The cabin finally feels like home after you successfully install the wood-burning stove and hang the portrait of a stranger whose nose you really admire. You start unpacking your toys and find the Advent calendar from the old house. With fingers caked in pine resin and bubblegum, you pry the top off today’s keg to claim your treat.
The Grimlet brothers! You had heard that their parents decided to move underwater without them but you didn’t think they’d be available so soon. Horace will make a fine woodsman one day while Blake and Nitt have “owl hunter” written all over them. They’ll have to adjust to the climate but you’ve got enough chicken whisky to warm them until the thaw.
Only 7 days left until you get mildly excited about the little deck of cards you got out of a Christmas cracker until you see that your brother got an eraser in the shape of a gun.
GLENN W. MACAULAY 