought in the pail of milk and strained it through the usual cheesecloth to get any extraneous matter out of it, he saw there was still nobody up, so he took off to walk Chrissy up the hill. This, he knew, would be the only chance they would have to talk privately probably for several days.
When he and Chrissy got back to Lydia’s, the others were stirring and Lydia was ready to start breakfast. Chrissy walked in, and after introductions, immediately began getting out skillets and pans and locating the necessary utensils. She let Lydia do the actual cooking because she knew instinctively that Lydia’s family would enjoy the meal more if Lydia cooked it; but whatever Lydia needed to work with, Chrissy had it immediately ready for her. Chrissy poured the cooled milk into gallon jugs and set them in the refrigerator. She washed up the milk pail and the crock they had cooled it in; rinsed out the strainer cloth and took it out to hang on the line. When Lydia started to make the biscuits, Chrissy had the buttermilk, the soda, baking powder, and salt ready to mix into the flour. Grandmother began to mix it and Chrissy handed her the butter to use as shortening. When Lydia was finished with it, Chrissy put it back in the refrigerator. She got out the flat pan, covered it with shortening, and set it ready for Lydia to place the biscuits on when they were ready. While Grandmother washed her hands, Chrissy set the biscuits in the oven for her. Grandmother smiled her thanks at Chrissy and Janet was fully aware of Chrissy’s competent and quiet helpfulness.
Of course, the introductions had come first as each member of Johnny’s family appeared. He enthusiastically performed the necessary commentaries and each time he smiled at Chrissy proudly. It was easy to see that they were very much in love. Even unsentimental Sean seemed impressed by Johnny’s obvious devotion to her and Kathleen couldn’t believe how much more mature Johnny was than when he left only a few years before.
After breakfast, Kathle
en volunteered to clean up the kitchen and Chrissy insisted on helping her. They chatted quietly while they were scrubbing counters and washing and drying dishes.
“You know, I think it’s going to be totally neat to have a sister after all these years. I like you Chrissy and I’m glad you’re marrying my brother. I had thought I might be a wee bit jealous; but you have such a sweet personality and I’m sure we’re going to get along beautifully.”
“Well, I’m sure glad you feel that way, because I have a favor to ask of you. Would you be one of my bridesmaids at the wedding?" Chrissy smiled at Kathleen as her mouth dropped open and she began to stammer.
“You want me to b-be in your wedding? I-I’m amazed. I m-mean I assumed you would have your own f-friends and relatives who you would have already asked. You’re sure you do want me—?”
“I truly do want you if you would like to; there would be no hard feelings if you don’t but I think it would be really neat if you would.”
“Oh, Chrissy!" Kathleen took her wet hands out of the dishwater and hugged Chrissy excitedly. “Oh, Chrissy!”
“I guess that must mean ‘yes’. Right?”
“What in the world are you two in here squealing and dancing around about?" Janet was curious. The two girls had barely spoken to each other and they were behaving as though they had been best friends for years. “Kathleen, you’re getting Chrissy all wet. Now, what is going on?”
“Kathleen has agreed to be a bridesmaid at our wedding. I perhaps should have asked you if it was okay first, but I didn’t think of it before. You don’t mind, do you? I would like her to stand up with us.”
“Well, I do think that is a nice gesture, but I’m sure you have friends and family you’d prefer to have. Did Johnny talk you into this?” she asked rather suspiciously.
Johnny had heard enough to understand what was happening. “I had no idea she was going to ask Kathleen; but if she did ask her, it’s because she wanted her. Rest assured I’m not talking Chrissy into anything.”
Janet realized she was about to get off on the wrong foot with her soon-to-be daughter-in-law. “I’m sorry Chrissy. If you’re sure you want Kathleen, we would all be honored for her to participate. What colors will you be using for your wedding, Chrissy?”
“Do you think we could harmonize pink and burgundy or maroon? I thought maybe a black tux and a white dress for us and maroon tuxes for the other men and pink dresses for the girls. Do you think that could be pretty?”
