In the back of the pantry is something from Santa. In a red box by the attic window is something your father would want you to have. Out by the shed in a bucket covered with straw is a gift from your Mama.

Love to you,
Mama

Darling Cypress,

Underneath my hat boxes in the 2nd floor closet is your present from Santa. Look behind the tomatoes I canned last year for what I got you in your Papa’s name. My own choice for you is under your bed.

XOXOX,
Mama

Sweet Little Indigo,

This is going to be very simple. Santa left you something outside your violin. I left you a gift by the outdoor stove on the right hand side. Put your coat on before you go out there. And the special something I got you from your Daddy is way up in the china cabinet. Please, be careful.

I love you so much,
Mama

In the back of the pantry between the flour & rice, Sassafrass found a necklace of porcelain roses. Up in the attic across from Indigo’s mound of resting dolls, there was a red box all right, with a woven blanket of mohair, turquoise & silver. Yes, her father would have wanted her to have a warm place to sleep. Running out to the shed, Sassafrass knocked over the bucket filled with straw. There on the ground lay eight skeins of her mother’s finest spun cotton, dyed so many colors. Sassafrass sat out in the air feeling her yarns.

Cypress wanted her mother’s present first. Underneath her bed, she felt tarlatan. A tutu. Leave it to Mama. Once she gathered the whole thing out where she could see it, Cypress started to cry. A tutu juponnage, reaching to her ankles, rose & lavender. The waist was a wide sash with the most delicate needlework she’d ever seen. Tiny toe shoes in white & pink graced brown ankles tied with ribbons. Unbelievable. Cypress stayed in her room dancing in her tutu till lunchtime. Then she found The Souls of Black Folks by DuBois near the tomatoes from her Papa’s spirit. She was the only one who’d insisted on calling him Papa, instead of Daddy or Father. He didn’t mind. So she guessed he wouldn’t mind now. “Thank you so much, Mama & Papa.” Cypress slowly went to the 2nd floor closet where she found Santa’d left her a pair of opal earrings. To thank her mother Cypress did a complete port de bras, in the Cecchetti manner, by her mother’s vanity. The mirrors inspired her.