Karen’s Collection

“It is almost time to say good-bye, Emily Junior,” I said. “You will be away for two whole months.”

It was the end of November. I was at the little house talking to my pet rat. I named my rat after my sister, Emily Michelle. I will tell you more about my sister later. But first, I will tell you about me.

I am Karen Brewer. I am seven years old. I have blonde hair, blue eyes, and some freckles. I wear glasses. I wear my blue pair for reading. I wear my pink pair the rest of the time. (I do not wear any glasses when I am taking a bath or sleeping.) I have a little brother named Andrew. He is four going on five.

Do you want to know where Emily Junior is going? I will tell you. She is going with me to my other house. You see, Andrew and I have two houses — a little house and a big house. We switch houses every month. Only this time we will do something different. We will stay at the big house for two months — December and January. (That is a special arrangement Mommy and Daddy made. It has something to do with the holidays, but I forget what.)

Speaking of holidays, Thanksgiving just ended a few days ago. It was really fun. Now Christmas is coming. I can hardly wait! It has been a very long time since Andrew and I spent more than a few days at the big house in December. This year we are going to be there for all of Christmas. We do not even have to leave when it is over. I know Christmastime will be exciting. Exciting things always happen at the big house.

“I hope you will not miss me too much, Goosie,” I said to my stuffed cat. “You will have plenty of company here. And you know I will come back. I always do.”

I wiped a pretend tear from Goosie’s cheek. He always gets sad when I tell him I am going. But he is fine once I leave. I know because Mommy checks on Goosie for me.

Aside from Emily Junior, I do not have to take much with me to the big house. That is because I already have lots of things there. I looked around my room to see if there was anything special I wanted to take this time. Of course there was! My angel collection. I started it a little while ago. I did not want to forget it. Especially at Christmas.

You see, I love angels. They are special and magical. I want to have as many as I can. And I want to know as much as I can about them. Here is what I have in my collection so far: An angel mug. A very good book called My Book of Angels. A postcard with an angel on it from my pen pal, Maxie, in New York. (She got it at a store called Everything Angels. Some day I will go there.) My angel rubber stamp. And a pipe cleaner angel I made at school. It is a gigundoly beautiful collection.

I think I will make tags shaped like angels to put on my gifts this year. I will need a lot of tags because I have a lot of gifts to give. That is what happens when you have two houses and two families.

Did I tell you yet how I got to have two houses and two families? I do not think so. I will tell you right now.