From the archives of The Big Daddy Bad Behavior file…………..
Years ago, we used to drive from Maryland to Illinois to spend Christmas with our families. With little kids, it was a huge job to get them and everything they needed, plus all their Christmas presents, loaded up and into the car for the twelve hour drive.
We would arrive a few days before Christmas, and one or both of us would have to make a trip to the mall to finish up. One year, The Big Daddy needed to make the trek on Christmas Eve to get a gift for me. He was gone for hours, to the point where we were getting worried about him. He finally made it back and went off to a bedroom to wrap his treasure.
And what could be this gift that took hours for him to find? I couldn’t imagine.
On Christmas morn, when the kids had finished their Santa gifts, he presented my present. I was full of anticipation, and ripped off the wrapping to discover a Stitchery Kit of Two Deer In The Woods. Well, that wasn’t what I was anticipating. Or wanting.
He explained that on the way to the mall, when he was driving by way of the Forest Preserve, he saw two deer in the woods and that’s when it came to him. That deer live in the woods, I asked. No, no, he said, that a deer themed gift was a sign. Too bad the mall wasn’t by way of a diamond mine.
My mom observed this and without saying a word, got up and went into the kitchen. When I came in, she said, “I gave him plenty of ideas, even offered to go with him. Who gets the mother of toddlers a gull damn project to do?” My Big Daddy, that’s who.
By then it was 12:00 somewhere and she cracked open the wine and poured us a glass. Separated by many years, we each had our crosses in life to bear. Dad, who took NINE YEARS to remodel the kitchen, and me, married to a guy who goes to every store in town on Christmas Eve to find a wildlife kit for his wife to stitch.
Another day. Another Christmas. Another star in the crown.
