Karen's Big Weekend

  This book is in honor of the birth of

  James Lovell Hemphill

  Welcome!

  Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  1 The Surprise

  2 Maxie Medvin

  3 A Two-Two Christmas

  4 Christmastime in New York City

  5 The Big Apple

  6 Oh, Christmas Tree

  7 Where Is Andrew?

  8 Santa Claus

  9 Big Bucks

  10 Meeting the Medvins

  11 A Grand Lady

  12 Ice Skates

  13 The Christmas Book

  14 Magic Wands

  15 Toys

  16 Guys and Dolls

  17 St. Patrick’s

  18 Another Santa

  19 Home Again

  20 Happy Holidays

  About the Author

  Also Available

  Copyright

  The Surprise

  “The turkey ran away,” sang my little brother, “before Thanksgiving Day. Said he they’ll make a roast of me if I should stay.”

  “Andrew, you can quit singing Thanksgiving songs now,” I told him. “Thanksgiving is over. Christmas is coming.”

  “I know,” said my brother. “I just like that song.” He went back to his coloring. But he began to hum “Jingle Bells” instead.

  I think Christmas is my favorite holiday. I like all holidays, but I like Christmas best. It comes at the same time of year as a lot of other holidays — Thanksgiving and Hanukkah and New Year’s Eve. Also, it comes at the start of winter, and that means snow. Snowmen and snowflakes and snowballs, and snow walks after dark.

  I was looking forward to Christmas, and I was hoping for lots of snow. “Frosty the Snowman,” I sang.

  “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” sang Andrew.

  * * *

  That night, Andrew and I sat down to supper with Mommy and Seth. Seth is our stepfather. We like him.

  I looked out the window. “Hey, it’s snowing!” I cried.

  “Indoor voice, Karen,” said Mommy.

  “Sorry,” I said. Then I whispered, “Hey, it’s snowing.”

  Andrew was peering out the window. “It is snowing,” he said.

  I am Karen Brewer. I am seven years old. I am in second grade. I have blonde hair and blue eyes and some freckles. I wear glasses. I even have two pairs. The blue pair is for reading. The pink pair is for the rest of the time. (Well, I do not have to wear them when I am asleep.)

  Andrew is four going on five. He is only in preschool, but he can already read. Guess who taught him to read. Me! I must be a very good teacher. That is probably because I have a very good teacher myself. Her name is Ms. Colman. She is the best teacher ever.

  Seth was serving our dinner. Mommy was standing by her place at the kitchen table. “Karen, Andrew,” she said. “Seth and I have a surprise for you.”

  Andrew and I stopped looking at the snow. “You do?” I said.

  “Yes,” replied Mommy. She sat down. “In one week we will have a special Christmas treat. We are going to go to New York City for the weekend. We will look at the big Christmas tree and see the other decorations. And we will go to the theatre to see a play.”

  “Will we eat in restaurants?” asked Andrew.

  “Of course,” said Seth.

  “Can we visit Maxie?” I asked.

  Maxie is Maxie Medvin. She is my pen pal, and she lives in New York City. Maxie and I have been writing to each other ever since the kids in Ms. Colman’s class began a pen pal project with the kids in a New York City class. We even met each other once, when Maxie’s class took a field trip here to Stoneybrook, Connecticut. But Maxie and I have not seen each other since then.

  “Can we visit Maxie?” Mommy repeated. She glanced at Seth. “Hmm. We had not thought about that. We will see.”

  Mommy and Seth told us some more about our trip. They talked about museums and Central Park and glittery Christmas decorations and a Santa Claus on every street corner.

  I decided this was going to be the best Christmas ever.

  Maxie Medvin

  Guess what. When Maxie Medvin and I first became pen pals, we did not like each other very much. Maxie told me she was already eight years old. (I am only seven.) She said she has big sisters who are twins. (I only have one big sister.) She has two adopted little brothers. (I only have one adopted little sister.) She has been to Disney World and Disneyland. (I have only been to Disney World.) So I decided I needed to make myself sound more interesting. I wrote some things to Maxie that were not quite true. In fact, they were lies. Then Maxie made up some lies, so I made up more lies, and pretty soon we were in a big mess. But after we met each other we became friends. Now we still write to each other, and we would like to see each other again soon. (We do not lie anymore.)

