"Hey Ford, hey Evan!" little Guthrie yelled enthusiastically, as he stood watching his brothers and playmates walk through the front gate.
"Hey little man!" Evan called to Guthrie from the porch steps. He rushed into the living room and scooped his laughing baby brother up in his arms and spun him around.
"Hey Guthrie!" Ford chimed in, throwing his back pack on the floor just inside the door. He ran over to join in the hugs with Evan and Guthrie. Little Guthrie looked so cute. He had applesauce on his chin and Evan noticed there was some in his hair too.
"There you are buckaroo!" Adam said, smiling as he entered the living room from the kitchen. "Come here, I gotta clean you up. You got food all over you! Boys, come in the kitchen and get a snack. Then I want you on your chores. If you two clean your room afterward, we might have pizza and popcorn tonight." Adam said to Evan and Ford.
"Alright! Christmas movies tonight?" Ford asked, eyes shining.
"Yep, Rudolph comes on and then Frosty. But you only watch if you clean that room and do your chores in the barn...and I mean it this time!" Adam said. He tried not to sound mean, but he had to be the authority figure now. If he went easy on them, they wouldn't respect him...at least that's what all the grown ups around him had explained. Adam was serious about teaching them the morals and values that his parents had taught him. Responsibility was number one on the list.
"Hey, where's Daniel?" Adam asked Evan. He hoped and prayed the answer wouldn't be complicated. He wasn't ready for any more drama this week. It was friday and he had seen quite enough of that for one week.
"Oh the Grinch? He's coming. We ran off and left him." Evan replied, sitting down and peeling a banana which he decided to share with Guthrie.
"Hey, no name calling." Brian corrected him, walking into the kitchen from the mud room. "I just saw him, Adam. He went to the barn to help Crane muck out the stalls."
"Sorry, but he is a Grinch, Adam!" Evan stated, folding his arms, pouting.
"Listen, it's not nice to call your brother names. Everybody has bad moods, but we don't call people names in this family, you understand?" Adam admonished.
"Oh I understand. But Danny's mood doesn't change. He's a butt head all the time now." Evan continued to pout.
"What did I just say about name calling? If you can't do as your told, you won't see any Christmas movies tonight, got it?" Adam said, shaking his finger.
He knew what Evan meant. Yep, Grinch pretty much was the best character associated with Christmas to describe Daniel these days, Adam figured...but he didn't have to admit that to Evan.
"Yes sir, Adam. I'm sorry. Can I please watch the movies?" Evan begged.
"Yes, if you don't call anybody names anymore...and do the other things I already told you to do." Adam replied, mussing the boys' hair as he walked past Evan's chair.
"Come on Ford. Let's clean the room first, then we can go feed the chickens. Maybe Gr-Uh-Daniel will be done with his barn chores by then." Evan said, dropping his eyes so he wouldn't have to look at Adam, knowing he must have heard the slip. The two little boys rushed out of the kitchen and up the stairs.
7BF7B*******************************
"So, how was your day?" Crane asked his little brother as Daniel picked up a shovel and joined him.
"Same ol' same ol'." Daniel replied with a sigh.
"You didn't get into any fist fights today?" Crane said with a laugh.
"Nope." Was Daniel's short reply.
"Well, that's encouraging...I guess." Crane replied, punching the little guy in the arm.
"I don't think there's anybody left to fight, unless I start on the girls." Daniel said, rolling his eyes.
"Nah, don't do that. In a couple of years, you're gonna want them to kiss you, so punching them in the mouth now might not be the best of ideas." Crane said with another laugh.
"You're gross!" Daniel replied.
"Just wait. You'll see soon enough!" Crane replied.
"Hey fella's." Adam said walking into the barn. "Workin' hard I see. I like it!"
"Oh yeah, we're workin' hard and talkin' about women." Crane said, giving Adam a wink.
"Women? Uh oh. You got your eye on a little filly Danny boy?" Adam said laughing.
