A Gift and A Plan- Part 2

Continued from yesterday…

Maura is always emotional when it’s time to head back. She’s enjoyed her first year at college so far, but she gets homesick and returning to school after being home is hard for her, something I never expected from our most outgoing child. She was finishing up her spring break just as her sister was starting hers, so they had only two days together. In addition, she would miss Al’s birthday the next day, and this made her even more sad. “We are going to stop at Kristen and Pat’s house to drop off Kristen’s birthday gift,” I told Maura as we packed her things in the car, hoping it might cheer her up. I could tell it did a little.

It was a typical ride in the car with my three children. As much as they like each other, they can’t help but argue in the car. (It might be the one thing I don’t miss when the girls are away.) Once they agreed on the correct playlist, the ride was a bit calmer.

We decided to make a stop at Boston College first to drop Maura’s things off and, of course, let Al run in the bookstore. It was about 2:15 which left us enough time to go to Kristen’s and still make it to our dinner reservation at 4:00. Afterall, we didn’t even know if they would be home, so this could be a very quick trip.

Pulling onto the street, we could see that one of their cars was in front of the house and another was in the driveway. We heard the voices of boys playing coming from the yard. I walked down the driveway and peeked into the yard. “What are you doing here?” asked her son, Cole, surprised at this out of context encounter. “Is anyone home?” I asked. “My dad and Quinn are inside,” he responded.

“Hello?” I said loudly opening the front door. “What!” said Pat, smiling wide. “What are you doing here? Does Kristen know you’re here?” “No,” I said, “I wanted to drop off a gift for her 50th.” “She just ran out, she’s literally down the street.” he noted. At this point my own family was heading in the house. “Wow, everyone’s here,” Pat said, “Here, let’s take a picture and send it to her.”

After the sent text and a quick call, Kristen was home with her youngest in no time. She opened her gift, a photo album of 50 pictures of us begining when we met until now, and we all gathered around as she flipped through the pages trying to remember each photo, where we were and what we were doing. The kids had some good laughs at the big hair and bangs of the late eighties/early nineties.

As usual, time flies when our families are together. I changed our reservation to 4:15 and then 4:30 as we continued to catch up. After one last change to 4:45, it really was time to go. We hugged and said our goodbyes only after capturing yet another memory.