After dinner, I wandered into the den. Sometimes Nannie and I would sit there together. I would read to her, or I would watch her knit. But Nannie was in the hospital. I turned on the TV. Then I turned it off. I picked up a magazine. I put it down.
“Want to play a game?” David Michael asked me.
“No, thanks,” I said.
“Want me to read to you?” asked Kristy.
“No.… Thank you.”
Finally I just went to bed.
The next day, I did not feel any better. In the afternoon, Daddy and Elizabeth went to visit Nannie. Charlie and Sam went to a friend’s house. Kristy was left baby-sitting for Andrew, Emily, David Michael, and me.
“Let’s make Christmas tree ornaments!” she said.
“Yeah!” cried Andrew and David Michael.
Kristy covered the kitchen table with newspaper. She set out glue and scissors and construction paper and yarn and glitter and Styrofoam balls and bits of ribbon and felt and other things, too.
At first, I did not want to make an ornament, but Kristy said. “Let’s make new ornaments to surprise Nannie when she comes home.”
So we did. David Michael made a chain out of green and red and white construction paper.
Andrew cut out a star and covered both sides with glitter. “For the top of the tree,” he said.
I took ribbon and wound it around a ball. I glued on felt polka dots. Then I sprinkled glitter over it.
“Beautiful,” said Kristy. She had cut a section out of an egg carton. She was making a bell.
Emily just made a mess.
Kristy was trying to wash glue out of Emily’s hair when the phone rang.
“I’ll get it!” I cried. And guess who it was. Nannie! She was calling from the hospital. Daddy and Elizabeth had just left.
“Are you really coming home soon?” I asked Nannie.
“I really am.”
“When?”
“The week before Christmas,” Nannie replied.
“You’re sure?”
“Positive.”
David Michael tugged on my arm. “Let me talk to her,” he said.
“Nannie? David Michael wants to talk to you.”
“Okay. I’ll see you soon,” said Nannie.
Soon, I repeated to myself. Nannie would be home soon. She had said so. I wanted to believe her … but I was afraid to.
Eight Nights
Ms. Colman is the best teacher ever. Really. Today she made one of her Surprising Announcements.
My class had just come in from recess. We were unpeeling our mittens and scarves and hats and jackets. We were about to sit down at our desks when we noticed something. On our desks were construction paper and glue and scissors and cotton balls and some other stuff.
“What’s this for?” asked Ricky Torres.
Ms. Colman would not answer until we were sitting down and were quiet. Then she said, “Class, I have an announcement to make.” (Yea! I thought.) “This afternoon, you may make decorations for Christmas and Hanukkah. We will put them in our windows where everyone can see them. You may make whatever you want — bells, menorahs, trees, Stars of David, dreidels, Santas, anything. You may also sit wherever you want.”
Oh, boy! Of course I ran to the back of the room to be with Hannie and Nancy. (I used to sit with them, but Ms. Colman moved me to the front row when I got my glasses.)
“Come on, you guys. Let’s get to work!” I said.
We began drawing shapes and snipping them out. I worked on a Christmas tree, Nancy worked on a star with six points, and Hannie worked on a present. She made a bow for it out of yarn.
“That’s pretty,” I said to Hannie. I was thinking about how our living room would look in a few weeks. A decorated tree would stand in front of the window, and under it would be presents. I was sure there would be presents for me, even if I did not ask for any.
“Thank you,” said Hannie. “You know what I want for Christmas? I want clothes for my Barbie and a box of paints and a new dress and a set of magic tricks and a rabbit and … ” Hannie’s list was long.
Then Nancy said, “For Hanukkah, I’m asking for three Nintendo games and Baby Grow-a-Tooth and a Spirograph and a lot of books, plus this really cool skirt I saw, and poodle barrettes. Oh, and Barbie clothes.”
“Are you really going to get all that stuff?” I asked Nancy doubtfully.
“Maybe. We get presents on eight nights.”
“Eight nights!” I cried.
“Yup,” said Nancy. “That’s how long Hanukkah lasts. Different families give out presents in different ways. But at my house, we get one present on each of the first seven nights. Then on the eighth night, we get lots of presents.”
