A Holly Jolly Christmas

“What is?” her boyfriend asked, coming up to stand behind her. Jim Frayne still towered over her, his chin barely brushed the top of her blond curls.

“To think that this time next month we’ll be in the hot Australian summer. It seems so hard to believe now.”

“I know what you mean,” Jim told her. “I just hope that Brian and I get placements in New Davenport University. Otherwise you five will be the ones going to Australia, and Brian and I will have to stay and go to college here.”

“I’m keeping my fingers crossed,” Trixie turned to face him. “It just won’t be the same without you two. Especially you, Jim. No adventure is complete without you there to share it.”

“Why thank you,” Jim leaned down to give her a kiss. “But I’d rather hope that you won’t get into any adventures while out there.”

“You know me, Jim. Since when do I ever not get into any adventures?”

“True,” he conceded, leaning down to kiss her again. This kiss lasted longer, and the couple quite forgot that they were standing in the Bob White Clubhouse. That is, until they heard…

“Busted!” Di Lynch exclaimed brightly.

Trixie and Jim broke apart in a hurry. “Di, Mart, what are you doing here?”

Her brother gave her a withering look. “Did you forget, dear sister; that we, the esteemed members of the Bob Whites of the Glen had arranged to congregate here to exchange Yule offerings in advance of the actual holiday tomorrow?”

Trixie flushed. Although she knew perfectly well that was the reason she and Jim were in the clubhouse; she had been so caught up in kissing her boyfriend that she had momentarily forgotten.

Jim, as always, came to her rescue. “And the reason you’re here early is…?”

Di blinked her violet eyes innocently. “The same as you? To get a little private time before the others get here?”

“Only we’re not early,” Mart put in. “You two seemed to have lost track of time. It is…” he looked at his watch, “five minutes to seven pm, and as I recall, our arranged meeting time was seven pm precisely.”

“Honey and Brian will be delayed,” Di added. “A package arrived from Australia from the Sages, with presents for all of us, so they are sorting them out.”

“Not that there was much to sort out,” came Honey’s voice from outside. “But if someone will open the door, we can come in and get started.”

Jim jumped to let his sister in, and found that both Brian Belden and Dan Mangan were with her. All had their arms full of packages—Brian with an over-large box, and Dan Honey with a variety of brightly wrapped boxes. “Now that everyone’s here, we can get this show in the road,” he said.

“Can we wait a moment and let us poor carry horses have a rest please?” Dan begged. “For all that it’s the bleak midwinter; I’m as parched as if it were summer.”

“Let’s all have a drink,” Trixie suggested. “We’ll have a toast with the eggnog before we get to the presents.” The idea was palatable to the rest of the Bob Whites, and Honey quickly poured seven glasses of the typical Christmas beverage (with Dan lamenting that it was the non-alcoholic variety and Brian pointing out they were under age).

“Well then, let me propose a toast,” Dan said, raising a glass. “Here’s to being in the great land Down Under next month, where the legal drinking age is eighteen!”

Agreeing with the spirit of the toast, if not with everything that was said, they all took a drink. But Jim was shaking his head. “Excessive drinking is no laughing matter,” he said soberly. He knew all too well, having been at the mercy of a mean stepfather who often drank.

“I know what you mean,” Dan said. His own youth on the streets of New York City was also far from pleasant. “I’ve seen enough drunken binges to know that drinking to excess is not a good thing. But the occasional alcoholic drink on special occasions like this does no harm.”

“True,” Brian agreed. “As long as it stops there. But…”

“Let’s not get into the subject of alcoholism on Christmas Eve,” Honey begged.

“Jolly good idea,” Mart added. “Let’s open the presents instead.”

By mutual agreement they decided to leave the presents from the Sages last. They were not expecting any presents from the family that would be hosting them next year on their ‘exchange’ to Australia, and they wanted to leave this surprise until last. So they started with the gifts they were exchanging amongst themselves. Again, by mutual agreement, these gifts were not over much in the grand scheme of things; with five of them preparing to move to Australia for at least two year no one wanted an excess amount of money spent on them, especially when some didn’t have that much money to spend in the first place.

The gifts they gave each other were little things, either made or bought, that seemed especially intended for the recipient. The most memorable of them was that Jim, Mart, and Dan banded together to make little boxes for the girls; not necessarily jewellery boxes, but little boxes that could be used for a variety of things. Jim and Mart handcrafted the boxes, sanding them, putting lids with hinges and catches on, and staining them. Dan’s contribution was carving little figures into the lids. He individualised them, deeply carving their names, and adding pictures that were personalised to each. On Diana’s he carved little Greek Drama masks and other figures iconic of the theatre; on Trixie’s he carved little magnifying glasses and deer stalker caps and other iconic figures to do with detectives. Honey’s proved a little more difficult, but in the end he decided on carving the Manor House, little heads of the horses that the Wheeler’s owned, and flowers and other things that personified her sweetness.

“They’re beautiful!” Honey exclaimed, tracing her finger over the inscribed name on her box.

“Perfectly perfect,” Trixie agreed. “How ever did you think of it?”

“It was a mutual brainwave,” Mart said. He was about to launch into a detailed explanation, but Diana checked this impulse by firmly placing her hand on her boyfriend’s mouth. “I, for one, would like to know what the Sages sent us.”

“Yeah,” Trixie echoed. “I’m just dying to know.”

