Autumn Eclipse

It was a cloudy night and Heidi had just gotten home. Harlin had let Heidi buy the groceries this week because Heidi knew which was the best squash to buy for the Autumn Eclipse. The Autumn Eclipse marked the end of autumn and the beginning of winter. Autumn Cleaning marked the beginning of autumn. The Autumn Eclipse was one of the children’s and babies’ favorite holiday. They got to carve squash, put on plays for the babies and collect the last of autumn leaves and jump in. At the end of the day, they would drive to Town Center where there would be a large festival and parade. In the middle was a large tree where every household would put their carved vegetable at the alter and sing and dance. To close the festival everyone would sit in their car, take off the top and watch the eclipse and stars. It was one of those rare times where the children could go to town and leave their quiet country life. This would be Teri’s and the Chocolate Rabbits along with the new babies and Chiffon Dog arrivals first country autumn eclipse and Heidi was looking forward to showing it to her sister.

That night Heidi had put all the groceries away and sent the children to bed. She and Teri were on a phone call. Heidi exclaimed, “Oh Teri, this will be the best Autumn Eclipse ever!”

“I am excited for this country celebration. In Sylvania, autumn just passes, no one celebrates.” Teri explained.

“Teri, you’ll love every moment of it. City or country critter anyone could have a good time,” said Heidi, “I’m sure Freya and Breeze will enjoy this too.”

Teri laughed, “Dearest sister, you should see Freya now. She’s dancing and cheering about how much she’s looking forward to it. I always wondered why she loved the country this much.”

Over the phone, Heidi could hear Freya cheering, “I am so excited! YIPPEE!”

“It’s nice that Freya enjoys everythings,” replied Heidi, “I have to go, sis. I can hear Olive crying, bye.”

“Alright bye, Heidi. See you tomorrow, I’ll come for breakfast.”

The very next morning was partly cloudy. The Autumn Eclipse had fallen upon a Friday, so Harlin had a three day weekend. Autumn Eclipse was a public holiday in Cloverleaf Corners, children had a week off, homeschooled or not and adults usually just got that day off. Heidi was preparing some tarts and coffee for breakfast.

“Good morning!” greeted Harlin.

“Hello Harlin! Teri and her family will be coming soon!” said Heidi with much excitement.

KNOCK KNOCK! Teri was right outside! "Coming, coming!" hollered Heidi.

After seating, the Chocolates at breakfast Heidi prepared some more breakfast for the children, who would be awake any moment now. As mothers know, a few minutes later the children were all awake.

When breakfast was over, Harlin was eager to create a play for the babies. He grabbed all the stuff animals the children and babies had and started setting up in the hallway.

After the babies woke up and were fed the play was set. They were seated at the hallway staring in awe and excitement at the interesting play. The story was simple, cute and straightforward. Just what a baby needed. With cute props too, like a pencil sword for Sir Teddy and a pink chair/throne for Tedda, the princess in the play.

"And Teddy picked up his enemy, Saffron Squirrel's hand and asked to be friends. After that day there was no longer a war anymore and everyone was all about peace and love. Along with that the villagers gave a lot of donuts to Teddy, the brave knight," narrated Harlin.

"Yay, yay" cheered Henry.

Olive kept clapping and giggling. Skip came upstairs and mentioned, "Dad, you have to come jump in the crisp autumn leaves with me."

Harlin answered, "Alright. Babies, go play with Teddy and everyone. Make your own stories."

Skip grabbed his father's paw and the father and son raced outside. Piles of the remaining autumn leaves were set up. Heidi was already there. Teri watched from the balcony and Freya sneakily jumped into the piles. Knowing Teri, she would be in big trouble for jumping into leaves, so the children covered for her.

“Okay! Time to jump!” cheered David.

“Time for me to jump!” cheered Karen.

The siblings jumped right into each other and that ended their leaf jumping fun times.

