MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE, EVERYONE!!
I'm gonna try to keep this short, since the rest of this post is kind of long. (oops.) But in my last post I told you guys I had a super special post planned, and here it is! I'm SUPER excited to share with you guys a new Trentley and Jynnia short story- CHRISTMAS EDITION!
This was so much fun to write. I hope you guys enjoy it, and I especially hope you're having a wonderful, wonderful Christmas Eve!
Jynnia glanced out the window when movement caught her eye. Snow was falling, and flakes stuck to the glass like powdered sugar to a freshly baked cinnamon roll. Jynnia gasped and set her knitting aside, rising from her chair. Overjoyed tears sprung to her eyes as she gazed out the window. Snow usually had that effect on her, especially this close to Christmas.
She heard footsteps behind her and turned. "Delga, look, it's snowing!"
"Really?" Delga gasped and ran over to join Jynnia at the window. The two ladies stood there side by side for a while, staring out at the falling snow as if it were the only sight in the world.
"If it gets deep enough, the kids can play in it tomorrow!" Jynnia said, clasping her hands together with a bright smile. "Sanner will love sledding down the hill by the sawmill."
"Wasn't Sanner the one that got a huge bump on his head from a rock?" Delga said pointedly.
Jynnia winced. "Yeah... he can be a little reckless sometimes. But his mom understands it's not my fault." She laughed.
They watched the snow for a few more moments, then Jynnia went back to her chair and picked up her knitting again. "Well, I've got to get back to work. Christmas Eve is tomorrow and Trentley's present is nowhere near being finished."
Delga turned from the window, her hands on her hips and her lips turned up in a knowing smile. "I told you you should have started earlier," she said gently.
Jynnia glared at her, a grin tugging at her lips. "Shush, you. It's a little hard to work on a scarf when there are a bunch of little runts following me around all day."
"I'll say it again- you should have started earlier." Delga grinned. "Well, it's getting late. Good night. Love you."
"Love you, too."
"Don't stay up too late!" Delga's voice drifted from down the hallway.
"Sure." Jynnia sighed and glared down at the mass of royal blue yarn in her lap. It would be a beautiful scarf, if she ever got it finished. Delga was right- she should have started long ago. But her procrastinating nature had not allowed it.
She had to finish the scarf. Telling Trentley "merry Christmas" without a gift to give him was not an option. She would finish this gift if it was the last thing she did.
Though her fingers ached, she picked up the knitting needles and went back to work. It was a matter of minutes before she dropped them again and drifted off to sleep.
* * *
A thick layer of snow was pressed up against the windowpane when Jynnia jolted awake the next morning. She immediately noticed that she was not in her bed, and then spent a few confusing moments trying to figure out why.
Oh, no. She was supposed to stay up as late as it took to make some major progress on Trentley's present. Now she had lost precious time, and she would have to work extra hard today. If she got the chance. She didn't have to watch all her regular kids today, but even just having two in the house would make it hard to work on the scarf.
She looked down, blinking her vision clear as she grabbed for her knitting needles. Her fingers found nothing but the fabric of her dress. Frowning, she leaned forward to look on the floor.
But the scarf was not on the floor, nor anywhere else in the room.
Walking slowly to the kitchen, she racked her brain. Had she gotten up in the middle of the night and put the scarf away? But if she had, she would have gone to her bed, not returned to the chair in the living room.
Her eyes fell on the kitchen table, and she stopped dead in her tracks in the doorway.
There on the able was the scarf, and the knitting needles beside it. The scarf was completely finished and neatly folded.
Jynnia stared at the scarf, frozen. She was absolutely certain that she had not done this in her sleep.
"Delga!" She took off down the hallway, pounding on her sister's bedroom door.
"What?" Delga's sleepy, irritated voice came from the other side of the door. Jynnia didn't feel like waiting for her to get out of bed, so she barged in.
"What on earth are you doing?!" Delga rubbed her eyes, blinking.
"You finished the scarf, didn't you?" Jynnia demanded. "You waited until I feel asleep and then took the scarf and finished it." She was not sure whether to be happy about this or upset. The scarf was supposed to be from her to Trentley, so of course being made completely by her would have been special. But at the same time, she sure appreciated having all the stress taken off her.
"What are you talking about? I didn't take your scarf." Delga shivered and pulled her blankets more tightly around herself. Yawning, she asked, "Did you get much done on it?"
Jynnia stared at her, dumbfounded. Delga hadn't done it. "Was it Mom?"
"Jynnia, what are you talking about? Did you get enough sleep? Don't tell me you stayed up all night." Delga tilted her head sympathetically.
