WeWriWa—Enjoying Christmas morning

Welcome back to Weekend Writing Warriors and Snippet Sunday, weekly Sunday hops where writers share 8–10 sentences from a book or WIP. This year, my Chanukah- and Christmas-themed snippets come from Chapter 20, “Dueling December Holidays,” of the book formerly known as The Very First (which is set during 1938). The new and improved title will finally be revealed upon its release next year!

This week’s snippet comes a few lines after last week’s, when young Cinnimin Filliard unwrapped her Christmas present from her secret crush Barry, her best friend Sparky’s favorite brother. He got her The Sword in the Stone and put in a very nice inscription.

Piernik is Polish gingerbread. Lucinda is Cinni’s aunt.

With the wrapping paper, tissue paper, ribbons, and unwrapped presents still strewn all over the living room, they went to the kitchen for a traditional Polish Christmas breakfast. Lucinda and Mrs. Filliard made several big pans of scrambled eggs with goat cheese and spinach while Mr. Filliard got the rest of the feast from the icebox and pantry. As soon as the scrambled eggs were done, they joined smoked salmon, apricot coffeecake, piernik, pickled mushrooms, cold cuts with horseradish, raspberry tea, marinated vegetable salad, and oranges on the table.

After breakfast, Cinni went up to the attic to change into one of her gifts from Bogda, a black rayon dress featuring orange flowers with large leaves. This was the only article of clothing she’d enjoyed unwrapping. Her great-grandma might be seventy-five, but she understood fashion, and knew what kinds of clothes Cinni liked to wear. Cinni hoped she’d be such a fashionable elder when it was her own time.

Cinni and her family spent the afternoon in the living room, listening to the radio, playing board games, and doing jigsaw puzzles. Towards 4:00, Cinni’s stomach led her into the kitchen for something to tide her over until the early dinner. Surely her mother wouldn’t lecture her about her sweet tooth and spoiling her appetite on Christmas of all days.

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WeWriWa—Cinni unwraps her presents

Welcome back to Weekend Writing Warriors and Snippet Sunday, weekly Sunday hops where writers share 8–10 sentences from a book or WIP. This year, my Chanukah- and Christmas-themed snippets come from Chapter 20, “Dueling December Holidays,” of the book formerly known as The Very First (which is set during 1938). The new and improved title will finally be revealed upon its release next year!

This week’s snippet comes about a page after last week’s, when the Jewish Smalls (originally the Brandts) and their Methodist hosts/sponsors the Filliards unwrapped Chanukah and Christmas presents together. In 1938, Christmas Eve and the eighth night of Chanukah coincided.

It’s now Christmas Day, and Cinnimin is unwrapping the rest of her presents and shaking out the contents of her stocking.

Cinni delightedly found a lot of chocolates, candies, and oranges in her stocking, some of them from the kosher candy store and bought by Barry and Sparky. The goodies from her father were swing records, ruby hairpins, ten Bakelite bracelets in a rainbow of colors, a Bakelite brooch of a tortoiseshell and white guinea pig, new rollerskates with red straps, a mesh bag full of peppermint swirl and Joseph’s coat swirl marbles, a 200-piece jigsaw puzzle of jungle animals, a jumprope with red and blue swirled handles, a dragon paperweight, and a medium blue kaleidoscope. As usual, he’d given her all the best presents.

Also as usual, her mother had given her the most boring presents—socks, pencils, ink refills, blouses, skirts, more of the hated bicep-high church gloves, petticoats, plain hair clips, a red and white bandeau, red hair ribbons, a children’s Bible, a red alarm clock, and a new addition to the Little Bo Peep church dress collection, this one in an awful shade of lemon-yellow. Cinni shuddered as she unwrapped it, thankful her parents never forced her and her siblings to model their Christmas clothes right then and there.

The present she saved for very last was Barry’s. She held her breath as she pulled the paper and ribbon off the carefully-wrapped gift. Barry wrapped presents very well for a boy. She was used to her male friends’ careless wrapping jobs, where the paper was unevenly cut and ripped, not measured properly, and asymmetrically-aligned.

Cinni smiled as she discovered the T.H. White book The Sword in the Stone, a fantasy about King Arthur’s childhood.

WeWriWa—Unwrapping presents together

Welcome back to Weekend Writing Warriors and Snippet Sunday, weekly Sunday hops where writers share 8–10 sentences from a book or WIP. This year, my Chanukah- and Christmas-themed snippets come from Chapter 20, “Dueling December Holidays,” of the book formerly known as The Very First (which is set during 1938). The new and improved title will finally be revealed upon its release next year!

This week’s snippet comes a few pages after last week’s, as the Smalls (originally the Brandts) and their sponsors/hosts the Filliards sat down for a dinner jointly celebrating the eighth night of Chanukah and Christmas Eve, which fell on the same night in 1938. Now they’re going to unwrap some of their presents together.

