kiralamouse | Family Tea Time

I love my family. I love it when we get together of an afternoon and settle in for a relaxing cup of tea and some sweets. But this afternoon... well, I wish I'd had a video camera. Let's try to record it while it's still fresh.

My sisters, my mother and I went shopping this afternoon - I was thrilled at feeling normal for the first time since Tuesday (other than my stitches starting to work themselves free - I'm worrying them almost as much as a kid with a loose tooth...oops, sidetracked). We were going to get a treat on our way out of the mall, and I wanted chantico and chai. Chantico is this new thing at Starbucks, molten dark chocolate in a six-ounce cup. Delicious, and I think chai makes the perfect complement. I also wanted to share the chantico experience with the family, so I bought two (the stuff is so rich that two cups are more than enough for five people) and juggled them home. My mother and sisters, meanwhile, were searching for a water fountain. Chantico is very thirst-inducing.

Home. Mom's preparing tea for everyone (she'd passed on chai in favor of family tea time, and I don't blame her) and asks what I would think about pouring the ...what? She said something about pouring something into our tiny egg cups.

"What, Mom?"
"I said, do you think I should pour this chikki chikki chengo stuff into egg cups for everyone?"
"Chikki chikki chengo?!"

Chantico.

"Well, that sounds about right! What's that from?"
"Tikki Tikki Tembo," I said. Then, unable to resist, I added,
"Tikki Tikki Tembo, no-sa-rembo, chari-bari-ruchi, pip peri pembo" (heck if I know exactly how it goes).
"Hey, it's more fun to say than chanchicho."
"Chantico!"

Mom cheerfully refused to back down. My sister came down. "What's all this about?"
"Chikki chikki chengo!"

Well, the conversation eventually moved on. Til said sister, who shall remain nameless, said how she wanted to watch the Impossible- what was it again?

"The Incredibles?"
"That's it! I couldn't remember - I was thinking The Improbables, but I knew that couldn't be right!"

We began to speculate whether we ought to see if The Inconceivables were also available for viewing. By the time Youngest Sis came down (utterly bemused at our invitation to watch The Improbables while enjoying chikki chikki chengo), we'd hit upon the fact that Wallace Shawn has a connection both to "Inconceivable!" Vizzini (played him) and The Incredibles (Mr. Incredible's insurance boss). The connection is utterly logical. Why had we not seen it before?

"Hey, Stef, you're maturing!" came the comment. "Time was when you'd be angry with us for mangling words like this."

"Oh, no," I replied. "I'm not mad. I'm just TAKING NOTES FOR MY LIVEJOURNAL, MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

*sigh* It might have been a little more fun tweaking them if they hadn't started making suggestions about what to write. Oh well. It's why I love my family. :)