  That night, I asked Mommy about Maxie again. “Please, can we visit her?” I begged. “I cannot go to New York and not see Maxie. That would be silly. Besides, I really want to see where she lives, and meet her sisters and brothers.”

  “We-ell,” Mommy said.

  “Can I at least call her?” I went on. “I want to tell her about our trip.”

  Mommy let me call Maxie.

  “Hi, Maxie!” I cried, when she was on the phone. “Guess what. In one week I am coming to New York! I am coming for the weekend with my family.”

  “That’s great!” said Maxie. “Which family?”

  “Mommy’s,” I replied. (Maxie knows I have two families. I will tell you about them later.)

  “What are you going to do on your trip?” asked Maxie.

  “Oh, everything. See the Christmas decorations, go to a play.”

  “Can you come visit me?” asked Maxie.

  “I hope so,” I replied.

  Pretty soon Mommy asked to get on the telephone. She wanted to speak to Mrs. Medvin. Then Seth talked to Mr. Medvin. When he was finished, he gave the phone back to me. “Here is Maxie,” he said. “She has a surprise for you.”

  “Guess what!” exclaimed Maxie. “When you are in New York, you are going to come over to my apartment on Friday night!”

  “We are?”

  “Yes. The grown-ups talked about it. You and your family are going to meet me and my family. Then we are going to go out to dinner, and then maybe we will go to the Christmas show at Radio City Music Hall. That means we will spend the whole evening together.”

  “Cool!” I cried. “What restaurant are we going to eat at? Can we go to Mamma Leones? I have seen that on TV.”

  “I don’t know,” replied Maxie. “I will have to ask Mom and Dad about that. But anyway, you know what else your parents said? They said on Saturday, the next day, you can come over to my apartment by yourself. They will drop you off and we can play together.”

  A play date with Maxie in New York City. This was very cool. “What will we do?” I asked.

  “Oh, we can play in my room. Or maybe someone will take us to Central Park, or even out for ice cream.”

  “Great! Maxie, I cannot wait to see you!”

  “I cannot wait to see you either.”

  “Well, I better go,” I said. “I want to call the big house.”

  I had news for my other family.

  A Two-Two Christmas

  Most people have just one family, but I have two. I am part of Mommy’s family at the little house, and I am part of Daddy’s family at the big house. I did not always have two families, though. A long time ago, when I was a very little kid, I had one family: Mommy, Daddy, Andrew, and me. We lived at the big house. (That is the house Daddy grew up in.) Then Mommy and Daddy started fighting. They fought and fought and fought. Finally they decided to get a divorce. They said they loved Andrew and me
very much, but they did not love each other anymore. And they could not live together anymore. So Mommy moved into a little house, and Daddy stayed in his big house. Now Andrew and I live at the little house most of the time. We live at the big house every other weekend and on some holidays and vacations.

  We have a family at each house. This is because Mommy and Daddy have gotten married again, but not to each other. Mommy married Seth. That is how he became our stepfather. Daddy married Elizabeth. She is our stepmother.

  This is who is in my little-house family: Mommy, Seth, Andrew, me, Rocky, Midgie, and Emily Junior. Rocky and Midgie are Seth’s cat and dog. Emily Junior is my pet rat.

  This is who is in my big-house family: Daddy, Elizabeth, Andrew, me, Kristy, Charlie, Sam, David Michael, Emily Michelle, Nannie, Shannon, Boo-Boo, Goldfishie, and Crystal Light the Second. Kristy, Charlie, Sam, and David Michael are Elizabeth’s kids, so they are my stepsister and stepbrothers. They are all older than me. (Well, David Michael is only a few months older.) Emily Michelle is my adopted sister. She is two and a half. She was born far away in the country of Vietnam. (I named my rat after her.) Nannie is Elizabeth’s mother, so she is my stepgrandmother. The others are pets. Shannon is a big floppy puppy, and Boo-Boo is an old tomcat. Can you guess what Goldfishie and Crystal Light are? (Andrew named Goldfishie.)

