23 December

The storm had now grassed. Mum and dad been gone for one and a half month, it had been too risky to travel through the country in that weather. Therefore, they had at first hoped that their young children would make it a few days on their own. But it had not been only a few days. A week had passed, then another. When they finally went to go home, the two didn't really dared to hope that any of their three children were still alive, but they still had risked the journey, they wanted to know for sure, after all they were nations and the children were countries as well, that is, they weren't normal children which meant one could expect anything.

Early on December 23, they had come to the grandmother's house and knocked on her door. She was home and had let them come in.

She was an old woman who couldn't be bothered to go that far every day so she hadn't been able to go down to her son's house to see if the kids lived or not so she simply couldn't go there while the storm was as bad as it had been, even if the first few weeks she had been crying over this fact every evening. She had been thinking about the children every night before she went to sleep and then one day, a few weeks ago, when she unfortunately had been out to chop wood, she had come home and found small traces in the snow.

Since that day, Grandma had been quite sure that at least Ukraine and Russia was alive and it was with a great relief that she told this to her son and his wife when they came to her this day, just before she would go to bed. Almost as great relief it was for them to hear it. From being more or less convinced that none of the children had survived the storm, there was now a person that could tell them that she had at least seen the footprints of two of them.

The great sadness for the grandmother had been that she had not been at home just when they walked past, if she had been there, she had easily let them in and let them stay with her until she was sure they had someone who looked after them, and after that day when she had found their footprints, she had been waiting every single day that they would get there again. But they hadn't turned up more, and she herself could no longer make her way down to their home because the road was too difficult on her old bones.

The parents thanked Grandma for the information and went out again, it was a starry night. It was still a few hours left until the sun would go up, but they had lanterns to light up the darkness with and torches to scare off the wolves with. And they both thought that they had been away long enough from their family. Besides, they had the sleigh and the horse so even grandma could come.

The old woman got dressed warmly and sat down on the sled, she used to spend Christmas alone but this time she did, after all, not know for sure that her grandchildren was still alive or not, it felt better to see them with her own eyes, she thought.

It was not a fun trip, they knew that the children had been out at the grandmother's house and looked but there was no guarantee that they had come home from the trip.

But on the farm there were a lot of signs that at least some had survived. The rumor out of the chimney, the front yard was full of potholes that suggested that there were footprints there before they had snowed over. The snowman was also still there.

When the adults went to the storehouse they could see that at least the animals lived, they could also see that someone had been there to feed them. All were still alive after one and a half month.

The mother led the horse to the stable while dad carried the sled and put it away. They would not need it for some time anyway, grandma could stay until the storm subsided for real and it could take months yet.

Grandma sat on a stool inside the door and watched while the younger generation was working, she herself was too old, her work was already finished and was inside a small leather pouch that she had brought with her from home. She had tried to keep up hope by knitting socks and sweaters for the entire family and cooked candies and it had become quite much.

Grandma had one single animal, a goat, and they had brought with them on the sled and it would have a place together with the two goats that already was sleeping in a small fenced-in storage.

Eventually it was time for the moment of truth, the three walked off towards the house and came in by pressing the right place at the door. It blew a lot and a lot of snow had blown in before the three adults had time to shut the door. Once inside, they rushed into the house to see how it looked. And they were actually surprised by what they saw. The children had even managed to cut a Christmas tree.

Right now, all three children were sleeping peacefully, in the same bed. They could see their faces in the glow of the fire, which was about to go out.

Mum walked over to the fireplace and put on more sticks, soon it burned a lovely, big and warm fire there again, at the same time dad went out to the storeage to pick in all food they needed for Christmas. He wanted this to be the best Christmas ever, it was what his three kids deserved. After all, they had all three experienced something terrible these weeks.

When dad came in, grandmother had embarked her handmade works in small and large packages and put them under the Christmas tree, mum had started to bake bread. The children sill slept, and it was actually a few hours left of the night yet so the adults let them sleep. In fact, they should go to bed as well, but they were so relieved and proud at the fact that all the children had actually survived over a month on their own.

Dad took out a stool and sat down next to the bed where they slept, he lit a candle, which he placed on the table next to the sleeping children so he could see them better. Then he took out his knife and began to carve, they could not just get soft package for Christmas after this.