A second breakfast
was consumed, or perhaps it was the second part of the first one, and then
another soft knock drew the teddy bear to the door. The hermit crab blinked at
it from the outside.
“I would come inside,
but your door is much too small,” it complained.
With enthusiastic
help from the squirrel and much less enthusiastic help from everyone else, they
managed to push the hermit crab inside. “I'm glad you came, hermit crab,” said
the teddy bear.
“I have,” said the
hermit crab, “after much consideration decided to be a hedgehog. It seems more
sensible.”
“Yet you still carry
around the knitted house?”
“This is not a
house,” the hedgehog said, somewhat insulted. “Can't you see that it's
decorations? I know you said you wanted shiny ones, but I had no time to find
shiny wool to knit with, so they are simply decorations.”
The teddy bear was
very thankful, and the moth splashed some silver paint on the knitting to fix
the shininess. Because there was so much of it, everyone started hanging the
decorations everywhere. The teddy picked up a few and headed for the tree,
passing the cat and the moth who were working on the lower parts of the tree.
“Let me help,” the
teddy said, reaching for the higher branches.
With one mouth, all
the guests at once exclaimed, “NO!”
Somewhat intimidated,
the teddy bear lowered its paw. “No? But I'm good at helping.”
“Yes,” the moth
soothed the teddy, “you are a great help. In fact, I think I would need your
help to finish all the food that's still left in the kitchen.”
Teddy bears were, the
teddy had to admit, better suited for that task. So while the moth and the
hedgehog argued about which color knitting fit best with which color wall, and
the panda bear and the scarecrow drew tables and diagrams for the perfect ratio
of saltiness to caramel, and the squirrel tried to drag the cat into a game on
the wolverine's game board, and the plushie grayhound set some candy candles on
fire and squealed with horrified delight as they melted, the rest ate a third
breakfast, or possibly the third part of the first, or maybe more likely the
first part of the second.
And they all had a
fantastic Christmas Eve.