Deck the Halls with Boughs of Shamrock
'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
Shamrock
'Twas the night before Christmas and Grace was gone. She had spent all week preparing for Christmas, the hunt was arriving for Christmas tomorrow and my little sister was just as bubbly and crazy as ever. It was our first Christmas as a family and Grace wanted to make sure that it was perfect she had been stressing for weeks so Aikatrina and I forced her out of house. After which Aikatrina went out to the frozen over pool to ice skate and I was left in a very nice looking house. A house which I destroyed.
Okay, to be fair it wasn't me that destroyed it. It was the squirrel. The rat with an oversized tail. Yes I know they should be hibernating but animals, even hibernating ones seem drawn to me. So this squirrel ran inside. I thought, well no problem I'll just catch it, put it outside and we'll be on our way right? Wrong.
The squirrel had decided to take a little peek at the Christmas Cookies that Grace and Aikatrina had spent hours on. I followed the squirrel quietly so as not to frighten it and cause it to run. I hadn't seen that the dishwasher was open, I tripped and there was a loud crash, the squirrel ran, straight into the living room.
I followed the squirrel into the living room. It was nowhere to be seen. I noticed the window was cracked, I decided the squirrel must have gone out the window. I closed the window and picked up it the present I had been wrapping for Grace. I went to set under the tree, as I was positioning it correctly I heard a sound. Before I could look up I was jumped. By a squirrel.
I would like to say that I was totally cool about it and just grabbed the squirrel by the tail and threw it into the snow. That would be lying though. I screamed like a little girl and ran. Where did I run? Right into Grace's lovely handmade display of the manger scene, the wooden pieces made a dull thud as the fell over, unfortunately the barn caught on the beautiful Irish lace table cloth and pulled it and the pots that held lovely Poinsettia's to the ground. The dirt got everywhere, but the squirrel was in my pants.
I'm not kidding the squirrel was in my pants. I ran up the stairs and into the bathroom, the Christmas candle holder fell of the back of the toilet as a repeatedly slammed the lid on my left leg to attempt to get the squirrel to leave my pants. When that didn't work I pulled the seat up sat in – I kid you not I was in the toilet – and flushed it. All this did was make the squirrel mad because it bit my – never mind.
After yet another girlish scream I managed to rip my pants off. The squirrel also had a solution for this. Crawl into my shirt. I ran back down stairs into the not as destroyed dining room. My next move was to slam my chest against the dining room table which success fully knocked Grace's Christmas center piece – a lovey family heirloom of hers, a wooden cross with the names of her great-grandmother's siblings, all twelve of them. – The table cloth here was also ripped off when I grabbed the chair and slammed it into my chest. Finally I managed to rip off my shirt and the squirrel ran out the still open door.
"Shamrock?" At first I was afraid it was Grace. When I turned around though, it was my little sister.
"Y-yes?" I managed, panting heavily.
She seemed to see that I was standing there in my Christmas tree underwear. "I wish I could un-see this…"
"Um, I can explain. A squirrel jumped me and crawled in my pants so I tried to flush the squirrel out by sitting in the toilet and flushing it. I had to take of my pants to get it to leave and then it moved to my shirt and so I banged a chair against my chest, then took off my shirt and the squirrel left." I explained.
Aikatrina raised one eyebrow in a very Grace way. "So you destroyed the house because there was a squirrel in your pants?"
"That sounds worse than it is!" I protested.
"I'm starting to see why Grace doesn't let you babysit very often." She shook her head.
"What do I do about the house?" I asked as I took in the sight of the destroyed house.
"Well since it would appear that you destroyed the house yet only broke a few ornaments, I say we pick everything up before Grace gets home…" She whispered. "Go get some clothes on and I'll get the ironing board."
"The ironing board?"
"You have to iron the table cloth, its Irish lace and soft cloth. It wrinkles." She rolled her eyes.
"You can iron?"
"No I won't iron for you." She sighed turning on the lights in the basement.
I went up to my room and took out the green sweater Grace had made me; I put on a pair of jeans and went back down stairs. A Celtic Christmas was playing in the background and Aikatrina stood carefully ironing out the two table clothes I had wrinkled.
"Shamrock, you go in to the living room and pick up the furniture you knocked over." She ordered.
I went in and found I had destroyed more than I had thought at first. I had knocked over the couch in my gallivant through the living room. I walked over expecting the couch to be heavy, but not as heavy. Apollo had chosen very heavy leather couch to put in the living room. After five minutes of struggling I got the couch up and moved to the manger set. Aikatrina brought the table cloth and set it on the coffee table and helped me set up the manger set.
