Ginger tells about Basil’s arrival

Joan spent the past two weeks on a working vacation helping with her first grandson, born Dec. 27. While she was away, the baby’s almost 2-year-old sister has a few comments about the holiday comings and goings.
First, Daddy brought a prickly tree inside the house that he put right in front of the window in my play room. Mamma said we will make it pretty. She made pink and white bows to hang on the tree. I helped Mamma. I shook sparkles on the glue pictures she drew on the circles we made to hang on the tree.
The next morning the house was filled with people. A whole pile of red and green packages were under the tree. I ran through the house showing everyone everything we had.
There was so much to see and do. Daddy and Grandpa went to the store and came home with a big pile of wood. Grandpa made a lot of noise drilling and sawing. Mamma said don’t touch the drill. My u ncles got to climb the trees with the saw to make holes for the sunshine to warm my sandbox and swing. They made a mountain of sticks, leaves and vines right in the middle of the yard.
One morning we all crowded into my play room. Mommy kept giving the pretty boxes to people. My aunt said, “Open it up, Ginger. Open the present.” I looked at her and laughed. She pulled on the red paper and there was a soft blue ha-ha that laughed when I tickled it. We made a pile of red and green paper on the floor for my uncles to take out to the trash man.
In the morning Mommy and Daddy went away twice and came home with a desk for daddy’s computers and a bigger desk for mommy’s papers and sewing machine. The desks came and the tables they had been using left.
On Sunday morning Mamma made a lot of funny faces while she made pancakes, picked up the suitcase and left me all alone with my grandpa, grandma, uncles, aunt and friend. They took me to church where my uncle wouldn’t let me stand up or say anything when the man was talking. He said we had to go for a walk.
Grandpa drove us to a big restaurant with a lot of tables of food. When grandma asked me if I wanted a meatball I shook my head yes. I picked the little ball up and yelled, “Throw!”
Grandma yelled, “No!” and took it away from me.
I was asleep when mommy called. Daddy came and took me to a really big building where everyone was quiet. Mamma was holding a red-faced baby. I reached out. “Hold, hold, hold.” I sat beside Mamma and she helped me hold the baby.
Mamma brought that baby home. She said, “no, no.” when I touched his face and patted his head. She wouldn’t let me carry the baby around and hold him. But she let my grandpa, grandma, my uncles and aunt and the friend hold him.
Yesterday one of my uncles, my grandpa, aunt and their friend left. Today daddy says we are taking the tree out of my playroom and it will be gone.
Tomorrow Grandma and my other uncle were leaving. I wonder if the baby will leave the day after that.