"Martha! Martha May, wake up!" Felicity's voice called from downstairs. "It's Christmas!"
Martha was sprawled on her bed, sound asleep. Her father's video camera was sitting on the tripod in front of her bed; luckily, it was turned off. She was so tired that she didn't even hear the door to her bedroom open. Her father chuckled.
"What are you still doing in bed, sleepy head?" Mortimer said as he picked up his daughter. "It's time to wake up."
Martha yawned and groaned. "No, dad. I don't wanna go to school. Five more minutes, please?"
"It's not school; it's Christmas Day." Mortimer said as he carried Martha down the stairs.
Martha's eyes suddenly flew open at the mention of Christmas. As soon as they made it to the first floor, she hopped out of her father's arms and ran straight to the living room. There, she got a better view of the gifts Santa Claus had left the night before and she gasped.
"Whoa!" She exclaimed.
"And they're all for you, princess." Felicity said as she sat on the sofa.
Martha grinned and kneeled in front of the Christmas tree, in search of the perfect present to open first. It was rather difficult, though; all of the gifts she was viewing were all so beautiful, she couldn't decide which one to unwrap first. Then there was a knock at the door. Martha and both of her parents turned their heads in the direction of the front door, curious as to who would be knocking.
"I wonder who that could be." Mortimer thought aloud as he got up and went to the door.
Felicity shrugged, picked up a box wrapped in bright red paper, and gave it to her daughter. "How about you open this one first?"
"Okay." Martha said as she took the gift.
Mortimer quickly came back, only he was holding a rather strange looking package. It was messily wrapped in silver paper and a gold ribbon tied around it in a big lopsided bow; there was also a small tag hanging off of it.
"What's that, dear?" Felicity asked.
"I don't know." Mortimer said, setting the package down in front of Martha. "But… it's for you, Martha sweetie."
"Me?" Martha picked up the gift and inspected it curiously, wondering what it could possibly be. She read the tag; her name was written there, but she couldn't quite recognize the handwriting. "Hmmm, I wonder what it is."
"Well, why don't you open it and find out?" Mortimer inquired.
Martha smiled and carefully unwrapped the gift, only to gasp in surprise. Underneath the uneven and rather sloppy wrapping was a Christmas angel tree topper, only it appeared to be made from various pieces of metal, along with a quite a few jewels and bits of glass melded together. Martha stared at the angel with wide eyes, unsure of what to say or do. Mortimer and Felicity each cocked an eyebrow.
"What… in the world is it?" Felicity asked.
"I have no idea." Mortimer answered.
"It looks like a tree topper." Martha said as she held the gift in her hands.
"But who made it?" Felicity questioned.
"Maybe one of your new friends? Tina? Or Donna?" Mortimer suggested.
"Hmm, maybe…" Martha said, but she already knew it wasn't Tina or Donna who made her this angel. She gently set it down on the coffee table before grabbing the red present that was placed in her lap earlier and opening it.
Martha was almost overwhelmed; she received some new dolls, a few cute dresses, a couple pairs of shoes, a beautiful new dollhouse, and lots of holiday sweets. After opening all of her presents and having a delicious breakfast of pancakes, eggs, and bacon, Martha quickly set to work. She grabbed a big whicker basket, some construction paper, a pair of safety scissors, glue, glitter, markers, crayons, string, beads, and ribbon and set to work. She snipped, colored, glued, glittered, and strung for a long time. At one point after her crafting, she asked her mother to help her make some special Christmas cookies.
"What for?" Felicity asked.
"Just a little something you and I can do together today. Plus, they're for a friend." Martha replied with an innocent smile.
Felicity smiled and nodded before she and her daughter headed into the kitchen. Together, they made all different kinds of cookies including sugar, shortbread, chocolate chip, and especially gingerbread. By the time they were finished, they made well over three dozen cookies in total. Martha grinned.
"These are perfect! Thanks, mom." She said.
"You're welcome, sweetie." Felicity said as her daughter grabbed a tin and gently put most of the cookies into it. "And are you taking them somewhere?"
"Just to my friends and a couple people in town, as a way to say goodbye." Martha said, closing the tin and walking out of the kitchen with a couple packets of hot cocoa mix; she put the tin and packets into her basket along with a video tape.
"How sweet. But be sure to be back here by 7:00, it'll be suppertime by then. And Auntie Azalea will be here."
"Don't worry, I'll be back by then. I promise."
"Good. And be careful."
"You always say that."