"There let's find out what you managed do to the bathroom." Aikatrina stood and I followed her up stairs. "Are those your pants?"
"Yes." I muttered.
"Why are they soaking wet?" She picked them up gingerly.
"Oh, I tried to flush a squirrel down the toilet…" I blushed.
"Wh- never mind." She put them in the dryer and started to mop up the floor. "Why don't you go do the dishes?"
"Okay." I said. I went down stairs thankful that the squirrel had mostly left the kitchen untouched. I put the dishes for Aikatrina and my lunch in the dishwasher, I licked the frosting off of mine, we had a very unhealthy lunch of chocolate cake, that Grace wouldn't have approved of.
I wiped up the counter and destroyed all evidence of cake or the squirrel. Aikatrina was in the dining room cleaning up the last of t squirrel related evidence and I heard the door open. Grace.
"Shamrock!" She called from the front room.
"Yes Grace?" I called coming in.
She smiled at me. "What have you been up to?"
"Oh, nothing much, we did a bit of cleaning up and Aikatrina went ice skating." I told her.
"Good. Aikatrina go up and shower, I'll make dinner." She said.
"Yes Grace." Aikatrina dashed up the stairs and I followed Grace into the kitchen. She got out pots and some of the venison that I caught.
"What's for dinner?" I asked.
"Deer meet soup." She said.
I wrapped my arms around her from behind and hugged her. As a general rule we weren't allowed to be very romantic around Aikatrina. We could hug and occasionally kiss, or I could set up a date for us but Aikatrina almost never saw us kiss and I almost never took Grace on a date.
"Sham, let go. I can't make dinner with you like that." Grace said but I knew she liked it.
"Fine I'll let go, but only because I'm hungry." I said kissing her cheek once then letting her go.
After dinner Aikatrina went upstairs to get ready for bed and Grace got ready for Aikatrina to put the star on the Christmas tree. I knew Grace was nervous about tomorrow, with the hunt coming over and all. She knew my mother and I weren't on great terms at the moment. I was mad at her about how she had treated Aikatrina for the last fourteen years.
"Don't worry I'll be nice." I promised her.
"Will you try to fix things with her?" Grace asked, turning her green eyes on me.
"No, unless she gives me a worthy explanation then I will not try to make amends." I said.
"What about your father?" She asked, her eyes conveying what words couldn't since she had no family she wanted me and Aikatrina to.
"I will be happy with my father because he cared for Aikatrina." I promised.
"Thank you Sham, it means a lot to me." She hugged me, her arms around my shoulder.
"You're welcome, where's the Santa cookies?" I asked, suddenly realizing that something was missing.
"Oh, we never did Santa Claus with Aikatrina. We tried but she used to scream and try to bite him when we took pictures with Santa…" Grace smiled a bit.
"Oh, I used to do that. Only I did bite Santa and I hung on." I chuckled.
"I believe it." She shook her head.
"I'm ready!" Aikatrina called coming down the stairs.
Grace handed her the star and Aikatrina stood on the ladder and put in on the top of the tree. Then she was sent up to bed so Grace and I could finish wrapping gifts. Grace put on Celtic Christmas music and we got to work.
I had gotten Aikatrina a pair of earrings and a necklace (Well I bought them Grace told me what to buy) and was wrapping them. Grace was wrapping things for the hunt and my parents. She had informed me that she was putting my name on the ones for them. I told her that was fine but they couldn't expect me to be sincere about it.
"I'm going to bed Sham." She stood up and looked at me; I was still wrapping all the gifts for Aikatrina.
"Okay. I have some more wrapping to do. Night." I stood up and kissed her goodnight. Then I pulled the gift I'd gotten her out of the couch cushions.
The next morning Aikatrina was awake at six am, which unless you're Grace is way too early to be up even on Christmas. Grace was standing at the door in her night gown and bathrobe, a cup of coffee in one hand.
"Come on Sham, I even brought coffee." She coaxed.
"Fine, but only for the coffee!" I groaned and rolled out of bed. Grace handed me the coffee and lead me down the stairs to where Aikatrina was not so patiently waiting. I sat on the couch next to Grace.
Thirty minutes later Aikatrina had finished opening her gifts and I handed Grace what I had gotten her. She opened it and gasped.
"Sham, where did you find it?" She breathed; holding up the long leather cord on the end hung a penny whistle. Her family penny whistle.
"Well I was in an antique store with Aideen, you remember her right? She said she knew something you would like and she took me to the antique store and showed me this. I knew you would want it." I smiled.
"Thank you." She said, leaning forward and kissing me. "Thank you so much."