  I have special nicknames for my brother and me. I call us Andrew Two-Two and Karen Two-Two. (I thought of those names after my teacher read a book to our class. It was called Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang.) We are two-twos because we have two houses and two families, two mommies and two daddies, two cats and two dogs. We also have two of lots of other things. I have two bicycles, one at each house. (Andrew has two trikes.) We have clothes and books and toys at each house. Plus, I have those two pairs of glasses. I even have two best friends. They are Nancy Dawes and Hannie Papadakis. Nancy lives next door to Mommy. Hannie lives across the street from Daddy and one house down. We are all in Ms. Colman’s second-grade class at Stoneybrook Academy. (We call ourselves the Three Musketeers.)

  Most of the time I like being a two-two. I love both of my families. But sometimes being a two-two is hard. When I am at Mommy’s, I miss my big-house family. When I am at Daddy’s, I miss my little-house family. Then there is the holiday problem. Everyone wants Andrew and me to celebrate the holidays with them. Usually we have two Thanksgivings and two Christmases and two birthdays and even two Halloweens. One at each house. This might sound like fun, but sometimes Andrew and I get very, very tired. Even so, I was looking forward to our two-two Christmas this year. It is hard not to feel excited about Christmas. And now I could also look forward to Christmas in New York. In one week I would visit Maxie Medvin in the big city!

  Christmastime in New York City

  “Mommy,” said Andrew one day, “tell me again what we are going to do in New York City.”

  This was about the tenth time Andrew had said that. So Mommy replied, “Andrew, I have an idea. I know a book we should read before we go to New York. Karen, you will like it, too. Let’s see if we can find it at the library.”

  Mommy drove Andrew and me to the public library. Sure enough, we found a book called Christmastime in New York City. It was by a woman named Roxie Munroe. We sat down at a table and looked at the book.

  “See?” said Mommy. “There is the big tree. And there are the store windows with their decorations. Look at the crowds in the city.”

  “Lots and lots of people,” said Andrew.

  Mommy checked the book out and we brought it home with us.

  Almost every night after dinner my little-house family talked about the things we would do in New York. We looked at Roxie Munroe’s book a lot. Seth showed us an old picture book that he had read when he was little. It was called This Is New York. Andrew and I liked the drawings of the tall, tall buildings. “They are called skyscrapers,” Seth told us.

  “Skryscrapers,” said Andrew. (He just could not say the word right.)

  * * *

  Our trip to New York was going to begin on a Friday morning. We would get on a train right after breakfast. Andrew and I were not even going to go to school that day.

  On Thursday afternoon Hannie and Nancy came to my house to help me pack. Also, the Three Musketeers had to say good-bye to each other.

  “We will miss you in school tomorrow,” said Nancy.

  “Thank you,” I replied politely. “I will be thinking about you on the train. And I will think about you in New York City.”

  “How much do you have to pack to go to New York?” asked Hannie. She was looking at my bulging suitcase.

  “Oh, plenty,” I replied.

  Hannie opened the suitcase. She peered inside. Then she began counting. Finally she said, “Seven dresses? You will only be gone for three days, Karen.”

  “I spill a lot,” I told her. But I did unpack a few dresses. And then I decided I only needed two pairs of shoes (not five), one book (not eight), and one stuffed animal (not six).

  When I finished packing, I set the suitcase on the floor. Hannie and Nancy and I sat on my bed.

  “I cannot believe Christmas is almost here,” said Hannie.

  “And tonight is the first night of Hanukkah,” added Nancy.

  “Is it true you get presents for eight nights?” asked Hannie.

  “Yup,” replied Nancy. “But that is not what Hanukkah is really about.”

  “You know what I decided to do?” I spoke up. “I decided to buy your presents in New York. I will have very wonderful gifts to give you at our party.”

  Nancy and Hannie and I were going to have a holiday party, just for us, the Three Musketeers. We were going to hold it on a Saturday in between Hanukkah and Christmas.

