Chapter 9
1289 Words
CHAPTER 9
“It worked!”
Sara’s shrieking brought them both awake, Jenna scrambling to pull the blankets up around her neck. Uh oh. They were so busted. So much for her plan to be safely back in her room by morning.
Isaac could see the panic in Jenna’s eyes when she realized they were no longer alone in the room. He snagged a t-shirt from the chair beside the bed and snuck it to her under the covers.
“What worked, Short Stuff?”
“Santa got my letter!” Sara was jumping up and down and looking very pleased with herself.
This should be interesting. With a quick glance at Jenna to see how she was making out with the shirt, he risked asking, “What exactly did you ask Santa for?” He hoped his detective skills had been adequate, and that what she wanted really was under the tree. He was still curious about what had been in that last-minute letter.
But Sara was off and running back to the living room. “Hurry up, Daddy! I want to open the presents. And Santa put stuff in yours and Jenna’s stockings too!”
Sara was vibrating with excitement when she saw the stockings filled and the presents under the tree. “Can we open the stockings now?”
“What do you think?” Isaac winked at Jenna, who had joined them in the living room now that she had found some more clothes to put on, and Isaac had dug up her crutches for her.
“Yes!” Sara went over to the hearth and grabbed Isaac’s stocking. She brought it over to where he was sitting with Jenna on the couch. She did the same again with Jenna’s, and finally brought her own and sat on the floor in front of the couch.
Jenna watched as Sara dug into her stocking and showed off each of her new treasures. Sparkly hair elastics, a deck of cards with fairies on them, and a few other little toys and games.
She was surprised to feel how full her own stocking was. Jenna laughed when she pulled out the first couple of things. There were two ice packs—one with red glitter gel inside and one with green glitter gel. Her eyes met Isaac’s and she grinned. “Safety first, right?”
“Well, the doctor did say you should keep icing off and on, and the snow won’t stick around forever.”
In Jenna’s opinion, the quicker she healed up the better. There were plenty of things she was hoping to share with Isaac before she took off. From the look in his eyes, she and Isaac were on the same page.
Jenna dug back into her stocking and pulled out chocolates, an orange, a candy cane and a book. Nothing got past that man. It was the latest release by one of her favourite authors. Isaac must have seen the one she was reading and made a note.
She hadn’t had a chance to sneak anything into his stocking. He must have filled it himself. But it clearly contained his favourites. A new ornament for the tree, some gloves for working outside, and the same complement of chocolates and an orange that everyone else had.
“Can we open our one thing now?” Sara was poking around under the tree.
Jenna looked confused, so Isaac explained. “It’s tradition that we always wait until the family gets here, and open the presents under the tree right before dinner. But to take the edge off, we each get to open one thing in the morning.”
Sara came over to Jenna and handed her a small package, wrapped with more tape than wrapping paper.
“I think I know just the right ones for you guys to open,” Jenna said. She didn’t really want Isaac and Sara to open her presents in front of an audience. She was a bit self-conscious because she’d made them herself. She directed Sara to the right packages under the tree.
Sara brought the bigger present over to Isaac, and then brought her own over before sitting beside Jenna on the couch.
“Why don’t you go first, Sara?” She couldn’t wait to see how the little girl reacted to her present.
Sara tore at the wrapping paper and when she managed to get through the layers of tissue and paper, she gasped. “Oh! It’s a crown!
Jenna had found a very simple tiara shape when she was at the drugstore, and then added her own special touches with some mini bells and snowflakes she had found in the Christmas decorations aisle at the hardware store. Once she put it all together, she had coated it in several layers of sparkly, silver spray paint. Not only was it pretty, it would also keep the little decorative bits where they belonged. “Come here, Sara. I’ll help you put it on.”
“Daddy look! I’m a Christmas Princess.” Sara did a little spin to make her ruffled nightgown billow out, and then immediately ran off to find a mirror so she could see what she looked like.
Isaac took advantage of the empty space between them to move over closer to Jenna on the couch. He draped an arm casually around her shoulders, and made the butterflies in her stomach flutter. She wondered if he’d move away when Sara came back.
“So that’s what you were doing out in the woodshed?” Isaac seemed impressed with the effort Jenna had put into making something special for Sara. She’d put a lot of thought into the gift, and it was so appropriate to Sara.
“Yes. But not only that. Why don’t you open your package?”
“I thought I already opened my package last night?” Isaac winked as Jenna blushed and Sara came running back in.
“What did you get, Dad?”
Isaac moved his arm away, but only so he could unwrap his gift. He stayed sitting right where he was, and undid the ribbon slowly, driving Jenna crazy. Yep—the man sure had patience for unwrapping things. She had fully appreciated it last night, but this morning it was driving her crazy. “Just unwrap it already!”
Isaac laughed, and then tore the rest of the wrappings off.
“What is it?” Sara asked.
Isaac picked it up by the wire loop on the top, and a pretty tinkling filled the air as the pieces all fell into place. “It’s a sort of a wind chime, isn’t it Jenna?”
“I thought you could maybe hang it on the door by the kitchen, and then that way the bells would give a little jingle anytime someone went in or out of the house.”
“Someone, hey?” Catching Jenna’s significant glance at Sara, he clearly got the message. No more sneaky departures. “Thanks, Jenna. It’s fantastic.”
“Open yours now, Jenna! It’s from me.” Sara bit her lip nervously as Jenna pretended to shake and squeeze her present.
Sara had wrapped it all on her own, judging by the large amounts of tape on the package. When Jenna opened it up, she found a special Christmas decoration that Sara had made. It was a picture of a reindeer, with the horns made from the imprint of Sara’s hands dipped in brown paint.
She had printed Merry Christmas and the year on it, in very carefully formed letters. Jenna was overwhelmed. “Thank you, Sara. That’s the nicest present anyone has ever made for me.” She reached out her arms and Sara gave her a hug.
Jenna felt her eyes welling up as those little arms came around her neck and held on so tight. She could see the concern on Isaac’s face when he saw her face.
They weren’t sad tears.
It was just that her whole life Jenna had wished for a family Christmas just like this one. There was a certain amount of irony in the fact that her family Christmas wasn’t actually with her family.
But she was going to take what she could get, and wring every last good memory from this day that she could.
- Writer
