Christmas Cold and Warm: a Christmas short story

By Megan Payne

“...Christmas was a simple affair. It was a time when something “special” was all children asked for. Those were the days when my abuela—my grandmother—brought home food in a great woven basket...”

Though it was Christmas Eve, Estrella Sanchez would be hard put to make it anything special this year. But when the weather keeps her away from home much later than expected, something happens to her children to make this Christmas their most special yet.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sunlight Books
• Release date: Dec 8, 2011
• ISBN: 9781466070271

Megan Payne

Megan Payne writes Christian fiction and nonfiction for families and youth. She has written for The Searcher, Faithwriters Magazine, and Skipping Stones, among other publications.

Book preview

Christmas Cold and Warm

a Christmas short story

Written by Megan Payne

Illustrated by Bethany Payne

SUNLIGHT BOOKS

Copyright 2004 Megan Payne.

Illustrations: Copyright 2004 Bethany Payne.

Smashwords Edition.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture taken from the New King James Version ©1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

This digital edition published by Sunlight Books for the glory of God. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, except in fair use, by any means without written consent. All rights reserved.

For more stories, please visit www.sunlightbooks.org.

Christmas Cold and Warm

Back when my mama was a little girl, when she was called Isabel Sanchez instead of Bella Wilcox, when her mother was just a young thing and very poor, Christmas was a simple affair. It was a time when something special was all the children asked for, when family pulled even tighter together against the cold, when fires were warm in heart and hearth, and at least in Abuela's house, when even the food on your plate was fair game to give a stranger.

Those were the days when my abuela—my grandmother—brought home food in a great woven basket covered with dishtowels to keep it and its contents clean. And as my mama told me, the basket came home fuller than ever on Christmas, but never quite full enough.

On one such Christmas—cold and warm as my mama says—there was nothing special, nothing but the usual fare of beans and rice and some chili. Tomás, only fifteen months old, was crying more than ever and Mama, being the eldest of the five, had to carry him around the house singing Silent Night to try and get him to stop crying. She was only eleven, but Abuela had left her in charge. Their mama had left for the market with a silver dollar