For Rick, my very first true friend, and our three most precious gifts, Benjamin, Nicholas, and Megan.
On the twelfth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Twelve drummers drumming,
Eleven pipers piping,
Ten lords a-leaping,
Nine ladies dancing,
Eight maids a-milking,
Seven swans a-swimming,
Six geese a-laying,
Five golden rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree!
HarperTrueLife
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First published by HarperTrueLife 2014
FIRST EDITION
Text © Joanne Smith 2014
Cover photo © Ttatty/Shutterstock, pkline/iStock,
Tsekhmister/iStock, claudio.arnese/iStock
Cover layout © Nupoor Gordon and HarperCollinsPublishers
A catalog record of this book is available from the British Library
Joanne Smith asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
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Source ISBN: 9780008118112
Ebook Edition © December 2014 ISBN: 9780008118136
Version: 2014-11-24
Contents
Chapter 1: The First Day of Christmas
Chapter 2: The Second Day of Christmas
Chapter 3: The Third Day of Christmas
Chapter 4: The Fourth Day of Christmas
Chapter 5: The Fifth Day of Christmas
Chapter 6: The Sixth Day of Christmas
Dear Readers,
I learned the lyrics to “The Twelve Days of Christmas” carol as a kid in grammar school choir, when the magic of the holiday season still filled me with a sense of wonder and possibility, a dreams-come-true mentality. Partridges and pear trees, ladies dancing and leaping lords—I had thought the words of the tune farcical. I didn’t know then that the key to happiness was hidden within its silly stanzas.
I had spent my life grasping at those five golden rings: a husband, three healthy children, and a comfortable home. Then just before Christmas in 1999, my beloved husband died in the night, and I realized my gold was fragile as glass.
We were shattered.
I found no comfort or joy in the approaching holidays, only memories that cut at my heart like broken pieces of a treasured Christmas ornament.
I stopped singing. It hurt even to breathe. I wanted to banish the holidays from our lives. But then something extraordinary happened.
Thirteen days before Christmas, gifts began appearing at my home. They were just small tokens of the holiday season, accompanied by a card with lines similar to the carol. Each was signed simply, “Your true friends.” At first, I resisted the intrusion of Christmas into my grief. But slowly, as the gifts kept arriving, my heart began to thaw. The gifts made my children smile, got us talking, as we tried to identify the source of our mysterious presents. They were teaching us how to function as a family again.
The romantic in me would like to believe a miracle touched my family that Christmas, and in a way that is true. But I know that the miracle was the way a small act of kindness saved my family and brought us back to each other. Years later, the magic of the holiday season is still colored by the light that those friends shone into our lives. Thinking of what a powerful impact those anonymous gifts made on my family has changed