Jen's Christmas Nightmare

In the last 10 months that I've been married to Junior, though, she has thawed and we have got on much better, relaxed enough that I could get away with calling her "Shazz" or "Shazza". I know, it made her sound more like an Essex girl than who she really is, a great mother and excellent businesswoman who has made a significant contribution to my brother's business. I think she has now granted me a little respect, both for dumping Scott and to marry the future Father Christmas.

Sharon, I was sure, would drop everything and move heaven and earth to ensure her family went to the North Pole as often as possible and squeeze every ounce of enjoyment out of every trip, so I was confident that she would support me in my idea of an early Christmas celebration.

Who could blame her for enjoying Christmas at the North Pole all year round?

If it wasn't for Mr and Mrs Grumpy, I'd be up there every weekend enjoying the sheer enthusiasm of the Christmas elves and the other Santa relatives. I could cope with only occasional visits because I knew that one day the North Pole would be ours. Well, that it would become our permanent home and business to run for a long while until we trained our kids up to devote themselves to inherit our job. You could hardly call it work, just my little experience of what that Magic does for people was enough to fill me with pride and a little bit of fear thinking that it was all right to watch what goes on, but when Christmas for the whole world partly rests on your shoulders, as it will one day, the task becomes daunting.

"Miles'll be down in a moment, he's just finishing a quote for a home-based client. Do you want a hot drink?"

"Love one, I did put on a brew when I saw just Stephanie just now, but didn't hang around long enough after our chat to pour and drink it."

"We have fresh coffee in the pot, or I could put the kettle on if you'd prefer tea?"

"I could really murder a cup of tea," I admitted.

Sharon grinned, "Well, I'll join you. Miles always makes the coffee, up to two or three pots a day and he always puts in an extra scoop, it's just a little too strong for me. Sit down and take the weight off. You said you saw Stephanie earlier?" I nodded. "How is she?"

"She's fine. I wanted to see her to extend the same invitation to a celebration that I want to extend to Miles, you and the girls."

"Ooh that sounds interesting, what are you celebrating, a happy event to come?"

I guessed from her excitement that she was thinking, 'baby?'

"Oh no, Junior and I have already decided that we need at least a couple of years for me to get to grip with Webster's, and get the house and garden finished, before we consider starting our family."

"OK, it's just that I've got used to the advantages of having children early in our marriage, so by the time we get to 40 both the kids will be off our hands, or we hope they will be. So, what is this special celebration?"

"It's not really special as such," I replied, just as Miles walked into the kitchen. "Oh hi, Miles, are you busy?"

"Absolutely," he replied, "All this working from home has been a real boon to our business during the lockdown. In fact it was just starting to tail off and now we have this second lockdown. Businesses that didn't upgrade earlier don't want to struggle again through this next spell, so they are getting their upgrade orders in early. How are you doing at Webster's?"

"To start with it was difficult, but Junior had a feeling that this would be serious, you know, family experience with the Black Death, so as soon as I started working with Dad at the start of February, we were already putting refrigeration units into some of the trucks, so we were able to help out with food deliveries, an area we hadn't got involved with before. It certainly helped to offset the reduction in deliveries of white goods and machinery. We were even able to use our smaller box vans on a voluntary basis to deliver prescription medicines to patients at home, getting voluntary donations from patients and the pharmacies instead of invoice payments, which we put towards food parcels for the needy. Then we helped the Salvation Army and the Rotary Club to deliver those parcels to where they were needed. It earned us some brownie points with the Council, it kept all our drivers busy and put us on the inside track for sub-contracting from supermarket distribution centres. I think we are well placed to help in the same areas with this next shutdown."

"Great, I know Dad was concerned in March but by his birthday in May he was sounding very much more positive. So, why the call this morning?"

"I want to invite you all to the North Pole for an early family Christmas celebration for the last weekend in November, Friday evening through to Sunday. Junior and I have committed ourselves to work for Junior's family business for the whole of December this year so we can both start to learn our future roles, ready to take over in the future, which means missing celebrating Christmas with my family."

