"No matter how many times I see that movie, it makes me totally happy…" Rose noted, smiling softly. It was The Year without a Santa Claus that had just finished playing on the television. Every year, probably since they came out, in the sixties and seventies; we have watched the holiday specials. It's funny how at the holidays, something so corny can seem great. Before, we had watched Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, and before that, Santa Claus is Coming to Town. So, the six of us all kind of had a case of claymation on the brain. When the end of the show came, we didn't really know to do with ourselves.
"What's next?" Rose asked, staring at the screen. We had been watching Christmas movies for the last 24 hours at least, and at that point, the only ones we hadn't seen were those terrible Lifetime ones that nobody remembers the names of…
"I think that's it…" Jasper sighed, scanning through the channels quickly.
"Yep…we've watched Miracle on 34th Street, Love Actually, The Family Man, The Muppets Christmas Carol, Elf, The Polar Express, The Bishop's Wife, Home Alone, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, The Grinch, The Grinch—you know, the scary remake with Jim Carrey painted green—and we always save It's a Wonderful Life for Christmas Eve, to watch with everyone…" Emmett counted the movies on his fingers, listing them one by one. Bella's eyes brightened as she smiled to herself.
"Guys! We should make our own claymation movie!" she sang, jumping up from Edward's lap.
"Yeah…" I thought about what our movie could be about, as everybody else obviously was too. After a long silence, Emmett spoke.
"I've got it!" he laughed. Edward rolled his eyes at the idea Emmett had.
"Okay, so this little clay guy is a vampire, and he falls in love with a little human clay girl…" we all laughed, "and then, they move to the north pole, where they meet these four elves, but the elves hold them hostage at Santa's workshop, and then, they have a baby, and the clay girl gets turned into a vampire, and they name the baby Renesmee…and the baby is a dancing reindeer!" we looked at each other for a minute, comprehending the entirely random plot line.
"Yes! Perfect!" was the general response.
"Emmett and Rose…you make the figures…Edward and Bella, you can make the sets, and Jazz and I will get everything else ready."
"Kay'"
***
The camera was all ready, the house was quiet, and it was time to shoot the movie. I smiled broadly to myself as I waltzed into the spacious kitchen in which my siblings were hard at work with the sets and characters. Clay was all over.
"How's it going?" I went to check on Edward and Bella first. The sets looked good. There was an icy landscape in the corner, and the interior of Santa's Workshop sitting on the stove. At the time, the two were hard at work on a…questionable set.
"What is that?" I asked, accidentally sounding disgusted. It was all pink and mint green…not natural in the least.
"Oh, well, Edward and I kinda messed up Forks, so…we made Candy land instead!" Bella giggled. It was cute…cotton candy tree tops, chocolate sidewalks. I wondered where they had gotten enough human food to glue all over the mini scene. Hopefully Emmett and Rose are did better…
"Hey guys!"
"Hi, Alice…" Rose muttered, preoccupied with the current character she was making. I could see any of them, as Emmett was hunched over the pile, working. Somehow, I pictured them to look like those in the movies—rosy cheeked, plump, cute. Yeah—right. When Emmett finally stepped aside, I got a good look at their creations.
"Oh…guys…" I sighed sadly. These things made the Heat Miser in The Year without a Santa Claus look like a masterpiece.
"What? Here's the clay Edward…" he held up a little clay man. He had a body shaped like a hot dog, with tiny arms and legs. For eyes, they had poked holes in his head, and for some reason he had a mustache…
"Why does he have a mustache?"
"I thought it made him look distinguished…" Emmett mused. I was just surprised he could say this with a straight face…next he showed me the four elves, modeled to look like me, Jasper, Rose, and him. He and Rose's likenesses looked awful, but were better than me and Jasper's. I was short in the extreme, like barely visible. Jasper…there were just no words for it.
"Could you please tell me what that is?" I asked pointing to the one I knew was meant to be Jasper.
"Oh…that," he chuckled, "I cut his head off by mistake, and it was too hard to reattach, so I just drew a face on his body with a sharpie…" yep, that sounded about right. Clay Jasper looked like a potato with a face. That's really all that can describe it. But, what's done is done, I thought. Then, Rose turned to face me, holding clay Bella. God help us all…
"I'm not going to say anything." I whispered, trying to sound calm.
"You like it?" she smiled hopefully
"If I knew what it was I might have something to say about it, but I can promise you it would not be 'I like it'" she frowned. Jasper came up behind me, and looked over my shoulder at the figures.
"Hmm…" he looked at the table before turning around and leaving, laughing quietly and shaking his head as he went. I couldn't take my eyes off of what was supposed to be the clay Bella.
"Well, Alice, I started out making her look like Bella…but I messed up, and that wouldn't have been any fun anyways…"
"So you made…" I kept staring, puzzled.
"A seal…a purple one" somehow, she was completely serious when she said this.
"Why must you? Really…"
"I was making her a purple shirt…and…it can still be Bella." Jasper came into the kitchen with the camera.
"Ready to shoot it?" Edward and Bella appeared to be done. The picked up their sets and brought them across the kitchen, and into the dining room.
"We're done!" Emmett yelled jovially, grabbing the small clay people. When everything was set up, we got to work. It only took the rest of the night to finish the project and preview the video…
***
The last lines of the movie were "Let's bring a pear to the round one…" Yeah…excellent voice over job by Emmett, Rose, Bella, and Edward. The screen went black, and we all kept quiet…
"That was the best movie ever!" surprisingly coming from Bella. Everyone but me agreed. But…
It actually was pretty good.