The Fremont Saga
by: E Walk
(© 2009 by the Author)
 

The author retains all rights. No reproductions are allowed without the author's consent. Comments are appreciated at...

Chapter 37 

Getting Ready For Christmas

When Tanner and Ron entered Ben’s bedroom, I decided to give the guys a difficult time, “Dad and Mother told me that I needed to make sure that there wasn’t any hanky panky in this bedroom unless the doors were locked.”

“Also, Tanner, I need to see if your bikini does anything to enhance your well endowed body.  Ron, I’ll loan you my bikini so you won’t feel out of place.  While you’re at it, we will have the two pose for another painting.”

Ron started to give me some flak, “What is it with you, Benson?  How come you’re always trying to perv on my body?  Are you jealous or something?”
 

“Hardly, Ronnie my boy.  Au contraire, I feel sorry for you, and keep hoping that you will have a growth spurt.”

Before the night was over, I had a good start on three new paintings.

On Sunday morning, after Ron and Randy had departed; we got ready for church.  We all rode to church in the parents’ van.  After church, the parents decided to go to the club for a big lunch and then we could snack at dinner time.  As we were eating, Timmy commented, “This is not the same, without Grandmother.”

After we got home and changed clothes, Timmy went to the dining room table and started to write his ten thank you notes, so the other five of us followed his non-verbal communications.   There were to be two more such sessions during the day, so we were able to knock off nearly all the thank you notes for the memorial gifts that had been received so far.  Mother assured Timmy, “I’ll worry about the rest of the notes in the morning after all of you young people have gone to school.  You have done far more than I was expecting you to do.  Thank you.”

When Tanner and I arrived home on Monday, Timmy and Morgan were waiting to deliver the goods for the thrift shop and the food pantry.  We made a second trip to the homeless shelter with Grandmother’s clothes.

At dinner, Dad announced, “I made arrangements to have the paintings and artworks from Grandmother’s house to be picked up on Wednesday by the Carstairs’ Art Gallery in Omaha.  I’ve dealt with them before.  Brian, I brought the art works that you had done for Grandmother home and put them in your bedroom.  You can use the proceeds from their sale to supplement the funds that Grandmother set up for you three guys to administer.”

Dad continued, “The auction people will pick up the furniture on Thursday.  They’ll be having the auction on Sunday.  I’ve asked Jason to monitor the sale of the goods.”

Timmy asked, “Isn’t Uncle Jason going to get bored?”

Dad laughed, “I doubt that.  The Jamesons’ hobby is to go to auctions to look for bargains that they can restore and resell.  I think it comes from when we were working in the antique stop when we young.”

Morgan changed gears, “What time are we going to leave on Friday, and how should we pack?”

Dad answered, “We’ll probably leave about 8:00 in the morning, since we wouldn’t have much time to explore Nice, if we waited until after school.  You all need to have your work caught up before we leave.”

Mother suggested, “The weather will probably be a little milder than it is here, and we’ll need to take some nice clothes for the evening meals.”

Timmy giggled, “We need to take our skimpy swimming suits, so we can be like everyone else.”

I added, “I'll send Uncle Archie and Uncle Will a note after we finish the cleanup.  I think we all have some homework to do as well.

As we were getting up from the table, Timmy asked, “Did we get any more cards in the mail with money, in honor of Grandmother?  And were you able to take the money and checks to where they needed to go?”

Mother answered first, “Yes, we received about twenty more cards, and yes your Daddy took the money to the appropriate places,”

Dad added, “The only uncashed check in the house that I know about belongs to Brian and he needs to take it to the bank after school, tomorrow.”

When Timmy, Tanner and I were in our bedroom, Timmy asked, “When are we going to have time to do our Christmas shopping and what kind of presents are we going to buy?  I’ve never had any money to buy presents, before.” 

Timmy had tears in his eyes, “I really don’t remember much about Christmas, but I think it’s going to be different this year.”

