Snowmen In Paradise (Book 2 Tj Jensen Paradise Lake Mysteries) by Daley Kathi

Author:Daley, Kathi [Daley, Kathi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2014-01-13T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

The park at the edge of town was lit up like a Christmas tree when hundreds of residents and visitors gathered for the annual snowman judging. There were five categories: most lifelike, funniest, scariest, most original, and best overall. Entrants had been creating the round masterpieces all day, with the final judging to take place at five o’clock.

Tj bought hot chocolate for her sisters and a hot spiced wine for herself. The atmosphere was charged with an excited energy as they waited for the results to be read.

“How come they don’t have those fire pits over here?” Gracie wondered as they walked toward their snowman. Metal trash cans with roaring fires had been placed strategically between larger fires built in pits.

“’Cause the snowmen would melt,” big sister Ashley pointed out.

“But it’s cold,” Gracie whined. Her long brown ringlets were covered by a bright red cap that matched her down jacket.

“As soon as the judging is over, we’ll go inside where it’s warmer. I think the spaghetti feed is supposed to start in a half hour or so.”

“Here we are.” Ashley stopped at a large group of snow figures. There were eight in all, five people descending in size, a dog, and two cats.

“We made the whole family.” Gracie’s huge brown eyes danced with excitement.

The first snowman in the group was tall and thin and wore one of her grandfather’s old hats. The next was slightly shorter and just a tad stouter and wore her dad’s forest-green scarf. The third was actually a snowwoman and wore the knit cap Tj had just bought at few weeks earlier. Next to the Tj figure was a slightly shorter snow girl with a pair of glasses, followed by a much shorter figure wearing Gracie’s bunny mittens. Positioned in front of the snow people was a snow dog, made to resemble Echo, a pudgy cat she assumed was Cuervo, and a smaller cat she’d bet was supposed to be Gracie’s cat, Crissy.

“Wow! How’d you get all of this done in one afternoon? Grandpa must have had a lot of energy today.”

Gracie laughed. “Grandpa didn’t help us at all.”

“Yeah, he just sat over there on that bench with Doc and Bookman and made suggestions,” Ashley added.

“Then how did you manage to do all this?” Tj was fairly certain one eight- and one five-year-old couldn’t accomplish such a feat on their own.

“Uncle Kyle helped us,” Gracie admitted.

“That was nice of him.”

“Is Uncle Kyle our real uncle?”

“Of course not. What a dummy,” Ashley teased.

“I’m not a dummy.”

“Are so.”

“We don’t call people dummies,” Tj reminded Ashley. “Now apologize.”

“Sorry,” Ashley offered reluctantly.

“So is he?” Gracie asked again.

“No, Kyle isn’t your real uncle,” Tj told her. “Real uncles are related to you by blood. Uncle Kyle is more of an honorary uncle.”

“What’s an honorary uncle?”

“It’s a friend who cares about you and likes to spend time with you,” Tj explained.

“Like Aunt Jenna and Uncle Dennis?” Gracie clarified.

“Exactly.”

Gracie paused to consider this while Tj examined the snow family. “Why did you put glasses on the Ashley snow girl?” Tj asked.

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