So, my sixth graders will be writing creatively this week so I started doing an example for them and couldn't stop. Someday I dream about finding an illustrator and turning some of my Berry Sweet Acres stories (did you read the ones about Coconut the chicken) into actual picture books. But for now, I just smile when I read them and imagine. Enjoy a little Christmas story courtesy of China, Reba and their new friend, Snowcone.
A Lesson at Christmas
It was a frosty night as the big flakes began to fall from the winter sky. The animals were all sleeping in their pastures, coops and sheds as the snow drifted silently down. It was a rare quiet night on the farm; so quiet that you would have thought all the animals would have been startled awake by the “pfloopf” of something heavy hitting hard in the snowdrift behind the barn. But only one pony awoke. One young, red headed pony mare popped wide awake at the sight before her.
Reba didn’t even think to alert the others as she stared into the snowdrift and watched a strange creature stand up and shake the snow from her white fur. She saw the huge antlers that stuck out from her shaggy head and was a tiny bit scared, but mostly just curious. Reba was known for being more curious than scared, which often caused her to get into a fair amount of trouble. It wouldn’t have been surprising to any of her farm animal friends that she headed over to investigate.
“Hey! I’m Reba! What are you and what are you doing here?” Reba asked the strange new creature.
As the strange creature blinked a few straggling snowflakes out of her long eyelashes, she answered, “Ssshh.. I’m Snowcone. I’m a reindeer and I’m trying to hide from Santa Claus. Please be quiet! I don’t want anyone to know I’m here. I just got so tired and lost that I had to land somewhere.” Snowcone glanced around nervously.
Reba looked around before lowering her voice, “oh, sorry! I was just excited to meet a new animal! We don’t get many reindeer here in Minnesota. We have cows, chickens, turkeys, ducks, donkeys, dogs, cats, sheep… so many animals but no reindeer. I’ve never met a reindeer before.” The more she said the faster and louder she talked. Reba got excited easily.
“SSSHHH! Okay - nice to meet you too. But you really do need to be quiet. I’M HIDING.”
Reba lowered her head sheepishly. “Right. Sorry. Umm… why are you hiding from Santa again?”
Snowcone glanced around and whispered, “Because Santa asked me to be the newest member of his team. I’m the first ever white reindeer to be asked to pull his sleigh. But I just can’t seem to get anything right. When the other reindeer zig, I zag. When they zoom up, I zip down. I mess everything up. I just need to hide out until after Christmas. Then Santa won’t need my help anymore.”
Reba seemed sad for Snowcone. “That’s tough.” Then an excited grin spread across her face. “I’ll help you hide here! Christmas is only a week away. I can keep you hidden for that long.”
“Wow! That would be great. Thanks so much! So… where should I hide?” Snowcone looked around nervously.
Reba thought and looked and thought some more. “Hmmm… you’ll have to hide out in that thicket of pine trees and bushes over there. We don’t go over there often, mostly we just hang out here by the hay feeder. You should be able to hide there. Just don’t make any noise during the day when the dogs are out or they will find you! I’ll try to keep everybody distracted this week so they won’t even think about any strange noises or smells coming from the thicket. For now, have some of my hay before you go and rest up. I’ll save you some of my hay for supper every night.”
Snowcone thankfully started munching away while Reba kept watch. After her stomach was full, Snowcone gladly curled up in the very center of the thicket as the sun was just coming up at Berry Sweet Acres. Reba’s eyes twinkled mischievously as she planned out how to keep the other animals distracted for the entire day.
As the sun rose and the animals started to wake, Reba had her first great idea. Carefully she went around knocking fence panels down and then climbed into the hay feeder. When Melissa came out to do chores, she was shocked to see Reba wedged into the hay feeder and fence panels tipped over all around the farm. The other animals milled between pastures and stared at Reba in confusion. Reba tried to look scared and sorry as the boss horse, China, yelled at her.
“For Pete’s sake Reba! What are you doing in there? And what happened to all the fences! Why are you always such a problem pony?!” Oddly enough, the farm owner, Melissa, and China sounded exactly the same.
Reba tried to fight back her giggles and look embarrassed, “Uh… I heard a coyote and got scared. Oops.” It took Melissa most of the day to get the fence panels and ponies back where they belonged after she helped Reba find her way back out of the feeder. By the time supper was done and the sun went down, everyone on the farm was exhausted and went to sleep quickly. Reba was pretty proud of herself as she shared her evening hay with Snowcone.
The next morning Reba placed a couple well aimed kicks at the waterer until she had a nice spray of water making a freezing fountain into the sky. Melissa and China were furious when they saw the damage and the mess the cascading water was making. “Reba! What happened?” they both exclaimed.
Reba tried to look innocent as she laughed inside. “Gosh. I have no idea! I was just sleeping and suddenly ‘Poof’ the water went wacky! Why do you always assume it’s my fault?” Reba blinked her big brown eyes as innocently as she could. Reba thought she had Melissa convinced as she acted all scared of the shooting spout of water. But China stared at her sideways with suspicion.
“Hmmm…” China mumbled as she looked around. Again the mess Reba made took an entire day of clean up and Reba happily slid across the skating rink the water made as it froze in their paddock. China continued to watch Reba as she played and giggled and kept peeking at the thicket.
Night came to the farm and Reba and Snowcone shared their hay for the third night. They were giggling about the trouble Reba was causing when they heard someone coming. Snowcone barely made it back to the thicket before China came around the corner of the shed. China looked around quickly, “What’s going on here? I swear I heard you talking to someone. Why are you even awake?”
Reba stuttered, “I… uh…I…because…I…. umm… I couldn’t sleep so I’m having a snack and must have been talking to myself.” China stared at her.
