The Periwinkles' Second Christmas

During the next two or three posts I will be showing you all the other wonderful gifts that have been sent to Riverside, so the stone wall tutorial featuring Fudge's cottage will have to wait. 

Today I will tell you the story of the Periwinkles' second Christmas. It goes like this:

Christmas had long passed. Julie had just taken the ornaments off the tree when an enormous bunch of presents was delivered to their home.

Quickly, Julie attached some large bows to the tree to make it seem like a christmas tree again. She laid the presents underneath and called for James and Jemima.

Here is the envelope the presents came in. It was sent all the way from Finland by Sirkka and featured these amazing Moomin stamps. 

There were so many little presents inside that envelope. How exciting! And all, except for one, were for the Periwinkles.

 There was also this beautiful card of a snowy landscape.

After delivering the presents to our favourite rabbit family, I stayed and watched them unpack. Jemima and Quackie were so excited, they forgot to close their mouths and Julie and James were jumping from one foot to the other, giddy with joy. 

As you might know, the Periwinkles are the richest family in and around Riverside due to a lucky lottery ticket many years ago. (You can re-read the story here.)  Nevertheless, they are very down-to-earth rabbits and do not tend to spend a lot of money at all. The parents hardly ever receive any gifts from one another, as they prefer to spend their money on Jemima.

There was one present for all of them, so they decided Julie should unpack that one first. Quackie sat on top of the wrapping paper and peered at the elegant silver candle holders and the red candles that they had received. Also, there was a wonderful golden candle extinguisher. 

"How very thoughtful!" Julie said.

Now Julie was even more curious to see what was inside the other gifts and she opened the one from Siiri and Iivari. 

"Look at these wonderful red doilies!!" she said in amazement as Quackie and Jemima stared at the bag of biscuits.

Now there was no way to stop Julie. She unwrapped the final gift too, which was from Marianne, and laughed with happiness when she saw it was a beautiful fabric bag containing different coloured balls of wool.

"She remembered that I like to knit!" she said.

James couldn't take it any longer. He wanted to know what was inside the package from Tuomo. He started to unwrap it. Jemima, who was now sitting on the floor, was quietly telling Quackie to be patient. It would be their turn soon. Quackie was grinding her teeth together and it seemed like she was close to having a tantrum.

"Oh my!! Look at this elegant silver flask and two cups!" James said. And, being the considerate rabbit that he is, he posed for the camera and me.

Quackie did not have any patience left. Neither did Jemima. "Mommy, Daddy, I wanna unwapp too!!!" she squeaked and looked at her parents reproachfully. 

"Oh baby, I'm so sorry!" James replied. "Your Mommy and I hardly ever get gifts, so we got carried away!" 

"Go ahead and open your present from Emily, dear!" Julie said.

"Mommydaddy!!" Jemima squealed, "I got a perfume collection just like a BIG girl!"

"That's absolutely marvellous, dear!" her parents said, kissing her on top of her tiny rabbit head.

Julie kindly placed all the gifts on the kitchen table and chairs so we could have another look at them. 

And here is the one gift that was from Sirkka for me. 

What a fabulous silver pendant! Thank you, Sirkka!!!

James went upstairs to get the cats. They were probably asleep or they would not have missed an unwrapping. Julie laughed as Jemima and Quackie rolled around in the pile of wrapping paper. 

"You're so silly, my little rabbit!" she chuckled.

"No, Mommy, I'm not silly. I'm a big girl now - I got perfume!!" said Jemima.

THE END

Thank you all for reading this story and THANK YOU, SIRKKA, for all the wonderful and thoughtful gifts! 

You told me, you made all these by hand, which seems almost unbelievable to me, as they are so detailed and so beautiful! 

Thank you also very, very much to the generous Emily, Marianne, Tuomo, Siiri and Iivari!!