While the children were still sleeping, this morning Heidi and Harlin started hiding some chocolates and macaroons they had bought from town. She wrote a slip of paper with clues and passed them out to each critter when they got inside. Harlin explained, “Solve the clues and find the treat. The more clues you solve, the more treats you find.”

“Got it,” Bell said, she was determined to win.

“What are we doing after?” asked David.

David and Karen and the babies from Sylvania were also having their first Autumn Eclipse. This was new to them and they were enjoying every moment of it.

“The annual carving of the squash, of course!” answered Heidi, cheerfully.

“1...2...3...go find those treats!” yelled Harlin.

All the adults then sat down and started watching a special exclusive Autumn Eclipse channel.

“My Freya is quite bright. She’ll definitely win,” boasted Teri.

Heidi said, “This is her first one though.”

“Freya is very smart. Of course, not better than my Breeze, but she did attend City School.”

Heidi was offended, “Just because my children are homeschooled doesn’t mean they’re dumber!”

“Good luck to everyone. No need to get into arguments,” calmed Harlin.

The ladies turned their attention back to the TV. The air was tight between them until little Hopper and Honey crawled down and asked for some donuts with their cutest eyes.

“HAHA! I FOUND ONE!” cheered Skip who was in the bathroom.

Skip was very excited. Bell had come and noticed Skip's victory. "Don't even try to get this, Bell."

"Don't worry," assured Bell, "I am too scared to go one hand on that tall ladder."

Bell left to find more treats in less scary places and there Skip was on the ladder reaching for the purple macaroon on the bathroom shelf. Skip had moved the ladder that was used to access the third floor to the shelves, so he could reach the petite, purple macaroon.

Karen Doughty had found the most because she was the smartest of the friends. That didn’t really matter to anyone because they were all enjoying this Autumn Eclipse.

After all the treats were discovered, the children noticed some of their treats had bite marks and some of the cream was licked off. Their attention turned to the babies who had cream and chocolate smearing their adorable faces. No one could be upset with them, they were just so cute.

The squash carving was very fun. The children gathered up and looked back at Bell and Skip’s old notes of carving designs. “What should be the theme of this year's carving?” inquired Karen.

“How about togetherness?” suggested Freya, “I mean there are a lot of new faces this year. I made so many new friends.”

Everyone agreed and they asked Bell for some creative carving ideas. Bell was the most creative of this group of friends and loved drawing and designing. She grabbed her pencil and was off in her own little world. The design was simple, it went with the less is more strategy. Bell and drawn each of her friends’ face and added little flowers and hearts. The bottom read: Cloverleaf Corners+Sylvania.

The design was just so simply stunning and they got to work. Harlin overlooked their carving because no one wanted any injuries. Everyone carved their own face and the faces wrapped around the squash. Bell carved the words at the bottom, since she had the most experience in carving. She was the oldest of the group. Harlin even carved an opening at the top, so they could place a candle in it later. The squash looked better than ever and the children were all very proud. Even the energetic Hopper couldn’t help, but sit down and admire the lovely carving.

The afternoon passed with even more games. The babies got to watch a lot of TV when the adults were telling stories to the kids. When it was time everyone hopped in the car. The carved squash was safely stored in a gift box bought at the Toy Shop. They drove to Town Center where everything was decorated in a fall theme. At the middle was an alter already full of carved squash and a box of candles was beside the squashes. Harlin placed their squash and put a candle in it. “We’re just in time!” squealed Freya.

“This is fun!” laughed Honey.

Skip smiled, “Agreed lil sis.”

Teri was spinning slowly and looking at the beautiful decorations. As uptight as she was, she had to admit this country celebration was very fun. There was a lovely parade and delicious snacks from every shop. The Brick Oven Bakery even decided to make bread into different shapes. Then it was happening, the eclipse was going to happen. Everyone lied in the car and watched the eclipse. Teri was reluctant at first, but after taking one peek she couldn’t sit up. She just lied down, relaxed and watched. And that was the end of autumn.