*-- *-- *--
October had arrived in all its glory.-The gold and crimson leaves were vying with the gorgeous sunset in the age old effort to show the world what true colors were all about.-The dark green of the pines and cedar trees shouldered their way between the colorful maples and the yellow and brown of the giant leaves of the oak trees were a counterpoint to the purple and magenta of the cottonwoods, the sweet gums, and hickories.-The rolling hills put the colorful varieties on display with row upon row showing one behind the other as far as the eye could see. You could see seven and eight hills with each hill trying to outdo the other.-They almost seemed to be marching up hill in a parade to show off their multihued finery.-Then after dark, the harvest moon would peep over the hill and light up the night like God’s flashlight illuminating everything so brightly, the stars would be jealous enough to almost fade from sight.
The babies, Lorrie and Tommy, were nearly two months old and growing so fast it was almost unbelievable.-They were smiling and goo-gooing all the time and everybody loved them to pieces.-They loved attention but they were still good babies and would lay for long periods and play with a rattle or their toes or nothing at all.- The first thing the twins would do when they got home from school or came in from play was run to Lorrie’s playpen.-Sometimes, if it was only wet, Penny would even let Andy or Candy change her diaper.
Today was Friday and the kids had just made it home from school.-As usual, they ran into the dining room where the playpen was set up to see Lorrie but Lorrie was no where in sight.-They heard Penny in the family room and hurried in to see if Lorrie was with her.-Lorrie wasn’t there either.
“Mama, where’s little Sissy?-She’s not in her playpen.”
“And she’s not in here.-There isn’t anything wrong is there?”-The twins were worried.
“Everything’s fine.-I walked up to Chrissy’s with her this afternoon and Lorrie and Tommy both went to sleep.-I needed to be here when you kids got home and I didn’t want to wake her up so I left her there.-Chrissy and Johnny are coming down for supper and they’ll bring both babies with them.-Uhh, I think I see them loading up now.-Yeah, here they come.-Oh, Aunt Winnie will be here, too, for a visit.”
“Hooray!-I wonder what she’ll bring us this time.”
“Whoa!-Come here, you two.-That is not a nice way to be thinking.-You’re not supposed to be expecting something every time she comes.-To listen to you, a person would think you only looked forward to her visits because she brings gifts.-That is greedy and disrespectful.-Do you understand what I’m saying?”
“We’re sorry, Mama.-We really do like Aunt Winnie; but she always brings us something so how can we not think about that she might this time, too?”
“Aunt Winnie plays with us and tells us stories and we like her for lots of reasons, but she still brings us presents and we like her for that, too.-Is that wrong?”
“No, I guess not, but the way you said it sounded ugly.-I just don’t want you to put too much emphasis on things.”
“Mama, what is enfasis?”-Candy wanted to know.
“The word is 'emphasis' and it means ‘importance,’ Candy.-It means I want people to be more important to you than things.-Think how hurt Aunt Winnie could be if she thought you wouldn’t want to see her if she didn’t bring you something.-Do you understand, now?”
“I think so, Mama.-We’ll be glad to see Aunt Winnie no matter what.-Okay?”
“Okay.-Well, here are the rest of my kids.-Hey, there, Doll Baby, did Mommy’s little girl wake up?-I think you have a brother and sister who want to see you.-They missed you when they came home from school.”
“I don’t think you should go visiting without us saying you can, little Sissy.-Isn’t that right, Candy?”
“Right!-We missed you.”
Ed came in from milking the cows and feeding the horses.-Penny laid Lorrie in her playpen and took the pail of milk to strain it and cool it.- Chrissy put Tommy in the playpen beside Lorrie and went to help put the finishing touches on supper.-Aunt Winnie arrived about twenty minutes later carrying packages again.-As she handed one apiece to Andy and Candy, Andy looked at her quite seriously.
“Aunt Winnie, you know we’d love you a whole lot even if you didn’t bring us presents, don’t you?”
“We love you even more than we do the things you bring us.-But those are always very special, too, but not any more special than you are.”-Candy followed up.
