Biff & Becka’S Splendiferous Christmas

By Elaine Beachy

What child doesnt anticipate Thanksgiving and Christmas? Especially Christmas! In Biff and Beckas Splendiferous Christmas, can Biff learn that it is more blessed to give than to receive? He faces difficult circumstances with a bully at school, and something happens that threatens to kill his Christmas spirit. Can his Christmas spirit be revived? Find out what makes his Christmas splendiferous! Although written for children of ages seven to eleven, adults will also enjoy this book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Aug 11, 2015
• ISBN: 9781512704884

Elaine Beachy

Elaine is a country girl who grew up on a dairy farm in western Pennsylvania with four brothers. She enjoys reading, writing, cooking, and baking, entertaining, and praying for others. Her favorite TV show is Home Town on HGTV. She is the author of six other books, of which the first three are a trilogy for children ages seven to eleven: Biff and Becka’s Springtime Escapades, Biff and Becka’s Stupendous Vacation, Biff and Becka’s Splendiferous Christmas. She also authored a cookbook, Elaine’s Kitchen: Made from Amish Stock, and a devotional titled Journal Gems: Nuggets from My Heart to Yours. A book of Elaine’s poetry and short stories is titled Rhyme and Reason. All her books are available on Amazon.com. Elaine has been married to her husband, Dave, for fifty-four years and lives in Manassas, Virginia. They have three children and four grandchildren and are active members of Living Faith Church.

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Copyright © 2015 Elaine Beachy.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Illustrations done by David Miles

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. Used by permission. NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® and NIV® are registered trademarks of Biblica, Inc. Use of either trademark for the offering of goods or services requires the prior written consent of Biblica US, Inc.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

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Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-5127-0489-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-0490-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-0488-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015911702

WestBow Press rev. date: 08/04/2015

CONTENTS

Chapter 1 The Secret

Chapter 2 The Lost Coin

Chapter 3 Pinkie Swear

Chapter 4 A Talk with Father

Chapter 5 The Shoe Box

Chapter 6 The Birthday Wish

Chapter 7 A Talk with Father

Chapter 8 To Grandmother’s House We Go

Chapter 9 Thanksgiving

Chapter 10 Overcome Evil with Good

Chapter 11 Biff’s Christmas Spirit

Chapter 12 Secret Santa

Chapter 13 The Christmas Party

Chapter 14 The Night before Christmas

Chapter 15 Christmas Morning

Chapter 16 The Christmas Surprise

To Jesus, my blessed Lord and Savior: may Your kingdom come and Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

To my loving mother, Elva; the memory of my dear father, Edwin; and the memory of my grandparents, Claude and Olive. And Sam and Lydia, thank you for the many great Thanksgivings and Christmases we spent together.

To my beloved children, Douglas, Debra, and Darren, and my precious grandchildren, Alissa, Nicole, Caleb, and Noelle: always love the truth.

To parents everywhere who want to raise their children in a godly way: may you glean help from these pages.

To children everywhere who need a model of a happy home: enjoy my books!

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

—John 3:16 -18 (NIV)

PREFACE

H ow can kids deal with bullying and racism in school? How will kids learn the joy of giving rather than selfishness? In Biff and Becka’s Splendiferous Christmas, I show how the father, as head of the home, takes responsibility for the teaching, training, protection and well-being of his children.

I also wrote Biff and Becka’s Splendiferous Christmas to help children learn the value of generosity, forgiveness, and love instead of selfishness. Written for children ages seven to eleven, this is the final book in my children’s trilogy, which follows a year in the life of a rabbit family of four. The parents of Biff and Becka are named Edwin and Elva after my own father and mother.

As I wrote the book, I relived the many good memories of my own childhood Thanksgivings and Christmases with my parents, brothers, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Featuring springtime, the first book in the series is titled Biff and Becka’s Springtime Escapades, while the second book, Biff and Becka’s Stupendous Vacation, includes summer activities. Biff and Becka’s Splendiferous Christmas covers the return to school in the fall and the holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Family relationships are very important to me, and I write with the hope that I can make a difference in families, one home at a time. I also write a blog, Turning Hearts toward Home, at www.elaine-beachy.blogspot.com. My author website is www.elainebeachy.com.

I began writing my trilogy at the end of 2010, and after some unexpected roadblocks, setbacks, and detours, I have finally reached my goal of completing it.

