“Merry Christmas!”

Molly stood at the door eagerly handing out candy canes topeople as they entered. Anna stood beside her, helping some, but mostly watchingshyly.

Christmas in July had never been my thing, but I had toadmit, our event was bringing in people to the bookstore. I had stayed latethe night before, helping Jared and Lacie cover displays in fake snow, puttingup a display of Christmas books, and setting out Christmas crafts for the kids.We even had two authors in for the day with their Christmas book offerings..

I tried not to feel awkward in my Santa hat and green apron.Instead, I tried to think about the extra pay I would get this week for workingovertime. I also tried to enjoy the smiles it brought to the faces of thepeople coming in from the Texas heat.

Jared was busy snapping pictures of families and individualswith our Christmas photo backdrop and cardboard cutout of Father Christmas.

We had hot and iced chocolate ready to go. I knew I would bespending a lot of time behind the tea counter.

“Wow! Now this is a fun bookstore.”

I spun around and saw Asa standing, looking around.

Ben bumped him. “I told you; this isn’t what it normallylooks like.”

Asa shrugged. “Too bad. I feel ten degrees cooler stepping inhere. It gets you into the Christmas spirit.”

My mouth dropped open. “I thought you two said you weregoing to play Risk the whole day.”

Asa through his arm around my shoulder. “We may have exaggeratedour plans so we could surprise you. It’s been too long since we visited yourwork. How long will this party last?”

I looked around. “Just for the day. I’ll be staying late to cleanup and get all the summer displays put back up.”

Ben looked behind me. “Is that hot chocolate?”

I looked and nodded. “We also have iced chocolate.”

Ben moved toward the tea counter. “I’ll take the hot stuff.”

I shook my head, but obliged my brother. “How can you drinkthe hot chocolate when the temperature outside is…”

Ben held up his hand. “You drink hot tea almost everymorning no matter how hot it is.”

I opened my mouth to say it was different, but I shut itagain. I smiled. “You’re right.

“Make it two hot chocolates,” Ben said with a wink. “I wantone for Asa and one for me. Let’s get into the Christmas in July mood!”

I laughed and obliged him.

We had been a mad house all day, but we finally closed thedoor. I let out a long breath and looked around the messy store. I sure had mywork cut out for me.

Jared looked as tired as I felt. I reached to pick up a discardedcoloring page from the floor when his phone started ringing. “Lacie? Yeah, wejust finished up.”

I grabbed a box from behind the counter and loaded booksfrom the Christmas display inside. Amazed at how many of the books had sold. Iglanced from my work to see Jared looking at me with distress.

“Is Lacie okay?” I whispered.

He covered the lower half of the phone. “Apparently, she isfeeling awful, Hosanna is throwing a fit, and Molly and Anna are crying.”

I knew what I needed to do. “I’ll do the clean-up.”

Jared looked around. “You’ll be here until two in themorning.”

I shrugged. “Your family needs you.”

He swallowed. “Lacie, sweetheart, I’ll be there in tenminutes.” He hung up. “I owe you.”

I smiled and waved him off. I shot off a quick text to myfamily, letting them know why I would be late, and dove into the work. At leastJared had cleaned out the hot chocolate urns when we ran out an hour beforeclosing.

I put on my audio bible and loaded all the Christmas displays. And then returned all the summer books to the shelf.

A knock on the door had my heart hammering in my chest. Iturned toward the door, phone in hand. My siblings were pressed to the window, waving like crazy people. What were Asa and Ben carrying?

I unlocked the door and let them in. “What in the world arey’all doing here?”

Ivy bounced in. “Well, we thought you could use some help.”

“And I thought, why not turn this into a Christmas in Julyparty for us?” Asa said.

Ben grunted. “Hence the reason we lugged the TV screen fromhome so we could watch a Christmas movie while we worked.”

“Can we put it up here?” Ivy asked, pointing to the teacounter.

I waved my brothers in.  “The counter would be fine. Now, what moviedid you bring?”

“It’s a Wonderful Life.” Ben held up the movie. “I figuredit would save all of us from bickering over which cheesy movie to bring.”

I smiled.

“Well, put me to work,” Meg said, clapping her handstogether. “I’m guessing the bathrooms need cleaning.”

I nodded. “Are you sure you want to do that?”

Meg shrugged. “Let’s get the worst out of the way.”

I gestured for her to follow, and we went into the back roomfor supplies. Ivy followed and found the bag for the fake snow. “I can put allthe fake snow back into this.

Soon, the boys were busy with trash bags collecting cups andrandom trash as well as hauling the filled bags out of the dumpster. I listened to the movie while I finished counting out the register and put the display shelves back in order. George Baily wasn’t even married yet by the time we finished.

I turned off lights and made sure everything was secured forthe night as my brothers took the TV out to the car. They were crazy for luggingit down to the store, and I loved them for it.

Even though I was exhausted when I was finally tucked intobed, I pulled out my mercies notebook and my list of things to bring joy. Onthe list, I added celebrate Christmas in July with my siblings and marked itoff. No, it hadn’t been something I had planned on, but it was perfect.

Opening the mercies notebook, I forced my eyes open longenough to write down what was most important:

God’s mercies to metoday:

My siblings

Christmas in July

 Getting to bed before two AM