“Boy,” I said. (I was impressed.) Then I asked, “How come you celebrate Hanukkah for eight nights?”
“Well, it all started with Antiochus,” replied Nancy. “He was a mean king who lived years and years ago. He wanted all of his people to follow his religion. But the Jewish people didn’t want to do that. So they decided to fight back. Their leader was from this family named the Maccabees. They fought hard for several years and finally they won! There was peace in their land. But — the soldiers had taken over the Jews’ Temple of Jerusalem, and the Maccabees wanted it back. To do that they would need oil to light the menorah, which was a special lamp. All they could find was a tiny bit of oil, but it lasted for eight nights. That’s why Hanukkah lasts for eight nights and is called the Festival of Lights.”
I was listening to Nancy while she talked. I really was. But I was also getting a good idea.…
A Present for Nancy
This was my good idea: I would buy Nancy a present. Hannie and I always exchange Christmas presents. This is because we are best friends. Nancy and I are best friends, too. But I could not get Nancy a Christmas present. I could get her a present, though. The question was, what should I get her?
When I came home from school that day, I went to my room to think. I wanted to get Nancy the perfect present. What could I buy her? I knew what to get Hannie. That was because Hannie had told me what she wanted: ponytail holders. I tried to remember what Nancy had said she wanted for Hanukkah. Almost everything was too expensive. (I do not have much money.)
I thought about poodle barrettes and Barbie clothes. I could afford things like that, but they did not seem very special. Besides, Nancy had probably told her parents that she wanted poodle barrettes and Barbie clothes.
I shut my eyes. Knee socks? Nah, not special enough. Baby Grow-a-Tooth? Nah, way too expensive.
I was not getting anywhere, so I opened my eyes. I gazed around my room. And my eyes landed on my collection of Bobbsey Twins books. There they were, all in order on my bookshelf, according to number. Oh, except for number 53. Number 53 was missing. I had not been able to find it. Neither had Nancy. Just like me, she had almost every number. But no 53. And we were dying to read number 53.
“Wait!” I cried out loud. “That’s it!” The perfect present for Nancy was The Bobbsey Twins #53 — if I could find it. We both wanted that book badly. It was called The Bobbsey Twins in the Mystery Cave. I bet if I went to a lot of stores I could find it.
“Mommy! Hey, Mommy!” I yelled. I ran downstairs.
“Indoor voice, Karen,” said Mommy.
“Sorry,” I replied. I stopped shouting. I said, “Mommy, I want to get a special present for Nancy this year. And I thought and I thought and I decided to buy her The Bobbsey Twins in the Mystery Cave. I have enough money for it. Will you help me look for it? That’s the book that’s hard to find.”
“Of course I’ll help you look,” said Mommy.
“Thank you. Now — do you think it is okay to give Nancy a Hanukkah present, even though I am not Jewish?”
Mommy smiled. “I think so,” she said.
Hanukkah Shopping
When school was over the next day, Mrs. Dawes drove Nancy and me home.
“Want to play Nintendo?” Nancy asked me as her mother parked the car.
“Yes,” I answered, “but I can’t. I have something very important to do. I’ll see you in school tomorrow, Nancy. ’Bye!”
I ran off before Nancy could ask me what I had to do. See, the important thing was that I was going Hanukkah shopping. Mommy had said she would drive me around looking for The Bobbsey Twins in the Mystery Cave. You know what else she said? She said, “If we find a store that carries the book, I will buy a copy for you, too.”
“Oh, thank you!” I had cried. “That will be great because I only have enough money for one copy.”
That afternoon, Mommy dressed Andrew in his snowsuit and boots and hat and mittens and scarf. Andrew could hardly move, but Mommy said, “It’s cold and it feels like snow. Everybody bundle up.”
So we did. Then Mommy drove to the Book Nook. I ran right to the section where the series books are kept. There were The Bobbsey Twins. But no number 53.
Boo.
“Don’t worry,” said Mommy. “We can still try Peter Rabbit and the Book Barn. We can even look in the grocery store.”
