Chapter 04 Going Christmas shopping
With Puss.
Puss walked through the various streets, luckily some Fairytale characters were used to the snow and just used big shovels to move it out of the way. So Puss had no problems getting to Geppetto and Pinocchio's home and shop.
As the small woodcarver's shop came into view, Puss smiles and runs up to the door. Sadly it showed the sign flipped over to closed and: We are out of stock for now/ come back next spring.
'Maybe they will help me make some.' Puss thought and banged on the door anyway.
"Hu? Who could that be?" An elderly voice spoke out.
Puss stood back as Geppetto walked forward, opening the door. As the elderly man looked around he was confused.
"I hope it's none of the misbehaving boy's throwing snowballs at my door again." Geppetto sneers a bit.
"No Senior Geppetto, it is I Puss in Boots." Pusss smiled waving up at him.
Geppetto blinks and looks down, "Oh my, Mr Puss in Boots. Welcome, come in my friend. Pinocchio is just in his bedroom. Pinocchio a visitor for you."
Puss smiles as he hears wooden steps creaking as the small puppet ran down the stairs and then turns around facing the orange cat.
"Puss in Boots, welcome. How are you?" Pinocchio smiles waving at the cat.
Puss chuckles, "I'm quite alright guy's. But I need your help Pinocchio as well as Geppetto's. You two still make toy's for little kid's, right?"
"It is only our main business Puss, so yes. Why? Do you now have a child of your own you never told us about?" Pinocchio asked, suspicious.
"Not quite Pinocchio, I adopted a while back three kittens as my own and trained them. They along with Kitty Softpaws, my girlfriend, decided to visit me for the Christmas holiday. But now that my friends told them about Christmas, I think they are now expecting Christmas presents too, and... you can picture the rest. In short, I wasn't prepared for their appearance and now need to come up with various presents for them. Or their happily believe in this new Christmas might be shattered." Puss explains.
"Oh no, we can't have that happen. Don't worry Puss, we'll make you any toy you can think of for your beloveds. Just tell us if they are a boy or a girl." Geppetto smiled getting his tools ready.
"Two boys and a girl," Puss explains.
Pinocchio and Geppetto nod their heads. As a starter, Pinocchio got a lot of wood to start the carving job over making the presents for the kids, as well as fabrics, sowing needles, straw and so on.
Geppetto scratches against his head a bit before he grabs his own son by his hand and lifts him up on the table.
"Stand still, Pinocchio, I got an idea." He smiles and starts sketching on a piece of paper, "Puss look round the shop and try and find some pieces of straw, please. I think we have some shaving cuttings from one of our other projects left over."
Pinocchio stood still and Puss found the shavings, he placed them on the table and Geppetto placed the drawing down of a second puppet. Each of the three men took one piece of wood and started carving the arms, legs and hands out of it.
Then the body was made and from a firmer log, Geppetto created the face of the puppet, as well as using the shavings taken off as hair for the doll. Pinocchio found a red dress, some marbles as eyes and they stuck the doll inside it. Puss had the box ready and the small puppet got wrapped up and Puss placed the name of one of the guests on it.
Next, Puss found some other pieces of wood. Using a medium-sized wood he used as a body, then a thin plank type Geppetto cut four weels out of it. After it was sanded down a toy car was created from it and pained a dark blue colour.
Pinocchio found several wood shapes in one of Geppetto's old baskets, taking them out, and sanding them down as well as painting, he created various building blocks from scratch.
Later, at the back of the shop: Geppetto found three old rocking horses. Sanding them down, giving them a new paint job of dark brown, white and grey, as well as attaching all-white straws as hairs and tails, he cleaned the Rocking horses up from the dead. Each horse also received a black saddle and a black bridle.
"Hey, Puss these would be great for them as well." Pinocchio beamed as he came from the back room.
"Indeed Pinocchio." Geppetto beamed.
Puss agreed, but he got some new string to pull along, Pinocchio found three slays at the back of the shop that was given in to order but was never picked up. And now they can have a new home too.
Next: Geppetto used Pinocchio's size once more and made out of some pieces of wood, round wood as four wheels and a handle he fabricated a baby's doll pram.
With a few planks of wood, Puss created a dolls house for the dolls of his children. Smiling at the right size and structure of it. Pinocchio, however, shook his head and created a father, mother, son, daughter dolls to go in the house as well.
Geppetto snickered and built next; two model aeroplanes out of wood, as well as two floating ships for the water.
"Wonderful you two. Thank you. Now I just need to work out what to give to Kitty Softpaws. I can't just give her a wooden toy, that is not decent for an adult." Puss sighed.
The three gave it some thought, then Geppetto snipped his fingers.
"I think I got an idea... here Puss." Geppetto smiled.
He pulled from an old wooden box a silver bracelet. It has red diamonds round it and was the size as a ring for a human finger. It would be ideal as a bracelet for a female cat. Puss's mouth dropped down shocked, but Pinocchio smiles at his father's idea for Kitty.
