Thank yous and laughter

I woke up this morning with two thoughts on my mind, a few words spoken by my father and laughter in the night.

I wasn’t in the room to hear my dad’s words, but Mark told me about it.

The Christmas part was a big success. I always worry that a catastrophe will happen on these occasions at my parents’ house, but according to my mom they got through their catastrophes earlier in the day. The food was a joint effort by my mom, my two sisters and me. We had a finger-sandwiches-and-heavy- hors d’oeuvres buffet on the dining room table. We opened gifts in the living room and set up a card table in there for my dad to use. Three of my four children were there along with my daughter-in-law and grandson. It was a good celebration with little Luke providing a lot of entertainment for adults who had not enjoyed the presence of a young child in too many years.

I spent some time in the kitchen trying to clean everything up before we left, so I didn’t witness my dad’s words.

“Your dad said two words tonight,” Mark said on the half-hour drive home. “Actually he said two words, twice. Guess what they were.”

I thought for a minute, but really had no idea.

“He said ‘Thank you’ when Luke gave him a puzzle piece,” Mark said. “He did it twice.”

Now, little one-year-old Luke was not the first person to give Dad anything last night. My sisters and I were busy giving him food, a drink, presents, napkins, whatever he needed, without a word in response. But when little Luke gave him a piece of his new puzzle, Dad said, “Thank you. Twice.”

The laughter on my mind this morning came from the voices of our four adult children who were playing games at the dining room table when I went to bed last night in our room down the hall. As I lied in bed I could hear their voices, recognizing each individual by their own particular distinctive laugh. And I fell asleep with the lullaby of their laughter.

I hope you’re enjoying the holidays.

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