The author gratefully acknowledges
Gabrielle Charbonnet
for her help
with this book.
Contents
Title Page
Dedication
1 Christmas Is in the Air
2 Karen’s Two Houses
3 Mrs. Stone’s Barn
4 We Need a Plan
5 The Brilliant Idea
6 The One-Horse Open Sleigh
7 Karen’s Plan
8 First Things First
9 The Sleigh
10 Karen’s Christmas Tree
11 Dashing Through the Snow
12 Not Good Enough?
13 Let the Festival Begin!
14 Snowmen
15 Jack Frost
16 Merry Christmas, Mrs. Stone
17 Karen’s Sleigh Ride
18 The Perfect End to a Perfect Day
19 Chill Out, Emily Michelle
20 With Love from Santa’s Elf
About the Author
Also Available
Copyright
Christmas Is in the Air
“Please pass the glue,” said Hannie Papadakis.
I was twisting pipe cleaners into the shape of an angel, but I put it down long enough to pass her the glue.
“Where are the gold sprinkles?” asked Andrew.
“Right here,” said Hannie. She gave him the jar.
I twisted the last pipe cleaner into place. “There!” I said. “One more angel.”
You might be wondering who we are and what we were doing. Well, I am Karen Brewer. I am seven years old. Andrew is my little brother. He is four going on five. And Hannie is one of my best friends. (I have two.)
We were sitting around the kitchen table at the big house. (I have two houses — a big house and a little house. I will tell you more about them later.) We were making Christmas decorations. Even though it was only the second day of December, I wanted to start preparing for Christmas. You cannot leave everything until the last minute.
Another reason we were inside that afternoon was because it was snowing very hard. It was snowing so hard that we could not play outside. Snow is one of the things you have to deal with when you live in Stoneybrook, Connecticut. It is a good thing that I love snow. I also love December, and Christmas.
“More goo!” said Emily Michelle. Emily is my little sister. She was sitting in her high chair next to the kitchen table. (She is only two and a half years old.) We had given her some construction-paper shapes and a little bit of glue. She was making her own decorations.
“Okay. You may have a tiny bit more glue,” said Nannie. Nannie is my step-grandmother. She lives with us at the big house and helps take care of everyone.
“I cannot believe we have to wait twenty-three more days until Christmas,” said Hannie. She sprinkled some green glitter onto her red construction paper.
“Twenty-three days will take forever,” said Andrew. He was making white snowflakes to tape to our windows.
“We will just have to keep busy,” I said. “We have twenty-three days to make this the best Christmas ever. That is plenty of time.” Then I had a neat idea. “Hey! I know! Let’s decide to do something Christmassy every single day, from now until Christmas.”
“Like what?” asked Andrew.
“Like, each day we will sing Christmas carols,” I said. “Or wrap presents. Or make Christmas cookies. Or make Christmas decorations. Or read Christmas books.” I was very excited about my idea.
Hannie smiled. “That will be fun. And we have to do something Christmassy every day whether we are together or not.”
Emily had been listening to us. “Pwesants!” she cried. She waved her hands in the air. “Pwesants!” She looked at Nannie.
“Yes, honey,” said Nannie. “When Christmas comes, you will get some presents.”
“On Christmas, Santa Claus brings presents to all the good boys and girls,” I said. It is part of my job as a big sister to teach Emily Michelle (and Andrew) about all kinds of stuff.
“You better watch out,” sang Hannie. “You better not cry.”
Andrew and I started singing too. “You better not pout, I’m telling you why. Santa Claus is coming to towwwwwn.”
After that song, we tried to teach Emily more Christmas songs.
“Jingle bells,” I sang. “Jingle bells, jingle all the waaay. Oh, what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh, hey!”
“Jimble bells,” sang Emily Michelle. “Jimble bells!”
I could not help laughing. Christmas was coming, and that made me happy. And Emily is so funny sometimes. I was very glad she had come to live with us. Now I had better explain everything about the big house and little house and Nannie and Emily Michelle.
