Ear Muffs! Anyone?

Oh, the wonderful family room with the large pass through window into the kitchen.  It seems a lot of silly and funny happenstances took place through this connection between rooms.  From my Mother tossing a creme puff to my Daddy, even under his objection, to the dog climbing through the window using  the kitchen table as a step stool.  But one Christmas holiday brings to mind an event that our family has laughed about and recalled for years.

Daddy had an unmarried sister. Note that I call her "unmarried."  I used to say old maid, until now I look at my years and marital status, and old maid just really rubs me the wrong way.  My Aunt Edna would join us for holiday dinners.  She lived just down the street from us, but one of us would drive the four houses down, pick her up, and "carry" her (as she liked to call it) back to the house for the holiday celebration.  To say that Aunt Edna liked to talk would be equivalent to saying that there is sand on the beach.  She loved to talk, boy did she love to talk.  And, it seemed that the person she loved to talk to the most was my Mother.

The Christmas we all like to recall started with  Mother telling, no actually warning Daddy, that he was under no circumstances to leave the dinner table as soon as he was finished eating and leave her to listen while Aunt Edna talked.  I vividly remember Mother's instructions that we were all to stay at the table, help direct the conversation, so that she did not become captive to a long, long tale from Aunt Edna.  However, as you can suspect, as soon as dinner was over, Daddy got up, excused himself, and left the table.  Mother shot him a glance that would have cut a whole in the wall had she concentrated her efforts in that direction.  He proceeded into the kitchen, through the kitchen, and into the bedroom.  Aunt Edna was sitting with her back to the pass through window, and of course, Mother was facing the window.  Aunt Edna had not stopped talking since she piled into the car two hours previously.  When Daddy appeared a few minutes later, there he stood on the other side of the window,  adorned with ear muffs!!  Of course, Aunt Edna couldn't see him, but Mother had a front row seat looking right at him.  Now, not only did she have to listen to all the conversation, she had to try to keep a straight face as she saw Daddy standing there, smiling from ear to ear, with his ear muffs on!  Mother and Daddy are both gone now, but when I see a pass through window between rooms, I smile with this vivid and warm memory of a simple pair of ear muffs!