"Okay now, now be good and don't fight. If you guys could pick up and vacuum while we're gone I would appreciate it."
"Sure, Mom. We can do that." Nick replied as he handed his mother her coat.
"Listen to Nick and Libby and if you need us call Mom's cell phone." Dad opened the door for Mom and then followed her out.
"Alright, have fun!" said Libby.
"Bye!" chimed in Sarah and Alex. All four kids crowded around the door to wave as their parents left. The car pulled out of the driveway and Libby turned to her siblings.
"Now that Mom and Dad are off to celebrate their anniversary, we are going to clean and decorate the house while they are gone!" she said.
"But we don't have a Christmas tree yet!" said Alex. He was very concerned about the fact that it was December 12th and the Vogelgesang household did not have a Christmas tree.
"We'll worry about that later." Libby said.
"Besides, how could we get one without Dad?" asked Sarah. "We don't have a car and we don't have any money."
"Yeah, I guess you're right." sighed Alex.
"So let's get started!" Nick bounced down the hall toward the stairs. "I'll go up and get the boxes out of the attic."
"Wait! We have to clean up first." protested Libby. "Everyone needs to pick up and put away their stuff and then we have to vacuum and dust and do the dishes..."
"Uhoh, here she goes." muttered Sarah to Alex. "Why do you always have to tell us what to do?" she said aloud.
"Because I know what I'm doing." Libby bossed. "Besides, Mom and Dad put me in charge."
"They put you and Nick in charge so he doesn't have to listen to you." Sarah argued.
"Oh, I don't care, as long as I don't have to do the dishes." said Nick.
"Ugh, fine. I'll wash the dishes." Libby handed Sarah a broom, which Sarah took grumpily. "Let's get to work!"
After another brief squabble about who got to pick the music, a Christmas CD was agreed upon and the four kids got to work. Floors were swept, rugs were vacuumed, dishes were washed, and various personal belongings were stowed out of sight. Whether or not they were stowed in the correct place was another matter. All of this was cheerfully done as four voices sang out their favorite Christmas tunes.
"Are we ready to decorate yet?" Sarah was tired of Libby handing her things and saying that she hadn't vacuumed well enough.
"I think it looks good enough." Nick glanced around the room, which looked considerably tidier.
"Yeah, I think so too. Let's go get the decorations." Libby tossed a sponge into the sink.
"To the attic!" cried Nick, bounding up the stairs followed by his three younger siblings. Nick and Libby opened the old attic door and all four created an assembly line to hand down the boxes.
"Front room decorations, mantel piece decorations, Grandpa's nativity scene, the box with the stockings and the advent calender.. What else do we need?" asked Nick.
"The Mickey Mouse Christmas Clockshop!" Sarah peered into the musty boxes which were filled with newspaper wrapped items.
"What about the Christmas tree lights and ornaments?" asked Alex, still worried about getting a tree.
"We can get those later, but do you know where the snowmen mugs are?" Libby looked up the attic stairs at Nick.
"Uhmm, let me take a look. Here's the Mickey box though." He said. "That's one of my favorite decorations."
"Me too." Sarah took the box and looked at the colorful plastic characters inside. It was probably the only decoration still in its original box.
"Oh! Do we have Dad's jingle bell wreath?" asked Libby.
"I think it's in the box with the front room decorations." Nick called from above.
"Here it is!" cried Alex, pulling something noisy out of a tub.
"It's smaller than I remember." said Sarah, taking the wreath made out of red, green, gold, and silver jingle bells.
"You could wear it on your head." Libby placed it on Sarah's head. "You're adorable!"
"And if I shake my head like this I'm loud!" She said, dancing around the room.
"Hey down there!" cried Nick. "Is anyone going to help me with these mugs? They're kinda heavy!"
"Yup. I'm here." Libby stepped up to help Nick.
With all the boxes down from the attic, the Vogie kids turned on more Christmas music and began to decorate. Soon the downstairs rooms began to look very festive.
"Mickey's Clockshop is up!" called Nick.
"Turn it on!" Alex said. Mickey Mouse's Christmas Clockshop, a favorite decoration of all the kids and their father, was a battery powered decoration with classic Disney characters that sang Christmas songs. Nick had arranged the four characters, Mickey, Goofy, Donald, and Pluto on the China cabinet. This spot was reserved for Mickey's Clockshop every year.
"Here we go!" said Nick, reaching around to switch it on. The two boys waited for the familiar sound of it starting up, but nothing happened. Nick flipped the switch off and then on again but to no avail.
"The batteries must be dead." He picked it up and turned it around. "Alex, can you get me a screwdriver so I can open the back?"
"Sure."
In the other room Libby and Sarah were decorating the mantel. They were debating whether Mom's nativity collection should go on the window sill or above the fireplace.
"If we put them on the mantel, where will the toyshop snow globe go?" Sarah held up a sizable and rather heavy snow globe.
"But Grandpa's nativity always goes on the mantel. We can find somewhere else for the snowglobe."
"Why do all the nativity scenes have to go above the fireplace any way?" asked Sarah.
"Because I think it will look nice." Libby started organizing the decorations in catagories of Santa related and non-Santa related.
