Thanksgiving Hangover

Thanksgiving break is over and the kids have been pouring into my office with the after effects of a long break, no sleep! Yesterday three first grade boys came to pay me a visit.

Eli tugged at my shirt sleeve, “Nurse, nurse, I want to tell you a story. In my class there’s this kid see, and I was gonna tell him something. And he punched me in the mouth and my tooth flew out on to the floor!” He slugged at the air to emphasize the force of the upper cut that took out his tooth.

“You poor dear,” I said. “Where is your tooth now?”

“In my backpack,” Eli said pointing to his back. “I’m keeping it extra safe for the tooth fairy. But nurse, I want to know if I can eat without my tooth?”

A quick survey of his mouth showed one of his front teeth missing. “I don’t think you will have any problem eating Eli. Just try to stay away from candy until that tooth grows back.” OK, so I couldn’t help but embellish a little with the candy bit. His face was priceless when he digested that news.

“Who was the boy that hit you Eli?” I asked.

“I did nurse!” Timothy exclaimed. “I punched him cause he talks to much.”

Holden did not seem very impressed by this incident. He looked at me and asked, “How as your vacation Nurse Ehop?”

Thankful for the interruption I answered, “It was very nice, thank you for asking Holden. How was your vacation?”

“I went to Myjami on vacation, to eat turkey!” he said. “It was cold there and when I came home I got a cough and I ain’t eatin turkey no more!”

My office was packed with kids by this time. They all jumped into the conversation to enlighten me about their Thanksgiving culinary delights.

“I didn’t eat turkey, I ate ham,” said one boy.

Someone in the back shouted, “I had chicken, vice and ham.”

“I ate six turkeys,” an older boy said sitting up very straight and proud.

A little girl chimed in, “I had mashed potatoes with whipped cream on it!” This brought forth several ohs and ahs from the crowd.

Now the commentary from the group started to come fast and furious!

“We had chicken, ice tea and a pin-apple.”

“I ate only one turkey but it had peas and broccoli and mash potatoes and eggs in it.”

“I had a very nice turkey. It was nice and brown and no bones on it. It was very big.”

“How big was it?” asked a boy.

“As big as a horse!” came the response.

“My turkey didn’t look brown. It didn’t look nice at all. YUK! And I had to eat it too.” exclaimed a boy. He squeezed his eyes shut tight and pretended to eat to show us all how he ate the turkey that was not brown. “Then I had lots of chocolate milk to wash it down!” he continued. “My Mom said she was going to make soup out of the leftover turkey and I would have to eat that too!”

“I hope you have more chocolate milk at home.” said a little girl wide eyed.

It was time to break up the gathering and get the kids back to class. I shooed them along their way and told them to concentrate on their studies. Besides, it was time for lunch and, oh no, a turkey sandwich.