"But taking over Junior's family business won't be for many more years yet, will it?" Miles asked.

"No, at the earliest not until we have our family and our children are grown up and ready to leave school. However, Junior and I both feel that because of the degree of animosity between my mother-in-law and me, and to some extent my father-in-law and me with him blaming my influence from taking Junior away, that I have to be seen to be fully committed to my new family."

"I suppose that sounds reasonable," Miles agreed, "but how does that affect your standing in taking over from Dad at Webster's?"

"It's only a month out every year, which Junior and I can take as our annual leave. I am still committed to our family business, allowing Dad to retire whenever he feels ready to."

"I think," Sharon added to the conversation as she poured the boiling water into the pot for our brew, "to celebrate the festival with the family a month early is a great idea. The rest of us get to celebrate twice, and the end of November is usually a quiet period for us before the Christmas rush begins."

"Yeah, I'm not averse to celebrate Christmas in the snow, especially at your in-laws' place," Miles said, "We had an enormous amount of fun on our first visit and I'm sure the girls would love it again, and enjoy it for a whole weekend rather than just one night. Will there be another ball or was that a one-off for your wedding?"

"No ball this time, I'm afraid, we are not staying in the main area where the in-laws live." I replied. "We have just spent last weekend cleaning out a small hamlet of holiday cottages that will be completely at our disposal. Stephanie was looking forward to visiting the main area and I'm sure we can arrange an excursion at some point over the weekend, possibly Saturday morning. I've been back three times to the main area and I can see the appeal because it is a winter wonderland. This trip is intended to allow all the Webster family to celebrate together, something that won't be possible at Christmas time itself, possibly for years to come."

"Shame about the ball, the girls loved dressing up," Sharon said.

"As for the Boxing Night Ball, I don't see any reason why we can't repeat last year. I'll get Junior to speak to his mother."

"We're in," Miles said, with a glance at Sharon, who quickly nodded, "and the girls' would love to be on board, I am sure of that!"

"Great, we're doing well on the invite front," I smiled, "just Bernie to speak to and I'm sure their young kids'll love to come. I've been taking flying lessons with Junior over on the airfield all year and next week I've got my test, so if I get my licence we can take everyone in two planes."

We drank our tea, or the muddy-looking coffee Sharon poured for Miles, and generally chatted about what the girls were up to at school and agreed present distribution for what the girls wanted for proper Christmas.

Finally, I drove around to my sister Bernie's, thinking how useful it was that we were all living within a few minutes' drive of each other. I assumed she would be at home because she has her youngest, Judy who is just 3, at home during the afternoon. The eldest two are at primary school.

I was in luck, she was at home. Now, let me tell you that my relationship with Bernie is not as close as you might think should exist between sisters who grew up together. We started out well enough, during our childhood we were pretty well "joined at the hip". We were close together in age, so we were only a class apart in school, we were girls while our eldest and only other sibling was a boy and he was five years older than me, which drew us girls more together as sisters.

However, in our late teens, after I left home and went to Uni, leaving her behind, we soon drifted apart. I moved to London and got myself stuck in the dead end relationship I've already confessed to you, dear elf library readers, while Bernie kept the same boyfriend she'd known since primary school, a coupling which developed into a loving relationship, leading onto early marriage and three children before I even met Junior and thought about getting married and having a family of my own.

Following me leaving home and remaining single, during most of my twenties Bernie rubbed the facts of my single status and lack of children into my face every time we got together, which soured our relationship. So I tended to avoid her and therefore had a poor relationship with her children too. I think they saw Sharon as their only aunt and I was a stranger to them. Being so far away in London and rarely conversing in person or by phone also affected our closeness as sisters. So I would be honest if I admitted that we were only just now trying to rebuild a sense of sisterhood and it was still early days down that road.