Jynnia lurched forward and grabbed Delga's arm, pulling her out of bed.
"Ow! What are you doing?! Hey, your hand is cold!" Delga stumbled after her until they stood before the kitchen table.
Jynnia gestured toward the scarf aggressively. "I woke up and it wasn't on my lap, and I saw it here, all finished." She shook her head. "I just don't get it."
Delga's eyes wideneded for a moment, then she relaxed into her previous sleepy expression. "Mom didn't do it," she said with a chuckle, in answer to Jynnia's earlier question. "Aunt Kae was the one who taught us how to knit, remember?"
"Then who?" Jynnia threw her hands up again.
Delga shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe it's just some Christmas magic. I'm going back to bed where it's warm." She turned and left Jynnia standing alone in the middle of the kitchen.
Jynnia frowned at the scarf for a while. Finally, she just shook her head and walked away. Since it was Christmas Eve, she only had two kids to watch today. But she had a feeling the scarf would be following her thoughts around all day.
* * *
"So, when the shoemaker woke up the next morning, he found that the shoes were completely finished!" Jynnia suddenly paused, lowering her big green fairy tale book and staring over the kids' heads into the kitchen.
"And?" Gazel prodded.
"Uh..." Jynnia cleared her throat and tried to focus on the story again. "Then the shoemaker sold the pair of shoes and was able to buy enough to make two pairs of shoes. So, he started working on them that night, but guess what happened when he went to sleep?"
"The elves finished the shoes again!" Gazel exclaimed, her eyes bright.
"That's right." Jynnia went through the rest of the story, but her mind was hardly on the shoemaker. She kept stealing a glance at the kitchen table, where the scarf still lay. She had almost dared not to touch it, just in case it had been a dream of some kind. And it seemed ven more dreamlike every second.
She left the scarf alone until darkness began to fall, when the kids' parents came to get them. She absentmindedly wished them a merry Christmas and shut the door behind them.
Whirling around to face the kitchen table, she took a deep breath. With slow, measured steps, she approached the scarf, watching it as if it would jump out at her. What was she even looking for? A little note that said, "Merry Christmas, love, the elves"?
She picked the scarf up, quickly, as if it might shock her when she removed it from the table. But it was just a normal scarf, whether it was made by elves or not. She turned it over in her hands- very nice workmanship. Better than she would have been able to do, actually. And now that she was looking at it up close, she noticed the little silver sparkles sprinkled throughout it. Those had definitely not been a part of the yarn she was using.
Jynnia dropped the scarf on the table and turned away. This was too crazy. Of course, she was far past used to the idea of magic by now. But little elves sneaking into her house, snatching her knitting project out of her lap, and finishing it for her? Why would they even have done that? They didn't know her. She hadn't invited any elves to her house.
I have to talk to Trentley.
She threw on her coat, hat, and mittens as quickly as was humanly possible. She started to reach for her scarf, then remembered that one of her younger kids had completely unwound it recently. I guess now that Trentley's scarf is done, I can get started on one for myself. Maybe I'll make it to match his. She grinned at the cozy idea.
Jynnia was reaching for the doorknob when somebody knocked from outside, making her jump. An unreasonable part of her brain prepared her to see a multitude of tiny little elves in the snow when she opened the door.
But it was only Trentley.
"Trentley!" She immediately felt a bit warmer. "I was just coming to see you." Remembering that his gift was sitting exposed on the kitchen table behind her, she pulled the door almost closed, poking only her head out. "What are you doing here?"
Trentley looked a bit bewildered. In fact, the look on his face perfectly described how she had been feeling all day. "Uh..." He cleared his throat and looked pointedly at the kitchen window at the front of the house.
"What?" Jynnia stepped outside to peek around the wall. Some of the snow was knocked off the windowsill. But what made her gasp was the tiny, pointed footprints along the windowsill and the ground underneath.
Jynnia turned her head slowly to look at Trentley, her eyes wide and heart pounding. "It was them," she said breathlessly.
"Who?" Trentley's brows dipped low.
Jynnia grabbed his arm and pulled him inside. She rushed to the table and picked up the scarf, handing it to him. His lips parted slightly and his eyes grew wide. "I'm sorry it's not wrapped," she said, out of breath. "But I was working on this last night, and I fell asleep. And when I woke up this morning, it was just... finished. Delga didn't do it, and my mom doesn't even know how to knit. But there it was, sitting on the kitchen table." She smiled excitedly. "I was so confused, but then today I was reading to the kids, and we read The Elves and the Shoemaker, and..." She shook her head. "Trentley, it was elves. Elves came into my house last night and finished your Christmas present for me. I just know it."
