Lily woke up with a jeer. Today was her birthday! She was going to have a lot of fun today. First, she would dress up in a skeleton costume and an award medal. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the porch was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited twenty-four of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend one hour playing fun games like red rover and baseball. Her dad was planning to make plenty of roast turkey and moo goo gai pan for everyone. Lily would try to blow out all nine candles on the violet and green cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Lily would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain an oriental vase! She hoped it would be a crisp oriental vase. Her friend Loretta had said she would give her a needle and thread, and her girlfriend always gave her cool stuff like the cream puff she gave her last year. Lily could hardly wait!
She glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a dense fog was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. She looked in her closet for her skeleton costume. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the outback. She would have to wear a pair of jeans instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her award medal.
She jumped downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like baked beans. Her dad was standing there with a Sham-Wow! in his hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" he said with a stiff upper lip.
"Hi Daddy!" Lily replied shyly. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the roast turkey," he replied. "I decided to make it with extra pimientos. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Lily replied strangely. "Do we have the moo goo gai pan ready?"
"I'm going to wait until five o'clock to start that," her father replied elatedly. "It only has to marinate for seventy-two minutes."
"Okay," Lily replied boldly. "I'm gonna go to the porch."
"First, young lady, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some bread and butter in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the porch first?" she begged.
"It looks just like it always does," her father replied. "Remember, I'm depending on you to help with the decorating."
"Oh yeah," Lily responded, as she sat down to her bread and butter. "Let's hang lots of lavender balloons and cover the pedestal and the wooden crate with scarlet crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her father crankily. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite singer, Dani Yager. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a turkey baster."
"Ugh," Lily responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Father with a twitch. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."