"No way! I don't even like girls!" Daniel replied with disgust.
"Just wait. You will soon." Adam said snickering.
"Whatever." Daniel said rolling his eyes again as he pitched a shovel full of horse manure into the waiting wheelbarrow.
"Crane, I'm gonna go into town and order a couple of pizzas. We're gonna watch movies tonight. Brian's gonna make popcorn later, too." Adam said.
"Sounds great. You may wanna get an extra pizza for the rest of us though? Brian can eat two by himself!" Crane replied.
"Yeah, you may be right. Anyway, I was hoping you could help Evan and Ford with a letter to Santa later. I need to know what they want for Christmas." Adam explained.
"Sure, I'm on it. Hey, we gonna get a tree this weekend?" Crane asked.
"Yep. Think we'll take the guys up to high country tomorrow. We can hike it. They got plenty of energy. It'll give Brian time to cram for his finals. Then Sunday evening, we can all decorate it." Adam said.
"Well, aren't we getting all domestic in our old age. Planning the weekend out for us? You're starting to sound like a woman!" Crane laughed.
"I'll stay home with Brian." Daniel stated flatly.
"Look, Danny. I'm trying to be patient with you. I let you have your way about your birthday. No present, no cake. That was your day. But Christmas is a little bigger than that. I'm not gonna let you ruin it for everybody else." Adam warned.
"Ok, ok. I'll keep my feelings to myself...even though the therapist said I should talk about my feelings." Daniel muttered.
"Danny. I'm not saying you can't talk about your feelings. You can talk to us anytime about how you feel, and you know that. What I mean is you have to stop complaining to the little guys about Christmas. They are excited about Santa and all that comes with it. I know you don't want to intentionally ruin things for them, do you?" Adam asked, reaching down and placing his finger under Daniel's chin, forcing the boy to look up at him.
Through tear laden eyes, Daniel answered in a small voice. "No, Adam. I'm sorry. That's not what I'm trying to do, honest. I love my brothers...all of you."
"We know buddy. We just want to see you happy again, that's all." Adam explained, fighting back tears himself.
"Wish you could turn the clock back three months, then I wouldn't sign up for that stupid contest." Daniel muttured, pulling away from Adam and turning back to his work.
Adam just sighed and shot a sad look toward Crane. He knew he had heard it too. Crane shrugged his shoulders in response to Adam's look. Neither of them knew what to say.
"Danny, we've gone over that a thousand times, remember? What's meant to be is just meant to be. Even when it hurts us. Life isn't always fair." Adam said, trying desperately to hold his own emotions in check.
"Yeah, I know. Adam, can I just please skip hunting the tree? I can do everybody's chores so you guys can just enjoy the day...I won't pester Brian, either. Please?" Daniel begged.
"Ok, I guess so. But you are going to watch movies with the family tonight...and you're going to help with the tree on Sunday. You got that?" Adam said, staring long and hard at his hard headed little brother.
"Sure. I got it." Daniel replied glumly.
7BF7B**********************
Later that evening Crane sat down with Ford and Evan and took out pencils and papers and helped them get their letters ready for Santa.
"Crane, Ford keeps cheating off my paper. He's asking Santa for the same things I'm asking for." Evan complained.
"Let me see here. Crane studied the letters and had to smile. Evan's letter read: Dear Santa, I've been really good this year. I want a cowboy hat of my very own and a train set. Love, Evan McFadden. As Crane looked at Ford's letter it read the same thing except he signed his own name.
"Well, I don't think Santa will mind. Maybe he can bring each of you a hat and you can share the train set. If you ask for it together, maybe you'll get an even bigger one. Besides, it's no fun playing with trains all by yourself." Crane said.
Evan studied for a minute. He took his letter and added the word big in front of train set. "What's the letters you put at the bottom after your name when you want to add something to your letter?" Evan asked innocently.
"P.S." Crane replied. Evan wrote P.S. I can share the train set with my little brother Ford. "That's perfect." Crane said as he studied Evan's amended letter. "I will address these for the North Pole and Brian can take them to the post office Monday." Crane offered.