Aunt Winnie guessed correctly that they had been scolded for expecting her to bring them something when she came.-“I love you, too, and I enjoy giving you things, and I wouldn’t bring you gifts if I didn’t know you loved me for myself, too.-Now, that’s understood, open your boxes, quick!”-They both looked at Penny who smiled and nodded.-They had understood what she had been trying to teach them.-That’s so important to a parent and Penny was pleased.
When they got their gifts unwrapped, they discovered software games for a computer.-
“These are wonderful, Aunt Winnie.-One of my friends at school has a game like this and he says it’s a barrel of fun.-Thank you so much.”
“I’ve seen this one advertised on TV and it looks like it would be lots of fun.-You always think of good gifts, Aunt Winnie.”-They had both tried to be totally enthusiastic, but they were still a little disappointed.
“What’s wrong little cowpokes?-Don’t you think you’ll have fun with these?”-Aunt Winnie was aware they didn’t have a computer to play the games on.-“Oh, I forgot, there’s another box on the porch.-It’s for the two of you together.-You won’t fight over it, will you?-You’ll have to take turns and be nice but I think it will come in handy with your school work, too.”
Johnny stepped out on the porch and brought in a big box wrapped in yellow striped paper with a huge yellow bow on top.-When the kids got it opened, they found a computer complete with a monitor, key board, printer and all the necessary accessories.
“Oh, Aunt Winnie, you do give fantastic gifts.-Thank you, thank you, thank you!”
“We’ve worked with the computers at the library but now we’ll have one of our very own.-Oh, my, this is so terrific!-I can’t believe it!-Our own computer!-I just can’t believe it!-When can we get it hooked up, Dad?”
“Not until after supper, at least,” Ed laughed.-“That was a most thoughtful gift, Aunt Winnie, and one that the kids can have fun with as well as learn from.”
“Their Internet access is paid for a full year, too.-They’ll probably need some help in learning how to use it.-Chrissy, I figured you could be of assistance on that score.”
“Sure, Aunt Winnie, I’ll enjoy helping them learn to do the various tasks and I might enjoy playing some games, too.”
Penny had fixed a pork roast with mashed potatoes and gravy; a green bean casserole, cauliflower with cheese sauce and coleslaw.-For dessert, they had hickory nut pie, another of the recipes from Grandmother Lydia’s kitchen.-Johnny had gathered the hickory nuts last fall and they had burst the nuts and picked out the kernels and Chrissy had made the pie.
“This is a lot like pecan pie,” Aunt Winnie observed, “but the delicate flavor of the hickory nuts instead of the pecans, makes it deliciously unique.”-Everyone agreed.
They had decided to install the computer in the east end of the library just across the hall from the dining room.-There was plenty of light from the windows Ed had installed with Ramon’s help.-After they had closed up the secret passage and put in the windows, they had also wired in some additional lighting on that end that would be perfect for working with the computer.-It took only about an hour to get everything hooked up and then the kids were ready to play games.-The DirecTV man would be there on Saturday to get the internet on line for them.
The whole family was thrilled with the new equipment.-Penny was already planning to collect recipes to put in the computer.-She also wanted to get a complete list of names and addresses in there for handy reference.-Ed and Johnny were thinking of having professional-looking price quotes,
invoices, materials lists and advertising flyers for their cabinet-making business.-Chrissy had wanted for some time to start work on a family tree and the computer would be perfect for that.-
“That might leave some time for the twins to enjoy it,” Aunt Winnie laughed.-It’s a good thing I ordered an eighty kilobyte hard drive with five hundred twelve megabytes of memory.-It also has a forty-eight-x CD burner/DVD combo.-I think the Dell Computers are the best with the Intel Pentium Processor, too.-I like the flat panel stereo monitor, also.-They make thirty-inch screens but I thought the twenty-inch would be fine for here.-It takes up a lot less space on your desktop.-It has a tailless optic mouse that doesn’t require a mouse pad.-In order to do the things you’ve mentioned, you’ll probably need some more software programs.-The XP Windows operating system should be compatible with all those things that you wanted to do.-Don’t forget all the sites on the internet that will help the kids with their schoolwork, if they do get a chance to use it.”
“Oh, we’ll work on it while they’re in school.-Then they can take over when they get home.”-Penny laughed, too.