“Memere, Papa said I was going to get a mega-surprise today! Did you know? It’s a MEGA-surprise, Memere!” she insisted.
“Really? What it could be?” I wondered aloud as I helped my just turned six year old granddaughter remove her winter suit and boots. She had come inside after sliding down my long, snow covered hill with her dad. This picture of chubby, red cheeks and dancing, wide, dark-brown eyes would be on any grandmother’s wish list.
She shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s a surprise,” she repeated. “A MEGA surprise, eh Papa?” My son smiled and played along, then reminded Miko that we would have to wait on her Mommy, who had not yet arrived from grocery shopping for Memere, before the MEGA-surprise would appear.
We adults were maybe more excited than the child, anticipating her delight with the MEGA-surprise. Pokémon, the Japanese cartoon character, was high on her list of ‘likes’, and she could also spend hours playing with miniature figures of any kind. I had found and ordered the 144 Pokémon miniatures from Amazon, but the delivery date had been postponed from December 23rd, arriving only last Thursday, too late for both Christmas and her birthday gift.
Her mommy finally arrived. We couldn’t resist smiling as the very patient little girl sat quietly in her TV chair, throwing side glances at these adults who were setting the table for supper while they seemingly ignored anything to do with the surprise that was supposed to be happening. Memere broke first – I was not raised by a Japanese mother, so polite restraint is not part of my attributes as it is for my granddaughter! I caught her eye, winked at her and made a silent motion with my head. With a huge conspirator’s grin, she quietly slipped over to me, and I pulled the box out of its hiding place.
“What is it?” she whispered. By this time her parents were paying attention, so I put it on the table and asked her to sit down. If she dropped one of those tiny toys…well – the 3 second rule with dogs in the house, remember?
When she saw what was in the box, the expression on that little face was all anyone could hope for, and more. She removed them from the box, one by one, and named each as she set them down. She looked at her dad, who is her favourite playmate. “They are all here! All of them!” And that’s when, in spite of this Covid turmoil, Christmas happened for me.
And I SMILED. If you had been an observer here, you would have smiled too. .Since you were not, I’m virtually sharing it with you. It’s a biggie! LUV FROM THE BUSH IN QUEBEC.
Tales from the Bush in Quebec 