Tanner hugged Timmy, “I agree that we are probably going to have a very different Christmas than what we are used to.  Timmy, we have two weeks to worry about getting the gifts, Buying presents is something, I haven’t had to worry about either.  Brian, what kind of gifts does your family give?”

“Guys, this is the first year that I will be able to afford to give more than cheap gifts.  We’ll have to find something special for Dad and Mother. I suggest that we give Lauren and Morgan gift certificates to a big department store, so they can get whatever they want.  We could each put in $100.00 for each of the girls’ gifts.”

“As far as Ben and Grant, I haven’t a clue what they might like.  I think we should give each other what we think the other might like.”

Timmy asked, “Can we start to put up Christmas decorations tomorrow if we have time?  Are we going to have a real tree or a fake one?”

“We’ve put up an artificial tree the last couple of years.  We’ll have to ask the parents what we’re going to do this year, since we’ll be leaving right after Christmas, for our skiing trip.”

Tanner shook his head, “Whatever we do, Timmy, it will be a lot more than we have probably done in the past.  We should think about buying some small gifts for the young people in the shelters who won’t be receiving anything.  They haven’t been as lucky as we were, to be adopted by Dad and Mother.  Since we have just about everything we need or could want, we have the money to enable us to make the holiday special for those who are less fortunate than we are.”

I interjected, “Timmy and Tanner, I’ll ask Mother to make some calls to see where and see where we could make our donations and what kinds of things that the young people would need or want.”

Timmy started to study his spelling words on the computer.  Tanner was working on the desk and I was working on my graphics design project which was due Monday.  Thank goodness it was almost done.

While Timmy was taking his shower, I sent a note to Uncle Archie and Uncle Will, asking them about what clothes we should bring on our trip.  I checked the emails and there was one from Shamus saying, “Jamie and I will be picking you up at eight on Friday morning your time.  Mr. Johnson asked that if you had any more artworks that you send them with us and we’ll deliver them when we get back to London.”

We finally settled in for the night.  Of course Timmy wanted to go running the nest morning.  When we were eating breakfast, Timmy reminded everyone at the table, “We really need to put some Christmas decorations up so people won’t think that we turned into Mr. Scrooge.”

Dad started to laugh, “Timothy, I'll get the Christmas decorations down before I go to Grandmother’s to meet with the real estate agent to see about putting the house on the market.  This doesn’t seem like a very good time to be selling a house.  Perhaps we should think about it being a rental property.”

I had to add my two cents, “Dad, if we made it a rental, it would be beaten up and each time the renters moved or were evicted, and it would require work to bring it back to standards.  I don’t think that's something you would want.  It would be far better to keep it on the market, so that it isn’t a burden to you and Mother.  It’s paid for and we could keep the utilities running at the minimum levels to keep the pipes from bursting.  I have a feeling it might sell fast because Grandmother, with your and Mother’s help, maintained it in excellent condition and even updated the appliances, which I assume will be staying.”

Timmy pointed to the clock, “We’ve gabbed too long; we need to get a move on if we’re going to be on time for school.”

When Tanner and I returned home from school on Tuesday, there was no place for Tanner to pull into the garage.  Timmy and Morgan had the Christmas decorations everywhere and Timmy was making sure of what we had before he decided how he thought we could best display them.  He looked at Tanner and me, “Go get your check deposited, so you can help put the decorations where they should go.”

Tanner and I both bowed, “We’ll follow your commands. But don’t you think you should check with Mother and Dad and see how they want the house decorated.”

Morgan answered, “They said the decorations were up to us, this year, since they had so many loose ends to tie up from Grandmother’s affairs.”

After Tanner and I changed into old clothes, we went to see what the master designers were up to. Timmy and Morgan had taken some things outside and had laid them out.  “Brain and Tanner, go get the tall ladder so you can hang the big wreath in the center of the house.  Morgan says there’s place to plug in the lights up there.”

That was simple enough, I yelled down , “The lights are all working.”

Timmy laughed, “Morgan and I already tested them to make sure they were working.  You can put the big ladder away.  We’ll need the step ladders so you can decorate the tops of the two trees while Morgan and I take care of the bottom.  The only other things we’re going to put outside are the two candles by the front steps and the garland with red ribbon on the banister rail.  We'll take care of the inside tomorrow night, because it’s going to be time for dinner.”