The sentiment was unanimous, so Brian turned to the over-large box that he had carried in. Upon opening it, he found that there were seven rather large, brightly wrapped bundles and an envelope placed on tup. The envelope contained a Christmas card, addressed to the Bob Whites of the Glen, and signed by Jonah, Rosemary, Mitch, Lori, Bianca, Miwako, Nicky, and Tatiana Sage, with a post script from Carol and Ian Bainbridge—which puzzled the Bob Whites. The Sages they knew, having met them the previous summer; but of Carol and Ian Bainbridge they had no clue.

Dan picked up the letter that had fallen out of the card when Brian opened it, “Maybe this says something about it.”

“I propose that one of our esteemed co-presidents read it aloud,” Mart waved his hand airily. “Give it to Trixie; she’s certainly chatty enough for it.”

Trixie pulled a face at her brother, but accepted the letter from Dan without a fuss. She was too curious to see what was in the letter to start a fight. “It’s from Bianca,” she said after glancing at it quickly, amused at the pink and purple ink; and settled back to read.

If the image for Bianca's letter doesn't appear, or you can't read it, click here to read it.

“Wow!” Diana went when Trixie finished reading, her violet eyes wide. “Mitch’s getting married. That doesn’t seem possible.”

“I know,” Brian agreed. “He’s just a year older than I am, but I have no intentions of getting married in the next year or so.”

“I should hope not,” Mart said lazily.

“Moms and Dad would have a fit,” Trixie added.

“Well, as interesting as the topic of Mitch getting married is,” Dan began, “I suggest we actually start opening these presents. Bianca really underestimated Trixie’s curiosity—Trixie is more interesting in Mitch getting married than the presents.”

“No I’m not,” that lady said, “I’m waiting for Brian to start handing them out.”

Thus chastened by his younger sister, Brian acted as Santa and duly handed the presents out. As Bianca had said in the letter, they were just little Australian things to get the Bob Whites in the mood for Australia, and some summer clothes for the plane trip—shorts and t-shirts. Jim had to laugh when he saw the t-shirts; they were the typical t shirts that one might pick up at a souvenir shop, with kangaroos, and koalas, the Harbour Bridge, the Opera House, and other iconic Australian things.

“People tend to wear these leaving the country, not coming into it,” he chuckled.

In addition to the brightly wrapped presents, there were CD’s lying at the bottom of the box. They were all of Australian artists: Cold Chisel; INXS; Midnight Oil; Indecent Obsession; Kylie Minogue; Men at Work; Australian Crawl; Divinyls; Pseudo Echo; 1927; Goanna; Choir Boys; and there was a Christmas CD as well. This puzzled the Bob Whites, as it seemingly had nothing to do with the others until Brian pointed out that it was a CD of Australian Christmas Songs, containing songs titled ‘Christmas Where The Gum Trees Grow’, ‘Six White Boomers’, ‘Boomerang Of Flowers’ among others. It was such a novelty to the Americans that they decided they wanted to listen to it right away. Having no CD player in the Clubhouse, they all trouped down to Crabapple Farm to listen; Mart declared he was hungry (nothing unusual there) and suggested a supper of Moms’ cookies and hot chocolate.

Once there, they were joined by eight-year-old Bobby Belden, who was quite eager to listen to the Australian Christmas Songs; but the reminder that the Bob Whites would be in another country in a month’s time depressed him.

“I want to go to Australia too,” he whined. “I can sleep in Nicky’s room, they have room for me.”

“I don’t think it’s fair on the Sages if all the Beldens descended on them for three years, mate,” Brian said gently to his baby brother. “They’re invitation was for Honey only originally, remember?”

“But Honey isn’t the only one going,” Bobby objected. “Trixie is, and Mart is, and you are, and the rest of the Bob Whites.”

“But that’s only because Mrs Sage took pity on me,” Honey explained. “When they first told me what they were planning, I wasn’t sure I wanted to go. Sure, spending three years in Australia would be an experience, but I wasn’t sure I could do without Trixie and Jim and the other Bob Whites. Trixie had just managed to convince me I’d be mad to give it up when Mrs Sage came up with the idea of hosting all the Bob Whites.”

“You’re still all going away and leaving me,” the little boy went on rebelliously. “Why can’t I go too? I’m only a small boy; they’ll have room for me.”

“For you maybe,” Mart commented. “But if you went, then Larry and Terry would want to go as well.”

“Not to mention Lexi and Lisa,” Di added.

“And I know the Sages don’t have room for you all as well.”

Trixie put her arm around her little brother. “Besides, we need you here. Who’s going to look after Moms and Dad if you went too? Who would visit Mr Maypenny, and help Regan exercise the horses? Moms and Dad will need you too, they’ll be awful lonesome.”

“I s’pose,” he mumbled reluctantly.

“And you know, we won’t be nearly so homesick if you’re here to write cheery letters to us.” That last statement of Trixie’s did not have a whole lot of sense to the others, but young Bobby accepted it readily enough.

“But I’ll miss you awfully, Trix.”

“I’ll miss you too, lamb,” Trixie hugged him. “But we’re not leaving for a few weeks yet. SO why don’t we put it out of our minds for now and enjoy Christmas?”

“I vote we make more hot chocolate and sing Christmas carols,” Dan said.

“At least until Moms comes to tell Bobby to go to bed,” Brian added.