Mother Pine woke just after sunrise to the sound of uproarious laughter from her son. “Little Pine!” she said, bending down to talk to him, “What’s so funny?”
Little Pine was still brushing sleep and happy tears from his eyes. “Oh, Mom! I had such a dream! At least I think it was a dream,” he chortled, still wiggling with laughter.
“A great big UFO flew down from the sky. It was bright red and had pretty blinking lights all over it, and a giant Tweety Bird was riding on it singing all these funny whistling songs!”
“A Tweety Bird! A UFO! Oh, my!” laughed Mother. “Then what happened?”
“It landed! Right beside me! And Tweety unstrapped his seat belt and flew over to me chirping my name. ‘Little Pine! Wake up!’ he said, ‘I have a message for you!’”
“A message? What did he say?” Mother Pine asked.
“Well, I sat right up and asked him that very thing,” said Little Pine, “and then he made this deep bow and cleared his little birdie throat, and then he whistled a sort of Pay-Attention sound. ‘I bring you greetings, Little Pine, from the Spirits of Fun to let you know they are thinking of you and wish you a Festival Season filled with merriment and good cheer.’ Then he took a big green box from the UFO, tied with a bright red ribbon, and told me it was a gift for me from the Spirits of Fun.”
“Oh my!” said Mother Pine. “Did you open it?”
“Oh, yes,” said Little Pine. “Tweety insisted. So I took the lid off the box, and it was filled with all these sparkling bubbles.”
“Bubbles?” asked Mother Pine.
“Yes! They were all different colors and sizes and kind of squishy. I had no idea what they were, but they were awfully pretty. Tweety laughed at the expression on my face and told me they were magic bubbles, each one holding a hug or a tickle, a wink, or a laugh or a smile. I could fold them all in my pockets and pass them out to everyone I met, all Festival long.”
“What a wonderful gift!” Mother Pine said, smiling.
“And at the very bottom of the box, two especially large bubbles were jiggling, one was purple and gold, and Tweety said it was meant for the Elf Family. He said to stand back when I gave it to them because it was ready to burst with glee. Isn’t that funny? Imagine the elves enveloped in bursting glee!” Little Pine erupted in laughter just thinking of it, and Mother laughed, too.
When Little Pine caught his breath, he reached into his pocket and, almost as if he didn’t believe it would truly be there, he pulled out a large bubble, shimmering with all the colors of the rainbow. His mother’s eyes opened wide in surprise. Up until this moment, she was sure that his dream had been only a dream.
“And this one,” Little Pine said, “this one, Mom, is for you.”
He lifted the bubble up to her boughs, and when she accepted it, the bubble burst and a beautiful melody filled the air with a sound like a thousand birds singing. “He said it would fill you with love and laughter all season long,” Little Pine said, looking at his mother’s surprised and glowing face.
“Why, I think it will do just that, Little Pine. Thank you! And thank you, Tweety and Spirits of Fun. What a fine, fine way to start this beautiful day.”
Then she and Little Pine settled down for a breakfast of winterberry muffins. And all the while, little bursts of color and laughter popped all around them.