Christmas

I can't seem to make my tail stay still. It's taking everything I have not to shift into an otter and run through the house. I look out the window. Pa told me that the white stuff outside is snow. I remember I made a ball out of it and threw it at him. That quickly turned into my first snowball fight. I won. Out of the corner of my eye, I notice Pa's finally ready.

"[Can we go?]" He chuckles. "[Yes Nori.]"

As you can see, I taught him some more Otter. He's almost as fluent in it as I am now.

Soon we arrive in Smallville. I still can't seem to make my tail stop moving. It's twitching with excitement.

"Somebody's got ants in their pants." "Nope, just a tail." "I knew that."

We're inside and I have a huge grin on my face. Once the door's closed, I realize that I can't contain myself any longer. I shift into an otter and run around the house as I continue to grin.

"Apparently the term normal is relative in this house." "[Hi Aunt Linda!]" She chuckles. "You got that out of your system yet?" "[Nope!]"

Aunt Linda's also become really fluent in Otter.

"I figured that it couldn't hurt to ask But you can't open presents as an otter. Hi Clark." "[Watch me!]" Pa chuckles. "A for effort Kara." "Judging by the look on Nori's face, I'll take what I can get."

It's a good 10 minutes before I shift back into a girl. But I'm still grinning. I definitely have reason to.

I open my present from Pa. High Rhulain.* This book has otter on the cover too. Cool. I thank him. I can't wait to read it.

Aunt Linda gives me a new journal (I let her read my diary) and a pencil. "I figured that you might want to write some happier stories from your life." I nod and thank her.

The gift I get from my grandparents is a 1,000 piece puzzle of an otter. They got me hooked on puzzles. I thank them.

But there's still one more gift under the tree for me.

It's from Jimmy and it's on the small side. He didn't have to get me anything...Oh. It's a picture of him eating the world. I turn it around feeling kind of confused. "Who told him?" On the back are some lyrics from The Middle. Pa looks at me. "I did. I guess he came up with that gift idea." I smile. "I like it." I really like it.

Later I head outside and we all have a snowball fight. I'm still grinning. I totally got my Merry Christmas. Then again, I'm with my family. Every day's a happy one when I'm with them. Especially if they're holidays.

*another Redwall book by Brian Jacques