Artwork by Yelena Flerova

After the table had been cleared, everyone went into the living room to unwrap presents. The Filliards had wrapped the Smalls’ gifts in innocuous, secular paper, without any Christmas symbols, not even snowflakes. Both the paper and ribbons were solid green, red, and blue. The gift tags likewise were devoid of any hint of Christmas, and could’ve easily been affixed to gifts for any occasion.

Cinni watched expectantly as the Smalls opened her gifts. She’d gotten a small, no-frills compact mirror for Mrs. Small; a tin of shoe polish for Mr. Small; a 500-piece jigsaw puzzle for Gary; a book of Heinrich Heine poetry in German for Barry; and pearl hairpins in the shape of hearts for Sparky. Barry’s earlier Chanukah present had been a dark blue and white plaid beret, so he’d have a more stylish, modern way to cover his head. Though Cinni had itched to put a more personal inscription in the book, she didn’t want Barry to suspect her true feelings. Instead she’d settled for “Dec. 24, 1938, to Barry from Cinnimin. Happy Chanukah.”

WeWriWa—Thanksgiving shopping

Welcome back to Weekend Writing Warriors and Snippet Sunday, weekly Sunday hops where writers share 8–10 sentences from a book or WIP. This year, my Thanksgiving-themed snippets come from Chapter 19, “Happy Thanksgiving,” of the book formerly known as The Very First (which is set during 1938). The new and improved title will finally be revealed upon its release next year!

This week’s snippet comes a number of pages after last week’s. It’s now two days before Thanksgiving, and Sparky (real name Katherine), her mother, her oldest brother Gary (born Friedrich), her best friend Cinnimin, and Cinnimin’s older brother M.J. are buying food for the Smalls’ half of the joint household’s feast.

In 1938, Atlantic City had a large Jewish community, with many kosher groceries, bakeries, and candy shops.

Cinni rang the bell when Mrs. Small pointed out the approaching kosher grocery.  Though A&P had plenty of fruits and vegetables which were kosher by default, the Smalls typically bought their canned goods and bulk foods from kosher groceries.  Not everything at A&P could be trusted.

Inside the store, Cinni excitedly pointed out everything Mrs. Small needed to buy.  Since this wasn’t a fun food store like a bakery, Cinni didn’t linger over the culinary riches on display.  Within thirty minutes, they’d brought their bounty up to the counter and been rung up for $1.70.  The celery and cornbread were in the basket Gary carried, while Mrs. Small carried the baskets with yams and cranberries and Cinni held the pumpkin.

Their next stop was a candy store five blocks down.  Cinni eagerly ran inside and made a beeline for the bins and barrels of bulk candies and other sweets.  The richness of the choices overwhelmed her—chocolate-covered peanuts, rock candy, peppermints, salt water taffy, toffee, jellybeans, gumdrops, nougats, lollipops, nonpareils, peanut brittle, peppermint bark, fruit-flavored hard candies, chocolates of all kinds, fruit-flavored licorice, candybars, fudge, candied fruit slices, halvah, Jordan almonds, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, flavored stick candies, and marshmallows.

WeWriWa—Surveying the pantry

Happy 90th birthday to Mickey Mouse!

Welcome back to Weekend Writing Warriors and Snippet Sunday, weekly Sunday hops where writers share 8–10 sentences from a book or WIP. This year, my Thanksgiving-themed snippets come from Chapter 19, “Happy Thanksgiving,” of the book formerly known as The Very First (which is set during 1938). The new and improved title will finally be revealed upon its release next year!

This week’s snippet comes some pages after last week’s. Sparky (real name Katherine) and her best friend Cinnimin have come home from school, and introduced Sparky’s mother to the concept of Thanksgiving. The girls begged her to make kosher Thanksgiving foods, so their families can celebrate together, each with their own foods on the table.

Mrs. Small isn’t entirely sold on the idea, since the money to pay for this food has to come from somewhere, and her family needs to save money for more important things. Regardless, she’s given the girls permission to go into her kitchen to check for holiday-appropriate food.

The girls went into the Smalls’ kitchen, and Sparky pointed out where everything was.  They discovered carrots, potatoes, onions, flour, sugar, salt, mushrooms, walnuts, apples, dried fruits, non-dairy baking chocolate, green beans, brown sugar, cinnamon, and eggs, all of which could be used to prepare traditional Thanksgiving foods.  Cinni set out the non-perishables on the counter the Smalls used for their parev foods, so they’d be reminded of what they needed to use.  She also left a note about needing to use the eggs and mushrooms.

“Your mom won’t need to buy too much,” Cinni declared as she surveyed the gastronomic loot. “Only cornbread, pumpkin, bread for making breadcrumbs, celery to add to the stuffing, cranberries, yams, marshmallows, and turkey.  You can make gravy outta the turkey drippings, and thicken it up with flour.  My mom can lend you her recipes for stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, and candied yams.”

“I can’t eat marshmallows,” Sparky objected. “They’re made with gelatin, and that comes from pig bones.”