Mistletoe

December 6th

Saturday December 6th

10.20am

"You're so slow!" Penny complained as I emerged from my room and entered the kitchen.

"I'm not slow," I told her, "you're just more effective than me."

For a moment she frowned and I grabbed an apple from the bowl. Finally she said, "That's exactly the same."

I shrugged and ruffled her hair, "Whatever you say baby sis. You ready to go or do I have to drag you out the door myself?"

Penny didn't need me to say anything else before she was in the hallway, putting on her coat and shoes. I followed at a much slower pace, mostly because it was fun to see how impatient she could get. It came to the point where she grabbed hold of my arm and dragged me towards the front door with a very firm, "Come on!" 

The only effect that had was that it made me laugh, but eventually we made it outside and were headed towards the mall. We'd decided to set up a morning for just the two of us, a little sister bonding time and so we went first to the local Build-A-Bear where we fooled around for a while. I made sure to reserve one of the Toothless replicas from the movie 'How To Train Your Dragon' when she wasn't looking so that I could come back and get it for her later, when she didn't see it coming.

"What next?" I asked her as we walked hand in hand through the mall that was now decorated in a Christmas theme.

"Can we get some ice cream?" 

That made me laugh, "You're probably the only person who wants ice cream in December." I shook my head in amusement and turned around towards the ice cream cart, "Come on you." I got a squeal of approval as the yes sunk in.

We found a table and sat down to eat our frozen sugar induced ice cream bombs, which was also covered in sprinkles in case the ice cream itself wasn't enough, and it was glorious. My lips and fingers might have gone a little numb in the process, but I couldn't deny that the taste was worth it.

"Okay," I admitted on Penny's behalf, "this was a good idea. I should listen to you more often."

She stuck her tongue out at me, "Yeah, like that's ever going to happen!"

I pretended to look shocked, "Since when did you become this feisty?"

"I learned from the best," apparently that was a good enough answer in Penny's eyes so I let that one go.

02.17pm

Due to Penny's sugar high we'd basically trekked around the entire mall in record time, and with that I called an end to our outing and decided it was time to head home. It was all in good time as well because we were halfway there when I had to result to carrying Penny piggyback style the rest of the way back because she was now crash landing from her sugar-kick and by the looks of it, it wasn't going to be pretty.

Thankfully the girl was light and I deposited her on the couch in the living room where she quickly curled up to sleep.

"Valerie?" Penny mumbled.

"Yeah?"

She cracked one eye open to look at me and smiled. "I had a great time."

I kissed her forehead and draped a blanket over her, "Me too kiddo. Take a nap, and mom'll wake you up in a bit."

Penny sighed, "Okay." And just like that she was out like a light.

Me on the other hand was not ten years old and unfortunately could not sustain myself on sugar alone, so I proceeded to start rummaging through the fridge. I was halfway through making myself a sandwich when mom came through the door, carrying several bags of groceries.