Give my books as gifts, or use them in your children’s church programs to help make a difference in homes. Ask your county library to carry the Biff and Becka trilogy. My books also make great gifts for kids for any occasion—birthday, Easter, Christmas, or just because.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

T hank You, my heavenly Father, Jesus my Savior, and Holy Spirit, for giving me Your inspiration, encouragement, and endurance.

Thank you, Dave, my dear husband, for believing in me and giving me valuable input when I asked for it. I greatly appreciate your financial generosity and emotional support of my writing. I am privileged and filled with joy to be your wife these forty-seven plus years, and to be the mother of our three wonderful children.

Thank you, my son, Doug, senior software engineer with Acronis, for your computer help. I tried hard not to interrupt too much your arrangement of zeros and ones as you pounded out programming on your own keyboard.

David Miles, my illustrator: I appreciate your fine work! It’s a pleasure to work with you.

Thank you, Jane O’Donnell, for proofreading this manuscript and for your kind words.

Thanks to the helpful staff at WestBow Press.

God bless each of you. Matthew 10:42 says, If anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward. You have helped me accomplish my goal and will share in any good fruit that comes from my writing. I couldn’t have done it without you. I am grateful!

CHAPTER 1

The Secret

B iff’s eyes popped open as thoughts swirled in his mind. Where can I hide it so Mom won’t find it? She finds everything. He stretched his growing rabbit arms and legs under the bed covers, scratched his long ears, and put his hands behind his head on the pillow. I am the luckiest rabbit in the world. Whose family but mine ever had a stash of pirate gold? Nobody’s. Whose family but mine had the most stupendous vacation ever? No o ne’s.

Biff looked around his room for a safe place to hide the coin he’d found. Should he put it under his Superman poster on the wall? He’d need some tape. He wished he could fly like Superman. Someday I’ll fly when I’m a pilot.

It was Saturday morning—no school. As he lay in bed, Biff’s thoughts went back to the amazing day when he and his family had found Hiram Rhodes’s pirate gold and diary in the cave. All that time, it had been in the Big Woods near his home at 86 Oak Tree Lane in Culpeper, Virginia! He hoped more than anything that his parents would keep all the money so he’d never have to miss a beach vacation again.

Ever since his school teacher, Miss Blake, had told the class to write an English paper about an interesting subject, he’d wanted to write about his family’s stupendous vacation. What a story he would tell! He imagined the looks of surprise and envy on the faces of his classmates.

Biff propped himself up on one elbow and put his free hand under the pillow. Yep, it was still there. I’m glad I found the coin before Mom did. She finds everything. It’s a good thing she was too busy cleaning up after the storm to vacuum the living room rug.

He remembered how they had brought Hiram’s diary and satchel full of money home from the Big Woods to show his grandparents. He could still see himself, his sister, Becka, and his cousins, Alfie and Alice, as they’d taken out handfuls of gold coins and let them fall through their fingers back into the bag. He had never seen so much money! One coin must have missed the bag and rolled under the couch.

He’d found the coin one day as he and his sister, Becka, flew paper airplanes around the living room. His plane had zipped under the couch, and when he’d bent down to pick it up, there had been the coin. He was glad Becka hadn’t seen him slip it into his pants pocket. He’d found it, and he meant to keep it.

Father had taken the gold stash to the bank and put it in a safe deposit box until they decided what to do with it. With all that money, we’ll never be poor again. We may even build a bigger house, get a new car—maybe even two of them—and have lots of money left over for beach vacations forever! Biff smiled as happy thoughts raced through his head.

He threw back the bed covers, got up, and stretched again. Mom says that when you grow a lot, you stretch a lot. I stretch a lot lately.

His thoughts turned to the problem of finding a safe place to stash the coin. Maybe the dresser. He pulled open a dresser drawer but then stopped. Mom did his laundry and would surely find it there. He spied the model airplane kit in a box on top of his dresser. That might be a good place. Biff changed his mind again and decided to put the coin back under his pillow. He went to the bathroom to brush his teeth and comb his hair while he thought about it. I’m not sure I can find a safe hiding place for it in the house.

Then he remembered his and Becka’s favorite place to play: Farmer Fletcher’s machine shed. I’ll hide it under a can of paint—that’s what I’ll do. Mom never goes over there unless she has to look for us. Biff pulled on his favorite jeans and a blue-and-white-striped T-shirt. Then he snatched the coin from under his pillow and dropped it into his pants pocket. He ran out of his