Page 67 of Soldier's Chrismas Hope
I went out early to dig my way to the horses. I’ll be gone a while today, so don’t worry.
Coffeemaker’s ready to go, just hit the button. There’s a loaf of my mom’s pumpkin bread in the freezer if you don’t feel like cooking for the kids. If you do feel like cooking, help yourself to anything you need.
Also, there’s plain paper for making snowflakes if the kids want.
Have a good morning.
-River
Nora smiled and read it again. It was thoughtful of River to remind her that his chores would take longer in the snow.
He knows now that I worry about him…
And the kids would have a blast making snowflakes out of the thick stack of white printer paper he’d set on the table next to the note.
She went over to start the coffeemaker. Pumpkinbread sounded amazing, but on a cold day, she thought a hot breakfast would be even better. And she figured River would be ravenous by the time he’d taken care of the horses.
Hopefully, she could get the kittens squared away before the kids were desperate for breakfast.
It was funny how having an extra grown-up around, even for a few days, made her realize how much planning went into doing it all herself.
She grabbed the two little bowls they had used for the kittens out of the drain rack and prepared a little mush of kitten food and formula. By the time it was ready, the black kitten was mewling for his breakfast and the others were waking up, yawning, and stretching out their tiny paws.
She got down on the floor with one foot on each side of the crate, making her legs into a sort of barrier, and opened the door.
They all piled out, and she watched the little fluff balls licking at their meal. Some were enthusiastic, others were going slowly.
“It’s cold, isn’t it?” she asked them. “Cold food and a cold floor. I guess next time we’ll put down a towel for you guys to stand on.”
She grabbed a blanket from their crate and lifted them up one by one to place them back down on the blanket to eat. The kittens were not fond of having their meal interrupted, and it took a minute to get them settled, but she felt better about the situation as soon as they were eating again.
“Aunt Nora?” a little voice said from the stairs.
“Good morning, Pixie,” Nora said. “Guess who’s eating their breakfast already?”
“John-John?” Pixie asked over a yawn.
“Nope,” Nora said. “It’s the kittens.”
Pixie didn’t reply, but Nora could hear the soft sound of little socked feet moving down the staircase.
“Oh, good morning,” Pixie sighed in ecstasy, lowering herself to the floor.
“Here,” Nora said. “Help me make a fence.”
They slid into place, toes touching as they made a bigger perimeter for the kittens.
“They can climb over us,” Pixie said worriedly.
“Yes,” Nora said. “I just want to encourage them to eat up for now. But it’s okay if they explore after that.”
In no time, the kittens had eaten their fill and were climbing all over Pixie as she giggled and cooed at them. Nora placed them in the litter box one by one and most of them got the idea this time. She only had to clean up one tiny mess.
“Clever kittens,” she told them.
Pixie seemed content to sit on the floor playing with them, for now at least. And she was still wearing her warm pajamas, so Nora figured that was just fine.
She washed her hands and looked around the kitchen for an idea of what to fix for breakfast.
