“I have an idea to make this the best Christmas ever!”
Brendon paused between bites of cookie. “Better than last year?”
Lisa nodded, twin braids flapping like crow wings. “My ideas always get better as they go on.”
Eight-year-old Suzy planted her hands on the kitchen table and bounced. “This is the bestest bestest idea ever!”
Little Simon glared up from his coloring. “Suzy’s shaking the table.”
“Suzy, stop shaking the table,” Marie repeated from the living room.
“Does it involve pumpkins?” Brendon asked carefully.
Lisa shook her head. “Nope.”
Suzy sang. “Fa la la la la!”
“Used books?” Jonny tromped down the stairs and waddled into the kitchen, balancing a stack of lumpy wrapped presents.
“Nope.”
“La la la la!”
“Please tell me there’s no stray cats anywhere on the horizon.” Brendon brushed cookie crumbs off his shirt.
Lisa pouted. “I wanted to do dogs, but Daddy said no…”
“You already achieved Code Parental Approval?” Marie exclaimed. She walked out into the kitchen, lights wrapped around her arms in a multicolored tangle.
Brendon gawked. “Without proofing the idea with us first?”
“Objection!” Jonny hollered. He threw his packages down on the counter, but one stuck to his hand. He struggled to disentangle his finger from the loose tape.
“Well, she told me,” Suzy said.
“I call for a revote,” Brendon said, raising his hand.
Lisa planted her hands on her hips. “You haven’t even heard my idea yet.”
“Well, do share,” Marie said. She frowned at the mess on her arms. “Brendon, can you help me find the plug end?”
“There is no plug end,” Jonny sneered. He smirked and forced an evil overlord voice. “They go in one endless circle. There is no way out.” He threw his head back and laughed, then resumed picking at the tape that trapped his finger.
Marie gazed at Brendon pitifully. Brendon sighed and walked over to her. “Well, we’re listening, Lisa.”
Lisa smiled. She straightened and folded her hands in front of her like a schoolgirl giving a presentation. “This is not only a fun idea…”
“Fa la la la la!”
“…but a wise one.”
Brendon crooned dramatically.
“Because,” Lisa stuck her nose in the air, “it involves something we already have around the house.”
“Cookies?” Simon asked hopefully. He stared at his crayon box for a full minute before selecting the precise shade of blue.
Lisa rubbed her chin. “Maybe we can make some when we get back.”
Brendon, Marie, and Jonny groaned in strangely harmonious unison. “Must your ideas always involve wandering around in the cold during the dead of night?” Brendon moaned.
Marie paled. “I don’t want to go door-to-door again!”
Lisa assumed the soothing voice of a teacher. “Mama says we have to go when it’s daylight, and yes, we’ll go door-to-door. We’ll probably go downtown, too.”
Marie screeched as though she’d just seen a mouse. “I don’t want to walk up to random people’s houses again! It’s so weird and stalk-y!” Her hands flew to her face, jerking the lights out of Brendon’s grip.
“Hey, I almost had it,” he complained. Marie slowly lowered her arms, but they were visibly shaking.
“It is not stalk-y, it’s neighbor-ly! It’s a way of spreading goodwill, peace on earth, and utterly random acts of kindness!” Lisa declared.
“La la la la!”
“It always was the ‘random’ part of RAK that bothered me,” Jonny mused. He yelled triumphantly as his finger yanked free – ripping a strip of wrapping paper off the package. Jonny yelped and hid it with his hand. “Don’t look!” he said to Brendon, “it’s for you!”
“I can’t do this, I can’t do this!” Marie vibrated.
“I don’t want to leave – I’m not done with my drawing yet,” Simon pouted. “Can’t we just have cookies?”
“Yeah, I need to rewrap!” Jonny waved the loose strip of wrapping paper in the air.
“Order in the court,” Brendon yelled. He held up the plug end of the lights and pressed it into Marie’s hand. “Now don’t lose it.”
She stared at it, then glanced down at her arms. “Can you help me get them off my arms?”
Brendon sighed and began to untwist the strand. “Now, before we make any decisions, why doesn’t Lisa tell us what she wants us to do at random people’s doors?”
“Gladly,” Lisa beamed. “Suzy.” She gestured grandly to her younger sister.
Suzy dove under the kitchen table and rattled around. A moment later, she backed out and banged her head on the underside.
“Suzy’s shaking the table again.” Simon frowned at his picture of a snowman village.
“Suzy, stop shaking the table,” Marie repeated.
“Suzy, try not to hurt yourself,” Brendon added.
Suzy shook her mop of blond locks as she straightened, holding a cardboard box. The scent of pine blasted out of it and permeated the kitchen. Setting it on the chair, she opened the flaps.
“Did Mom give you permission to bring those inside the house?” Marie said dubiously, eyeing the mud-encrusted boughs.
“Well,” Lisa clarified, “she said we had to make the wreaths in the garage…”
“This is not the garage,” Marie reminded her.
“Wreaths?” Brendon questioned.
“Make?” Jonny squawked. “We have to make something? I don’t like making things. Unless it’s with Lego’s.”
“Mama said we can make wreaths with the pine clippings Daddy and Uncle brought from the farm. We’ll decorate them with ribbon, and then take them door-to-door…”
“I’m not going door-to-door!” Marie yelled.
“But it will be fun!” Lisa pleaded.
Brendon yanked on the strand. “‘Fun’ is a relative term.”
Jonny rooted in the kitchen drawer for more tape. “‘Fun’ is video games.”
“And cookies.” Simon held up his picture to admire it.
Suzy spun. “Fa la la la la!”
Lisa pouted. “It’s a good idea. Mom said.”
Brendon wrapped the last length of lights in a loop and handed the bundle to Marie. “Why don’t you tell us why Mom thinks it’s a good idea?”
“Well,” Lisa stressed, as though it should be obvious, “it’s a good use for those pine clippings.”
“La la la la!”
“And it’s neighborly.”
“Mailing Christmas cards would be neighborly, too,” Marie suggested.
Lisa crossed her arms and boiled. Simon put his picture down and regarded the box of clippings. “Deck the halls with boughs of holly,” he mused.
Suzy grinned. “Fa la la la la, la la la la!”
“’Tis the season to be jolly,” Lisa stressed, glaring at Marie. Marie wiggled her nose in thought.
“Fa la la la la, la la la la!” Suzy darted over to the coat rack and started yanking hats and mittens off the stand.
Marie smiled and sang. “Now we don our gay apparel.”
“Fa la la, la la la, la la la!” Suzy skipped back into the kitchen and held out a mass of winter woolies. Lisa took her scarf and proudly flipped it around her shoulders. Marie snapped ear muffs around her head.
Jonny snatched his multicolored-striped stocking cap from his sister and yanked it over his ears. “Troll the ancient Yule-tide carol!” he boomed, raising a hand and charging towards the door.
“Troll it with what?” Brendon challenged.
Jonny paused in the doorway. “Air guitar.” He flung the door open and leaped into the snow.
Suzy pulled her purple mittens on. “Fa la la la la, la la la la!”