Karen’s Two Houses
A long time ago, when I was little, Andrew and I lived in the big house all the time. Back then the people in my family were Andrew, Mommy, Daddy, and me. Then Mommy and Daddy decided to get a divorce. So Mommy took Andrew and me to live with her in the little house. (Daddy stayed in the big house. It is where he grew up.) Then Mommy got married again, to a very nice man named Seth Engle. So Seth is my stepfather. Nowadays at the little house are Mommy, Seth, Andrew, and me. There are also Midgie, Seth’s dog, and Rocky, Seth’s cat. Not to mention Bob, Andrew’s pet hermit crab, and Emily Junior, my pet rat. (I named her after Emily Michelle.)
Daddy also got married again, to Elizabeth Thomas. So Elizabeth is my stepmother. She already had four kids, and they are my stepbrothers and stepsister. Sam and Charlie are so old that they are in high school. David Michael is seven like me, but he does not go to my school. Kristy is thirteen, and the best big sister ever. Then Daddy and Elizabeth adopted Emily Michelle. She was born in a faraway country called Vietnam.
After Emily arrived, Nannie, who is Elizabeth’s mother, came to live with us. Besides all the people, Nannie helps take care of Shannon, who is David Michael’s gigundo puppy, Boo-Boo, who is Daddy’s cat (Boo-Boo is old and cranky and not much fun), and Goldfishie and Crystal Light the second, who are (guess what) goldfish.
Now Andrew and I spend one month at the little house and one month at the big house. (Emily Junior and Bob go back and forth with us.) We just had Thanksgiving at the little house. Now we would have Christmas at the big house. I am very glad I have two houses and two families to care for me.
You know what? I have two of a lot of things. In fact, I call myself Karen Two-Two sometimes. I have two houses, and two families, two stuffed cats (one at each house), and two bicycles (one at each house). I even wear two pairs of glasses. The blue ones are for reading, and the pink ones are for the rest of the time. And I already told you I have two best friends. Hannie lives across the street and one house down from the big house. Nancy Dawes lives next door to the little house. Together, Nancy and Hannie and I are the Three Musketeers.
Most of the time I like being a Two-Two. Sometimes it is a little tiring.
Today I was very happy to be at the big house with my big-house family.
“Hey, what are you guys doing?” Kristy came into the kitchen. Her nose and cheeks were red from the cold.
“Making Christmas decorations,” I said, holding one up.
“Terrific,” said Kristy. “They will make the house look very Christmassy.”
I smiled. Kristy is nice.
“Did you hear the sad news?” asked Kristy. “There was a fire last night. Mr. and Mrs. Stone’s barn burned down.”
“Oh, no,” I said. I covered my mouth with my hand. Mr. and Mrs. Stone own a farm at the edge of town. In the summers Mrs. Stone runs a farm camp. I went to it with Hannie and Nancy. It was really fun. Kristy was one of our counselors.
“How awful for the Stones,” said Nannie
. “Was anyone hurt?”
Kristy shook her head. “No. No one was in the barn.”
“What about the animals?” I cried. “Were any animals hurt in the fire?” I had fallen in love with a lamb named Ollie there. All of Mrs. Stone’s animals were adorable. I could not bear it if any of them had gotten hurt.
“No, do not worry,” said Kristy. “The firemen and the Stones managed to save all of the animals. They were very lucky.”
“Thank heavens,” I said. “But poor Mr. and Mrs. Stone.”
“What a shame,” said Nannie.
“Yes, it sure is,” agreed Kristy.
I looked down at our beautiful Christmas decorations, lying on the table. I did not feel quite as happy as before.
Mrs. Stone’s Barn
There are so many of us at the big house that we eat our meals at a long, long table with two long, long benches. I usually try to sit next to Kristy.
Tonight we were having pot roast with vegetables. Yum!
After everyone had passed their plates around and had been served, I tapped my water glass.