To her astonishment, Trentley didn't look the least bit surprised. In fact, he was grinning. Pulling a lumpy package from behind him, he held it out to her. "Merry Christmas."
Jynnia tilted her head, confused. Trentley was behaving rather strangely. But she ripped open the package- to reveal a knitted scarf of the same royal blue color as Trentley's- and with the same silver sparkles.
She gasped and looked up at him. "What- what- why-"
Trentley laughed. "Your sister told me you needed a new scarf," he said. "And she hinted that you'd like a royal blue one. I thought it was a little strange, since your favorite color is yellow, but now I understand." His eyes sparkled as he looked down at his own gift.
"You made this?" Jynnia gaped at the scarf. She had no idea that Trentley had such skill with a pair of knitting needles.
He laughed again. "No, no, no. I paid Delga to make it. But... she didn't quite get to finish it."
Jynnia grabbed his arm and squeezed it. "You mean..."
Trentley nodded. "She came by my house every evening on her way home, and chatted with my mom while she worked on the scarf. She didn't admit it, but last night I could tell she was getting a little worried that it wasn't going to be finished in time. Well, anyway, it was hidden away in my room, and when I woke up this morning..." He gestured toward it. "It was completely finished." He leaned toward her and whispered, "And there were little footprints outside my window, too."
"You're kidding." Jynnia couldn't stop grinning. "Trentley, this is amazing. But where did they come from?"
"Well... I found this." Trentley pulled a little note out of his pocket and held it out.
Jynnia frowned. "I didn't get one!"
"Maybe the elves are forgetful." Trentley chuckled.
Thought I'd send a little magic your way. Hope you don't mind my peculiar little friends. Merry Christmas, dear, dear, Trentley and Jynnia. I hope we get to see each other soon. -Winlie
"Oh my gosh!" Jynnia clutched her heart. "Winlie sent the elves!"
"I don't know how she did it, but she did it." Trentley shook his head. "She's really something else."
"Something tells me she had some help from her sisters." Jynnia smiled. "They're all so wonderful."
Something moved in the window, and Jynnia glanced over to see something jump down off the windowsill. She gasped and rushed to the door.
She ran outside just in time to seeabout a half-dozen tiny men in pointed hats rushing away through the snow, which came up almost to their waists. The faint sound of bell-like laughter drifted back to her.
"Wow." Trentley came up behind her, and Jynnia turned to look up at his smiling face. He wrapped his arms around her, and they stood there in the doorway slowly rocking back and forth as snow began to fall again.
* * *
Snow still fell when the night was dark and Jynnia's family was gathered together around the fireplace. The fire crackled, the smell of homemade apple cider drifted from the kitchen, and the candles on the Christmas tree sent flickering lights across the dim room. Trentley and Jynnia sat on the floor together, their backs against the couch. Delga sat a few feet away with the two younger kids, and Mr. Trace mediated some kind of game from the big chair by the bookshelf while Mrs. Trace perched on the arm of the chair beside him. Tantalizing boxes hid beneath the branches of the tree, waiting to be opened the next morning.
Jynnia looked around the room, slowly, taking it all in. Her father's animated voice making the kids laugh, her mother smiling until her eyes crinkled. Delga shifting into childhood again as she got involved in the game with her little siblings. And Trentley's arm around Jynnia's shoulders as they watched the cozy scene.
Tomorrow was Christmas. The most wondrous day of the year. Yet it was hard to imagine a day more filled with magic than today had been. Jynnia still had to work her way past the disbelief whenever she pictured the little elves running away in the snow earlier. She couldn't wait to walk down the street tomorrow with Trentley, wearing their matching scarves. She hoped it would be snowing then, too. And it gave her a little thrill to think that only she, Trentley, and Delga would know about the sparkles of magic in the scarves' warm folds.
She snuggled closer to Trentley's side, and he looked down her. The firelight danced in his blue eyes as he smiled, straight into her soul. "Merry Christmas Eve, Jynnia," he whispered.
"Merry Christmas Eve." Jynnia's whispered words were barely past her lips before Trentley leaned down and kissed her. She smiled and rested her head on his shoulder, gazing at the Christmas tree with all the wonder in her heart that she had had as a child.
I hope this story brought a smile to your face this Christmas Eve! I was really wanting to get it up earlier this week but it just didn't work out. Oh well. xD
Merry Christmas, everyone! Love you all! *all the tinsel and sugar cookies*