"You sure you got the right address?" Ford asked.
"Sure. I've been sending letters to the North Pole for since I was younger than you are now. Santa hasn't moved for hundreds of years." Crane replied.
"What about Daniel? Why didn't he write a letter, Crane? Santa won't know what to bring him." Ford said nervously.
"He'll know what to bring him. Big lumps of coal!" Evan exclaimed irritatedly.
Crane had to laugh. "Don't worry, buddy. Santa will figure somethin' out for Daniel...and it won't be coal, Evan!" Crane said. "Daniel hasn't been bad, he's just sad this year."
"Yeah, he's sad Evan." Ford stated softly. "You better hope Santa didn't hear you calling him names, or you might get coal!"
"Nobody's getting coal this year fella's. Unless you start doing bad things now." Crane said, patting Ford on the bottom. "Now get this room cleaned up good so we can have our family fun night!"
"What about Guthrie?" Evan asked innocently.
"Well, he can't write yet...Santa will take care of him, like he did for you before you could write." Crane explained.
"Ok." came a chorus of replies from both boys. They both went to work picking up their room and Crane left them to it.
7BF7B*************************
"Did you get their list?" Brian asked Crane as he came down the stairs.
"Yep, they're going pretty easy on you guys, too." Crane explained as he filled Brian in on what their little brothers had asked for.
"I guess we can swing it. Those train sets are kind of pricey, but with them sharing it...we ought to be able to get one from Mr. Gunn. He will probably extend us a little credit if we need it. Thanks little bro." Brian replied. "We're gonna get Guthrie a toy truck and a teddy bear...easy breezy." he continued.
"Sounds good. Don't know what to tell you about Danny. He ain't budging at all. Adam had a talk with him in the barn earlier though. He let him know not to rain on everybody's parade anymore...and I don't think he means to do that." Crane offered.
"Nah, he don't mean to do it, but...we have to get him a present from Santa. The younger boys won't understand it if we don't. We can't kill their belief in Santa after everything else they've been through this year." Brian said.
"I know, I know." Crane agreed.
"Which brings us to you. What do you want from Santa this year little boy?" Brian asked, punching Crane in the arm as he asked. "And don't say nothin'. This is for the little ones as much as it is for you, understand?"
"Yeah. I guess I could use some new guitar strings...or maybe some sheet music." Crane answered honestly.
"Gotcha." Brian replied. "Well, then. I guess we're set. That ought to take some of the worry off of Adam's mind. He's determined to make this Christmas perfect...and we all know that's impossible. But still, if we could manage a few smiles for big brother over the next couple of weeks, maybe we can make him feel a little better."
"We could at least shoot for five out of six, maybe?" Crane said. Brian nodded in understanding. Making a stubborn Daniel jump on the family bandwagon would be next to impossible this year.
"Yeah, he's determined to make this a hard candy Christmas, one way or another." Brian snorted.
"I haven't heard that saying since I was really little. Dad used to say it, but I never really got what it meant." Crane replied.
"Daddy used to tell us about how poor they were when he was a little boy. Times were so hard during the Great Depression and until after the World War, all his parents could afford to give the kids every year for Christmas was hard candy in their stockings and maybe a shiny nickel, if they were lucky. The sayin' kind of caught on. I hear the old timers in town referring to the hard candy Christmases they experienced back in the day. I think that's what Adam's been worried about. Daddy vowed he'd never let us kids do without at Christmastime, and he never did. Adam doesn't want that to happen now that he's in charge." Brian explained somberly.
"Huh. I guess that makes sense. It may not be a hard candy Christmas as far as what's in the stockings...or under the tree, but it's sure gonna be a hard Christmas for us all." Crane said thoughtfully.
"Yeah. I guess that's what I meant. Oh well, we still got a couple of weeks, maybe we can bring Danny boy around." Brian said, not sounding all to convinced of it, Crane thought.