“Ahem!” I said. “Daddy, did you hear about Mrs. Stone’s barn?”
“Yes, I did,” said Daddy. “It is too bad. They are not sure how the fire started.”
“It is a good thing it happened in winter, when there is snow on the ground and on the trees,” said Elizabeth. “The snow helped keep everything else from burning too.”
“Does this mean that Mrs. Stone will not be able to have farm camp next summer?” I asked.
“I do not know about next summer’s farm camp,” said Daddy. “But the Stones will probably rebuild their barn.”
“Where are the animals staying now?” I asked. “They need to be someplace warm. It is freezing outside.”
No one knew.
I looked out the kitchen window. It was still snowing. A cold wind was blowing. I thought about poor little Ollie. And Elvira the goat.
“We have to find out what has happened to the animals,” I said. “I would not mind sharing my room with Ollie, if he needs a place to stay.”
Daddy smiled at me. “I do not think Ollie would be very happy staying in your room,” he said. “But it is a nice offer. I’ll tell you what. Tomorrow I will call Mrs. Stone and find out about the animals, okay? I am sure they are being taken care of.”
“That is a good idea,” said Elizabeth. “When you call her, could you please ask if they need help in any way?”
“I will,” promised Daddy.
“I know!” I cried. I had just had another good idea. “We could have a barn raising for them! I saw a TV show about one once. We could bring food, and everyone would pitch in and build them a new barn.”
“Um, I am not sure I am up to building a new barn,” said Daddy. “But I will call and find out if we can help the Stones somehow.”
“Okay,” I said. I felt disappointed. The barn raising had looked like so much fun on TV. But I would just have to wait for Daddy to find out what we needed to do.
In her high chair Emily Michelle waved her spoon. “You bedda washout,” she sang.
Elizabeth smiled at her and wiped off her chin. (Emily is a messy eater.) “You are so excited about Christmas, aren’t you?” said Elizabeth.
“Pwesants?” asked Emily Michelle. She looked under her high chair.
“Not yet, silly,” said Andrew. “No presents for twenty-three days.”
I look a bite of carrot. Christmas was twenty-three days away. I knew our Christmas would be wonderful here at the big house. But what would Christmas be like for the Stones this year?
We Need a Plan
“How was school today, honey?” Elizabeth asked me. It was the next evening. I was helping Elizabeth set the table for dinner.
“Wonderful,” I said. School usually is wonderful. That is because I have the best teacher in the world, Ms. Colman. “Today we started to learn about winter holidays around the world. We are learning about Christmas in other countries, plus Hanukkah and Kwanzaa.”
“It sounds very interesting,” said Elizabeth. “And it reminds me that I need to start shopping soon for Christmas presents.”
“I already know what I am getting for everyone in my two families,” I said. “I have been thinking about it a lot. And I have been saving my money.”
“Good for you,” said Elizabeth.
Actually, after all my thinking, I still did not know what to get Hannie for Christmas and Nancy for Hanukkah. I wanted to think of the perfect gifts. I would have to work on it.
“Santa!” Emily Michelle shouted, running into the kitchen. “Pwesants!”
“Emily, you have Christmas on the brain,” I said.
“She needs to relax about Christmas,” said Kristy, following Emily into the room. “She is making me crazy.”
“Jimble bells, jimble bells,” sang Emily. She marched around the room, singing. I tried not to listen. Instead, I watched the rest of my family wander into the kitchen.
When we were all sitting down, Daddy said, “I talked to Mr. Stone today.”
“Oh, goody!” I said. “How are all the animals? Where are they? Are the Stones all right? Do they need me to keep Ollie in my room for awhile?”
Daddy held up his hand. “Hold on a minute, Karen. One question at a time. The animals are fine. For the moment they are staying in some smaller buildings on the property, but they will need better lodgings soon. Ollie does not need to stay in your room, though.”
Across the table Sam snickered. I ignored him.
