A Wartime Christmas at Rookery House: A heartwarming and joyful festive novella. by Rosie Hendry

Author:Rosie Hendry [Hendry, Rosie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rookery House Press
Published: 2022-10-08T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 14

Wednesday 20th December

There was an air of industriousness at The Mother’s Day Club this morning, Gloria thought, gazing around her. With just three days to go now until the Christmas party, the evacuee mothers had switched from their usual knitting or sewing as they chatted, to creating decorations. They’d set up a long trestle table around which the women worked, making paper chains out of strips of old newspaper, sticking the links together with flour and water glue.

At another table, others were cutting out triangles of newspaper to turn into bunting or making paper lanterns.

‘Reuben’s bringing the Christmas tree here first thing on Saturday morning,’ Hettie said, coming over to Gloria. ‘I think the best place to put it is over there.’ She pointed to the corner to the left of the stage. ‘It will be in full view, but not get in the way of any dancing.’

‘What about some decorations for it?’ Gloria asked.

‘Don’t worry, that’s all sorted. The Girl Guides have been making Christmas decorations at their meetings for the past couple of weeks and have asked if they can decorate the tree for us,’ Hettie explained.

‘Good, we’ll ’ave plenty to do on Saturday putting up the rest of the decorations and organising everything else.’

‘And getting the food prepared. Friday’s going to be hectic with all the baking I need to do, but I must admit I am thoroughly enjoying myself.’ Hettie gave her friend a warm smile. ‘I’m so pleased we came up with the idea for this.’

Gloria put her arm through Hettie’s. ‘You and me both. This party business ’as kept me busy. I’ve ’ad less time to dwell on things. We need to go through the party list this morning, check everything’s in ’and. I ’ave worked out the order the entertainments will work best in…’

‘Gloria!’ Annie, who Hettie had helped with her knitting, called out. ‘How long do you want this paper chain to be?’

‘I’ll just sort this out, and then we’ll check through our plan. I won’t be long.’ Gloria said to Hettie and went over to where Annie was working. ‘We need each one to reach across the width of the ’all with some extra to form a loop so it can ’ang down a bit. Let’s see ’ow far you’ve got with yours.’

Gloria took one end of the paper chain, and Annie the other and they walked to opposite sides of the village hall, the chain links stretching out between them.

‘It’s not wide enough yet. It needs another couple of feet added on so it will ’ang down in a swathe,’ Gloria said.

‘I thought as much,’ Annie agreed.

‘You’re doing a smashin’ job.’ Gloria helped Annie carry the paper chain back to the table. ‘The ’all’s goin’ to look amazing decorated for our party.’

Gloria joined Hettie in the kitchen where she was preparing things for a tea break.

‘Is everything all right with Annie?’ Hettie asked as she put clean cups on a tray.

‘Yes, she just needs to add a bit more.

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