Now Bernie's husband Mark Ford was at school with both of us, so I've known him almost as long as Bernie has and I've always got on well with him. He is probably the most relaxed and comfortably capable person I know, other than my dear Junior. Nothing ever fazes Mark and he appears to get on with everyone who knows him. He is a motor mechanic at the garage that usually services all of Webster's vehicles, trucks and vans. Because our haulage business isn't large enough to have its own service facilities, we have always used this one local garage with which Dad has developed a long association with, to the extent that he regularly plays golf with the garage owner. Mark is our go-to guy at the garage for servicing and nothing is too much trouble for him.

For reaction to my early Christmas celebration invitation, I didn't see Mark or the kids being obstacles, but I didn't know how Bernie would feel about it.

"Bern," I greeted her with. I had parked in the road outside her house and I could see her car boot was open and also the tops of several large jute shopping bags inside. Bernie was just coming out of the front door as I walked up her drive. "Do you need a hand with any of those?" I pointed towards the boot.

"Sure, Jen, you grab those and I'll take these."

She lifted the two bags on the left and I grabbed the two on the right before she pressed her car key button to close the boot.

"Do you want a cup of tea?" she asked over her shoulder as we passed through her open front door.

"No, I just had one with Miles and Shazz, but don't let me stop you putting the kettle on."

"Oh, it's already on, as soon as I brought the first two bags and Judy in, that life-saving kettle was filled and switched on. The shops were a nightmare with a queue to get in and everyone panic buying for Christmas. So, why the visit? Sounds like you're doing the rounds of the family?"

"Yes I am," I said as we put the shopping bags in the kitchen.

Just then the little munchkin Judy ran in from the sitting room to see if it was me, so I squatted down and caught her as she threw herself into my arms for a cuddle. "Hey, Jude, give us a kiss ... euuu! You're all sticky."

"Sorry Jen," Bernie apologised, "I gave her a sweetie to suck in the shopping line to quiet her down. The shops were awful, queues snaking everywhere, Even a queue just getting in, because the shops were operating under socially distancing. And then when we queued up to pay they only had three tills manned and at least twenty others empty, because the staff were too busy filling the fast emptying shelves. I think everyone's filling up their pantries before the new lockdown starts on Wednesday."

Now that I noticed, she did look harassed. She had that 'young mum' look, trying to eke out the housekeeping and keep the kids quiet and behaved at the same time. Yes, I've seen a foretaste of my own near future as a mother.

"I suppose the rest of the till staff were getting their shopping in while they could." I didn't like to tell her that I shopped online for evening deliveries and anything we were short of, there was always Santa's sack to fall back on. No, I couldn't rub it in, not even as delayed payback for those last few years. Oh, the embarrassment of appearing on Santa's naughty list ... I imagined Hilde would have a field day!

"I came around to invite you and all yours to an early Christmas celebration on the last weekend of November. We'd fly up to Junior's Dad's place on Friday evening, come back Sunday afternoon, all inclusive and a stay in one of six private log cabins. And we have an eager queue of elves volunteering to babysit, so we can have an adult Christmas as well as share Christmas with the children. Say you'll come, please."

"I'll have to check with Mark."

"I spoke with him yesterday at the garage, actually, booking in a truck for its service. He was happy to come and said he'd ask you and I told him that I was doing the rounds anyway and would pop in and ask you personally."

"All right, we're in. I know the kids'll love it. It was sprung on them last minute last year and they were rather bewildered by the whole North Pole experience. This time they will look forward to it so madly that they will probably drive Mark and me finally round the bend. So, what about what clothes we'll need?"

"I was thinking informal all weekend, you know, snowman making, chilling out, a bit of elf workshop visiting, nothing formal, but Sharon and her girls, plus Steph want to see the Grumpies, and you know that they would probably want to put on some kind of formal ball, it's their kind of old fogey thing."

"Don't knock it, Mark and I rarely get to go out anywhere and do adult things. Babysitting arrangements covered, you said?"

"Yes. I've spoken to Gronwynk who said she'd have no trouble find caring elf babysitters."

"Count us in, then, for both the formal and casual bits of Christmas."

"Great, thank you, Bern. Junior's got to work the whole of December with his Dad, so otherwise I'd miss Christmas with you guys. Never missed one before, even as a single."