“However,” continued Daddy, “the Stones do need some help. It turns out that they did not keep their fire insurance up-to-date. So the money the insurance company is giving them is not nearly enough to rebuild their barn.”
“Uh-oh,” said David Michael. “What are they going to do?”
“Well, there is not much they can do,” said Daddy. “They could sell off their animals, so they would not need a barn. Or they can sell the farm, and move to a smaller farm somewhere else.”
“But that farm has been in Mr. Stone’s family for generations,” said Kristy. “I heard him say so.”
“They cannot sell all their animals,” I said. “How would they have a farm camp next summer?”
Daddy shrugged. “They will not have much choice, I’m afraid. Rebuilding a barn like that is very expensive. They simply do not have the money.”
“This is terrible,” I said. “And right at Christmastime too. They will have an awful Christmas.”
“Cwismas!” said Emily Michelle. She wiggled in her high chair. “Cwismas! Jimble bells! Pwesants!”
Kristy sighed. “Could you try not to say that word for awhile?” she asked me.
“Sorry,” I said. “I am just upset.”
“I am upset too,” said Kristy. “I love the Stones. And I loved being a counselor at Mrs. Stone’s farm camp. But I do not know what we can do.”
“We have to do something,” I said firmly. “So we will think about it, and we will come up with something.” Daddy says sometimes all you need is positive thinking. I was trying to have positive thoughts.
“Okay,” said Kristy. “We will try to think of something.”
I started eating my dinner quickly. The sooner I finished, the sooner I could start solving the Stones’ problem.
The Brilliant Idea
After dinner Kristy and I went into her room. Kristy sat down at her desk. She took out a pad of paper and a pen.
“We will write down all our ideas,” she said. “Then we will decide if any of them will work.”
“Okay,” I said. “Let’s see … we need to help the Stones. I know! We can turn our garage into a little barn. Then we can keep Ollie and Elvira and maybe one of the horses. That will help the Stones.”
“We need a way to help the Stones rebuild their barn,” Kristy pointed out. “I am sure they do not want all their animals to go to different places. How would they run their farm camp if the animals were all over Stoneybrook?”
r /> “Oh,” I said. “Okay. Let me think.” I swung my legs against Kristy’s bed. She chewed on the end of her pencil. We were thinking so hard, I could almost hear it.
“We could sell candy,” I said finally. “I have done that before.”
“That is a good idea,” said Kristy. “But I am not sure that we could sell enough candy to build a whole barn.”
“How about a food drive?” I said. “I have done that before too.”
“The Stones do not need food,” said Kristy. “They need a new barn.”
“An ice-skating show? We raised some money doing that,” I said.
“You are coming up with a lot of good ideas,” said Kristy. “It is just that we need so much money. But keep trying.”
I lay back on Kristy’s bed. I wiggled my eyebrows and made faces. I kicked my feet up and down. I hummed a little bit. I was trying to think, think, think.
“I just cannot come up with anything,” said Kristy. “I am at the end of my rope.”
Kristy’s door opened, and Emily Michelle came in. “Hi,” she said cheerfully. She opened Kristy’s closet door. She peered inside. Then she moved to the dresser and started opening drawers.
“What are you doing?” asked Kristy.
“Santa,” said Emily. “Pwesants!”
“Emily,” I said, “we have told you a gazillion times. It is not time for Santa Claus yet. It is not time for Christmas yet.”
Kristy took Emily Michelle’s hand and led her away from the dresser. “There are no presents in there, Emily,” she said. “You are just going to have to wait.”
Emily started to turn on her “I am about to cry” face.
I jumped up. “I know! Why don’t you go to the playroom. I think Andrew is in there. Maybe he will read you a book.” Even though Andrew is only four going on five, he knows how to read. I taught him myself. I also taught him to ride a two-wheel bicycle. He is very smart.
Gently I nudged Emily Michelle toward the door. Kristy and I were doing some very important thinking. We could not be bothered with a little kid.
“Jimble bells,” Emily started singing. “Jimble bells. One horse open sway, hey!”