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Twelve days. Twelve long, wondrous, magical days filled with food and fun and lots of happy laughter.
Those were the things the days leading up to Christmas was about. Juniper Holiday was almost convinced that of all the holidays boxed up in a calendar year, the Christmas season was her absolute favorite, with each successive year certainly topping the last—in the lawn-decoration department, at least.
Every year, Juniper had been determined to add something awe-inspiring and new to her ever-growing feast of visual scenery at the mansion, and this year—this year’s addition was going to be an eye-popping whopper.
Oh, she had the usual already: star-spangled Wise Men; Frosty and his jolly, happy crew; a hand-carved manger at the center of a tear-jerkingly realistic Nativity scene; mistletoe garlands; Santa’s sleigh complete with all nine reindeer (it bothered her to no end how people could so blithely leave Rudolph out of the annual sleigh flight equation, so she’d corrected that); and string after string of merry, twinkling lights wrapped over everything and strung up everywhere.
There were also stacks and stacks of hand-wrapped pretend presents beneath fully decorated pine trees which were actually growing on her property, and candy canes galore. In fact, there was an entire red-and-white-striped lane of those carefully crafted faux crooked candies, and they were going to help lead her guests into something extra special this year: the North Pole. Since she was a little girl, Juniper had wondered what Santa’s home would be like if there really were one, and this year, she was going to show the world what she had decided upon… well, her tiny little corner of it, at least.
Not that anyone in Crescent Cove knew what she was up to. She’d been extra diligent about keeping everything either tented or barricaded while the carpenters and electricians and painters were out, so none of the locals could see what she was planning—but keeping it all a secret was hard. Especially for Juniper, who could barely keep the squeals of excitement off her tongue. She wanted so much to blabber about everything. Luckily, her goddaughter, Victoria, or Tori, as Juniper called her most often, helped to keep her runaway mouth in check, though it often proved most difficult at this time of the year.
“Juniper? June? Juni, where are you?” Tori called over the music and into the chaos of the most-recently tented area. “I know you aren’t hanging out in the workshop again. I’ve already checked in there.”
Making her way through the maze of what was left to create of the North Pole scenery, Tori shook her head. “Shouldn’t you be blasting Christmas carols, Juniper?”
Carols were logical. At this time of year, they made perfect sense—to everyone but Juniper. Poison’s “Unskinny Bop” was blasting through the air when Tori finally located her godmother. She was shaking and shimmying along with the beat until she glanced up and caught Tori staring at her, hands on hips, a disgruntled look on her face. Juniper grinned.
“Gotta love Bret. You do,” Juniper insisted when Tori shook her head again. “The eighties just wouldn’t have been the same without him.”
“He certainly makes Christmas at the mansion different with you about,” Tori mumbled under her breath, then over the music, she yelled, “Terrence says the giant snowmen have arrived. He wanted me to let you know so you could come take a look and approve them.”
“Can’t you do that?” Juniper frowned. “I’m knee-deep in signage that still needs to be painted before the scene can be finalized down here. I don’t want anyone losing their way while they’re looking around at everything, you know.”
Juniper had come back out here to get some work done after supper, and she really wanted to get the signs done before she went to bed.
She put the lid on the can of red paint she’d been using. Ludo, one of the mansion cats, had taken a fancy to it and was sniffing around the rim. Juni didn’t want the cat’s pink nose or white fur to turn red with paint. One of the other cats, Loki, had gotten a daub of green paint on his fluffy black tail and didn’t seem too pleased about it. At least Finn was smart enough to steer clear of the paint. He sat over on top of a box, his sleek gray fur unmarred as he watched Juniper with his eerily intelligent luminescent green eyes.
Tori turned to head back through the construction site to the house. Finn jumped off the box and followed her, careful not to brush against any wet paint. “I could approve the snowmen, I suppose, but if you weren’t going to insist upon doing it yourself like with everything else, why did I waste my time coming all the way down here?”
“Beats me, Tori-B. Go do it. Take some initiative,” Juniper teased. “And tell Terrence to mind his own business.”
Tori rolled her eyes and grumbled a response. “Your business is his business, June. He’s your bloody butler, remember?”
Juniper laughed. “How’s the story coming? Must be a mess if you’re this grumpy so early in the day. Got a twisty-misty plot you need a bit of help with?”
She dropped her paintbrush on the table and picked up a shop rag to wipe off a clump of red paint that was sliding down her thumb to her wrist. “There! All done. Never mind, Tori. I’m coming up now. I can inspect the snowmen myself.”
This time when Tori shook her head, she had her eyes closed as well. She should have expected as much, but she never knew for sure where Juniper was concerned. “You love to keep us all jumping, don’t you?”
“What?” Juniper asked as she came up beside her, Ludo and Loki on her heels. “You’d rather I left you all alone to be bored? Come on, Tori-babe, let’s see what you got! I’ll race you up to the house!”
“Nope! No. Not doing it, June,” Tori refused then took off at a dead run, her laughter trailing behind her as she sped ahead through the layer of snow on the ground. “Come on! You’re stalling, Juni-baby! Better get a move on! It won’t do your ego any good to let your staff see me beat you in a race again—not to mention all these workers!”
“Tori Cooper, you cheat! You did that on purpose!” Juniper yelled and took off after her. By the time they reached the back door, with Tori in the lead, of course, they were both out of breath but still sputtering with laughter.
Lionel floated above the pair, a stern expression on his face. “If you two are quite finished, Mum, Santa is here to see you.”
