Little white lies

“Why did they have to move here? It was very cold and grey. Not at all like home. At home it was always sunny and warm, and you didn’t need a coat to walk outside.”

Her father nodded. He had heard his daughter’s complaint before. And he gave her the standard reply that he had to go here for work, and that it was only for two years. He also knew it was much colder here, but again he explained that she would get used to it. Sulking the girl got deeper under her covers, so father could only kiss her forehead goodnight. On his way out he switched off the light and looked back. She was already dozing off. If the weather forecast was right, she would be in for a surprise tomorrow. That made him smile.

The next morning, young Susie woke up. She pushed the covers down, her face was now fully visible. She looked around, listened. There were hardly any sounds at all this morning. And that was weird, because they lived in a busy street and it was an average week day. So Susie got out of bed, into her slippers and walked over to her window. Since a couple of weeks she was tall enough to reach the stick to move the curtains. So she did. But she stopped halfway.

            “What is that? It’s all white! What’s wrong with the windows?”

She opened the curtains completely. Everything was white. From one end to the other, she saw nothing but white. She rubbed her eyes; maybe she wasn’t awake enough yet. But she was, because after she rubbed them, there was still only white. She tried to clean the glass of the windows, but without result.

Suddenly, from the left, a dark figure approached. Before she got the chance to get scared, she recognized her father. He was dressed in a padded coat, and he wore boots and gloves. His hair was covered by a big black hat, with flaps to keep his ears warm. He smiled and waved as he saw his little girl at the window. When he reached the door and started looking for his key, the door opened. There was Susie in her pajamas, curiously looking outside. Father gently pushed her back in, and the coldness disappeared as he quickly closed the door. At her demand he explained:

“That, my love, is snow. It is like rain, but very cold. Snow is actually very nice as you can see. It covers everything and makes it perfectly white. And of course you can have a lot of fun with snow…”

Susie sincerely doubted that. To her everything cold was wrong, bad and boring. But eventually he convinced her to at least go outside and experience it. So Susie dressed in her warmest clothes, and tugged her hat deep over her face, using her thick woolen mittens. With a shiver that started before the door even opened, she entered the cold.

The snow made strange crispy sounds under the touch of her boots. It was just everywhere: on the terrace, the window, the roof of the shed, the side of the big tree in the backyard. A bit scared she touched the snow. It felt weird, but alright. She created a track on the garden table with her hand. Suddenly something hit her at her back. She jumped. She turned to see what hit her, and saw some chunks of snow falling from her coat. Susie looked up to see her father with a big smile on her face and a new snow ball in his hand. After a second he pulled back his hand, and the snow ball came flying at her. Luckily father threw it slowly and with an arch, so she could easily avoid it. Susie sat down and picked up some snow. She threw it as hard as she could towards her father, but the result was just a big fountain of snow. Her father showed her how to make a proper snow ball: use your both hands to pick up some snow, squeeze it together and then make it nice and round. Soon the backyard had turned into a war zone. Snow balls flew from one side to the other. Every hit was cheered by one, condemned by the other. After a while, they got tired of the fight. But then father had a great idea. They gathered all the snow in the garden and rolled two big balls from it. Father put the smaller one on top of the big one, while Susie looked for 2 same sized round pebbles and 2 small branches from the tree. The pebbles gave him eyes; the branches gave the snow man arms. But something was still missing. Suddenly father jumped up, and disappeared into the shed. He returned with a big orange carrot, that he planted firmly into the smaller ball just below the eyes. Now it was complete, now it was a true snow man.

Pleased with what they had achieved, father and daughter went inside. Only there they realized how cold they had gotten from playing in the snow all the time. Luckily mother had an answer. She told them to take off their wet clothes, and ordered them to sit near the fireplace. That gave a nice hot glow that soon entered their cold bodies. It didn’t take mother long to return with two big cups of hot steaming coco. Susie snuggled between her fathers leg and took a sip. It tasted delicious! When they had regained some body heat, father told his daughter a story.

“At Christmas day we celebrate the birth of the little baby Jesus. He was born two thousand years ago in a shed, because there was no more room in a normal house for him and his parents. They were surrounded by all kinds of animals. Can you imagine that my sweet child? Being born with a goat staring at you?”

Susie yawned. She didn’t think it was a very interesting story. Father continued.

“Then some shepherds came to give the baby presents and congratulate the parents.”

As she heard something about presents, Susie was suddenly full of attention. But that changed just as rapidly when she understood the presents weren’t for her. Father continued, about the name the parents gave the little baby, how they got back home again risking their own lives and about all the angels singing. But the story was lost to little Susie. Father wanted to tell more about how little baby Jesus grew up, but then he noticed how his daughter had fallen asleep in his arms. The morning had only just passed, but she was exhausted from the snowball fight.

