How Green Becomes Wood

[pandakatiefominz]

"For me?" Daizi asked, surprised, "I mean, thank you, but..."

"No," Dark shook his head, "You deserve it too."

After she opened the socks and Dark read them to her, she tipped her head back laughing, "Thank you, I will definitely wear these. And probably accidentally wear them at an inappropriate time, because I will forget what they say."

 

[BookKnight]

Xander grinned. "I hope they last a long time so that you can wear them to your first parent-teacher meeting with Ivy's teacher."

 

[pandakatiefominz]

"I think getting socks to last five years is manageable," Daizi laughed, "And the good news is, the bad words I say are usually not words Americans recognize to be bad."

 

[BookKnight]

"That does give you a leg up," Alec agreed. He started gathering the bits of wrapping paper and tidying things up. He grinned and patted the goose very carefully on its hatted head. "Do you have any idea how hard it was to find a goose made of a solid material? They're all hollow plastic now!"

 

[pandakatiefominz]

"I am glad it is not hollow plastic," Dark commented, looking the goose over, "I do not know where we will put him, though."

 

[BookKnight]

"How about on the back porch if there's no room out front?" Xander suggested.

 

[pandakatiefominz]

"We can try it there," Dark agreed, standing and finally setting his daughter down so he could gather up all the gifts because he wanted to put them away before they left for the park.

 

[BookKnight]

"Need a hand?" Alec offered. "We can clean everything up before we go!"

 

[pandakatiefominz]

"There is not much, but I appreciate the help," Dark said, picking up the shirts and socks, already sorting the various gifts in his mind, "Xander, will you dispose of all of the wrapping paper?"

 

[BookKnight]

"Yep, got it sorted," Xander assured him. It was all recyclable material, so it was easy enough to shove them into the bin to be recycled later.

 

[pandakatiefominz]

While Dark was upstairs putting his gifts away, there was a knock downstairs, and shortly after the door opened and Cooger let himself in, "Hey y'all," He said, "I was passing by and I wanted to stop in."

 

[BookKnight]

"Cooger!" Alec cheered, going over to give him a hug. "How is your dad doing?"

"Sup, Cooger?" Xander asked. "Ba's upstairs. He should be down in a minute."

 

[pandakatiefominz]

"Hey kiddo," Cooger said, hugging Alec back with one arm, "He's alright, I'm just on my way to see him, but I wanted to stop in here first."

"Oogie!!!" Ivy squealed, running over to him as quickly as she could, which really wasn't particularly quick, but she ran with her arms already up.

Naturally, he scooped her up, "Howdy, Kitten! Are you causing trouble today?"

"Not much, actually," Daizi informed him.

"That's no good, you gotta get your trouble numbers back up."

 

[BookKnight]

"Day's still young, and we're about to go out in public, so there will be plenty of opportunities," Xander assured him.

"She gave Ba the second best gift today," Alec told Cooger. "Mama gave him the best one, of course."

 

[pandakatiefominz]

"Well good, you gotta get his hair grey," Cooger told Ivy, "If he's gonna keep it as well as he has been, it can't stay black."

"Please don't encourage her to cause trouble, because that'll also turn my hair grey," Daizi pleaded, although the comment amused her.

"Hell, that's true. Kitten, only cause half trouble today," He compromised, "What did you get your Baba, hm?" After letting Ivy babble back at him, Daizi described the cufflinks to him. Then, Cooger commented, "That's a fancy gift from a toddler. What about y'all, what did you get him?"

 

[BookKnight]

"Geese," the twins replied. After giving Cooger a second to be confused, they described the various goose-themed items they'd gotten their father. It was mostly for fun, but they were proud of the porch goose.

 

[pandakatiefominz]

Cooger was even more bewildered by the goose-based gifts, "What made you decide to buy gifts based on your mom's nickname for your dad?" Then, looking over the porch goose, he said, "I think my grandma had something like that. Not Nana Lucy, my dad's mom."

 

[BookKnight]

"It started when we saw a picture of a porch goose dressed up for Halloween, and we thought it'd go well with the statue in the front yard," Alec said.

"Then I found 'The Silly Goose Shop,'" Xander said.

"And I found a shop called 'The Silly Goose,'" Alec said.