"Of Magic & Mistletoe", by Gratiana Lovelace (2020); (Completed)

Ch. 02--Christmas Magic

"Of Magic & Mistletoe", Ch. 02--Christmas Magic, 
by Gratiana Lovelace, December 22, 2020 

(All rights reserved; An original story copyrighted by Gratiana Lovelace, 2020)[(1) cover story]

Illustrations: I cast my stories as I write them, with Richard Armitage as Luke Wharton, Erin Krakow as Diana Groves, Thomas Brodie-Sangster as Benjy Groves, Helen Hayes as Martha Lesley, Anna Knyazeva as Heidi Wharton, and others as noted in the references.

"Of Magic & Mistletoe", Ch. 02: Christmas Magic

It turns out this is a very chilly, blustery, and snowy Dec. 20th , 2010 Monday afternoon for Martha's trip with Diana and her 4 year old son Benjy to Christmas Village during her Care Receiving session. And Martha's car has been sitting undriven for several weeks, outside in the cold—since Martha doesn't drive anymore. Or more to the point, Martha isn't allowed to drive anymore. But Diana is happy to see that Martha's car has plenty of gas in it. So after Diana warms up the car a bit with the engine running for five minutes, she gets the car warm enough for Martha's outing to Christmas Village with her and Benjy.

Their destination of Christmas Village is in a large and older indoor mall converted for multi-use purposes with: walkers, seasonal farmer's markets, craft shows, and seasonal holiday celebrations retail—the biggest of which is the Christmas season—which takes up most of the 20,000 square foot mall's large central corridor. And the extra foot traffic helps boost the sales of some of the remaining permanent retail shops still inside the mall.

After parking the car and retrieving from the car's trunk Martha's rolling walker with a handy seat for her to use when she gets tired--and an attachable basket for the front for small purchases--Diana, Benjy, and Martha look inside the indoor tree barn  area of Christmas trees, wreaths, decorations, small gift items, some kid craft stations, and an unofficial post box for Christmas Letters to Santa. 


And there is also a Picture with Santa booth for a small fee. But even small fees are not within Diana's ability to pay them at the moment, as she has to wait four more days till Friday, December 24th—Christmas Eve—for her next paycheck. So she is managing her money and her and Benjy's food needs very closely this week.

Benjy: "Ooooh! Mommy! Everything looks so pretty here!" Little Benjy's [(2) below] eyes are agog with all of the Christmas sights and smells—from the twinkling Christmas lights overhead, to Christmas trees, to decorations and gifts for sale.

And just as thrilled with the festive atmosphere, Martha's old blue eyes sparkle with delight.

Martha:  "Everthing looks lovely!"  Martha sighs [(3) below], remembering fondly how she used to festively decorate her modest home when her late husband Frank was alive.  She misses him dearly around the holidays.  Her widowhood is one more way that Martha and Diana bonded with each other--sharing their sorrows and their wonderful memories.

But today is a fun afternoon to be spent at the magical Christmas Village shoppes.

Diana: "Now remember, Benjy, we will look with our eyes, but not with our hands. So no touching anything." Diana puts her own hands into her pockets to reinforce that for Benjy—she will also do what she asks of him. And even if Diana had some mad money to indulge in to buy some of the lovely Christmas decorations, she would still admonish Benjy to be careful. And she wryly muses that maybe there should be an inexpensive insurance rider policy for toddlers and their antics. For four year olds like Benjy, breakage is inevitable.

Benjy: "I know, Mommy!" And he also puts his mitten covered hands into his coat pockets. Benjy is a good little boy who minds his Mommy.

There are several Christmas Village tree barn clerks scattered about the large tree barn indoor shopping area—with a hay bale or two brought in as seating for ambience. And one of the clerks—a very tall and lanky fellow named Luke—lopes over their way, while still keeping a keen eye on the kids at the coloring station. Well, he watches one kid, in particular, his own young daughter Heidi. Kid's activities are such a blessing for parents at family friendly shopping venues like Christmas Village.