Later that afternoon, after Susie had taken a little and reviving nap, she decided to play in the snow some more. Father and mother couldn’t join her, because he had gone to work and she had gone shopping. Enthusiastically she created a lot of brothers and sisters for the big snow man. Soon she had a whole family ready. Well, except for the noses they were ready. So little Susie went into the shed and looked around. At the top shelf she saw the box with the big carrots, but of course she couldn’t reach them. Fortunately there was also a box filled with smaller carrots, so she found her noses there. As she inserted the final nose into a small snow woman, she heard a lot of flapping behind her. Oh no! A big bird was eating the nose from the big snow man. She tried to scare it away, but the damage had been done. The snow man had lost his nose. With a sad face Susie took another little carrot from the box in the shed and put it where the big one had been. That didn’t look right. A big snow man needs a big nose. So she went into the shed again, stacked some blocks of wood under the top shelf and climbed up. She could just reach inside the box, and with the tip of her fingers she rolled a big carrot to the side. After a few attempts she finally succeeded in rolling it up the side of the box as well. When she had taken out the carrot, she looked around in pride. But of course no one was there to compliment her on it. But what she saw was way more interesting.

Over there, in the corner, there was a big pile of presents. You could only see them from above. She climbed down, carrot in her hand, and ran over to the corner. She moved aside the board that covered the hiding place, and that revealed a huge treasure. Presents in all shapes and sizes where neatly stacked on three shelves at the back of the shed. She had never seen them before, because they were always covered one way or another. This was an amazing discovery! What were all these presents doing there? Her parents couldn’t know, because they wouldn’t have kept it a secret of course. Susie looked around. No one. She looked at the treasure again. A little hesitation. Then she picked up a little present that was at the side, covered a bit by a bigger one. She hid it under her coat and went back into the house. She silently passed her mother, who was decorating the Christmas tree. Christmas was now only four days away. Up in her room, Susie unpacked the present. It was a watch. And it looked like an expensive one too. She looked at the shiny dial for a while and then put in under her bed, where no one could see it. In the next three days Susie smuggled all the presents up to her room. At first she didn’t want to, but the presents just seemed to scream to her to be opened. So after three days the watch was accompanied by new clothes, tools and jewelry. So many nice presents. And they all belonged to Susie now. She was rich!

The night before Christmas Susie goes to bed early. Her parents told her that she would get presents if she was a good girl. Of course Susie already had a lot of presents, but she wouldn’t mind to get more. She slept like a baby, dreaming of all the new presents she would get the next day. Early that next morning she woke up. But not from excitement. She heard her parents talking loudly downstairs. They were arguing. Unfortunately she couldn’t hear what it was about. When Susie came down, her mother turned to her with tears in her eyes.

“My little Susie, all the Christmas presents have been stolen. Someone has taken them, so now we have nothing left.”

Mother’s voice broke, and she started crying. Father comforted her, but obviously he wasn’t in a much better mood either. Susie was in shock. The presents stolen? That was terrible. What mean thief would do such a thing? They all got to the kitchen table to eat the traditional Christmas breakfast. Normally this was a very happy feast, but this time nobody said a word. Everybody just chewed their food automatically and stared sadly in front of them.

            “I still can’t believe it. Who could know where we hid those presents?”

Father shook his head and answered:

“I know, I thought I hid them safely in the shed behind that old board. You’d have to be very close to it to be able to see it. It’s a mystery to me.”

Susie froze, and not from the cold outside. Because now she realized what she had done. She was the thief. She had stolen the presents from her parents. She was so shocked she couldn’t say a word. Tears fell down her face silently, as she bit her lip not to start crying out loud. Under the impression that she was sad about the stolen presents, father moved closer to his daughter and put his arm around her. Susie felt ashamed. She would have to tell them soon that it was her who had caused all this sadness. But she didn’t have the courage. She was so afraid of the consequences. But then she thought of Joseph and Mary, who had risked their own lives to get their new born baby safely back to their home town. They had shown what real family was about. It was about caring for each other, and doing things for the other even if you didn’t like doing it yourself.

“Mommy, daddy, please don’t be angry with me. I’m the thief. I found the presents the other day when I looking for a new nose for the big snow man, and I took them all. They are under my bed. I’m so very sorry!”

Father and mother looked at each other. The look started with anger, but soon a smile formed on both their faces, as they looked at their daughter. She looked terrible. They could see she really felt very sorry for what she had done. Father broke the silence.

“It’s ok, my love. Come on, we’ll go upstairs and get them all. After all, what is Christmas without presents?”

Relieved, Susie took her father’s hand and followed him upstairs. Mother came last. The three of them took the presents from under the little girl’s bed and brought them all down. With a big pile of presents in their arms, they came down the stairs again. Susie only took one present at a time, because she was still little. Finally all the present were down and under the Christmas tree. Happily they finished the Christmas breakfast, and now they were talking and laughing a lot. After they finished eating, they gathered around the tree. There they divided the presents. And even though they weren’t wrapped anymore, it was still very nice to receive them. Susie liked this so much better than sneaking up the presents and not being able to share them with others. She had learned her lesson. Christmas was about family and sharing. Happiness is only true happiness when you can share it with your loved ones.