Weigh Out Way-In

CHAPTER 43

DAY BEFORE CHRISTMAS EVE

Giant snowflakes are wafting down gently a day before Christmas Eve. The snow cover is getting thicker every minute, some piling up on the roof of a bird feeder and some on the roof of a huge log house towering over the feeder.

The silence prevails. There is no breeze to be felt. Only the occasional visits to the bird feeder paid by a flock of sparrows, a few great tits and a couple of bullfinches break the overwhelming peace and quiet.

Suddenly the birds on the feeder flit away. Out of the dark blue air a red van appears from behind a corner of the log house and stops abruptly at the entrance. A couple of dwarf-looking creatures jump out of the cab, stride to the back doors of the van, pull the doors open and drag out something huge and heavy in a plastic wrap. Onto a big sledge it thuds, immediately resulting in a flurry of snow that swiftly flies on the faces of another pair of dwarves.

Now, look, what you've done! My face and my beard is covered with snow.

You never learn, do you. I did the same thing last Christmas and here we are again.

His partner turns around to see the snow-covered helpers and has a jolly good laugh. Swiftey takes some snow in his hands, rolls it into a ball and quickly throws it against the laugher's face. Slowey is not quick enough to dodge the ball and it's his turn to wipe the snow off his face.

They can hear a voice from the entrance door.

My dear little fellows, let Christmas come in!

It's Santa. We'd better hurry up or we'll carry even more snow inside.

The four Christmas elves pull the sledge for some distance. When the double doors swing wide open for them, they take hold of the four handles on the sides of the sledge and carry the sledge inside.

Where shall we put this?

Santa's missus points to the spot close to the northern wall of the huge hall. They walk past a live fire in the fireplace with their huge shadows reflected on the wall facing the fire. A peculiar thing about the incredibly spacious hall is that there are four fireplaces, ie a quadruple fireplace, in the middle of it giving light to every direction of the compass, to the north, to the south, to the east, to the west and to all the areas between the four cardinal directions.

Mrs Claus says, 'The fir tree is a northern tree, so it has to stand in the northern part of the hall.'

Before they drove the van to the log house, the elves had put the Christmas tree in its stand so it was now easy to set in its place. Earlier in late September they had felled the tree, made a hole in the ground with an iron bar before the ground had frozen hard. On the off-chance it might still have got too warm, the tree would have got some water in the hole in order not to wither.

Mrs Claus continues, 'Leave it there standing. Don't unwrap it. And put some water and a few lumps of sugar in the stand, will you, please.'

The elves do quickly what is asked for and then get out immediately before the melting snow starts falling on the floor, to avoid creating slippery spots.

Then it's time for the cleaning team to step in. The windows they cleaned as early as in the autumn, and the ceiling and the walls a month ago, in late November. Now they are busy cleaning the floors. In no time at all they are in full swing. Dustey, the sweeping unit guy, collects the bigger particles off the floor, followed by Washbucket, the guy who mops the floor with swipes soaked in the warm water containing sweet-smelling pine soap. He has wrought extra water off so the swipe doesn't drop water. After them comes Outdry, the drying unit guy, who takes off any extra water left on the floor.

Saunalph and Cleanlinn, that is the sauna cleaning team, are also working hard to reach an optimal level of cleanliness. They water the sauna benches and apply the pine soap solution on them. After brushing and rinsing the sauna benches from top to bottom they heat up the sauna for some time and open the window to let the excess moisture out.

There is a lovely fragrance spreading from the newly-washed sauna in the immediate surroundings and some of the elves can't be still and just wait, so they start collecting their sauna gear but Mrs Claus reminds them of more urgent things to do because Christmas is coming tomorrow, bringing with it some very special guests. So the enchanted elves wake up from their sauna dreams and go back to their unfinished chores.

The kitchen surfaces are now sparkling clean too. The kitchen cleaning team secured the kitchen very early the same morning so the kitchen elves can now start preparing delicious Christmas foods and delicacies.