“I think that would be lovely if you chose your shades of maroon and pink carefully.”
“Maybe you and Mom can help me with that. But I shouldn’t be bringing up that sort of thing today. This is Christmas and I think, Grandmother, it’s probably time to put the turkey on and I want to watch you carefully.”
“So do I." Jan and Kathleen spoke together.
But the turkey had to wait until introductions were made again because Ed, Penny and the twins had arrived. Everybody seemed to be getting along great and Chrissy breathed a sigh of relief and a fervent ‘thank you.’
Everybody working together under Lydia’s directions soon made light work of getting the Christmas meal together and ready to eat. It was about four in the afternoon when they were ready to eat. They couldn’t decide if it was lunch, dinner, supper or something else but they had no trouble at all deciding it was absolutely delicious.
The meal was most enjoyable all round with conversation and high spirits flowing freely. Chrissy had been right about her Mom’s being enthralled with how beautiful Lydia’s table looked. Janet said she had seen the angel napkin holders but she didn’t remember their ever having been used when she was home. She couldn’t recall even seeing the angel centerpiece. It was exceptionally magnificent with the candles glowing and the greenery around it.
“Kathleen, what do you want to do when you finish high school?" Lydia still had a lot of catching up to do. “Do you have a career in mind? Do you want to further your education and pursue a profession or vocation of some sort?”
“I’ve always thought I wanted to study veterinary medicine, Grandmother. I love horses, especially, but actually all kinds of animals. Mama loves to tell everyone how I used to carry home stray cats and birds with broken wings and try to ‘fix’ them.”
“I think that’s a wonderful aspiration, Kathleen,” Chrissy said. “I’d be proud to have both a dentist and a veterinarian in the family. You never know when they might come in handy." Everyone laughed.
“How long before you can hang out your shingle as a dentist, Sean?” Ed asked.
“Only two more years until I graduate; but I’ll probably need to work as an apprentice with another dentist for a few years before I go out on my own. When we're ready, my girlfriend, Marcie, and I plan to open a clinic together.”
“I tell him it takes a lot of love to run both a home and a business with the same partner. That’s an awful lot of ‘togetherness.’" Janet’s motherly concern was showing.
“True love can overcome a lot of problems, but that might put a real strain on a relationship." Penny concurred.
“Who’s ready for dessert?” Lydia asked. She was concerned that this little discussion could cause some problems, too, so she decided to de-rail this particular subject.
Andy and Candy had been behaving so nicely everyone had almost forgotten them. “We are! We are!" When it was dessert time, they for sure didn’t want to be ignored.
Lydia’s dessert was a little unorthodox for a Christmas, but she remembered that Janet had dearly loved her cherry cobbler. At the last minute, she had thrown one together and it was just out of the oven piping hot. She got out the ice cream and Chrissy helped her serve it. The entire meal had been a remarkable example of cuisine at its most palatable. The cherry cobbler a la mode however was totally out of this world. Andy expressed his approval enthusiastically if totally understated.
“Hey, Grandmother, this is goo-oo-ood."
Candy was busy stuffing her face and she didn’t even take time to agree.
“I’ll bet I know what the ‘secret ingredient’ is in this, Lydia." Penny was stuffing her face, too. “It’s black walnut kernels, isn’t it?”
“You got it that time, Penny. Along with equal parts of white and brown sugar. Do you really like it?”
“I love it.”
“It’s even better than I remembered it, Mama, and I remembered it a lot. I tried to make it a few times but it wasn’t as good as yours was. Now I know why. It needed brown sugar, too.”
The ladies hurried to straighten up the table and pile the dirty dishes in the kitchen so they could open the gifts. Johnny insisted on handing out the presents and he chose them carefully so that only one person would be opening a gift at a time and everybody could watch. Chrissy and Johnny had put the gifts they had given each other back in the boxes and re-wrapped them so everyone could see them. Everyone agreed the necklaces were beautiful. Of course, everyone was surprised with the gifts Grandmother had bought for each of them.
“Mama, how did you know to get something for us? You seemed really surprised when we came?" Janet was curious.
