Aug 27 2009
By the Glow of the DS
During Family reunion, Dale lit many a fire in the pit outside our cabin. We collected chairs from various locations and most nights someone was sitting outside by the fire. One late night, Dale and I were watching the fire die down after everyone had gone to bed. A raccoon approached from the other side of the fire and just stopped and stared at us. We watched him for a moment and when he didn’t look like he was leaving, we stood up. He decided to depart quickly. I think he was after the marshmallow skewers.
The Wiitas brought the skewers and Howie and Mike kept busy toasting marshmallows to perfection most nights. Since each family had stocked their pantry with items for Smores, we had marshmallows in abundance.
This fact was very important to my 2 year old nephew Ean. The morning after the first Smore making, Ean walked by our cabin as he traveled to and from the beach, pointed towards the cabin, and asked his parents, “Marshmallow?” Having just turned two, Ean’s vocabulary is a bit limited. However, he had quickly learned which words were beneficial to say at a family reunion.
Another nephew, Marcus (not quite 2 1/2) was learning new words in our cabin also. My sister in law Michelle, Marcus’ mom, eats healthy foods and feeds Marcus healthy foods. So, Marcus was surprised to discover a cracker that tasted a lot sweeter than his cracker. My brother insisted on referring to it as a cookie, but it says ‘Animal Cracker’ right on the bag.
Of course, I couldn’t leave the whole cracker/cookie debate there. Since my brother had now taught Marcus the new word “cookie”, I occasionally handed Marcus oreos instead of animal crackers. I fear Marcus went through sugar detox after a week with his Aunt Mugs.
Our cabin became the place to go not just for marshmallows and cookies, but also for card games, cash cab watching, and DS playing. Somehow, the cousins figured out that the Manry children’s rules were a tad less strict then their own. I’m not sure how.
My favorite scene from the reunion was the kids around the campfire. Long ago, photographers would capture the glow of the campfire on children’s faces. Well, technology has changed things a bit. The children were still sitting around the campfire, but their faces were lit with the glow of the DS.
DS Glow
