A Hansen Christmas Story
Belle
settled into the rocking chair and closed her eyes. It had been a long, busy
day and Belle was grateful to finally sit down and relax.
Suddenly, a
little body scrambled onto her lap and grabbed her around the neck.
Belle’s
eyes flew open to behold Nadia sitting mere inches from her face. “Sweetheart,
what is it?”
“Can you
tell us a story?” Nadia’s big blue eyes stared into Belle’s own blue eyes.
“What kind
of story?”
“A
Christmas story! It’s almost Christmas time and I want to hear how you
celebrated Christmas with Papa and Mama when you were a little girl.”
Belle
smiled faintly at the thought of Papa and Mama. They had had many wonderful
Christmases together. Her heart ached a bit; thinking of another Christmas that
they would be separated.
“Will you
tell us one?” Nadia waited impatiently.
“Let me
think of a good one.”
Upon
hearing Belle’s answer, the rest of the sisters crowded into the living room
and settled down on the furniture. Even Paul and Lillian joined the girls; eager
to hear Belle’s story. Once everyone found a seat, Belle began her story.
“My
favorite Christmas was the year 1881. I was seven years old…Mama was due to
give birth to Kenny any day. It snowed so much that Christmas Eve! Outside it
was snowing so hard that it turned into a blizzard. Mama and Papa were worried
about the terrible weather, so Albert and I wanted to do something special for
them…”
~~~
Zachariah
Hansen pulled at his mustache and looked out the window. The snow was laying and
growing deeper and deeper by the hour. He was worried that the snow would
prevent him from getting to the midwife, should his very pregnant wife go into
labor soon.
“I want to
see the pretty snow!” five-year-old Danielle tugged on her father’s pant leg.
“Darling,
don’t bother your father,” Alice Hansen scolded. She bustled over to her
husband and daughter.
“Of course,
you can see the pretty snow,” Zachariah replied, hushing his wife. He scooped
Danielle into his arms and let her peer out the window.
“It’s so
sparkly!” Danielle pressed her face against the window.
“It is,
isn’t it? God sure made snow a beautiful thing.” Zachariah set Danielle down
and sent her to play with her siblings.
“I just didn’t want her to bother
you at a time like this,” Alice whispered, resting a hand on her husband’s
shoulder. She gently pushed her fingers back and forth, massaging his shoulder.
“I know you don’t like all this snow.”
Zachariah looked out the window
again. “I don’t want to get snowed in. I need to be able to get to the barn and
to the firewood.”
“We’ll be alright,” Alice soothed,
kissing his cheek. “God will take care of us. He always has.”
“You’re right, dear. I wish I had
faith like you…” Zachariah gently touched his wife’s swollen stomach. “What if
you go into labor, though? How will I get to the midwife?”
“Don’t worry about me!”
“Go rest. You must be in pain.”
“I’m used to the pain,” Alice
protested. “I feel fine.”
“You go upstairs and lay down
before supper. Please, it’ll ease my mind to know you’re resting.”
Alice complied to her husband’s
wishes and mounted the stairs to her bedroom.
Zachariah
moved to the doorway and put on his coat and hat. He reached up on the shelf
and pulled down a coil of rope. He tied one end of the rope around his waist
and the rest he clutched in his hand. With his remaining hand, he lit the
lantern. Albert and Belle walked over to their father and watched him with
curiosity.
“What are
you doing, Papa?” Belle asked.
“I’m going
to the barn. It’s snowing so hard that pretty soon, we won’t be able to see the
barn from the house.”
Albert’s
eyes widened. “But the barn is only a few yards away!”
“Exactly.
I’m going to string this rope from the house to the barn so you and I can get
through to the barn to take care of the animals. I better lock up the barn too
while I’m at it.” Zachariah put his hand on the doorknob. “You two keep an eye
on your siblings while I’m away.”
“Yes, sir.”
Albert and Belle watched their father brave the winter winds and head for the
barn.
“Papa’s upset,”
Belle remarked.
“He is,”
Albert agreed.
“Let’s do
something nice for him!”
“Like
what?”
“Well…tomorrow
is Christmas day. We could get him a gift.”
“Where are
we going to get a gift?” Albert pointed out.
“We will make him one. We can make Mama a gift too. She’s been extra tired with the baby.”
“What will
we make?”
“You could
make Papa a feather pencil like Mr. Wilbur showed you. Papa is always writing
stuff down.”
“Hey,
that’s a good idea. We still have leftover turkey feathers from the turkey he
shot. I’ll get to work on that right now.”
“But what
should I make Mama?” Belle seemed unsure what to do. “She needs something
special too.”
Albert
snapped his fingers, “You could make her a cover for her Bible. Her Bible is
really worn but if you made a cover out of some of our old rags, it will
protect it.”
“Alright.
I’ll check the rag bin and see what’s in there.”
Belle
hurried to Alice’s rag bin and sorted through the materials. She found enough
material to make a cover for the old brown Bible that Alice read out of every
day. Belle sat down on her mama’s rocking chair where she could keep an eye on
Cassandra, Danielle, the twins, Gideon, and Hannah, and took the sewing kit.
Belle was only seven but Alice had taught her basic sewing skills. Belle figured
she knew enough to make a book cover.
Cassandra
sat at Belle’s feet, watching her older sister sew. “Can’t I make Mama a gift
too?”
Danielle
stood behind Cassandra. “Yeah. I wanna make Papa something too.”
Belle thought
a moment, “Why don’t you draw cards for Mama and Papa? I can write Merry
Christmas on it and you girls can draw pictures.”
“I love to
draw!” Danielle squealed.