"Thank you, Jen, thank you for inviting us, I think it'll be fun for everyone. Now, sit down and tell me about this log cabin. Sure you don't want a cuppa?"

"Oh, go on, pour me one. Dad's happily holding the fort at work so I might as well make the most of it while I still can."

CHAPTER 3 DOUBLE DATE

Junior picked up Stephanie from her Dad's on this Friday evening and she "directed" him to Shane's place. Of course Junior knows exactly where Shane lives and knows all there is to know about him.

Look, I realise the privacy of individuals is very important for liberty and human rights etc but Junior has this natural ability to really know how nice (or not nice) somebody really is. He doesn't have to physically check a list or some kind of "Naughty Book", I really don't think the Naughty List or Book actually physically exists other than in the myth that we have built around Christmas. Junior, my apprentice Santa husband, just naturally 'knows' how naughty or nice a person is.

It's unfair advantage in business to have this ability, I hear you say, and you do have a valid point. But, would you willingly work with someone who you definitely knew was untrustworthy? The knowledge provided by the Magic of Christmas to Junior cannot be ignored, so our business relationships are excellent and with that trust in place it means we have a much more honest and relaxed relationship with customers, partners and suppliers that is more like friendships than simply working relationships. Working for our whole lives and getting pleasure out of doing a great job and having rewarding interaction and friendly relationships with a wide range of really nice people, is much better than the money that our relationships generate, a whole lot better.

And it does means that long, trusted relationships are confirmed by Junior as being with nice people, so it shows that we ordinary humans can get caught by the odd scam, we are not completely gullible in the long term

After working in the toxic atmosphere of telesales for so long, working at my Dad's haulage firm, and helping to get people's beautifully crafted, grown or manufactured goods to market or supplying raw materials to other equally hard working people to turn such basic materials into beautiful worthwhile products, is what gets me wanting to go to work every day.

I was just finishing up in the kitchen with everything running to schedule when Junior brought our guests for the evening through the front door and I quickly left my apron on the counter and went to join them in the sun lounge at the back of our newly-constructed and even more recently furnished house.

'Hi Sis," I said, giving lovely Stephanie a warm hug, then turned to shake hands for the first time with Shane, her new beau.

He was stood tall and solidly well-built, with blue eyes, blond hair, long on top and fashionably cropped almost to the skin at the sides for about two inches above his ears all around his head. He looked like a Viking that had just stepped off his dragon-prowed longship and about to carry off Stephanie as his prize. He was holding Stephanie close to him with his hand gripped around her upper arm.

"And you must be Shane," I added.

"Yes, Mrs Nixon," he replied, looking straight at me in the eye, "I'm Shane Deakin, pleasure to meet you."

"Please call me Jen or Jenny, Shane, I've been looking forward to this evening. If you will excuse me, I must attend to the dinner, which will only be about ten minutes to get ready. Junior will organise some drinks. Steph, would you like to join me in the kitchen, I just need a hand with something."

Shane relinquished his hold on Stephanie's arm and she joined me as we left for the kitchen. Once there. I turned to her.

"Wow! Steph, he looks like a Norse God!"

"I know. Do you think he looks too scrumptiously good to be true? I mean, all the other students think he's totally buff, and not just the girls, and they keep asking me what the hell does he see in me?"

"What? What does he see in you? Steph, you are simply gorgeous, that's what he sees in you and any girlfriend that says different is not your girlfriend."

"Yeah, but I've only known him since the students' first public meet-up in early October and he seemed to latch onto me straight away."

"Well. What's wrong with that?"

"He's very possessive, Jen, he holds me all the time like he thinks I'm going to run away or someone else is going to grab me or something."

"Some men like to keep touching their girls, just on the arm and a hand on the back before going through doorways, holding hands as you walk along. PDA stuff is actually quite nice. Touching each other subtly and lightly is normal healthy relationship building stuff, so long as it is not blatantly mauling or inappropriate in public."

"Like bum-grabbing on a night club dance floor for instance?"

"He does that?"

"He did that, once, on our first sort of date three weeks ago and I pulled him up on it, there and then," Stephanie said indignantly.