The winter school break is finally here! No more homework, no more worrying about lessons, I can get ready for Christmas - Jutka was happy.
Of course, he didn't just mean waiting for presents and decorating the tree. The festive preparations included accompanying Dad to the market, choosing the most beautiful fir tree, and getting together with Mum in the kitchen to try to "bake" not only the sweet pastries, but also the menu for Christmas dinner.
Soon, the tree was born - a magnificent green giant that still just fit into the living room - and she slowly learned from her mother how to prepare festive dishes.
Now only the most interesting task was left to do, to cut the pine tree and to invent the usual new decorations.
When she was a little girl, she used to cut out strips of paper that her mother had drawn with scissors and glue them together to make a long chain. When she was older, she used a needle to string popcorn kernels on a string and decorate the tree.
The year before, he had drawn the snowmen himself, who then clung to each other to form an endless, snow-white line, hugging the crown of the dark green pine. Last year she made up salt and flour figures, stars, moons, tiny pines, slender steepled churches, fish and birds from the malleable, shimmering mass.
He wanted to do something new this year. He and his mum were buying walnut kernels for the bejgli at the market when he saw that the vendor was selling small, but very shaped, nuts in shell. He kept begging mum until they bought half a kilo of those too. Then they went to the paper shop to buy the different colours of paint she wanted to colour the little nuts with. She was looking forward to seeing how the colourful balls would look on the Christmas tree.
Back home, he got right to work. First she glued a string of thread to the nuts so that she had something to hang them on the tree, then she distributed the different colours of paint in trays. He dipped the nuts in one by one.
By the end, there was hardly any paint left, just a little of the golden colour at the bottom of one of the bowls. Looking into the basket, there was only one nut, a tiny one, much smaller than the others. "Well, there's just enough leftover paint for you, but you might still be the prettiest," she thought.
While the nuts were drying, she wrapped the presents for her parents and grandmother. After wrapping, the fun of decorating the tree could begin.
There was only one problem: one of the thread loops was hanging empty on the stick on which he hung the painted nuts to dry. And the most beautiful one, the last of the tiny golden walnuts, had disappeared. At first he looked around to see where it had rolled away, then he got down on all fours and not only looked under the branches of the big pine tree, but even under the carpet, because it was so small, and maybe that was where it was hidden. But it was nowhere to be found, as if the earth had swallowed the little golden ball.
Her sadness was only relieved when her mother complimented her: your new decorations are really beautiful, and the most precious thing about them is that you not only thought of them, but you also made them yourself.
Soon the evening arrived, the festive dinner, the lighting of the candles and the highlight of the evening, the presentation of the gifts.
He received two books from his dad, a snowflake sweater from his grandmother and - to his surprise - a camera from his mother, because his attentive mother did not forget when he mentioned more than once during the year how much he would like to capture the flowers and insects he saw on his trips on photos.
Some time later, the candles were blown out, the sparklers burned out, and the family retired. Lying in her bed, she thought of the most beautiful events of the evening, but could not think of where the little golden nut had gone!
His eyes slowly closed, sleep had come over him, when suddenly ....he found himself in the hall again, next to the pine tree. The room was dim, and yet, near the floor, through a narrow opening in the panelling that covered the wall, light filtered out. He couldn't help but lean down and peer into the small hole.
What he saw inside amazed him so much that he almost cried out in surprise: members of a family of mice were standing around a shiny, round thing that lit up the narrow space like a sparkling jewel. And what was this wonderful, shiny thing? Well, it was his much sought-after, tiny golden nut. The mice seemed not only to admire the tiny lantern, but also to warm to its light.
Then one of the mice moved, as if sensing a curious intruder peering in. He shied away, and quietly and carefully stood up, leaving the mouse hole behind.
That night he dreamt of many things: a trip to the forest, rainbow butterflies, colourful birds, beautiful flowers, and he kept clicking and clicking with his new camera...
When he woke up, he could not remember his dream. But when she was called to breakfast, she was surprised to hear her mother say, "Guess what, I found your lost golden walnut on the floor this morning, where the baseboards were a little broken. Dad could have fixed it long ago, but maybe he'll have time after the holidays...
And then, so that the mother, who was bustling about in the kitchen, and no one else would see, he rolled the little nut he had found into the little hole in the panelling. "Merry Christmas, mice!" - she whispered. Then she went off happily to breakfast, with a big secret that only she knew - that a family of mice were having Christmas with her little golden nut.