“I’ll get
the paper and pencils,” Cassandra ran off to fetch the card materials.
Belle met
Cassandra and Danielle at the kitchen table. She took her time and neatly wrote
Merry Christmas on the front of the cards and left her sisters to draw pictures
everywhere else. Belle sat back on the rocking chair to finish sewing the Bible
cover.
Albert
clattered down the stairs and maneuvered through his siblings to show Belle the
feather pencil he had constructed for Zachariah. He had split the feather quill
and stuffed the pencil into the quill and tied it off so the feather remained
attached to the top of the pencil.
“It looks
great,” Belle grinned, “Papa will love it.”
Albert
smiled at Belle’s praise and took a rag from the rag bin and carefully wrapped
his homemade gift in the rag and set it under the Christmas tree.
Belle moved
to the kitchen table and left her youngest siblings with Albert. Cassandra and
Danielle were cleaning up the table and taking their cards to the Christmas
tree. Belle praised their work and sat down at the table to finish her own
gift. Making the Bible cover was much harder than she had anticipated. She fought
at the material with her needle and struggled to get the material to come
together how she envisioned.
She was so
intent on her work that she didn’t notice Alice entering the room.
Alice stepped up behind her
daughter and kissed the side of her head. “What are you working on, my beauty?”
Belle jumped in surprise and quick
tried to hide her work. “Mama! You’re not supposed to be up yet!”
Alice cocked her head, “If I wasn’t
up now, supper wouldn’t be ready on time.”
Belle looked to the clock in dismay.
“What were you working on?”
“Nothing.” Belle shoved her sewing
under the table.
“You were very busy to be working
on nothing,” Alice persisted, sitting beside her daughter.
Belle looked down at the fabric in
her hands. Oh, how badly she wanted to make her mama a special gift for this
Christmas! She tried so hard but it ended up not being what she wanted.
“May I see?”
Belle burst into tears. “I was
trying to make you a special Christmas gift but I ruined it!”
“You were making me a gift?” Alice
whispered, obviously very touched by the gesture.
“Albert, Cassandra, Danielle, and I
wanted to make you and Papa something for Christmas. You have been really tired
recently with the baby almost here and Papa has been worried about this
blizzard. I wanted to make you a cover for your Bible.”
“Oh, sweetheart,” Alice pulled Belle
into her arms and hugged her tightly. “That is so sweet of you to think of your
Papa and me.”
Belle buried her head in her
mother’s shoulder. “But I ruined your gift!”
Alice pulled back and examined
her daughter's work. “You didn’t ruin it. You did a great job. I love it.”
“But it isn’t that good.”
“There’s a thing or two I could
help you fix,” Alice offered. “But this Bible cover will always remind me that
you took time to make me a special gift when I didn’t expect one. It shows me
that you love and care for me. That makes it special to me.”
Belle wiped away the tears and
smiled at Alice. She handed the Bible cover over to her mother. “Merry
Christmas, Mama.”
“Merry Christmas, my beautiful girl.”
~~~
Belle ended the story and the only sound that could be heard was the pop of wood cracking in the
fireplace.
Danielle
was the first to break the silence. “I remember making that card…”
Cassandra
brushed away a tear, “I miss Mama and Papa.”
Belle set
Nadia down on the floor and rose to go to her two sisters. Being so close in age, she, Cassandra, and
Danielle fought many times, but Belle loved her sisters dearly and
she knew exactly how they were feeling right now.
Belle sat
between them on the couch and slipped one arm around each girl. Danielle and
Cassandra leaned into their sister and Belle held them close.
Nadia
stepped up to her three oldest sisters, watching them cry silently. “I’m
sorry…I didn’t think it was a sad story.”
“Come on, Nadia, dear,” Lillian intervened. “I think we
should get ready for bed.”
“But,
Belle—”
“She’ll
come say goodnight soon,” Lillian promised.
Lillian took the girls into their bedroom to help them get ready for bed while Paul went to put Oakley in his cradle. The O'Neals realized the three oldest girls needed some time by themselves.
Cassandra
blew her nose. “I just…I wonder what they would think of us now...”
“Mama and
Papa would be so proud of you both,”
Belle whispered, kissing each sister on the head. “And they would be glad that
the O’Neals are looking after us and glad that you two are very helpful to
Lillian and Paul with the chores. They’d both be pleased with how you’re good
examples for the little girls. They’d be proud of everything, I’m sure.”
“I miss
them both…it hurts a lot sometimes.” Danielle took a shaky breath. “It’s the
little things you miss the most. That Christmas wasn’t real exciting but…the
look on Papa’s face when I gave him his card…I’ll never ever forget that.”
Belle
squeezed Danielle’s shoulder. “I know…our parents were saints…God surely
blessed us with remarkable parents.”
“He did
indeed,” Cassandra agreed.
“And now
He’d given us great adoptive parents,” Danielle added.
Belle
glanced at Danielle and hesitated a moment before she slowly nodded her head.
“You’re right; He has.”
Awww, I loved it. Seriously, this is my absolute favorite part of the Hansen girls that you've written. It's so, so beautiful! Awesome job!! :)
ReplyDeleteThank-you!! Glad you liked it. I kinda ran out of ideas for the ending...but I did enjoy writing the rest. This is the first piece where I've written about Zachariah and Alice so it was fun for me :-)
DeleteAwww! What a sweet Christmas story! :') I nearly cried by the end. So, so good. Thanks for sharing, Lauren! :)
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear you enjoyed it! I really wanted to write about the children and their early lives and especially show how much Alice and Zachariah meant to the kids
ReplyDelete