THEY ARE OUT THERE!

THEY ARE OUT THERE!

“I’m still in shock! I mean, I’ve heard of it before, but I was thinking it was that conspiracy stuff.” My son, the two youngest Rugrats, and my son’s girlfriend, K., had come for supper, and we were sitting around the table as K. told us about events that had happened the previous night. Her face is quite cute-expressive, and her uneasiness was evident as she explained about my son bringing home a new brand of wine, how he had told her the story leading up to his choice, and her astonishment the following morning to find her smart phone bombarded with publicity for said wine.

“The cell was on the far end of the table as we discussed this, and it was closed. I never heard of this wine before, there were no searches done. That damned phone does listen to us!! Otherwise why would all that information come over it the next morning when I opened it?”

We laughed. Her paranoia was amusing if not totally unfounded. We warned her not to bring her cell phone into the bedroom – for obvious reasons, added my son – and that yes, nothing was really private anymore in this age of cyber watch.

For dessert, I had resuscitated an old recipe that I used to make for my kids when they were little. At the time we called it Christmas Cracker Candy, but it was now on Facebook (which is what brought it back to my fickle memory) and the name used there was Christmas Crack. It’s caramel and chocolate and candy decoration layered on soda crackers, so Daddy was telling his Rugrats to go easy on it, all the while questioning the choice of the descriptive new name.

During the evening the Rugrats asked permission to sleep over with Memere, who was delighted, of course, and Daddy gave his okay. Later, as the adults were preparing to leave, my son instructed the boys to be good and to listen, not to go to bed too late. Grinning at each other and at me, the boys promised, we exchanged smirks, and I added “And I promise that I won’t feed them too much Crack.”

There was an audible gasp from behind me. I turned to see the GF’s mouth opened as round as her eyes.

“Oh my God!” she exclaimed. “Can you imagine what they’ll be thinking if they heard that over my cell? They’ll be calling Child Welfare as we speak!!” We all burst out laughing. Believe me, I know there is nothing remotely funny about the real Crack (Cocaine smoking) problem, but in this situation, the implication was hilarious.

The boys and I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning playing video games and watching movies while they gobbled up the remaining Christmas Crack, as we all knew they would. No matter. That’s what Grandmothers are for, right? As for GF’s reaction, each time I think about it I can’t help but SMILE.

Sharing it with you folks! It has been a loooong time.

LUV FROM THE BUSH IN QUEBEC