Episode #30: The Weekly Mercies of Pam Ellis

“Merry Christmas!”

Molly stood at the door eagerly handing out candy canes to people as they entered. Anna stood beside her, helping some, but mostly watching shyly.

Christmas in July had never been my thing, but I had to admit, our event was bringing in people to the bookstore. I had stayed late the night before, helping Jared and Lacie cover displays in fake snow, putting up a display of Christmas books, and setting out Christmas crafts for the kids. We even had two authors in for the day with their Christmas book offerings..

I tried not to feel awkward in my Santa hat and green apron. Instead, I tried to think about the extra pay I would get this week for working overtime. I also tried to enjoy the smiles it brought to the faces of the people coming in from the Texas heat.

Jared was busy snapping pictures of families and individuals with our Christmas photo backdrop and cardboard cutout of Father Christmas.

We had hot and iced chocolate ready to go. I knew I would be spending a lot of time behind the tea counter.

“Wow! Now this is a fun bookstore.”

I spun around and saw Asa standing, looking around.

Ben bumped him. “I told you; this isn’t what it normally looks like.”

Asa shrugged. “Too bad. I feel ten degrees cooler stepping in here. It gets you into the Christmas spirit.”

My mouth dropped open. “I thought you two said you were going to play Risk the whole day.”

Asa through his arm around my shoulder. “We may have exaggerated our plans so we could surprise you. It’s been too long since we visited your work. How long will this party last?”

I looked around. “Just for the day. I’ll be staying late to clean up and get all the summer displays put back up.”

Ben looked behind me. “Is that hot chocolate?”

I looked and nodded. “We also have iced chocolate.”

Ben moved toward the tea counter. “I’ll take the hot stuff.”

I shook my head, but obliged my brother. “How can you drink the hot chocolate when the temperature outside is…”

Ben held up his hand. “You drink hot tea almost every morning no matter how hot it is.”

I opened my mouth to say it was different, but I shut it again. I smiled. “You’re right.

“Make it two hot chocolates,” Ben said with a wink. “I want one for Asa and one for me. Let’s get into the Christmas in July mood!”

I laughed and obliged him.

 

We had been a mad house all day, but we finally closed the door. I let out a long breath and looked around the messy store. I sure had my work cut out for me.

Jared looked as tired as I felt. I reached to pick up a discarded coloring page from the floor when his phone started ringing. “Lacie? Yeah, we just finished up.”

I grabbed a box from behind the counter and loaded books from the Christmas display inside. Amazed at how many of the books had sold. I glanced from my work to see Jared looking at me with distress.

“Is Lacie okay?” I whispered.

He covered the lower half of the phone. “Apparently, she is feeling awful, Hosanna is throwing a fit, and Molly and Anna are crying.”

I knew what I needed to do. “I’ll do the clean-up.”

Jared looked around. “You’ll be here until two in the morning.”

I shrugged. “Your family needs you.”

He swallowed. “Lacie, sweetheart, I’ll be there in ten minutes.” He hung up. “I owe you.”

I smiled and waved him off. I shot off a quick text to my family, letting them know why I would be late, and dove into the work. At least Jared had cleaned out the hot chocolate urns when we ran out an hour before closing.

I put on my audio bible and loaded all the Christmas displays. And then returned all the summer books to the shelf.

A knock on the door had my heart hammering in my chest. I turned toward the door, phone in hand. My siblings were pressed to the window, waving like crazy people. What were Asa and Ben carrying?

I unlocked the door and let them in. “What in the world are y’all doing here?”

Ivy bounced in. “Well, we thought you could use some help.”

“And I thought, why not turn this into a Christmas in July party for us?” Asa said.

Ben grunted. “Hence the reason we lugged the TV screen from home so we could watch a Christmas movie while we worked.”

“Can we put it up here?” Ivy asked, pointing to the tea counter.

I waved my brothers in.  “The counter would be fine. Now, what movie did you bring?”

“It’s a Wonderful Life.” Ben held up the movie. “I figured it would save all of us from bickering over which cheesy movie to bring.”

I smiled.

“Well, put me to work,” Meg said, clapping her hands together. “I’m guessing the bathrooms need cleaning.”

I nodded. “Are you sure you want to do that?”

Meg shrugged. “Let’s get the worst out of the way.”

I gestured for her to follow, and we went into the back room for supplies. Ivy followed and found the bag for the fake snow. “I can put all the fake snow back into this.

Soon, the boys were busy with trash bags collecting cups and random trash as well as hauling the filled bags out of the dumpster. I listened to the movie while I finished counting out the register and put the display shelves back in order. George Baily wasn’t even married yet by the time we finished.

I turned off lights and made sure everything was secured for the night as my brothers took the TV out to the car. They were crazy for lugging it down to the store, and I loved them for it.

Even though I was exhausted when I was finally tucked into bed, I pulled out my mercies notebook and my list of things to bring joy. On the list, I added celebrate Christmas in July with my siblings and marked it off. No, it hadn’t been something I had planned on, but it was perfect.

Opening the mercies notebook, I forced my eyes open long enough to write down what was most important:

God’s mercies to me today:

My siblings

Christmas in July

 Getting to bed before two AM