up at the park. Everyone turned to watch as parents and children from the Bottoms began coming out of the buses. They were hesitant to join in until other people there waved them over, and soon they were standing in line with the rest of the crowd, waiting for Santa to arrive. For some of these kids it would be a first, while others were old pros at talking to Santa.
And then all of a sudden they began hearing sleigh bells, and then a jolly Ho, ho, ho from a loudspeaker. They turned and looked again, and then everyone began to smile as the children went silent…staring in awe at Santa and Mrs. Claus’s arrival in an old farm wagon being pulled by a team of mules.
It was a less-than-classic arrival, but no one seemed to care as a very tall Santa and a tiny Mrs. Claus stepped down from the wagon.
There wasn’t enough padding in Blessings to make Peanut Butterman fat enough to have a belly that shook like a bowl full of jelly, but he was jolly enough as he swept through the crowd in his red and white suit, holding Mrs. Claus’s hand.
Santa took his place in the chair, and Mrs. Claus stood at his side, ready to hand each child a candy-filled stocking as soon as they told Santa their wish.
“Ho, ho, ho!” Santa said. “Welcome to all of the children. Let’s get this party started.”
Mrs. Claus sighed and then whispered in Santa’s ear.
“Santa doesn’t say ‘get this party started.’”
Santa grinned beneath his beard. “This one does. Hang in there with me, honey. This is gonna be a long three hours, I can tell.”
The first child up was a little boy of about three. His mother plopped him down on Santa’s lap. The toddler took one look at the bearded man and let out a shriek.
Santa winced, and then glanced at the name tag on the little boy’s shirt.
“Hello there, Raymond. What do you want for Christmas?” Santa asked.
“Mama!” the little boy shrieked.
The mother looked at Junior. “Did you get the picture?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Junior said.
The mother yanked the kid off Santa’s lap, took the candy, and walked out of the gazebo and disappeared into the crowd as the procession continued.
Cathy had been waiting for Santa’s arrival as anxiously as everyone else, and when the bus arrived with the residents from the Bottoms, she relaxed. Another project checked off her list.
She recognized Peanut and Ruby as Santa and Mrs. Claus almost instantly and took pictures of them and the wagon and mules and sent them to Duke, who was overseeing the appliances being installed at their house.
They were already working on the master bedroom and bath upstairs. Electricians and plumbers were overseeing the installation of central heating and air, light fixtures, and the big black-and-gold six-burner range being hooked up in the kitchen.
Cathy’s claw-foot, cast-iron bathtub that she’d found at a salvage yard had been refinished and refurbished. But it was so heavy, it had taken six burly men to carry it upstairs to the master bath.
“This is one big tub,” one of the men remarked as they settled it into place.
Duke eyed it, picturing the curly-haired redhead he knew in it and up to her chin in bubbles. It was a damn fine image to have.
“Let’s get it hooked up,” he said, and then got the text from Cathy and paused to look. When he saw the pictures of Santa arriving in a wagon pulled by a team of mules, he laughed out loud, and then showed his workers. “Looks like we missed the boat with Santa this year. He’s at the park in Blessings, and here we are hooking up a bathtub.”
* * *
The last house in the Bottoms was finished five days before Christmas, and the furniture to go in it arrived that afternoon.
Cathy stood beside the truck as it was being unloaded, watching the family’s excitement as all their new furnishings were being put into place.
She walked to the front door as the delivery truck drove away, but they were all so excited about moving furniture around to fit their space that she just pulled the door shut and went back to her car.
The adrenaline that had carried her through the mad rush to get this done was crashing. By the time she got home, she was stumbling. She dropped her purse and coat on the sofa, kicked off her shoes in the hall, and fell onto her bed fully dressed. The last