The Disappearing Ice Cream

Bill: “Mom, why don’t you and Dad spend Christmas Day with us. We’ll have a fire burning in our phony fireplace. Then later we’ll go somewhere with maybe fifteen family members to that restaurant we love, but let’s have Christmas Day here. If we plan, we can do both. It will be nice to see everyone working on the puzzles at home. I’ll finish the book I’m reading. That means we’ll all be together, probably all day.

Mom: “Well, that sounds wonderful. I’m glad we’ve moved closer to your home.”

Bill: “Why don’t you bring two ½ gallons of ice cream…one vanilla and the other Cookies and Cream. Danny loves Cookies and Cream from Blue Bell on any day.”

Mom: But things changed. Bill decided to invite his friends and their wives a week before our family party. I brought the ice cream that night.

The couples sat around jabbering and drinking while telling stories to each other. The guys are salesmen for a med tech company. Bill and his wife catered the dinner. My husband and I left after two hours having had enough food and chit chat. As we departed, I heard Bill say: “Get some ice cream.” I took one of the two ½ gallons home. I assumed his guests had a good time eating the Cookies and Cream.

The next morning Bill called: “Hey! Do you know where the ice cream went? We can’t find it anywhere.”

Mom: “Yes, sure. It was in the refrigerator in the garage. I thought you said to take the vanilla ice cream home.

Bill: “That’s why I’m calling (in a loud tone). We’ve looked all over for it. I didn’t know you took all the vanilla. We can’t find it and Susan (the wife) thinks DANNY ate it all.” DANNY is our adult disabled child who is Autistic and overweight. Susan was quite upset.

Mom: “I thought you meant to take one of the half gallons.” Uh! Oh!

Poor Danny.

Lesson learned: Listen More Carefully!