  “Presents from New York?” said Nancy. “Cool!”

  I thought so. Plus, I had saved and saved my money, and now I had almost fifteen dollars to spend just on Hannie and Nancy. That was a fortune. There was no telling what I could buy.

  The Big Apple

  “Oof! Karen, your suitcase weighs a ton,” said Seth. “What did you pack?”

  “Not that much,” I replied. “I even took out a lot of stuff yesterday.” (I had put some of it back in, though. I guess the suitcase was a little heavy.)

  It was Friday morning. My family and I were ready to leave for New York. Seth was putting our suitcases in the car. And it was still dark outside. Mommy had meant it when she said we would leave early.

  “Good-bye! Good-bye!” I called to Rocky and Midgie and Emily Junior as Mommy backed down the driveway. “Behave yourselves for Nancy!” Nancy and her parents were going to take care of our pets until we came home on Sunday.

  We drove to the station. We stood on the platform and shivered while we waited for our train to arrive. Andrew and I watched our breath puff out in front of us. Andrew pretended he was a fire-breathing dragon.

  A lot of other people were waiting for trains, too. Mostly they were grown-ups carrying briefcases. Mommy said they were probably going to their offices in Stamford or New York City.

  Toot! Toot!

  “Here comes the train!” shrieked Andrew. “I hear its whistle!”

  “And I see its headlight!” I cried.

  “Settle down, kids,” said Mommy.

  We struggled onto the train with our suitcases and bags.

  “Here we go,” said Seth. “Four seats together.” He and Mommy piled our things onto the luggage racks.

  ”May I give our tickets to the conductor?” asked Andrew. Andrew just loves conductors. He has decided he wants to be one when he grows up.

  “Sure,” replied Mommy. But she waited until the conductor was standing next to us before she gave Andrew the tickets.

  The conductor was a woman. She called Andrew sir.

  “Thank you, sir,” she said to him.

  “We are going to New York City,” I told her.

  “Ah. The Big Apple,” she replied. “Did you know that’s the city’s nickname? And New York is c
alled the Empire State.”

  “Like in The Empire Strikes Back?” I said. “Cool.”

  The ride to New York seemed long. Andrew and I fell asleep. But we woke up before we pulled into the station. We were flying along underground. I could see only darkness outside the windows.

  Screech. The train finally came to a stop. The doors opened. We walked into the biggest, most crowed station I had ever seen. Guess what. Stores were everywhere.

  “Stores in a train station?” I said.

  “Restaurants, too,” replied Seth.

  “Oh, boy,” I said.

  I held tightly to Seth’s hand. Andrew held tightly to Mommy’s. We did not want to be separated from the grown-ups. Not in that big crowed.

  Seth was hurrying us out of the station, but I kept slowing down to look in the store windows. “Hey!” I cried as I paused in front of one. “Can we go in there? Please? I see something for Hannie and Nancy.”

  The four of us went into the store and I bought two tiny buttons. Each one said I ♥ NYC. Hannie and Nancy would love them. And I still had $14.11 to spend on their real presents.

  We left the station then, and Mommy hailed a cab. We piled into it. “Stanmark Hotel, please,” said Mommy, and we were off. I stared at the people and the buildings and the traffic. New York was a very busy place.

  Oh, Christmas Tree

  The trip to the hotel went by in a flash. I was so busy looking out the window that I did not say one word until the taxi pulled to a stop. “Here you go. Stanmark Hotel,” said the driver.

  Our room in the hotel was very beautiful. Andrew and I wanted to stay in it for awhile. We wanted to fill the ice bucket and unwrap the little bars of soap. Also, we had a million questions. For instance, what was a coffee maker doing in the bathroom?

  But Mommy said, “Come on, kids. Let’s go. We do not want to waste time in the hotel. Put on your walking shoes.”

  And Seth said, “We have big plans today. There is a lot to see and do.”

  So we put on our sneakers and bundled up in our coats and left the hotel. Our first stop was going to be a place called Rockefeller Plaza.