Everything's Coming up Pink At Christmas Time

I blame it on the weather. It was a bright, sunny, cold, crisp day in December. One of those rare days when you feel like you can conquer any task. Yep, I blame it on the weather. My granddaughter came over for the day. She said she wanted pink in her room. Pink on her walls, pink on her bed, pink on the floor, pink, pink, pink, pink everywhere. This was the latest thing, her obsession with pink. Hat, shoes, clothes, coat all had to be pink. It was written in the universe according to the self-proclaimed member of royalty.

We went to the local retail store and looked for comforters and pillow to match her pink inspired world. I found without too much pain the comforter and pillow set in pink. Hers was very worn and a new one would make a good Christmas gift. We also went to the paint section and looked at samples of pink paint. I chose the pale soft pink of a slightly scented rose. She chose bubble gum pink. Yep, you got it. Pepto-bubblegum nauseous revolting Pink. I cannot abide this color PINK. To top it off she insisted she must have purple flowers in her pepto world. We had the nice man mix our paint for us, purple and pink. Two gallons of the most stomach wrenching colors you can imagine.

I put everything to decorate her room in a large box. Wrapped it and we sat it beside the Christmas tree promising her we would have a paint party the weekend after Christmas. That box haunted me day and night. Every time I looked in the direction of the tree I could see the colors pink and purple. It called to me mocking me at every turn. Three days later granddaughter came over and wanted to see her comforter again. I said no as it was already wrapped. She sat down to watch cartoons as I left the room.

I went out to the storage barn for the Christmas container that I kept all the boxes in for gift-wrapping. It took me quite a few minutes to get the ladder out, climb up and search for the right box, pull the box down, put up the ladder and lock the storage barn back up. I guess I was gone for about 20 minutes.

I came back into a pink frosted world. I was speechless with shock. She had turned on the ceiling fan on high and had thrown paint up in the air letting it splash anywhere the breeze took it. Every part of the living room was striped, sprinkled, and splashed with the nauseous Pepto pink. The curtains and walls looked like Jaba the Hut had thrown up on them. Leather couch I had saved for months to get, beheld broad strokes of a paintbrush with yes, pink paint. The coffee table antique made of an old oak beam ruined with Pepto stains. The carpet was soaked as the can had been tipped over with a huge pool of pink paint.

She sat on the painted leather sofa quietly watching cartoons. Her dress, hair and body was coated in Pink paint. I quickly restrained myself from taking her little neck in my hands and watching the life slowly ooze out of her body. It truly was a battle.