THE CHRISTMAS NUT

Mary and Louis spent every Christmas in their cottage in the Alpes with their children. They had been married for ten years. Every year, at Christmas there was a new child. In their cozy cottage, there was always a Christmas tree and a Nativity scene made with the figurines that Louis and Mary engraved in wood and that their children modeled in clay.

To have a pinch of novelty to the usual Christmas Mary and Louis had decided to inaugurate a completely new tradition. All of them were found in nuts and loved squirrels. They had therefore decided that for Christmas Mary and Louis would hide the biggest nut they had, and their children would have to find it ( should find it). Whoever found the nut would have received, as an award, the honor to be photographed and filmed under the Christmas tree in the company of PIPPI POPPI, the squirrel which practically lived in the cottage, as Pippi Poppi was holding the biggest nut among its front paws, close to the muzzle.

Louis and Mary found a hiding place that was not too easy to find but, at the same time, not inaccessible where they put the beautiful big walnut that a friend had brought them from Madagascar. Since they wanted their children to work hard to find the walnut but they wished also that, after having worked hard, they finally find it. Then they all would celebrate together and the guest of honor would be Pippi Poppi.

After Christmas dinner, Louis set off the search. With Pippi Poppi perched on his shoulder, he announced: “ The search begins! READY, SET, GO!” The children went on the treasure hunt, looking for the BIG WALNUT, while Christmas music resounded in the cottage and Mary and Louis sang “ YOU COMES FROM THE STARS”, and “ SILENT NIGHT” cuddling their newborn Ruth, who was just a few days old.

There, in the cottage, with a crackling fire under the fireplace, in front of the Christmas tree, with Ruth in their arms, they too felt, at least a little, the characters of the Nativity scene.

The children scattered all over the cottage, which was quite large, looking for the treasure of the walnut, that their father had shown them, holding it on the hollow formed by both palms of his hands approaching each other. It wasn’t really just any walnut. It was at least big as three of the ones they and Pippi Poppi too were used to eating.

While the children rummaged even in the cellar and went up onto the roof, hoping to find the big Madagascar nut( walnut), Pippi Poppi hopped, squeaking, through the cottage, enchanted above all by the Christmas tree on which he climbed and also tried to gnaw on some colored balls which, however, he did not find good to eat.

In the meantime, other squirrels had entered the cottage, including Dummy Pimpa, which was Pippi Poppi’s partner. All of them, enchanted by the lights, had climbed the big Christmas tree and tried to bite into the colored balls, the bows, and the stars. But, finding nothing edible on the Christmas tree, they ended up rushing on the still laid table, gorging on peanuts, walnuts, and even sweets and fruit. Mary and Louis, delighted, had also placed Ruth on the table, and the squirrels had begun to sniff her and even stroke her with their big tails. It seemed the squirrels were also offering the baby peanuts and walnuts. They sniffed the peanut or nut they held with their paws close to their muzzle and then placed it in Ruth’s little mouth. It was a delightful show that Mary and Louis immortalized with photos and videos.

The children kept getting busy looking for the big Madagascar nut that they kept not finding. They even looked for it in the fire…

As they couldn’t find it after hours of looking for it everywhere, they first began to suspect that…the big nut was gone… Yes, it could be a fairy, a magical nut…..Then they began to doubt their dad, who maybe had put the big nut in his pocket, instead of hiding it in the cottage as he said. Or maybe the big nut was in a mom’s pocket….Or maybe dad had hidden it on Ruth! Yes, in Ruth’s diaper he must have hidden the nut! How had they not thought of it before? The children

rushed at Ruth, they undressed her and rummaged in her pee-soaked diaper…Nothing! The big walnut wasn’t there either. The children then, in exasperation, not only searched, rummaging, into their father’s and their mother’s pockets but also tore the clothes off their parents, in their frantic search for the big nut.  They were beginning to think that their dad made fun of them. He probably had to have eaten the big nut after he had shown it to them. How could they find it if the nut had been eaten?

On his part, Louis kept repeating to his children oh, yet, come on, it wasn’t so difficult to find the

BIG NUT….They were about to find it, they had already come close to finding it….and he repeated

that they shouldn’t be discouraged, they would have found it.

Evening fell and shortly thereafter night, the warm Christmas night, with all the comfortable warmth of a home when it’s cold outside. Ruth was sleeping placid and serenely in her mother’s arms, the squirrels were gone, but the children hadn’t found the nut yet. They were tired and exasperated. They started ranting against their dad who, in their opinion, had made fun of them, and was still making fun of them. They couldn’t find the nut if the nut there wasn’t there! While Louis kept repeating that instead, the nut was there…he had hidden it in the cottage. Come on, it was not impossible to find it…that they looked well, that they searched carefully…He went so far as to give them the suggestion to go back to the cellar.

Finally, they found it. It was in an empty barrel in the cellar. It was ( had been) difficult to find it because it was dark inside the barrel. But the children found the big nut…so to say. Only the shell was left of the nut. The squirrels had found it before them and had eaten it.