“Okay,” I said.
But Peter Rabbit was out of number 53. So was the Book Barn.
“That’s a popular book in the series,” said the saleslady at the Book Barn. She smiled at me.
“I know,” I answered. “That’s why my friend and I want to read it so badly.”
I felt very discouraged when we left the Book Barn.
But Mommy said, “I’ve got an idea. Let’s skip the grocery store. Let’s drive to Washington Mall instead. There are two big book-stores at the mall.”
“Really, Mommy? You’ll really drive all the way to the mall?” I cried.
“Sure,” Mommy replied. “Why not? Besides, Andrew needs new shoes.”
So we drove to the mall, which is way far away. Mommy parked the car and we walked inside. (Well, Mommy and I walked inside. Andrew just sort of lurched along in his snowsuit.)
We passed the shoe store before we got to the bookstores. Mommy stopped and zipped Andrew out of his suit. She bought him a pair of sneakers. While Andrew was trying the sneakers on, I looked at the decorations in the mall. The mall was very Christmasy. But I did not see any menorahs or dreidels or stars with six points. I wondered why.
“Okay, Karen,” said Mommy. “Are you ready to continue your search?”
“Yup,” I said. “I’m feeling lucky now.”
We walked into Books by the Dozen. (Andrew was wearing his new sneakers and they squeaked.)
“Do you have The Bobbsey Twins, number fifty-three?” I asked a store clerk.
“Sorry,” she said.
I looked at Mommy. “We’ve got one last try,” she told me.
So we headed for Kidsbooks, Inc. “Have you got The Bobbsey Twins, number fifty-three?” I asked the first clerk I saw.
“I think so,” he replied. And he led me to The Bobbsey Twins books. There was one copy of number 53!
“I’ll take it!” I said. I did not care that there was only one copy.
“Maybe Nancy will lend me the book when she’s finished,” I said to Mommy.
Later that afternoon, I wrapped up the book. Then I hid it under my bed.
The Perfect Tree
One Friday night, it snowed. Not a lot, but enough to look pretty. When I woke up on Saturday morning, the grass was covered with white, and the trees shook long white fingers at me. I waved back at them.
Snow is like magic.
It was a little-house weekend. Mommy and Seth and Andrew and I ate breakfast together in the warm kitchen.
“Do you know what today is the perfect day for?” asked Seth.
“Snowmen?” said Andrew.
“I was thinking of buying our Christmas tree.”
“Oh, yes! YES!” I shouted. “And please, can Nancy come with us?”
Almost before I knew it, Nancy and I and my little-house family were piling into our car.
“I’ve never looked for a Christmas tree before,” said Nancy.
“Well, it is gigundo fun,” I told her.
Seth drove us to a tree lot in Stoneybrook. We walked among all the Christmas trees. Our boots crunched through the snow.
“We have to find the perfect tree,” I said.
We walked all around saying things like, “Too tall,” or, “Too skinny,” or, “Too fat.” Or, “The needles are too long,” or, “Too short,” or, “Too pointy.”
At last Nancy stood in front of a tree and said, “What about this one?”
Mommy and Seth and Andrew and I looked at the tree. At first we did not say a word. We could not find anything wrong with it.
“Perfect!” I exclaimed finally. “It is the perfect Christmas tree.”
So we bought the tree and loaded it into the back of our car. The tree was very long. We drove home with the tailgate open!
At the little house, Seth put the tree in a bucket of water. He left it outside, leaning against our fence.
“Who wants to make Christmas cookies?” asked Mommy.
“I do!” Andrew and Nancy and I cried.
There was cookie dough in the refrigerator. Mommy helped us roll it out flat. Then we used cookie cutters to make bells and trees and snowmen.
While we worked, Andrew said, “I hope Santa knows that Karen and I will be at two houses this year. I sure hope he knows that. I really want those Dyno-cars. And a book about a stegosaurus.”
“Is that what Christmas is all about?” asked Nancy. “Santa Claus and presents?” She nibbled on some cookie dough. “And how come you decorate a tree?”