“I don’t believe you. You’re up to something.” China mumbled as she shuffled back over to the herd. Reba breathed out a sigh of relief and waited for morning and her next trick.
The next morning, China was up early. Much earlier than normal. Reba didn’t even have time to pull her prank before China announced that today was exercise day.
“Since SOME of us seem to have extra energy for getting into trouble, all of us will be exercising today. When Melissa opens the gates, you all need to gallop wildly around the pasture, bucking and kicking. If some of you could run through the thicket and scare Melissa into thinking you’re trying to impale yourself on a tree limb, that would be great.” Reba’s eyes widened in panic. THROUGH the thicket! That could not happen. She whipped her head around trying to think of something to distract everyone from China’s plan. As a last resort she threw herself down on the ground moaning loudly.
“OOOOHHHHH my stomach. OHHHHHH it hurts SOOOO bad,” she groaned as she rolled back and forth on the ground. She grunted and moaned, biting at her side pretending it hurt terribly. Melissa came running in a panic with her cell phone in her hand, completely forgetting to open the gates and let the others out. Reba continued to thrash and groan for an hour until the vet pulled in the driveway. As soon as the vet climbed out of their truck, Reba hopped up and shook herself from head to toe. “I feel better now. False alarm!” That didn’t stop the vet or Melissa from giving her a full examination though. It was worth it to Reba as Melissa never did remember to let the herd out and she managed to avoid them discovering the hiding Snowcone.
That night Reba and Snowcone waited an extra long time before Snowcone snuck over for her share of Reba’s dinner. They were just beginning to get comfortable when China jumped from behind the shed.
“I knew it!” she shouted. “I knew you were up to something. Who is this and what is going on here?!”
Reba hung her head but bravely stood in front of her new friend to protect her. Her explanation came out in a lightning fast rush. “This is my new friend, Snowcone, and she’s hiding from Santa because Santa needs her to pull his sleigh but she’s not very good at it and she doesn’t want to fail at being a reindeer so she’s hiding here until after Christmas and I’m helping her because she’s my new friend and sorry I had to wreck stuff but…”
“Whoa whoa whoa there kid.” China interrupted Reba. “Sheesh - take a breath every now and then. But I think I got the basic story.” China turned to peer over Reba’s shoulder at the trembling white reindeer. “Come on out here young lady.”
Snowcone tiptoed out from behind Reba, “please don’t make me leave.”
China looked kindly at the shaking reindeer. “You don’t HAVE to leave. But don’t you think you SHOULD leave?” Snowcone started shaking her head but China wasn’t done talking, “just let me explain. If Reba wasn’t so excited to have a new friend, and such a young pony herself, she would have explained what I’m about to tell you.
All of us have to do things that are new to us. Every one of us is afraid of failing at some point in our lives. That’s all a part of growing up. You’re not going to be good at things when you first try them. Some things even take a lot of practice. That doesn’t mean you give up and don’t try. It can be scary but it can also be wonderful.
Reba, remember when your girl, Sophie, first started practicing trail classes with you? You were scared of everything, didn’t know you should back up sometimes and basically looked like a tornado on a string. Now you win that class every time and are second in the nation. What would have happened if you had given up? Or if Sophie had given up on you? Both of you stuck with it and practiced and practiced to get better. You didn’t just get better, you got GREAT.
Snowcone, I’m sure it is really hard working with reindeer who know what they are doing and you feel like the only one who doesn’t. I can promise you that they were all new reindeer once upon a time too. They will understand if you just talk to them, ask for help and practice. You’ve got this. If you don’t go back and don’t try, you won’t fail. But you also won’t succeed. Wouldn’t that be worse?”
Snowcone looked up at the starlit sky. “I guess you’re right big horsie.”
China coughed and rolled her eyes. “My name is China.”
“Oh, sorry. But you ARE right. I didn’t really try. I got frustrated and felt dumb so I ran away. I need to ask the other reindeer and Santa for help.”
“And you’d better hurry. We only have a few days left for you to practice.” Reba added.
“Right! I had better get going then. Thanks for everything Reba, you will always be my favorite pony. And of course, China - thanks for the pep talk. I needed it!” Snowcone launched herself into the sky and flew as fast as she could straight to the North Pole.
Reba watched until she couldn’t see the white speck in the sky that was Snowcone anymore. “Do you think we will ever see Snowcone again?” she asked China.
China sighed as she turned back to the herd, “I kind of doubt it, little Reba. She will be so busy at the North Pole, she probably won’t have time to remember her friends in Minnesota.” Reba sadly stared at the sky for a minute longer before joining China.
Four days later the farm was a flurry of activity as the sun rose on Christmas morning. Melissa brought treats for all of the critters on the farm and Reba and China were excited to see carrots in their buckets of feed. They were even more surprised when Reba's girl, Sophie, came walking out with a brightly wrapped package. She walked directly up to Reba and called China over.
“Well, girls - I don’t know what you’ve been up to, but this was under the Christmas tree.” She set the package in their feeder for them to check out. Attached to the shiny paper wrapped box was a large tag that said, “To: Reba and China Thanks for all you did to help me. I did as China suggested and guess what? I’m learning how to be a great reindeer. If this gets to you, then I have helped Santa successfully deliver presents for my first time. I even got to fly at the head of the sleigh because Santa said I have the best sense of direction. Thanks and I hope to see you again someday. (Try staying awake next year on Christmas Eve and I’ll wave when we fly by.) ~ Snowcone” Reba was already tearing the paper off the package to find a whole bag of peppermint pony treats.
“My favorite!” she exclaimed as Sophie grabbed the bag from her before she could eat the whole bag. “This is the best Christmas ever. You know China, you were right.”
China chuckled as she crunched a peppermint treat, “I usually am.”
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