December 8th: White Christmas

Early in the morning, the residents of Radiator Springs awoke to a glorious surprise. Their town was covered in snow. Not the fine powdery sugar kind they'd been getting lately. Huge piles you could leap right into.

"Yay!" Fudge squealed, hurrying outside. "Snow!"

"Fudge!" Luigi shouted, chasing after his daughter with her coat, which was silver and had grey faux fur around the hood. "Come back here! You don't even have a coat on!"

Too late. The little girl dove straight into a pile of snow.

"Fudge!" Luigi cried in disbelief, but when Guido couldn't help laughing, neither could he.

The Fiat grabbed her and put a coat on the wriggling six-year-old. Plus, a hat, a scarf and a pair of mittens. Then he turned her loose again. She shrieked with delight as she let herself fall backwards and moved her arms up and down to make a snow angel.

"Dad-gum! Ain't he perfect?" Mater declared proudly.

Lightning smiled. "Sure is, buddy."

"Just one thing missin'", Mater mused. He grabbed one of his spare winter hats and plonked it on the snow car's roof. "Now, quick! Get a picture!"

"All right!" Lightning laughed, getting his camera ready. "Get a little closer."

So, Mater tried to get closer to the snow car, but unfortunately, he got a little too close.

"Oh, no!" the tow truck exclaimed, disheartened, as half of the snow car crumbled. Then he smiled. "Oh, well. Makin' it was the fun part." He seemed to skip the five stages of grief and leap straight to acceptance.

Lightning smiled and the two of them started again.

With a large pant, Sheriff scooped up another piece of snow in his plow. This was hard work.

"Need some help", Ramone offered teasingly, approaching with Red and Sarge.

"No!" Sheriff huffed, embarrassed. He hated for anybody to think that he was getting old or needed help with these things. "I'm fine."

"It wasn't a question", the Lowrider insisted. "It was a statement. You need some help."

"What makes you say that?!" Sheriff demanded.

"We'll take it from here, soldier", Sarge assured him.

"Why don't you go over to Flo's?" Red suggested. "She's got some great hot oil with cinnamon in it."

Now, how could Sheriff refuse? He thanked the trio kindly and went over to Flo's, where he found Doc, Fillmore, Luigi and Guido already there, sipping on their cinnamon hot oil.

"Sheriff!" Doc greeted his friend. "What a surprise!" He spoke as if he knew darn well Sheriff would show up soon, which he did.

The squad car rolled his eyes as he accepted a cup of oil from Flo gratefully. He took a sip. "This is really good!"

"Right, man?" Fillmore agreed. "Maybe I should sell some cinnamon organic fuel too."

"How are people liking the pumpkin spice organic fuel?" Flo wanted to know.

"Some people complained that the flavour was too strong, so I changed the recipe", the hippie van reported. "Now, it's very popular."

"(I haven't tried some yet)", Guido spoke up. "(Maybe I could come over later.)"

Luigi translated and Fillmore smiled.

The patrons of the café were silent for a little while.

"The town looks great, doesn't it?" Flo remarked with a happy sigh.

It sure did. Red, Sarge and Ramone were working together to plow the snow. Lightning and Mater were busy building another snow car. Sally was showing Fudge how to decorate snow angels. Lizzie detested the cold weather and, therefore, had refused to come outside. However, she had her radio going, playing that "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas" song. And a white Christmas they would get.

I don't care how long I live in Australia; Christmas just isn't the same without snow.

Please review! :)