Make believe with Ginger

Mother’s Day was Christmas for me. I don’t know which was more fun: Hearing the four young adults harmoniously break into a song they made up on the spot, having a series of tea parties with a 4 year old or pulling out all the new toys I found at garage sales.
I hope the weekend was Christmas for the grandkids as well. Their momma said on the day they were packing to leave for Arkansas she plopped the kids down in front of the TV to watch cartoons and keep out of the way.
When she announced it was time to get in the car, the 4-year-old dashed to the TV and turned it off, shouting, “Yeah! We are going to Grandma’s house!”
Before the pre-schoolers came I replaced breakable knick knacks with stuffed animals, sturdy toy tractors and building blocks. The little ones found surprises tucked in odd corners and nothing was broken this time.
Whatever time the family arrives is party time. So at 1:30 a.m. Saturday, I served the food I had baked ahead of time, my husband helped the toddler with the child-oriented remote control race car and dump truck and we all noisily talked, joked and caught up with each other’s lives.
Of course, the next day everyone was sleepy – except me. I was filled with Christmas excitement. Plus, very early, the little ones came peeping around the corner to see if I was awake. I grinned; they grinned and came a running. I tucked all three in high bar stools around the counter, pretended to take their orders and served breakfast and made coffee.
Thanks to college life I now have a coffee pot. Thanks to my youngest son’s fiancee’, who works at a gourmet coffee shop, we enjoyed a fine selection of coffee all weekend. Reading the instructions on the back of the packages, I can make a mighty fine pot of coffee.
Reading the instructions on the package of ice cream mix, my husband made a mighty fine tub of ice cream using the old-fashioned crank ice cream maker. We enjoyed vanilla ice cream on homemade carrot cake and samplings of the strawberry ice cream with real berries.
As we pulled out the ice cream fixings, I set out a child’s ice cream making set. The 4-year-old saw the tiny little cone shaped cups and pink spoons, “Can I have a tea party with them?”
Of course.
We filled the tiny cups with sweet stuff and she had her party. The next morning, she came to me with a Winnie the Pooh picnic basket from the toy cupboard, “do you want to have at tea party with me?”Sure I love tea parties. We sat down on the floor. She spread out the tiny tablecloth, served tea and said in a high squeaky voice, “I am Sarah.”
My voice wasn’t quite as high, “I’m Angela. Thank you for having me over for tea. When we finish would you like to have tea with my Victorian tea set?”
She did. We did. My live-in bachelor joined us, “Why are we speaking like this?” he asked in a high voice as he held his tea cup of water.
“Because it is a tea party and we are pretending.”
I don’t know how much the 4-year-old will remember, but it was fun.


Posted

in

by

Tags: