Merry Christmas Proser's Everywhere!

 Yes, I'm a day early.

One of my favorite family Christmas traditions is  writing our yearly Christmas story. For fun, I thought I'd share it with you all, and then go back to the candy in my stocking, and hopefully putting a puzzle together with my mom.

I hope all of your holiday's are fabulous!

The Naughty Elf

by Ian and Mom and Clara

Once upon a Santa’s workshop, there was an elf named Aria, who made the dolls.

 As she used her paintbrush to paint on the lips, she thought, This is the most beautiful doll I’ve ever made. In fact, this is the most beautiful doll I’ve ever seen. And as she braided the doll’s yarn hair an aching need hit her in the stomach. This doll… this doll should be hers.

She looked around. Certainly no one would miss just one little perfect doll.

Maybe… Maybe she should hide it.

Just as she thought this naughty thought, the final bell rang, and Aria looked up. The puff at the peak of her hat bonked her right on the nose. It was almost time to load Santa’s sleigh.

When she looked down, she was shocked to discover the beautiful doll was gone. Where was her doll? A cart of dolls WITH HER DOLL ON TOP hit the doors on its way out of the doll room.

Oh no!

Aria hopped down from her bench and ran after the cart. The bells on her slippers jingled as she ran. She followed the cart into the wrapping room, and then followed the wrapped doll into the loading room. She even followed that wrapped doll down the loading chute and into Santa’s Sack.

          There were wrapped presents everywhere, but which one was her doll?  She opened one present, but it wasn’t her doll, it was a video game.

Oh Gingerbreadman! That wasn’t her doll. She opened another. And another. And another. Before she knew it, she had unwrapped all of the presents for every girl and boy in the whole world, but she still hadn’t found her doll. Aria was so sad, she sat down on somebody’s board game and she cried and she cried.

At last, she spotted a present hidden behind a pile of books.

Her doll! She unwrapped it and giggled as she kissed the freckles she had painted on its cheeks, and touched the lace on the dress she had sewn.

When she looked around and saw all the unwrapped presents, she felt bad about what she had done.

She left her doll on the pile of books and quick as an elf, she wrapped up all of those presents, and put the nametags on in… almost the right order.

Then she hid with the doll behind the stack of books, and because she was so tired from wrapping every present for every child in the entire world, she lay down with her fingers around her doll. She put her thumb in her mouth and fell asleep.

While she slept, Santa was working hard delivering toys. When he got to the very last house on his list, Santa reached into the bag. There was a very good girl who lived in this small house. A sweet girl named Clara who was asleep in her bed dreaming of a new doll.

Santa reached into his sack and put his fingers around the doll. Aria woke up and clung to the doll’s hand, and out she came too. Aria pulled the doll from Santa’s fingers and tried to hide the doll behind her back. But Aria was just too small. Santa saw it.

Santa told her about Clara, how she was a good girl who was learning to get dressed at night, who gave her baby brother hugs and diapers, and sang along to the radio in the car.

“But Santa,” Aria whispered, “She has so many dolls. Does she really need this one too?”

Santa hugged her, and said it was up to her to decide, and then hopped down the chimney and ate a few cookies.

Aria pouted. She looked at her doll and pouted again. But then, she thought about how Clara would feel if she woke up without any presents.

Aria sighed, and then she wrapped one more present and marched all the way across the roof, and down the chimney, and to the well-dressed tree. She put the present under the tree, and stood there for a long time, her fingers resting on the red foil paper. Finally, she swallowed, wiped the tears on her cheek, and hopped onto Santa’s shoulders.

She fell asleep on the way home.

When she woke up, all she could see was red.  A noise like the ripping of paper cleared her vision, and there in front of her face was Clara, the little girl who would get her doll. Clara smiled and picked up Aria and danced around her front room. “I love it! I love it,” Clara shouted. “It’s the most beautiful doll in the whole world.”

Aria couldn’t move. She wasn’t an elf anymore, she was a doll.

She looked at the lace on Clara’s pajamas, and the freckles on her nose. That Christmas day, Clara and Aria had tea parties, and played dress up. Clara brushed Aria’s yarn hair, and sang as they danced around her room.

That night, as Clara hugged Aria as she slept, Aria smiled her doll smile.

Everything was just right.

Well, for Aria anyway. Across town that morning, a boy named Zack opened his present expecting to see the football he had asked for, but instead he held ballet slippers.

But that’s another story.

Merry Christmas!