Dad was pulling in as we were finishing the outside.  “Youse kiddos done good.  There're enough decorations to make a person welcomed.  It isn’t gaudy like some of the houses with flashing things all over the place. I like it.”

As we were eating, Mother mentioned, “Guys, I made some calls to see where you could be able to bring some cheer to young people and there are all sorts of options.  I wrote down the information on the places, so you could decide which one you might like to support.  I think you should stick to one and not try to do too much.  There are other people and organizations out there who can support the other institutions.”

After dinner, Timmy went into the garage to move the boxes so Tanner could pull his car into the garage, since they were predicting snow during the night.  When he came in, he went to the living room where Dad and Mother were sitting.  He stood between.  “Daddy and Mommy, can we put up the fake tree in here and a small real tree in the hallway so it smells like Christmas?”

Dad grinned, “Sounds like a winner to me.  I’ll pick you and Morgan up after school, and we’ll go pick up one before they’re all picked over.”

“Thanks, Daddy.  Mommy do we have any thank you notes to write?”

“There were only five new cards today.”

“Good, I can do those by myself.”

“Timmy, you don’t have to do them.”

“Mommy, you have enough to do with the people coming to Grandmother’s house for her things this week.”

While Timmy was studying his spelling words, I was finishing the three paintings I had started over the weekend so they would be dry.  I decided that I would only take my pastels to France with us, but then again what if I saw something really wonderful.  ‘Oh well, I still have time to decide.’  I did pull out three suitcases so we could start packing.  I was just about finished when Timmy finished studying his spelling words and he started. 

Tanner saw what was happening and laughed, “You two certainly can’t be called procrastinators.  I’m almost finished with my schoolwork: I’ll pack while you two smelly bums take your showers.”

When we woke up on Wednesday morning, it was snowing hard and the television was saying, “School is going to be starting, two hours late this morning because of the windy conditions, especially in the rural areas.  Schools will open at ten o’clock.”

Timmy grinned, “Let’s eat our breakfast and go take care of the sidewalks and the driveways.”

Morgan volunteered, “I’ll take care of the cleanup and I’ll have some hot chocolate ready for you when you come in.

I ran the snow blower and Tanner and Timmy were shoveling the remnants and the small walks.  We finished our side walks and driveway and went to start on the neighbors'.  We finished the neighbors' on both sides and went to get dress for school, again.

When Tanner and I walked into the house, after school, it was like a morgue.  Then I remembered that Dad was going to take Timmy and Morgan to buy a real tree.  There wasn’t any smell emanating from the kitchen, so I wondered where Mother was.  I walked into the kitchen.  There was a note, “We’ve been invited to the Jameson’s for dinner.”

Timmy came bursting in, “Guys, we found the perfect tree.  We’ll decorate the trees when we get back from Chris’ house.”

“Where’s Mother?”

Dad answered, “She had a brief School Board Meeting and should be home shortly.”

“I’m not in trouble again, am I?”

“No, Brian, this had nothing to do with you.  They are looking at the budget to see where it can be trimmed should that become necessary.”

The phone rang, “This is Timmy Benson, how can I help you? … Oh hi, Mother. … Okay, I'll tell Daddy and the others.  We’ll meet you there.”

“That was Mother.  She’s going to meet us at Chris’ house.  We’re to get that birthday present for Carmody that’s on the hutch in the dinning room.  Whose Carmody?”

“Timmy, Carmody is Chris’ little sister who is about your age.  She goes to a different school than you do.”

“Why haven’t I met her before now?”

Morgan answered, “She’s a special person and needs some extra help.  You’ll see when we get there.”

To be continued...

Editor's Notes:  It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, isn't it?

I wonder what is going to happen next, will the trip bring us some new and exciting adventures? 

I hope we get a new chapter very soon.

Darryl AKA The Radio Rancher

Posted: 09/03/10