The Christmas Letters by Lee Smith Read Free Book Online

a whole bunch of envelopes already stamped and addressed to me at our new house.
    We look forward to Mama’s visit when the twins arrive. This will be especially good for Andrew, I’m sure, who is likely to get his nose out of joint because he has gotten all the attention around here for such a long time—close to four years now! Sandy said he would get him a dog to make up for it, but Andrew now says he wants a kitten. Well, Sandy is just not a cat person, plus he thinks everybody should have a dog, and he is real strongminded, so I don’t know what will happen. . . . Families! You wonder how any of us survive them, don’t you? But we do.
    I just wish you could all see our funny little silver tree with its blinking lights this Christmas, surrounded by presents and packing boxes stacked to the ceiling all around, not to mention us crammed in here tight as a drum, with me just pushing this big stomach around. Actually Sandy bought this little artificial tree because he says they are a better bargain, and I wept that he had bought a silver oneinstead of green, but I must say it is pretty. Andrew stands in front of it by the hour, entranced by these blinking lights. This is a Christmas we will never forget, that’s for sure!
Love,
Andy, Sandy, Mary, and the
Twins-in-Waiting Copeland
    P.S. I have finally convinced Mama to share her recipe for
    TACO SALAD FROM BIRDIE’S LUNCH
1 lb. ground beef, browned and drained
2 bunches green onions
1 8-oz. bottle Catalina dressing
1 diced tomato
2 c. rotini noodles, cooked and drained
1 pkg. taco mix
Add taco mix and Catalina dressing to beef, mixing well. Add all other ingredients, mixing well. Serve over plenty of shredded lettuce, with taco chips on the side.

    Merry Christmas from the Copelands, 1975!
    (Especially to Susan and Marybeth, and all my good friends on Rosemary Street—I miss you so much already! Especially Elaine and Edie, remember all those crazy diets we tried? I guess I will just have to stay fat now.)
    I write to you from our brand new home at 38 Hummingbird Heights, built by Copeland Construction of course! (Just like this Xeroxed letter also comes courtesy of Sandy’s company Xerox.) It is a split-level brick contemporary with four bedrooms and a big back yard with lots of room for the children to play. In fact our yard serves as the playground for the entire neighborhood, which is fine by me. I love to have company while watching the kids, and all the kids love to play on the huge wood-and-tire climbing thing which Sandy built for them. (Actually he designed it and then sent Randy and Tim over here to build it for us —thanks, Randy and Tim! It’s a big hit!)
    The twins have turned out to be little tomboys—absolutely fearless—they scare me to death. This very minute, as I write, both Melanie and Claire are hanging upside down from the “monkey bars”—I can’t even look! Andrew is inside doing an art project for school. At 8½ he is already quite an artist. In Cub Scouts, he and Sandy made a Pine Box Derby race car which was a statewidewinner, and Sandy claimed that he didn’t have a thing to do with it. He says it was Andy’s design entirely. All Andy’s teachers have remarked about his talent, I know he didn’t get it from me!
    I didn’t even try to pick out paint colors or wallpaper for this house, for instance, I just left the whole thing up to Sandy, he has a much better eye than I do. I can’t even hang pictures on the wall, according to him! He says I hang them too high. So Sandy has done it all, and I must say, everything has gone much more smoothly as a result. And this house really does look great! In fact it looks so good, it often seems to me that it must be somebody else’s house. . . .
    Oh, I guess I was just attached to that old “fixer-upper” on Rosemary Street, and to the trailer before that, if you can imagine! Sandy says I am “hopeless,” and I guess I am! It is a good thing that somebody in this family is so modern