Christmas in My Heart by Joe Wheeler

Author:Joe Wheeler
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780307822628
Publisher: The Doubleday Religious Publishing Group
Published: 2012-06-26T21:00:00+00:00

All the next day pa worked up on High View Drive and all day mamma cleaned the house, made doughnuts and cookies with green sugar on them, and dressed the fat hens, stuffing them to the bursting point with onion dressing.

Almost before they knew it, Christmas Eve had arrived, and Carrie and Bert and the two little boys were driving into the yard with everyone hurrying out to greet them.

“Why, mamma,” Carrie said. “That old shed … it just gave me a turn when we drove in.”

But mamma was a bit disappointed over the little boys. The older one comprehended what it meant and was duly awe-struck, but the younger one ran over to the manger and said: “When’s she goin’ to blow out her bubble gum?”

After they had taken in the wrapped presents and the mince pies Carrie had baked, pa told them how they were all going to drive up to High View and see the expensive decorations, stressing his own part in their preparation so much that mamma said, “Don’t brag. A few others had somethin’ to do with it, you know.” And Ernie sent them all into laughter when he called it High Brow Drive.

Then he went after his girl, Annie Hansen, and when they came back, surprisingly her brother was with them, which sent Lillie into a state of fluttering excitement.

So they all started out in two cars. Ernie and his girl and Lillie in Ernie’s one seat, with the brother in the back, his long legs dangling out. Carrie and Bert took their little boys and mamma and pa. Not knowing the streets leading to the winding High View section, Bert stayed close behind Ernie’s car, which chugged its way ahead of them like a noisy tugboat.

Everyone was hilariously happy. As for pa, his anger about mamma’s chidings was long forgotten. All three of his children were home and the two little kids. The Dillinghams didn’t have any children at all for Christmas fun. We never lost a child, he was thinking, and the Porters lost that little girl. Our grandkids tough as tripe, and the Scotts got that crippled boy. It gave him a light-hearted feeling of freedom from disaster. Now this nice sightseeing trip in Bert’s good car. Home to coffee and doughnuts, with the kids hanging up their stockings. Tomorrow the presents and a big dinner. For fleeting moments Pa Kurtz had a warm little-boy feeling of his own toward Christmas.

Mamma, too, said she hadn’t had such a good time since Tige was a pup. And when one of the little boys said he wanted to see Tige when they got back, everyone laughed immoderately.

They passed decorated houses and countless trees brightly lighted in windows. Then around the curving streets of the High View district, following Ernie’s noisy lead so closely that Carrie said they were just like Mary’s little lamb. Across the street from the Porters’ colonial house, Ernie stopped, and they stopped too.

The evergreens with their sparkling blue lights seemed a part of an enchanted forest.

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