“See the blazing Yule before us!” Lisa flung her arms out grandly and gestured and at the snowy subdivision. Three boxes of finished wreaths sat on the edge of the porch.
Brendon wrapped his arms around his chest. “I’m cold already.”
Suzy puffed breaths of steam into the air. “Fa la la la la, la la la la!”
Jonny shoved his brother in the arm. “Strike the harp and join the chorus.” Brendon swatted for him. Jonny grabbed a box and leaped off the porch, skittering down the sidewalk.
“I thought it was an air guitar.” Marie shivered.
“Fa la la la la!” Suzy waded into the lawn and gathered a fistful of snow.
Simon, wrapped up to the nose in several layers of scarves, toddled up beside her. “La la la la!”
Lisa picked up another box and sauntered down the sidewalk. “Follow me in merry measure!”
“Fa la la la la!” Suzy threw back her arm and flung her snowball.
Jonny yelped as white splattered into the back of his head. He slipped and sprawled on the sidewalk, grabbing at his hair and shrieking. “I’ve been hit! This is the end! Go on without me, star command!”
Simon threw his lumpy handful of snow. It landed at his feet. He frowned.
Marie laughed. “La la la la!” She tromped off the porch to Simon’s side and made a snowball for him.
“While I tell of…” Lisa’s song cut off in a scream. She dropped her box and scrabbled at the snow clinging to her braids.
The siblings glanced back. Brendon grinned cheekily, one snowball in each hand. “You weren’t watching,” he explained.
Jonny crawled to his knees. “While I tell of Yule-tide treasure!”
Suzy bounded up to him and yanked on the tail of his stocking cap. “Fa la la la la!”
Marie pointed at Brendon. Simon held his arm up to fire.
Brendon grabbed the last box and held it up to shield his face. The snowball splattered across the side. “La la la la!”
He squawked when Lisa hit him from the other side.

