Sunday Dec 8 The Reviews are in

“It’s on TV right now Maddy.” Bobbie was watching the market commercial that Johnny and practically her whole family made. It was 45 seconds long down from the 15 minutes of film. Johnny and Trixie had a quick learning session on the video and audio editing equipment and everyone was watching the results right now. Bobbie was recording it.

It started with Johnny posing as a reporter from the North pole. He had a large microphone that was actually a small food strainer they spray painted black. He explained that the elves were busy at work and the camera panned over the 2 small girls (elves) working studiously with plastic tools. The toys went on a conveyor belt (tread mill) and the big girl elves were scrambling to wrap them before the conveyor belt took them to the boy elves who were loading them into a big red sack. This was all in the background. Santa was in the foreground with rolled up sleeves being interviewed by Johnny. The main message was they were working hard at the North Pole and Santa was coming to visit the Market in Crow Harbour on Saturday(s) Dec 14 and 21.

Bobbie thought it was so clever. The small girls looked very industrious and you couldn’t even tell it was a treadmill instead of a production conveyor belt.

Maddy was smiling and Bobbie hugged her. “You were on TV. Now we should go to the kitchen and get ready because we are going to have a cast party.”

Maddy followed her using her sing songy voice, “Cast party, cast party, cast party.”

Bobbie tested her knee that she’d hurt a few days before and thought it was feeling better. She began to get the food ready. She decided to have pizzas and nachos with lime pop and ice-cream floats for dessert. The grownups would have some margaritas and some beer. She had some alcohol-free margaritas for anyone who wanted and some wine to make spritzers because her mom was coming.

Mark sent up 20 or so individual sourdough pizza crusts and Bobbie had most of the pizza toppings all ready. She just had to get them on the island. In the meantime, she put the nachos into big bowls and got salsa, sour cream and guacamole out.

She went into her bedroom and Maddy followed, so did Fossie as it was almost his dinner time. Bobbie went into the bathroom, with everybody and Fossie jumped into the bathtub. Maddy laughed and Bobbie washed her face. She put a little makeup on and out of the side of her eye she saw Maddy watching carefully. She made a mental note to put some nice tinted chap stick in her Christmas stocking. Bobbie picked her up and carried her in the bedroom and playfully dropped her on the bed.

“I’m going to get dressed, you should go in your room and pick your clothes. I’ll be there in a minute.”

Maddy slid off the bed and wandered to her room. Bobbie finished getting ready and went to feed Fossie. She left his food on the counter and went to check on Maddy. “Maddy, Fossie wants his dinner, do you want to give it to him?” She stopped at Maddy’s door, her mind didn’t immediately register what was going on. At first, she thought Maddy had cut herself. Then she realized…

Maddy had red lipstick from her chin to her eyebrows and she was trying to wipe it off with her sheet. Several of her stuffed animals had ghoulish red grins. Since it was all over her hands, Maddy wiped it all over the floor and was trying to clean that up with her sheets too.

When she realized it wasn’t blood, Bobbie smiled behind her hand. “Maddy, you’ve made a big mess. Did you borrow Gramma’s lipstick?”

Maddy looked right at her shook her head and said, “No,” and started to cry.

Bobbie raised her eyebrows but picked her up to comfort her. “Well first things first, lets give you a quick bath.” She ran the water fairly hot and put baby oil in the water. Then she got some worn out facecloths and towels out of the laundry room. She got the dish soap from the kitchen and between the oil and the dish soap she got all the lipstick out of Maddy’s hair and off her face and hands. She dried her off and wrapped her in her fuzzy bathrobe and plunked her in front of the TV while she cleaned up the room with the cloths she’d used in the bath. She changed her sheets and threw the grinning stuffies and sheets in the wash with some TSP and laundry soap.

Then she got Maddy dressed and never mentioned the lipstick.

They heard a knock on the door. It was Trixie, Greg, Barb and Johnny. Eddy, Charlie, June and the kids weren’t far behind and her mom and Dean arrived shortly after that. They chatted and munched on nachos.

Mark texted and asked if she wanted him to cook the pizzas in his oven and she texted back yes please, so Mark arrived with his big sheet pans and they all dressed their pizzas and Wally and Clay offered to help Mark carry them down to the restaurant.

They all watched the commercial a couple more times and Johnny and Trixie explained how they edited and enhanced it all.

The elevator dinged and the pizza pans, which were slightly cooled, were set on the island and people grabbed their personal pizzas. Maddy and Suzy shared one. Suzy had sauce on her side and Maddy just had olive oil and cheese on hers.

Eventually Florence came over to Bobbie. “Bobbie, I’ve been in contact with Gloria Johnson; I think she’d like to meet Maddy.”

“Well sure Mom, I’d never try and keep Maddy away from her other Gramma Great. We’re pretty busy getting ready for Christmas, but how about on Tuesday around 4. Maddy will be done her nap and I can bring some sweets from the tea service.”

Florence was already walking away. “That sounds lovely, I’m just going to have tea with my great granddaughters now.”

The next time she looked, her mother was sitting at the small children’s table pretending to sip tea out of tiny cups.

Bobbie smiled and started to put away all the pizza fixings. She figured she could throw it all into some broth and call it pizza soup. Wally came over to the island. “What are you going to do with the left-over pizza? Can Clay and I take them for lunch tomorrow?”

That’s a good idea. I’ll give you 5 and you can share with your sister. She called Niko over and asked her if she wanted a pizza for her lunch and packed the last leftover pizza in a box for her. Then she went over to Laura. “I gave your brothers a bunch of left over pizzas; be sure you get one for your lunch tomorrow. Oh and Laura, what are your mom’s plans for Christmas with Mac and all that?”

Laura leaned closer to her. “Mac’s family are coming here for Christmas. Mom says they might stay here at the motel. He’s got a brother who doesn’t have kids. Dad says we’re staying with them Christmas Eve and then coming here with him for Christmas dinner.”

“That sounds nice Laura.” Bobbie couldn’t help but be curious about Mac’s family. “And they might be staying here?” 

Trixie was experimenting with putting a bit of tequila in the adult lime floats and brought one over to Bobbie. “Oh my gosh Trixie that is too good!”

Barb took a sip. “That will make me drunk AND fat.” Barb really had no fat left to lose and assured them she was on a really low dose of her medicine and was maintaining a healthy weight now, with no plans to lose any more. “I weigh about as much as I did in grade nine. Your mother and I weigh about the same. She told me she has some clothes for me.”

“Barb, you’re petite now. You should come over to Mom’s on Tuesday after Tea. Maddy is going to meet her other Gramma Great.”

By 8:30 most everyone was gone and Maddy was quietly siting at her small table stirring her lime float and Bobbie was filling the dishwasher. She wiped her hands. “OK Sweetie, lets get ready for bed. It’s getting late.”

They went to the washroom and Bobbie lifted her onto the potty and then they brushed their teeth. “Do you want a story in my room or your room.”

“You come in my room.”

Bobbie stopped and got Maddy’s favourite stuffy out of the dryer. He had just a faint stain of lipstick left on the snout. She gave it to Maddy and settled in to read her favourite book.

Maddy turned to her and started to sniffle and said she was sorry about taking her lip stuff. Bobbie hugged her and said that it was OK, and thanked her for telling her. While Maddy’s breath started to regulate, Bobbie thought about when she found Maddy with the lipstick and asked her if she’d taken it when she already knew. It was kind of mean for her to ask her like that. She really should have trusted Maddy enough to tell her when she was ready.