Carol was led by her ex-mother-in-law towards the dining room area where she found large amounts of leftovers from Thanksgiving’s dinner. Mrs. Aird picked up a plexiglass bowl of green bean casserole with a sheet of tinfoil covering the top.
“There’s so much left,” Carol observed.
“Therese can bring some to work—I’ll want that bowl back, too,” Rindy’s grandmother spoke firmly. She gave the casserole to pick up another dish filled with sweet potatoes. Carol reached for the vegetable and felt her arms heavy with food.
“We don’t need anything else. Our fridge won’t fit more,” she said, watching Mrs. Aird pick up a Tupperware container filled with slices of cold turkey.
“Take it. Here,” the old woman replied. “John saved you some meat—you know how much he loves it!”
“Thanks, Jen,” Carol sighed.
“Look at this one—this one’s pretty,” Rindy told Therese, showing some of her grandmother’s Christmas ornaments to the young woman in the parlor room where they stayed for the time being. Therese carefully took the ornament made out of pieces of tree bark with two snowy owls glued in the center. She held it in the palms of her hands.
“That is very pretty,” Therese agreed. The owls were made out of real feathers and their eyes were tiny pieces of glass.
Rindy was standing by the Airds’ artificial Christmas tree decorated and lit with clear lights. She pulled a teddy bear ornament wearing a soldier uniform holding drumsticks.
“This one’s Daddy’s favorite,” the child explained.
“That’s a cute one,” Therese nodded. “Let’s put these back on the tree so we don’t drop and break them...” she turned towards the footsteps coming over and saw Carol with plastic bags of food.
“Are we feeding an army?” she snorted.
“No, just us,” Carol grinned.