A CLEARING HORIZON... with just a little fog (Part 67j)

The main project for Sunday was to replace the temporary ”fencing“ I’d put up to try to keep people from getting into the mud that was our yard. As I mentioned before, the pad was created too late in the season for grass to grow so all I had was a yard made up of wet topsoil. I knew that not having a yard for the kids to play in would be somewhat of a problem but really had no choice. I had enough material left over from when I fenced in the yard for the old trailer to keep people from stepping off the path to the patio and door. I also knew that the picket fencing that had been damaged when the ”boys“ placed the first of the 60 foot trailers was still out by the work shed. My plan was to put that across the front and hope for the best. When I went out the door everybody was still asleep. I’d hoped to get another ”peek“ at Judy’s bottom but she had the blanket over it as I walked past.

By late morning I had the posts in place so took a break. Judy was about to leave as Lance was due back before 1pm. I hadn’t yet told her that she was invited to go with us to my grandfather’s for Christmas dinner. I decided to wait until Christmas morning to do it. Lance had to be back on base at midnight and wouldn’t be back until around 7pm Christmas day. I wanted to make it a surprise for Judy and really didn’t want Lance’s input involved with her decision making.

I got what I wanted done a far as the fencing was concerned before dark. One of the family traditions that I was able to convince Elle to adopt was to hold off putting the Christmas tree up until Christmas eve and leaving it for ”Santa“ to decorate. As soon as supper was over I got that done. We read ”The Night Before Christmas“ to the girls before putting them to bed. The oldest was too wound up to sleep which meant we couldn’t do much in the way of decorating until it was quite late. And, I still had to put the jumping horse we’d bought for Jean together as well as find a way to bring the new TV in without Elle seeing it. Elle finally gave up around 11pm and took Jean into our bed and lay down with her. That left me to do all the decorating. It was after 1am when I had everything about done. I knew Elle needed to be woken up for a bathroom visit, especially since she wasn’t wearing a ”package“. I put Jean in her own bed and waited until Elle went back into our bedroom before I made my last trip outside to fetch the TV and the stand for it.

I was really tired. But, I woke up completely when I realized that there was no antenna to connect the TV to. The whole deal about leaving the old TV for Lance and Judy had come up so quickly that I hadn’t thought the whole thing out and completely forgot about an antenna for the new TV. I felt so stupid but there was nothing I could do until Tuesday. Even though it was close to 3am when I fell into bed I was wide awake. I heard Elle get up for her bathroom visit and then a little later heard Jean crying. One rule we enforced was that she was not to get out of bed without one of us there so, being half awake, I got up but so did Elle. We went down to Jean’s room and sat on her bed with her. It was becoming obvious that she didn’t like sleeping alone. When I determined it was almost 6am we decided to let her go out in the living room to see what Santa had brought. Her diaper was soaked but Elle let her go anyway. When she saw that horse it was all over. She was on it right away... and wouldn’t get off of it. When a small puddle appeared underneath it Elle had to pull her off, crying, to get her cleaned up. By that time the baby was awake. At fifteen months she didn’t understand Christmas so was happy just sitting there ripping up some of the wrapping paper. I’m going to say that Elle had been in the room for over an hour before she ever noticed the TV. I felt dumber after I told her that we couldn’t turn it on because I hadn’t thought of an antenna but she looked at it and discovered that there was a built in antenna, something that our old TV didn't have. We were so far from the city that it didn’t work except to give us a snowy picture from a station about 40 miles away across the Sound. It was enough to say we had TV though. I fully expected to be ”quizzed“ about where I got the money but she spared me that.

While Elle was feeding the girls breakfast I went to invite Judy. I thought I’d have to do some persuading but she readily accepted. We were supposed to get to my grandfather’s house around 11am so that I’d have time to take my father, brother and grandfather to see my grandmother at the hospital and still be back for dinner at 1pm. Elle was finishing up getting the girls dressed when I decided to go get Judy. I knocked on the door and when she opened it I was a bit shocked at what I saw. She had on the maternity outfit that my mother had given Elle to be her ”good“ outfit. A few things went spinning through my mind. First was that she wasn’t showing enough yet to have to wear maternity clothes. Next was the fact that she actually looked pretty wearing it. But third, and most important, was that I knew my mother would have a hissy fit if she saw her gift to Elle on a stranger. Originally I had no intention of going inside the trailer but I bounded up the steps to try and explain the situation. Judy was all apologetic. Since she really didn’t get any presents she thought of Elle’s maternity clothes as a substitute. Thinking that this would be a somewhat formal affair she chose the obvious. In that vein I had to laugh. Other than my grandfather who always wore a suit and tie on Sundays and holidays we were all dressed ”nice casual“. I encouraged her to quickly pick something else out. She immediately stripped the jacket off and then, just like the night when she'd tried the clothes on, dropped the skirt right there on the floor. She had on a slip and just as she picked up a pair of gray slacks proceeded to pull that down as well. It was like deja-vu only this time Elle wasn’t there to give me that "look". I only had a few seconds to take this all in as she was very efficient with her dressing. But I had enough of a view to create a bit of a problem in my pants.

To be continued...