It isn’t often that I have someone guest post in my little corner of cyberspace. Then again, it isn’t often that the person who requests to do so is a child of mine. My daughter, who will be known for these purposes as the Little Girl, wants to be a writer when she grows up. As you may imagine, I’m all for it. And since Christmas really is a time of year when we can all be kids, I thought I’d let a kid do the writing today.
Here’s her story:
The Christmas tree glittered and lit up the whole room. Eleven year old Isabella Grace sat on the couch, sipping hot chocolate and watching Mickey’s A Christmas Carol. She was so excited, she could barely sit still. It was Christmas Eve! Her little brother and little sister took turns checking the Countdown to Christmas ornament on their Christmas tree and announcing what it said every twenty seconds.
“Zero days, nine hours, thirteen minutes, and thirty-seven seconds ‘til Christmas, Isabella!” she little sister Samantha cried.
“Santa will be here before you know it!” Isabella said, smiling. She got up and went to the kitchen to reload her mug with marshmallows. Isabella looked at the clock on the oven. It said 7:33. Carter should have announced the countdown by now. She walked back to the living room.
“It’s my turn!” said Carter.
“No, it’s my turn!” said Samantha.
“Hey!” Isabella said, “Why are you two fighting? Don’t you know Santa’s watching? You have to be careful!”
“Sorry, Isabella,” Samantha said, hanging her head.
“Yeah. Really sorry,” said Carter.
“Don’t worry,” Isabella said. “You guys are good all year. I little tiny fight won’t make you lose all your presents. Using canned soup as paint on the walls will make you lose all your presents.”
Samantha and Carter smiled and giggled.
“We would never do that,” said Samamtha.
Isabella smiled. “Okay, you two. Let’s get out the milk and cookies for Santa.”
“Don’t forget the carrots for his reindeer,” Carter said.
“I would never,” said Isabella.
After everyone was tucked in, Isabella snuck back to the living room to watch Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer with her parents. By 9:17, Isabella’s eyes felt like they weighed a million pounds. She went to bed, thinking about silver bells, presents, and Rudolph’s red nose.
Isabella awoke to Samantha and Carter jumping on top of her yelling “Wake up, Isabella! Wake up! It’s Christmas! We wanna open our presents!”
“All right, all right. Let’s go,” she said.
“Yay!” they yelled. They ran out into the living room. Then, it was more silent than it had ever been in the house. Even more silent than when they were watching Spongebob. Isabella walked in. Samantha and Carter were standing in front of the tree, staring. Isabella looked at the tree. There were no presents under it. Not a single one.
“Where are all the presents?” Carter asked.
“Santa forgot us,” whispered Samantha.
After an hour of crying, Samantha and Carter crawled into bed for a nap. They were tired. Probably from all of that crying, Isabella thought. Mom slept with Samantha and Dad slept with Carter. Isabella sat on the couch and watched Frosty the Snowman. While Frosty was melting, she heard a faint sound. Like jingle bells.
“We’re a go!” someone said. Then an elf fell into the fireplace. “Ooh! Ouch! Hot!” he said. He looked at Isabella’s shocked face. “Hello, miss. You must be Isabella,” he said.
Isabella tried to speak, but all that came out was a squeak.
“I’ll take that as a yes. Let me introduce myself. I’m Jingles. Santa’s head elf. I’m here to deliver the presents he forgot to.”
“Why did he forget?”
“We had a sudden Naughty to Nice Change. Sent the whole place into an uproar.”
“Oh,” Isabella said. Even thought she had no idea what Jingles was talking about.
A big sack fell into the fireplace. Jingles dragged it out. “Here are your presents,” he said.
“Thank you, Jingles!” Isabella said.
“No problem!” he said, “Just another day doin’ my job!”
Isabella arranged the presents under the tree. She ran into Samantha and Carter’s room.
“You guys, Santa came while you were asleep! Your presents are under the tree!”
“Yay!” they yelled. “He did come!”
“I told you he would never forget you,” Isabella said.
