Christy brought Hunter and Gage over Saturday morning for one of Papa Doc’s famous breakfasts. We used to manage to lure them over at least once a month before the boys got old enough for baseball to take over their lives. Between games and practices and tournaments and travel, it had been nearly a year since we last managed to get whipped cream and waffles fit into the schedule.

The adults managed to fill up on single servings but both boys needed an extra share of waffle to finish out their appetites. After that, we moved to the living room. I built a fire while Gage did a word search puzzle and Hunter worked on a crossword challenge. Randa and Christy helped out with those projects and talked to each other.

With the fire going, I went down to the basement and retrieved Buzzword. With the guys versus the gals, we played that for a while. Christy had to go run some errands and we were tickled to watch the boys for her. Randa remembered that the “Quiddler” game she’d bought last Christmas was still unopened and that it was high time to remedy that oversight. In a nutshell, Quiddler is like playing Scrabble but using cards instead of blocks. It was darn impressive to see how well Gage to the game; even if he wasn’t a grandkid, he has very good spelling skills for a nine-year-old.

Christy got back from her errands and joined us for another game of Quiddler before they all had to leave. It was a good day. Nothing fancy, nothing elaborate, nothing expensive or complicated. Just a laid back time of letting nothing else be more important than spending the day enjoying some time spent together. The sort of day that lays well in memory. Whatever work got put aside will probably find its own time some other time. At least every now and then, just being together ought to move up to the top of the Next Actions List.

H. Arnett
12/14/09