Martha quickly put on her winter clothes, grabbed her sled and basket, and headed out the door with the full basket of goodies in tow. She rode her sled through the entirety Whoville, giving a cookie to Tina, Donna, Mr. Welltether, and even Mr. Bricklebaum, but now there was one more stop left to go… the Grinch's cave up on Mt. Crumpit. She knew it would be a long trek, but she felt she was up for it. Taking a deep breath, Martha started to climb up the mountain just like she did on her first day in Whoville.
After what felt like hours of climbing, she finally made it. She could hardly believe it; in the side of the mountain, there was a door. So she knocked on it.
"Mr. Grinch?" Martha called out, but there was no answer. She knocked again, this time a bit louder. "Mr. Grinch! Hello?" There was still no answer.
Martha was starting to get rather annoyed before she realized that the Grinch probably wasn't even home. She thought about going inside, but then she remembered the sleepover incident. Plus, she knew it was wrong to go into someone else's house without permission. So, she took out an extra sheet of paper, wrote a note, and left the basket on the doorstep. She checked her watch and gasped. It was almost 6:00 pm and she had to get home fast, so she hopped onto her sled and rode down the mountain; only this time, she had full control of her sled.
"I hope he likes it." She said to herself as she went down.
The moment Martha left however, Max the dog answered the door. He immediately noticed the basket and sniffed it curiously before grabbing a hold of it with his mouth and dragging it into the cave and closing the door. He brought it onto the counter in a kitchen-like area, pushed it into a little dumbwaiter, and hoisted it up to where the Grinch's bedroom was supposed to be. Max climbed out of the dumbwaiter and pushed the basket closer to the bed. The Grinch was lying in bed, sneezing and coughing and feeling absolutely miserable. He caught a bad cold earlier and he had to stay inside for the rest of the day.
"Ugh, Max? Is that you?" He asked, blowing his nose. He noticed the basket and cocked his head to the side in confusion. "What's this?"
With all of the strength he could manage, the Grinch took a hold the basket handle and hoisted it up onto his bed before sitting up as best he could. He looked at the tag tied to it and saw his name on it.
"For me? Max, what's going on? Did you have something to do with this?" Grinch asked; Max shook his head in response.
Shrugging his shoulders, the Grinch decided to go through this mysterious basket and see what was in it. Inside were all kinds of different things; there were a couple makeshift cards, some homemade ornaments, packets of hot cocoa, some holiday candies from Martha's stocking, and the tin of Christmas cookies she and her mother baked. There was even a brand new collar for Max, which the Grinch quickly put around the puppy's neck. Max barked happily.
"I guess it's a little big for you, but I'm sure you'll grow into it." Grinch said before looking through the basket again.
But at the very bottom of the basket was a video tape, a note, and a small novelty picture frame. He stared at them curiously, wondering who would do this. He decided to look at the note first.
It read: "Dear, Mr. Grinch,
Hello. I'm very sorry for bothering you, I just wanted to say 'thank you' for the angel you made me and for everything else you did for me. I also wanted to stop by and give you a little something before I leave for Who York tomorrow. I met Santa Claus last night and asked him if he could do something special for you, but he told me you were on his Naughty List and that he couldn't give you a gift. I was sad to hear that, but then I decided that if he couldn't give you a gift, I could. So I decided to do this. You did so many things for me while I was here and I wanted to do something special for you in return. After all, it's only fair. I hope you like the care package. I also hope you get a chance to watch the tape I made for you. Goodbye and merry Christmas.
Love always, Martha May"
The Grinch slowly set the paper down and looked at the tape. Martha made him a video? What kind of video did she make? What was on it? And why would she go through all of this trouble? He looked at Max, hoping for some kind of answer. Max didn't have any, though. The Grinch rolled his eyes and smirked before letting out another loud sneeze.
"Ugh, I hate being sick. Oh well, it could be worse." He groaned, grabbing a tissue and blowing his nose. Then his tummy growled; he cringed. "And I guess being hungry doesn't make it any better." He gently tossed one of the hot cocoa packets over to Max. "Max? Could you be a pal and go downstairs and make me some cocoa? It would be a real big help."
The puppy barked and picked up the packet with his mouth before heading back down the dumbwaiter. "Good boy." The Grinch smirked and chuckled as he opened the cookie tin, licking his lips and rubbing his hands together. "Looks like I'll be having dessert before dinner tonight."
He was just about to grab a big chocolate chip cookie when he took a glance at the photograph sitting on the nightstand to his left. It was the photo of himself and Martha at the pageant the night before. Grinch picked it up and looked at it; he then picked up the picture frame and reluctantly slipped the photo into it. He smiled and set it back on his nightstand.
"Merry Christmas, Martha May." He said, munching on the cookie.
