Here is an excerpt from my new book. Hope you enjoy it.
Chapter one Stir-Up Sunday
"Stir up, we beseech Thee, O Lord, the wills of Thy faithful people..." As the sermon continued, the five little sisters squirmed and wiggled. Only Faith, the eldest, tried to keep still.
"Shhh…" whispered Mrs. Carruthers. She pulled her youngest daughter, four-year-old Thisbee, onto her lap to try and hush her.
Faith put her arm around Agatha and held her tight while Mr. Carruthers gathered the twins onto his lap. Soon Elspeth fell asleep against his shoulder.
At long last the church service was over, the family left and returned home. Excited, the girls could not stop talking about "Stir-up Sunday" and the Christmas Plum Pudding. They were all going to help make it!
Cook had been busily assembling the ingredients. Faith was allowed to crack the eggs. Lilith and Elspeth combined the bread crumbs, spices, and flour. Agatha vigorously stirred together the butter and sugar. Thisbee added the dried fruit.
"Stop eating all the currants, Thisbee." said Agatha, who herself had been known to sneak a taste.
Soon the entire family was taking turns, stirring and making wishes. Finally Mr. Carruthers added the silver sixpence and Cook wrapped it all up in a cloth and put it in a pan to boil. Agatha stared at the pot. She kept on staring as the rest of the family drifted away, out of the kitchen, into the nursery to play or into the library to read.
Agatha was still watching the pot a half hour later when Cook, finished with some other chores, came to check on the pudding.
"What? You’re still here? Run along, you silly. The pudding won’t be done for hours. And after that, you know, it still won’t be done because we won’t actually eat it until Christmas Day."
From the parlour came the sounds of piano music. Faith was playing Christmas carols.
"That sounds very nice, my dear." her mother told her. "I think if you keep practicing you should be ready to play for us on Christmas Eve. What fun it will be to gather around and sing."
"Oh, no, Mama. I couldn’t. You must play as you always do." protested Faith.
"Oh, Faith." piped in Lilith. "Why don’t you play? Why don’t we have a Christmas show? We could perform on Christmas Eve instead of doing a game of Charades."
Elspeth was nodding her head excitedly. "Yes, yes. Let’s do it! I’ll write the script. We can all be in it and for the grand finale, Agatha can sing while Faith accompanies her."
"That’s a fine idea." their mother began but Agatha had just come in from the kitchen.
"What’s a fine idea?" she wondered, dropping down on the rug in front of the fire.
"We’re going to do our own show for Christmas." Elspeth proclaimed. "I’m going to write a wonderful story. We’ll have parts to act out and Faith will play the piano."
"What part will I have?" asked Agatha. "And what about Thisbee? She’s too little to have a part."
"No I’m not. I’m not too little." said Thisbee angrily. "What’s a part?" she wanted to know.
Their mother chuckled. "You are all going to be in a Christmas play." she told her. "I’m sure Elspeth will think of something special for you to do."
"Yes." agreed Elspeth. "It will ALL be very special. And now I have to go find some paper and start writing. Come on Lilith, let’s get to work."
The twins trotted out of the parlour and headed upstairs to the nursery. Agatha tagged along after them.
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The days passed and the Carruthers sisters became more and more excited as the household started getting ready for Christmas. Besides the play, there were decorations to arrange, greens to put up, and ornaments to make.
Big sister Faith was helping little Thisbee make some Christmas decorations. She took an orange and showed Thisbee how to make scented pomanders which they would use as ornaments for their Christmas tree.
"See Thisbee." she explained patiently for the second time. "See how you take the sharp pointed end of the clove and stick it into the outside of the orange. Like this." She demonstrated, then placed her hand around Thisbee’s tiny one and guided her with the task.
"Oh, now I see." said Thisbee. "Like this?"
And, proudly, she added clove after clove until the entire orange was covered with cloves.
"Yes. That’s perfect." her sister assured her. "Think how nice they will look hanging on our tree at Christmas."
In another part of the parlour Mrs. Carruthers was helping the other girls.
"Take a square of paper, fold it in half, and then cut a curved piece off at the top. The two sides should be equal." She showed them how to join up the circle so it formed a cone shape.
The girls followed her example, making several colorful paper cones. Later, on Christmas Eve, these would be hung on the tree, filled with candies and nuts.
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