More Than Santa Claus
Christmas is about a lot of things, I thought.
“Nancy?” I said. “Remember when you told Hannie and me about Antiochus and the Maccabees and the Temple of Jerusalem?”
“Yes,” said Nancy.
“Well, there’s a story about Christmas, too.”
“Goody,” said Nancy. “I like stories.”
“Me, too,” said Andrew. “Tell the Christmas story, Karen.”
“Okay,” I replied. “Well, Christmas began a long time ago when two people named Mary and Joseph were traveling to the town of Bethlehem. This was hard for them because Mary was going to have a baby. Only it was going to be a special baby. An angel named Gabriel had told her that her baby would be God’s son.
“Well,” I went on, “after a long time, Mary and Joseph reached Bethlehem, but they couldn’t find a place to stay. An innkeeper finally said that they could sleep in his stable, though. So they did. And that night, the baby was born. Mary and Joseph named him Jesus, just like Gabriel had said to. Everyone wanted to see Jesus. Shepherds came and so did three wise men. The Three Wise Men found Jesus by following a bright new star in the sky. That’s why we put stars on the tops of our Christmas trees. Or sometimes angels.”
“Oh,” said Nancy. “I see. But what does Santa Claus have to do with all this?”
Mommy answered that question. “Santa Claus is the short name for Saint Nicholas. He was a kind bishop who lived a long time ago. Saint Nicholas wanted to tell people about Christ. But not everyone believed in Christ, so Saint Nicholas was put in prison. When he was finally let go, he was even kinder than he had been before, and lots and lots of stories grew up around him. Most of the stories were about Saint Nicholas protecting children. Or about Saint Nicholas secretly bringing gifts to people. Over the years the stories changed. Children in different countries believe different things. But —”
“But we know that Santa lives at the North Pole with Rudolph and the elves,” said Andrew. “Right?”
“Right,” I replied. “Nancy? Will you tell me more about Hanukkah?”
Dreidels and Menorahs
“Sure,” said Nancy. “I’ll tell you about dreidels and menorahs. And some other things, too.” Nancy placed a row of silver balls down the front of a snowman.
“Perfect timing,” said Mommy. “I’ll put the cookies in the oven while Nancy tells you about Hanukkah. It will take awhile to bake all these batch
es of cookies.”
“Let’s go to my room,” I said to Nancy.
“Can I come, too?” asked Andrew.
“Okay,” I replied.
Up in my room, I let Emily Junior out of her cage. Andrew played with her while Nancy said, “I guess the most important thing about Hanukkah is lighting the menorah. When we do that, we remember the menorah in the Temple of Jerusalem. We light one candle on the first night, two candles on the second night, and finally on the eighth night, we light all the candles. We say blessings of thanks to God. And we sing special Hanukkah songs, but we sing them in Hebrew.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because that’s the language of the Jewish people. Anyway, after we light the menorah and say the blessings and sing the songs, then we play dreidel games and give each other gifts.”
“What are drable games?” Andrew wanted to know.
“Dreidel games,” Nancy corrected him. “A dreidel is a kind of top. It has four sides. On each side is a Hebrew letter. Some dreidels are different, but most of them have these letters: nun, gimmel, heh, and shin. If you put them together, they stand for the words that mean ‘a great miracle happened there.’ ‘There’ means at the Temple of Jerusalem. I know lots of dreidel games, but this one is my favorite. Everyone sits on the floor, takes six nuts or raisins, and puts one in a pile in the center. Then you take turns spinning a dreidel. When it stops, you look at the letter that’s facing up. If it’s nun, that means ‘nothing,’ and the next player takes his or her turn. If it’s gimmel, that means ‘everything’ and you get to take all the nuts or raisins in the center. Heh means you take half of what’s in the pile, and shin means you have to add to the center pile. You keep playing until one person has all the nuts or raisins. It’s really fun.
“Oh, and we eat special food at Hanukkah. My favorite is potato latkes. They’re like pancakes. And did you know that we send Hanukkah cards, just like you send Christmas cards?”
“No,” I replied. “I didn’t.”