December 7th

The plans spread like wildfire in the village. Between conversations over fences, at the tiny supermarket’s cash register, at knitting clubs and at the bus stop, the adults in the village managed to get the news around without revealing their plans to the children. One after one, they arrived at Ludwig’s farm, bringing presents, carefully labelled, to be stored in the barn until Christmas. Many of the grown-ups were glad that someone else would be taking care of most of the work involved in Christmas. Those who had unwanted plans, now had an excuse to get out, while others had the chance to spend Christmas with their loved ones and the whole village at the same time. And the most unfortunate, those who had nobody to spend Christmas with, wouldn’t be left alone either.

Everyone who came to drop off the presents for the party agreed to contribute something. Some would bring cookies, others drinks, benches and tables, and so on. Ludwig had moved his computer onto the small table in the hallway and started a massive list on it, so he could take notes immediately, as people arrived. He was so exhausted by each evening that he was glad the farm itself needed a bit less work in winter.

The only thing that was missing for the perfect Christmas fete was snow, as Gary pointed out at numerous times during the day. He had tried to come up with a range of plans for how he and his super powers could bring snow to the village. The only problem was, so far his only superpower was to faint slightly less when he was excited. And a cape on a goat might attract many things, but snow was not one of them.