Michelle nodded, and as Hannah watched, she assumed the identical expression that her next-older sibling had worn. It was obvious that Andrea wasn’t the only Swensen sister who was dying of curiosity.

“ ‘Bye, ladies. See you later, Michelle.” Hannah headed up the stairs to wait for her sisters. She waved at Lonnie, who was manning the outside door, and walked over to the grouping of chairs around the miniature Christmas village.

There was a large gilt-framed mirror on the wall behind the village and Hannah frowned as she caught sight of her hair. Her unruly red curls had been tousled by the wind and snow in the parking lot, and they looked as if they hadn’t seen the tender ministrations of a hairbrush in months. Hannah smoothed them down as best she could, and paused to admire the new sweater Norman had given her. It fell gracefully from her shoulders and came to just the right length in back to minimize that I-wish-it-were-smaller part of her anatomy.

“Gorgeous,” Hannah said, turning a bit so that he skirt swirled against her legs. But what was that bulge at her hips? She looked like an anatomically incorrect chipmunk with his cheeks lower than his waist.

Hannah reached in her pocket and drew out dozens of paper napkins, far too many for the lines of the sweater. Even though she’d folded them neatly and divided them between the two pockets, the piles had grown, and now her sweater pockets were ballooning with a plethora of paper Santas, reindeer, snowflakes, Christmas trees, angels, and snowmen. It was definitely time to scare up a steno pad, and she knew just the place to find one.

A few moments later, Hannah was standing at Janice’s desk in Kiddie Corner, begging office supplies. The younger kids were crowded around the Christmas tree in the corner, listening to one of the high school girls read a story, and the older children, like Tracey, had gone off to the library to watch a Disney movie with several high school seniors as chaperones.

“How about this?” Janice asked, pulling a neon-pink steno pad from her center desk drawer. “I know you like the green ones, but it’s all I have at the moment. Here’s the pen that goes with it. The Velcro attaches to the cover, see?”

“It’s just perfect,” Hannah said gratefully, even though she would have preferred something less conspicuous. It was exactly as Delores had taught her; beggars couldn’t be choosers.

“I’m glad you’re here, Hannah. I’ve got something I want to show you.” Janice opened a drawer and took out a stack of letters. “I had the older kids write letters to Santa, and the high school girls helped them with the spelling. Linda Nelson came up to tell me that Tracey had asked her to spell some very strange words for a letter to Santa.

“Like what?”