“Oh, that smart-aleck over there,” she pointed to Johnny, “said he was going to get something for you and we could give them to you when you came. Of course, I didn’t know when you were coming but it sounded like a nice idea even if you didn’t get them until February. Oh, I just thought of something! Your being here now isn’t going to keep you from being able to come back for the wedding, is it?" She knew how important it was to Johnny for his parents to be there for the wedding.
“We’ll have to be here for the wedding if Sean is going to be best man and Kathleen is going to be a bridesmaid." Bruce commented with a twinkle in his eyes. “But we couldn’t afford to make two trips, so I guess you’re stuck with us until after the wedding. Can you put up with us for that long, Mama?”
“Oh, it’s Kleenex time again. I’m going to cry for sure. That’s the most wonderful news yet." Lydia blew her no
se noisily.
“Wow, I’m glad to know it’s good news. You had me worried for a minute. We say we’ll be here for more than a month and Mama immediately begins to blubber. We’re looking forward to it, Mama. We love you.”
When the hugs had been hugged and the tears all wiped, Penny spoke up. “We want you to come to the house for dinner at least one evening during that time. We definitely want to know Chrissy’s other family, too.”
“Sure, I’d like to show the engineer my workshop. And I’ve got a sick chicken that could use a veterinarian’s touch. And, Sean, I’ve got this tooth right here—. “Everybody laughed so hard Ed had to stop.
“We’d better get back to these gifts because there’s a couple I need to give out before dark. I think this is your last one, Grandmother. It’s from Bruce and his family and me and Chrissy. Open it, quickly.”
Lydia tore open the envelope and looked at the contents blankly. “Well, I’m sure it’s wonderful, but what is it?”
“It’s a round trip ticket to Ireland, Mama. We arranged for Johnny and Chrissy to use our house for the first week of their honeymoon. Then, you and we are going back to Ireland to help them celebrate the second week. I want you to see why I fell in love with my adopted country. There are castles with moats, crumbled monasteries, and city walls, Galway Bay, as in the song you used to sing me to sleep with and all the other things that make it special. Please say you’ll come, Mama.”
“What would happen to my cows and chickens and flowers? My pipes would all freeze. I’d love to do it, but there’s no way I can leave in the dead of winter. Maybe I could make it a little later in the spring.”
“I’m not trying to talk you out of going, Lydia, or into it either. We’d miss you a lot; but if you want to go, I’ll take care of your livestock and your plants and everything. I don’t mind in the least.”
“There, Grandmother, now you don’t have an excuse not to come." Kathleen was truly looking forward to her coming.
“Oh, well, I don’t know. Well, okay, I’ll do it. I said I was going to live the rest of my life. By Henry, I’ll go,” Lydia announced.
“Alright! Now can we go outside for a few minutes? I’ve got something out there that I can’t bring inside.”
Everybody put their coats on and they were soon assembled on the back porch.
Johnny had disappeared but he came from behind one of the buildings with two beautiful blond puppies with ribbons pasted hastily on top of their heads. “This one’s name is Dandy." He pointed to the one with the blue bow. “This one’s name is Brandi." He indicated the one with the pink bow. “Brandi belongs to Candy and Dandy belongs to Andy.”
The twins stood there for a moment with their mouths open and their eyes wide. Then they rushed forward and began to wrestle with the dogs. They giggled uncontrollably as the pups washed their faces with long wet tongues. Finally, they calmed down a bit.
“Johnny, do you mean these are our dogs to keep forever?”
“Can we really have them and take them home to be our dogs?" Then they turned to their Mom and Dad. They nodded to the kids and they were in seventh heaven.
“You still have one more Christmas gift at home from Mom and me,” Ed said. “I built them each a doghouse so they can get in out of the weather and stay warmer. Your Mom made them some beds to put in so they could lay on them instead of the cold ground.”
“Oh, thank you, thank you.”
“This is the best Christmas ever.”
And the entire group agreed wholeheartedly.
The Ghostly Hideaway Page 18