"What for a wonderful idea dad. Sure, take it Puss." Pinocchio beamed.
Puss smiles all over again as he carefully wraps the precious bracelet up, labelling it for Kitty Softpaws.
"I think I have everything now. How much does all this cost together Senior?" Puss asks the two.
But Geppetto shook his head, "You are our friend Puss. You don't need to pay for it. Just have a great Christmas."
"I insist." Puss snaps a little and hands Geppetto three hundred gold coins for all. "This should keep you two afloat until spring. I don't want you both to go hungry."
"Thank you Puss. Should we drive you back to Shrek's home?" Pinocchio asks.
"No, I came here with my own slay, I'll just load the presents up and head back to the swamp, hopefully getting back to start on the Christmas dinner for Shrek and the gang. Thank you once more and Merry Christmas." Puss smiles.
Pinocchio and Geppetto wave to Puss as he loads the presents up, then kicks his slay again to get back to Shrek's home. Hopefully getting there on time before the others return from the church and bakery.
With Shrek and the family
After the Church, Shrek pilled everyone back into the slay. Donkey got attached to it and together with the family, Kitty Softpaws and the Diablos headed away from the Church and towards the Muffin Man's home.
"Oh boy, I can't way to see Gingy again. I wonder if the Muffin Man has made him another Girlfriend or not?" Parfait chuckles.
"Maybe Parfait." Coco guesses.
The Diablos look at the two young Dronkey's confused, a girlfriend? Like a human being? But from Puss's letters about his friends, they do remember telling them about a talking pastry person.
It didn't take long and the seventeen people reached the Muffin Man's house on Drury Lane. Shrek parked the slay up and everyone climbed out. Just then the door opened and the Muffin Man beamed over his face.
"Perfect timing. Hi everyone." Muffin Man smiles.
"Merry Christmas Muffing Man." Shrek and the family call back.
"I'm so relieved you've all arrived here today. I just received a massive order from King Arthur and Queen Guinevere for their Christmas feast this year. They have ordered and paid for 30.000 Christmas cookies, but I'm only one man and one live Ginger Bread Man." The Muffin Man explained hanging his head.
"Ok, what do we have to do?" Shrek enquired.
"If I, Shrek and Fiona could mix the dough, then the children can roll out the pastry, stamp the Christmas cookies out. Next, we put it in the oven to bake for 30 minutes and we can then work on the Christmas boxes that will hold the cookies. Once the cookies are out of the oven and cooled off then you can decorate them with sugar pearls, icing and chocolate. Once cooled off and hardened then they can be placed carefully into the boxes, tied up and counted threw to make sure its all done by order. If we can get it done by 3 PM, then I'll receive my pay from the king." The Muffin Man explained.
Everyone nodded their heads, they washed their hands, placed on everyone the aprons and Shrek, Fiona, Donkey and the Muffin Man started with mixing the batter together. Next, they rolled it all out and the Diablos, Kitty Softpaws, the oger kids and the dragon kids started stamping out the cookies, carefully placing them on the cooking trays before the Muffin Man placed them in the oven.
Dragon looked down into the Chimney and smirked, using her fire breath she blew a fireball at all the baking tray's and within ten seconds the last cookie was cooked to a crisp. The Muffin Man removed the baking tray's once more, and everyone decorated the cookies with gumdrop buttons, sugar icing, chocolate, mint ect.
Within another hour the last cookie was beautifully decorated and packed it into the countless boxes, with a tie it was done and just in the nick of time. At the Muffin Man's cottage, someone knocked against the door and a servant from the Castle appeared.
"Are all 30.000 Christmas cookies done Muffin Man?" He asked.
The Muffin Man nodded his head and the delivery driver inspected them. He nodded his head and paid the Muffin man a large sum of gold coins from the castle. The cookies were loaded carefully in the Kings Coach and then headed right back to the castle for the Christmas festival.
But one box of Cookies was left behind.
"Um, Mr Muffin Man, one box was left behind. Should we run-up to the castle and drop it off?" Pearla asks, worried.
Inside that box was close to 200 cookies, but the Muffin Man chuckled.
"Don't worry dear girl. These cookies were what remained. And don't worry the order was completed. I made a few hundred more to pay you all back for your help. So thank you. You can keep these." The Muffin Man explained.
Timmy smiles back to him, "It was our pleasure, wasn't it guy's?"
"Yes," Everyone agreed.
With the newly handed cookies, everyone clambered back into the slay and then headed back to Shrek's swamp. Fiona checked the time and saw they were at least 2 hours gone now, since Puss left the Church, so he should be done with the Christmas shopping and wrapping up by now.
With singing a few more Christmas songs, the family headed back to the Swamp for the Christmas dinner.
Quanktumspirit: "Thank you very much for taking the time to read this chapter. Please leave a comment below and I'll see you all in the next instalment."