Millie's Christmas Chapter 1

Hello. My name is Millie, and I'm a cat. Well, my mama says I'm still a kitten. But I'm four months old. I think that makes me a pretty grown-up cat.

We live in a house where there are two cats, Mama and me. There’s one dog, Bruce. He’s my friend. And we have four people. The most important person is Ruthie. She's six years old, and she's my best friend. She says I'm her cat, but really she's my person.

Ruthie has a big brother named Jake who's nineteen. He's funny. Then there are their parents, Mommy and Daddy, and they're nice but very busy.

Ruthie says I'm beautiful. I'm orange all over, except a white spot on my tummy and one white ear. Bruce laughed at me once and said I looked goofy with that one white ear. What does he know? He's mostly brown all over, with a black patch above his nose, and he has white feet. Now that's goofy.

Something exciting happened today. Ruthie picked me up, squeezed me, and ran all over the house yelling, “It's Christmas time. It's Christmas time. Millie, you're going to love Christmas.”

“Meow, meow,” I yelled back. I didn't know what Christmas was, but Ruthie was excited, so I was too. “Meow.”

Ruthie kissed my face and whirled through the house, making me dizzy. “At Christmas we have lots of fun food, and candles, and decorations, and visiting, and candy.” She rubbed my ribs. “You’ll love it, Millie.”

I didn’t know what most of that stuff was, but it made Ruthie happy, so I knew it would be great.

Daddy and Jake brought home what Ruthie called a Christmas tree. It didn’t look like any of the trees out in the yard, with long sticks on them. This tree was bushy all over and really sharp and prickly, and they pulled it out of the ground from somewhere. Strange. But it sure smelled good.

“Now, Millie.” Ruthie carried me over to the Christmas tree. “We’re going to hang ornaments all over this tree. Please don’t bother them.”

Hmmm. I wonder what ornaments are. They must be something fun to play with.

In the middle of the night, Mama and I went to the Christmas tree and nibbled some of the branches. That was fun, and yummy, but Mama said we shouldn’t do it much, or the parents might get mad. I’d never seen them get mad, but Mama’d been around for Christmas before and knew what she was talking about. Mama was really smart.

Ruthie’s mommy started playing Christmas music. Daddy said, “Already?” Mommy just laughed and sang along with the music.

I thought the music was pretty. Many of the songs were about Jesus. Ruthie told me, “Jesus is the most important part of Christmas.” I didn’t know who Jesus was, but Ruthie was excited about him, so I was too. I hoped I would get to meet him.

Other Christmas songs were about snowmen and reindeer and silver bells and sleigh rides and presents and more about snow. Everything sounded like so much fun. I ran around the house with Ruthie, jumping on and off furniture. Christmas was great!