“Fast away the old year passes,” Marie sighed dreamily. Her breath stood out in the fading light.
“Fa la la la la.” Simon snuggled up against her shoulder.
Jonny struggled to hold on to the flattened boxes under his arm. “La la la la…” He tried to finish, but a yawn choked his efforts.
Brendon stifled one of his own as he herded his siblings up the driveway. “Hail the new year, lads and lasses.”
Suzy wrapped herself around his arm and buried her red nose in his sleeve. “Fa la la la la, la la la la!” Her voice muffled.
Lisa spun around and gazed at all of them. She clasped her hands and grinned. “Sing we joyous, all together!”
She flung her arms out. Marie set Simon down, and they all joined hands.
“Hey!” Jonny protested, gesturing with the cardboard. “I’m excluded, here.”
“Then put the cardboard down,” Marie suggested.
“Well, if I’m going to put the cardboard down… I’ll do this!” Jonny threw the pile on the snowy concrete and leaped on top of them. He shoved his foot and howled. He slid two feet down the driveway.
Suzy bent over him and poked his leg. “Fa la la, la la la, la la la.”
Brendon shook his head and blinked the grogginess out of his eyes. “What was the last line?”
“Heedless of the winter weather!” Marie laughed and shoved him into the snow piled on the curb.
Suzy giggled as her brother flailed, spraying snow. “Fa la la la la, la la la la!”

Hark how the bells.

Chiming, calling, pleading, begging
Speaking sharply through the night
Speaking secrets never answered
Into ever dimming light

Sweet silv’ry bells.

Shining, swinging, clanging, ringing
Echoing o’er the empty city
Dimming, swelling, growing, singing
Speaking words of joy so free

All seem to say,

Fear not, know not, dare not answer
Leave me, know me, love me,
Ever ringing,
Ever calling,
Ever trusting to forever…

Throw cares away,

Hark to bells that ever call,
Across the city. Listen all
To chimes and peals and songs of might
They ring out old and ring in light

Christmas is here.

Leave me, know me, love me,
Ever ringing,
Ever calling,
Ever trusting to forever…

Leave me, know me love me ever
Ever ringing, ever calling, ever trusting to forever...

the "ever" belongs both to the first line and the second. It's really:

Katie, you never cease to amaze me. How you can whip out poetry like that baffles me.

I think the story loses a bit of its impact at the end: “His burden of loneliness lifted just a little. He was not truly all alone in his valley. On a Christmas many years before, God’s Son had come to earth to save mankind and dwell with them forever. Including in Joshua’s lonely valley.” While the sentiment is solid, I think the phrasing is a bit trite. I think if the narrative were more indirect, like the rest of the piece, it would have a lot more impact. I’d probably drop the line “His burden of loneliness lifted…” – that’s implied when he starts chopping again. Instead, uphold the dreamy feel and say something vaguer about “He was never alone in the valley. There was always someone with him, ever since the first Christmas years ago…” The grammar is off there, but you know what I mean.