festoon
[fe-stoon]
1. a string or chain of flowers, foliage, ribbon, etc., suspended in a curve between two points.
2. a decorative representation of this, as in architectural work or on pottery.
3. a fabric suspended, draped, and bound at intervals to form graceful loops or scalloped folds.
4. Dentistry. the garlandlike area of the gums surrounding the necks of the teeth.
5. to adorn with or as with festoons:
to festoon a hall.
6. to form into festoons:
to festoon flowers and leaves.
7. Dentistry. to reproduce natural gum patterns around the teeth or a denture.
8. to connect by festoons.
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Dave watched as his wife, Linda, furiously strung colorful
streamers in large loops across the room.
He was getting a bit worried about how zealous she was about the whole
affair.
“Don’t
you think there’s enough of those by now?”
He asked. She stopped mid way
through pushing yet another thumb tack into a purple streamer and turned
sharply to face her husband. She was
clearly in panic mode, and his question had set her off.
“Enough? Enough?
How could you even think that?”
She said through quick, deep breaths.
“I’d
think it was pretty obvious at this point.”
Dave said, looking around the room.
Streamers
were everywhere. They hung around the
room it large loops, dipping both low and high.
The ceiling and doors were covered with them. There were so many that some couldn’t even be
strung up properly and simply dangled over the floor.
“No, it’s
not. Becky wanted streamers, you know
that.” Linda said, resuming her work.
She quickly finished another large loop by pinning the free end to the
wall.
“Yeah,
I know she did. But I don’t think she
meant quite this many.”
“You
don’t know that. She might not even
think this is enough.” She paused a bit
before getting another loop pinned up. “You
know, why don’t you help me hang a few more, just to be safe?”
“Linda,
she’s six. I think this is more than
enough. Besides, the kids will just end
up tearing them down anyway. Do you really
want to clean up that many streamers once the party is over?”
That
caused Linda to stop dead. She obviously
hadn’t considered the clean up after their daughter’s birthday party. She looked at the length of purple paper in
her hands and considered her actions.
She turned and looked at how many she had hung up and the reality hit
her hard. It would already be a
nightmare dealing with the amount she had already hung up.
“Okay,
yeah, I suppose you’re right.” She
admitted as she stepped down off the small step ladder. “But what if she thinks there aren’t enough?”
“Like I
said, she’s only six. She’s not exactly
hard to please.”
“But
she wanted streamers.” Linda said,
repeating her excuse for hanging so many in the first place.
“She also
wanted a pink bunnies, and there aren’t any of those around. Somehow, I think she’s survive.”
Linda
rubbed her face and sighed. The party
was already stress inducing enough for her, and the reminder of something that
couldn’t be done didn’t exactly help.
Linda knew that if Becky had only said pink bunnies and not real ones,
then there would have been images of pink rabbits in addition to the massive
amounts of streamers.
“Look,
everything’s going to be fine.” Dave
said, placing a reassuring hand on Linda’s shoulder. “We have everything ready. All the games are ready, all the goodie bags
are prepped, and all the decorations are set up, even if you think
otherwise. In an hour the house will be
filled with twenty screaming six year olds and you won’t even have time to
worry about whether Becky likes the streamers or not.”
“Great.” Linda said dryly. Her face suddenly shot up and her eyes
widened. “Oh god, what about the
food? Is the food ready?”
“Yes,
it’s all good. We’ve got more junk food I
this house now than in the past five years combined.”
“What
about the pizza? Did you…”
“It’s
all taken care of. I placed the order
almost an hour ago. They should be
delivering them a few minutes before the kids get here.”
“But
did you get enough? I mean, there’s a
lot of people coming.”
“I made
sure to get enough. Even factoring in
all the teen and adult guests we’ll be getting, we’ll still be eating leftover
pizza for a week after the party, trust me.”
“Are
you sure? Are you absolutely sure?”
“One
hundred percent. Look, everything’s
going to be fine. You just need to take
a step back and calm down.”
He
moved behind her and started rubbing her shoulders to try and take her mind off
to party prep. She seemed to relax into
the shoulder rub for a moment. It didn’t
last nearly as long as Dave hoped it would.
“Maybe
I should hang one more roll, just to be safe.”
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Ah children's birthday parties, aren't they so much fun? Well, maybe not for the parents, but for everyone else. Or at least the kids anyway.
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