Gifts And A (Sur)Prize

The Night(mare) After Christmas or Happy New Year - Part One

Christmas Morning! Is there anything as wonderful as a child's first glimpse of the gifts awaiting under the Christmas Tree? Annabelle doesn't know WHICH gift to try first! Christmas morning must be the most magical one of the entire year. Pollyanna loves Christmas morning and all the excitement and anticipation of opening the gifts!
But THIS year there have been a few EXTRA surprises! To start with, her distant cousin Katherine, better known as Crazy Cousin Kitty, arrived in the middle of the night with ALL EIGHT of her cats! Her boiler failed in her apartment and her pipes froze and she was desperate for somewhere to stay. Of course, she could NOT leave the cats in the unheated apartment! So here she is on the living room sofa. Her landlord assured her it would only be a few days til the plumbing could be fixed.....
Pollyanna doesn't mind cousin Kitty staying, but she's not so sure about all those cats! One or two cats are easy, but EIGHT she thinks is just a bit much to expect a welcome! But never mind. It is Christmas after all, and everyone should feel welcome!
Chip is looking in to see what Annabelle thinks of her gifts.......

And Pollyanna is opening one too! It is from Arthur. Just LOOK what he has given her!
(Thank you EWA! These were sent to me by Ewa who's blog is The Old Maid! Aren't they lovely? A tiny crown and a book of Music with readable pages! She also sent me some bigger gifts that are now hanging on my big tree! :))

But Pollyanna is sure they are from Arthur!

And he says he has another special gift for her.... this little Glitter House! He knows how much Pollyanna loves houses ...... and perhaps someday they will have a house of their own!
Pollyanna is enchanted! It is SO BEAUTIFUL! And she loves the dream of a house of their own...
She sets it carefully on the table with the Creche, hoping it will be safe from the cats there!


And look who else is here! Great Uncle Albert came over for the day! He's brought his latest project with him to show what he's been working on..... not that any of us would understand.... but he would be happy to try to explain it to you if you'd like?
And when things get too busy in the living room, Helen and Charles just stay in the kitchen. They have plenty to talk about and love their morning coffee together!
So Christmas morning became Christmas Evening and still everybody was having a wonderful time so they stayed. Pollyanna wasn't sure where everyone would sleep... but Helen and Charles have been staying at a local Inn anyway. They just come over for the company and meals! And then pretty soon it was Boxing Day, then the day AFTER Boxing Day, and everyone was still here! Somewhere along the way a cat got the little GLITTER HOUSE and chased it around the room as if it were a cat toy! Bad Cat!
He left it in the corner under the edge of the rocking horse rocker....... where no-one could see it!

And Annabelle wanted to ride her horse..... Oh Dear! What's this? The GLITTER HOUSE is squashed flat!

(Actually, it was the US MAIL that did the dastardly squashing! :( . But I thought it would be more fun to make a story about it...... I actually had un-squished it a bit - it arrived quite flat!)
But nonetheless, Pollyanna is quite heartbroken when she finds out! She suspects one of the cats is to blame.... But Cousin Kitty is sure none of her cats would do such a thing!
Pollyanna is starting to wonder if she will EVER just have her life back to NORMAL?

She has nothing against cats...... she loves cats.......but .....

Pollyanna decides she just needs to get away from everybody for a change! She rushes over to Arthur's house. She wants to tell him about the GLITTER HOUSE, but she is so afraid it is a bad omen and their Dream will come to nothing....... she isn't sure if she should tell him......
When she gets there she finds him deep in a philosophical discussion with his friend Will Ott. She is so disappointed that he is not alone..... they can't talk.... she can't tell him what's wrong.....
She makes up some silly excuse for dropping by. Arthur reminds her he will be picking her up at seven to go to the New Year's Eve party at the Castle. Pollyanna had COMPLETELY forgotten! With everything else that has been going on it had just slipped her mind!
"But I have NOTHING to wear!" she laments.

You can come as you are he replies. You look lovely no matter what you wear!

Pollyanna sighs. Sometimes he says the nicest things! She's glad she stopped by after all......
Sometimes the real gift isn't a thing at all........

TO BE CONTINUED....


Special thanks go to Ewa for the lovely gifts - I hope you don't mind that I let Arthur take the credit for them!
And special thanks go to Karin Corbin whose Glitter House I won in her giveaway - it arrived sadly abused and she has promised to send another! I can't tell you how enchanting it is up close!
Thank you blog friends!