Happy Holidays, Jessi Read online

  “I’m not supposed to say this until the end of dinner,” I said, “but it fits right now.” I read loudly and clearly: “ ‘May the year’s end meet us laughing and stronger.’ ”

  “That’s right!” Uncle Charles proclaimed.

  In the candlelight of the kinara, Mama and Daddy seemed to be shining from within. Aunt Yvonne and Uncle Charles looked relaxed and happy. Squirt and Kara were shoveling bananas into their mouths, and Keisha and Billy were all smiles. Even Aunt Cecelia looked calm and content.

  “And one more thing,” I added. “May we all be here at this table again next year, as happy and healthy as we are now!”

  “Harambee!” Becca’s voice rang out from the bathroom.

  “HAAAARAAAMMBEEEEEE!” shouted the rest of the Ramsey family.

  I think they could have heard us in the next town.

  * * *

  Dear Reader,

  In Happy Holidays, Jessi, the Ramseys face a trying time, but in the end the strength of their family and of family traditions pulls them through. When I was growing up, one of our holiday traditions involved our neighbors, the Rices. We were very close to them, and the Rice kids were my first baby-sitting charges. Starting when I was young, our families got together every single year at Christmastime to exchange gifts and celebrate the holiday. On most years we got together on Christmas Eve. We usually had dinner at a restaurant called Good Time Charley’s, and then gathered at either their house or ours to exchange presents. Now many years have passed, and we’ve all gone through lots of changes. The Rice kids are married now, and Robert even has kids of his own. Everyone has scattered. We live all up and down the East Coast. But if we can, we still try to get together. It’s an important tradition. Families, friends, togetherness — that’s what holidays are all about.

  Happy reading,

  * * *

  The author gratefully acknowledges

  Peter Lerangis

  for his help in

  preparing this manuscript.

  About the Author

  ANN MATTHEWS MARTIN was born on August 12, 1955. She grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, with her parents and her younger sister, Jane.

  There are currently over 176 million copies of The Baby-sitters Club in print. (If you stacked all of these books up, the pile would be 21,245 miles high.) In addition to The Baby-sitters Club, Ann is the author of two other series, Main Street and Family Tree. Her novels include Belle Teal, A Corner of the Universe (a Newbery Honor book), Here Today, A Dog’s Life, On Christmas Eve, Everything for a Dog, Ten Rules for Living with My Sister, and Ten Good and Bad Things About My Life (So Far). She is also the coauthor, with Laura Godwin, of the Doll People series.

  Ann lives in upstate New York with her dog and her cats.

  Copyright © 1996 by Ann M. Martin

  Cover art by Hodges Soileau

  All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc. SCHOLASTIC, THE BABY-SITTERS CLUB, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.

  The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  First edition, December 1996

  e-ISBN 978-0-545-79291-2