"Why does everything have to be your way?" Sarah retorted, hugging the giant snowglobe.
"Because I have good taste." said Libby smugly.
"Yeah right." said Sarah.
"Stop arguing." Nick coming into the room with the clockshop. "Where's your Christmas Spirit?"
"But she's being bossy again!" The snow inside the globe began to swirl as Sarah shook it in frustration.
"I am not!" said Libby. "I just think that-" Whatever Libby though was drowned out as Nick turned up the music.
"Grandma got run over by a reindeer!" sang Nick as he took the screwdriver from his brother and sat down to fix the clockshop. The girls grimaced at each other for a few moments before Libby relented.
"Fine, let's do it this way. We'll take turns putting up one decoration at a time, and where ever stuff winds up is where it stays. Deal?"
"Deal." They shook hands and dived back into the boxes. The two girls fought a lot, but they always wound up with a compromise. Libby began putting up the Willow Tree nativity while Sarah decked the mantle with green garland.
"That should do it!" Nick gave one last turn of the screwdriver. He set the clockshop upright and it on. Mikey Mouse and his friends started singing "Jingle Bells" in and array of blahblahblahs, quacks, howls, and bombombomboms.
"Can we fix it? Yes we can!" Alex did a victory dance to the music.
"Please don't start singing Bob the Builder." Libby dodged her younger brother's antics. "Nick, we're almost done, can you open the attic again so we can put the boxes back?"
"Sure!" Nick stuck the screwdriver in his back pocket and grabbed an empty box.
"You know, you don't have to listen to her." Sarah said to Nick, following him up the stairs. "I would take advantage of that if I were you."
"She's not that bad. Besides, she right. The boxes do have to go back in the attic."
"I guess." said Sarah. "But why does she have to be so bossy about it?"
"She's Libby, that's what she does." said Nick.
"What do I do?" Libby came up the stairs with the last box.
"Oh, nothing." said Nick. Soon all the boxes were back in the attic.
"Great! We're done!" Libby shut the attic door and locked it.
"Let's go watch a Christmas movie!" said Sarah.
"Can we watch Frosty?" asked Alex.
"Happy Birthday!" Nick pulled the screwdriver out of his pocket and began using it as as a baton as he marched around the room singing Frosty the Snowman.
"Thumpty thump thump. Thumpty thump thump. Look at Frosty Go!" Everyone joined in for the rest of the chorus. Nick began tossing the screwdriver into the air as they sang the next verse.
"Nick, be careful with that!" Libby ducked as the tool very nearly missed her head.
"I am." Nick twirled it again with added flair.
"I don't know, I don't think it's a good idea to throw that around." Libby said warily.
"It's fine." As the words left his mouth, Nick swung around to face his sister and the screwdriver flew out of his hands. It followed it's trajectory and made contact with the window. The recently replaced window. All four kids froze and stared at the broken glass. It was double paned, so the outside layer was still intact but the inside layer had a tool shaped hole with spider cracks reaching out from it.
"Uh oh." said Alex, glancing at Nick who had a look of terror on his face.
"Uhmm, why don't you two go watch Frosty?" Libby pushed Sarah and Alex towards the stairs. "Nick and I will take care of this."
"He should have listened to Libby." Sarah said to Alex, scampering down the stairs and away from the scene of the crime.
"You said Nick doesn't have to listen to Libby." Alex looked at his sister in amazement, wondering how she could be siding with Libby when all day she had been saying the opposite.
"Yeah, I know, but this time he should have."
Upstairs Nick and Libby were trying to figure out what to do.
"I have to call Mom and Dad and tell them." Nick knew he had messed up big time, and he felt so guilty that he had to tell his parents as soon as possible.
"What? No! They're on a date, just tell them when they get home."
"I'll call them and tell them something happened but I won't tell them what. That way they won't worry but they'll know." said Nick.
"That's dumb. Mom's gonna want to know what happened." Libby could not understand why her usually intelligent older brother was making a second stupid mistake.
"I'll tell her no one is hurt, but that I made a mistake and did something wrong." said Nick.
"She's just going to make you tell her what happened. Just wait and tell her when they get home." Exasperated, Libby tried to make him see reason.
"But that could be hours from now."
"Nick, telling them now makes no sense at all!"
"Libby, I'm going to call them." He said, walking away to get the phone.
"Fine. Don't listen to me. Just ruin their anniversary dinner."
"I've already ruined it. They just don't know it yet." Nick said glumly.
"Whatever." Libby left to join Sarah and Alex in the living room. Even a man made out of snow would have more sense than her brother right now.
Unfortunately for Nick, Libby was right. Once Nick mentioned that something had happened, Mom made him tell her everything. Lots of apologies were made for ruining the evening, Christmas, the house, and everything.
"Now Nicholas, let's not be over dramatic." Mom said over the phone. "We'll figure out what the consequences will be when your father and I get home."
"Okay." Nick said. "I'm really, really sorry."
"I know. We'll be home in an hour or so."
"Okay. Bye." said Nick, hanging up the phone. He sighed and said to himself, "I should have listened to Libby."
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