move, which by the way she doesn’t, as long as we don’t mind them living here, it will be at least next summer before that will happen. I guess we should take a vote to see if we want to make Becky, Lisa, Christy, Jerry, and Steve a permanent part of our family. All those in favor say aye.”
Even Zeus barks in the affirmative, so it is as official as it can get. It takes all of about ten minutes before the bickering starts again. Nobody’s really angry, and nobody really means it, so we figure we can let the children be children for a while longer anyway. Little Timmy agrees with me by smiling. Even Robin saying he must have gas doesn’t bother me tonight.
8
Christmas morning comes just like it did when I was a young boy. The children are all waiting on the stairs when we come out of our rooms in the morning. Then they all rush down and check out the presents under the tree. There are presents in the meeting house for everyone, but we all got each other, and the children a bunch of small stuff to make it more exciting for them. We are having a common breakfast, so the women and the older children leave to help get everything ready. The women cooked what they were asked to at home, and are bringing it to the meeting house. Dayna, Becky, and I have the job of getting the younger children ready, and bringing them over when the bell sounds.
The breakfast and the reading of the birth of Christ are a complete success. Everyone gets a couple of presents, which for the adults are mostly clothes. Everyone loves the uniforms we got at the base so we got all of them we could carry and gave them to everyone as presents. The chocolate in the tin boxes is a huge hit, we found enough for everyone in all the groups to have a couple, and still have several cases left. We also found some hard candy in sealed tins like the chocolate, and that is very popular as well.
Unfortunately even on Christmas, we who live on farms have chores that must be done. Eggs need collecting and chickens fed. Cows need fed and milked, and the milk needs to be pasteurized, and stored properly in the freezers. Last, but definitely not least, the horses need fed. They spend most of their time in the pastures like the cows, but since it’s Christmas we want to give them some oats that we found in town. Fortunately no one shirks their duty, and many hands make the work lighter. We are relaxing after the common meal we all shared for an early supper or late lunch, when Teddy comes in and tells me that he, Steve, and Jerry were outside setting up some targets for when they get to shoot the rifles we gave them for Christmas. We told them they can only shoot the guns when they are with us, or when they are hunting with the older young men. Back to Teddy coming in, he is out of breath from running and so are Steve and Jerry. They tell me that they saw some men sneaking around the woods. It looked like they were watching the people who are outside.
I grab my gun, and have Robin call Tim and the others, and tell them what Teddy told us. I ask where they saw the men and head out the door. I am afraid it is the men we ran into when we found Betty and the others. I don’t go directly where they saw them, but I circle around trying to get behind them. I get to the woods behind the barn without being seen, at least no one shot at me yet. I can hear voices whispering, but I can’t make out what they are saying. I work my way around until I can come up behind three of them. If this is the same group, there are three more, and these guys do look familiar. I hear an owl hoot, and look to my right to see Tim working his way around to where I am. Apparently he saw me before I saw him.
The three we can see don’t seem to be carrying guns, or any other weapons that we can see. We decide to ask them what they are doing here. We step out of from behind the trees, and they spin around surprised to see us. They see our guns and tell us they don’t want any trouble, they
Even Zeus barks in the affirmative, so it is as official as it can get. It takes all of about ten minutes before the bickering starts again. Nobody’s really angry, and nobody really means it, so we figure we can let the children be children for a while longer anyway. Little Timmy agrees with me by smiling. Even Robin saying he must have gas doesn’t bother me tonight.
8
Christmas morning comes just like it did when I was a young boy. The children are all waiting on the stairs when we come out of our rooms in the morning. Then they all rush down and check out the presents under the tree. There are presents in the meeting house for everyone, but we all got each other, and the children a bunch of small stuff to make it more exciting for them. We are having a common breakfast, so the women and the older children leave to help get everything ready. The women cooked what they were asked to at home, and are bringing it to the meeting house. Dayna, Becky, and I have the job of getting the younger children ready, and bringing them over when the bell sounds.
The breakfast and the reading of the birth of Christ are a complete success. Everyone gets a couple of presents, which for the adults are mostly clothes. Everyone loves the uniforms we got at the base so we got all of them we could carry and gave them to everyone as presents. The chocolate in the tin boxes is a huge hit, we found enough for everyone in all the groups to have a couple, and still have several cases left. We also found some hard candy in sealed tins like the chocolate, and that is very popular as well.
Unfortunately even on Christmas, we who live on farms have chores that must be done. Eggs need collecting and chickens fed. Cows need fed and milked, and the milk needs to be pasteurized, and stored properly in the freezers. Last, but definitely not least, the horses need fed. They spend most of their time in the pastures like the cows, but since it’s Christmas we want to give them some oats that we found in town. Fortunately no one shirks their duty, and many hands make the work lighter. We are relaxing after the common meal we all shared for an early supper or late lunch, when Teddy comes in and tells me that he, Steve, and Jerry were outside setting up some targets for when they get to shoot the rifles we gave them for Christmas. We told them they can only shoot the guns when they are with us, or when they are hunting with the older young men. Back to Teddy coming in, he is out of breath from running and so are Steve and Jerry. They tell me that they saw some men sneaking around the woods. It looked like they were watching the people who are outside.
I grab my gun, and have Robin call Tim and the others, and tell them what Teddy told us. I ask where they saw the men and head out the door. I am afraid it is the men we ran into when we found Betty and the others. I don’t go directly where they saw them, but I circle around trying to get behind them. I get to the woods behind the barn without being seen, at least no one shot at me yet. I can hear voices whispering, but I can’t make out what they are saying. I work my way around until I can come up behind three of them. If this is the same group, there are three more, and these guys do look familiar. I hear an owl hoot, and look to my right to see Tim working his way around to where I am. Apparently he saw me before I saw him.
The three we can see don’t seem to be carrying guns, or any other weapons that we can see. We decide to ask them what they are doing here. We step out of from behind the trees, and they spin around surprised to see us. They see our guns and tell us they don’t want any trouble, they
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