MR. Oiko made us grade six girls sing Wake Up Little Suzy at the Christmas concert last night. We didn’t really sing. Mr. Oiko played a record and we just pretended to sing. He told us to wear tight skirts and pullover sweaters. On stage we had to line up in a half circle and snap our fingers like Elvis and dance in place to the music. Half the girls couldn’t keep time, and we were all scared to look jazzy. The song seemed to go on and on and on. I could feel the sweat on my face and I didn’t know where to look. I never felt so stupid in my whole life.
Only grades one to eight were in the concert. Most of the classes sang carols or recited something. The grade threes had a rhythm band. They hit triangles and cymbals to every second beat of a song on a record. Everybody likes the Christmas concert because we get to practise during class time, so we don’t have to do lessons.
I’m so happy because tomorrow is the last day of school. Father Jeremy, the missionary for Firefly, will be driving me and Missy and Dorothy home right after supper tomorrow so we can sing some carols at one of the churches. We get to go home a day early. Everybody else is going home on Saturday. Sister is going to let me pack my suitcase today after school.
We made Christmas cards for our parents in art class. I made Mum one with jingle bells on it because she remembers them from when she was a little girl. She says, “Ahhh,” with a big smile on her face when she hears bells. I made Dad a card with a picture of a fir tree in the woods with snow on the branches. It reminds me of the times we go to get wood in the winter. My dad hitches up the horses to the hay sloop and we all bundle up in warm clothes and go out into the hills. Dad and Jimmy cut down dead trees and cut them into blocks. The rest of us chop off branches or load the blocks onto the sloop. Then we ride home in the snow and unload the blocks at the woodshed, and Mum makes us cocoa.
The first thing I want to do when I get home is take Spud for a walk up the hill and look for a good Christmas tree. Then I’ll show Jimmy. Jimmy is the one who got our first Christmas tree. He chopped down a little fir tree. He put the tree on a crate by the window in our living room. He put popcorn on a string and wrapped it around the tree. Then Mum made some red ribbon bows for it and Dorothy made paper birds that she learned how to do in school. When my dad saw the tree he took me and Missy to town and bought some shiny glass balls with all different colours on them. Missy picked out the star. It’s all shiny like a looking-glass.