It was a cold and wintry morning in Dandelion Creek. A few days ago, the first snowflakes drifted down to earth and now a thin layer of snow covered everything in sight. The Sylvanian Families themselves were getting ready for Christmas, it was the first of December and many had been up since the early morning decorating and spreading the Christmas cheer. Also out and about this morning was the Moss deer family who had just arrived in their new home, Dandelion Creek, and were exploring their surroundings.
They came to a Bakery where a man was standing on a ladder.
“Now, now Alonzo! Be careful!” a woman called to the man on the ladder, Cameron presumed this was the man’s wife.
“Father, careful! Skimble is holding the end of the tinsel!”
“I will be fine Asps!” he said and continued to make his way up the ladder.
Then it happened, the man slipped on the ladder and-
-fell! He hit the ground with a soft thud. Luckily, the snow cushioned his fall.
“Oh Alonzo! Are you alright?!” the woman exclaimed and came hurrying over to her husband.
“Are you okay?” Cameron asked as well as he and his family joined the scene.
“Ughhh!” he groaned in the snow “I am fine, a little sore but fine”
“Sure?”
“Yes, I knew that the ladder was too icy” he muttered while his wife withheld saying how she saw it coming and how she told him to bring the ladder inside yesterday so that it wouldn’t freeze.
Only then the family noticed that they had never seen the Moss family before.
“Hello? Are you new here?” she asked
“We are new, my name is Cameron Moss, this is my wife Rowena, my daughter Juniper and my son Buck”
“Nice to meet you, I am Alonzo Macavity, this is my wife Caroline and we have quite a few children, I will point them out to you as I see them.”
“Well, would you like to come inside? I think that we’d better leave the decorating for now. I need to bake but still?”
One look at his cold children settled the answer for Cameron “Yes, we would love to as long as we are not too much in the way.”
“Come inside the Bakery, my wife will sort you out but now I will be off, I have to select the Christmas tree with my eldest son.”
“Thank you, that is very kind” Rowena replied gratefully “We would be glad to warm up a little and be out of this snow”
The five entered the Bakery. Inside it smelled heavenly of cinnamon and Christmas cookies, accompanied by the warmth of the oven, it was the perfect place to be on this cold winters day.
“Can I take your coats? And scarves?” Caroline asked cheerfully.
“Why, sure.” Rowena replied and gave Caroline her coat.
She glanced over at the messy kitchen area while the rest of her family were giving their warm things to Caroline. Pots, pans, bowls and jars stood everywhere. Much to her surprise, she saw a boy tidying up and organizing the cutlery. How Rowena wished that Buck would sometimes help her like that more often.
“That is my son Rumpus, and this in the red dress is Asparagus, also known as Aspa, they are twins” Caroline introduced.
“Now, Moss family, you can take a look around, tea will be ready in a moment” said Caroline as she took freshly baked cookies out of the oven “Aspa, please do the washing up, Rumpus, please put the kettle on and make sure that the white chocolate doesn’t burn!”
“Yes Mother, shall I also make cocoa?” Rumpus asked
“Yes, try adding a bit of cinnamon too”
As Rumpus was making cocoa, his sister started to drag a bathtub full of dirty things.
“Hi, your name is Asparagus isn’t it?” Juniper asked polietly
“Yes, and what is your name?”
“Juniper, do you need any help with that?”
“No, I am fine but thank you, I think my brother is pouring you cocoa so you should better drink it while it is still hot.”
“Oh, okay,” Juniper responded and closed the door after the girl as she left the comforting warmth of the Bakery.
“Right! Tea for you, Cameron, Rowena, cocoa for the children.” Caroline poured the drinks into the awaiting mugs “Help yourself to the cookies too, they are freshly baked.”
“Thank you! This is delicious!” Buck exclaimed happily as he dipped his cookie in his cocoa.
“So, what do you do Cameron?”
“I am a newspaper publisher and would like to set up a newspaper here in Dandelion Creek”
“Wow! I am really excited for that! A newspaper!”
“I am happy you approve, now, what type of cookies are you decorating? Can I help?”
At that moment Asparagus entered the Bakery again to fetch hot water and the dirty cups.
“Do you need a paw Aspa?” Rowena inquired
“No, I will be just fine, thanks for offering thought.” the girl responded and carefully took the tray of dirty cups from her brother. Rowena opened the door for her but felt a bit sad that Asparagus had to leave the warm Bakery to wash the dishes, she guessed that the Bakery had no water tap and all water must have been sourced from a nearby stream.
“Oh dear! She forgot the second pot!” Juniper noticed, “I will go after her! Can I go?”
“You can Juniper darling but put something warm on, here, take your Father’s scarf” Rowena said and handed her the scarf.
Juniper took it and threw it on, grabbed the pot of boiling water and quickly made her way after Asparagus.
Juniper finally caught up with Asparagus when she had reached the bathtub full of now rinsed dishes.
“Asparagus! You forgot the second pot of boiling water!!”
“Oh, thanks! I just noticed that I didn’t have enough hot water”
“Can I help you wash up?”
“Well, if you are already here, I guess you can”
The two girl got to work scrubbing the dirty dishes with soap and hot water. Asparagus set up a blanket for the dry dishes, she dried while Juniper washed the dishes.
“So, how is school like here?” Juniper inquired, she had been home schooled but would then be attending the village school next year.
“It is good, I like going to school. Aristotle is a really good teacher, you will really like him!”
“You have the Christmas holidays now?”
“No, not quite, soon though!” Asparagus laughed happily, she was really looking forward to the holidays.
The pair worked in silence for a moment, washing and drying.
“Do you help in the Bakery a lot?” Juniper asked curiously.
“Only when it is really busy, like today or when it is my turn to clean.”
The girls put all the clean dishes in the now dry bath tub and started to push and pull the tub towards the Bakery.
Asparagus and Juniper arrived to chaos. Alonzo, Skimble and the eldest son Lupin had arrived with the Christmas tree. A fine, short pine with thick needles, close together and forest green. Everyone was talking excitedly about it.
“I love it!”
“Daddy, Lupin and I found this one on the other side of the wood!”
“What a fine tree!”
“Here Father, let me take your scarf”
“Lupin saw it and then I knew it was the one!”
“Come here Skimble, let me take off your scarf”
“How lovely! This tree will look wonderful!”
After the annual excitement of the tree had died down, Caroline went back to decorating Christmas cookies and all the children helped to put away the dishes.
“Hello! My name is Clara, this is Electra and Etcetera, how are you?” The eldest daughter of the Macavity family asked Rowena warmly. Rowena greeted her just as warmly and Clara smiled at her before unwrapping the babies from their outdoor winter clothes.
The Moss family observed the Macavities. They had been so kind to them and now they were very busy. Cameron felt that it was time to go, so they left quietly but not before helping Buck to straighten the Christmas door wreath. Both the Moss family and the Macavities felt very happy this day, the Macavities because they were baking and having family time, the Moss family because they were enjoying their new home and had already made friends.
Hello! How did you like this story? I am quite happy with it. I am going to write the bio for the Moss family tomorrow so come back for that, it will be under the ‘meet the critters’ category.
Does anyone have any ideas what I should call the Dandelion Creek newspaper?
Emily
