Christmas at the J-O — James Rice

At the J-Bar Nothing Ranch on Christmas Eve, Patricia, Jason and their mother are waiting alone for their father to return from his drive. With an approaching Blizzard, they decide to go ahead and find a tree themselves, a scraggly mesquite branch that is not nearly as pretty as the cedar tree their father usually brings them.

Patricia and Jason are snug in their beds after finishing their chores early, when Patricia hears the corral gate banging in the wind. Not wanting her mother to find out she didn't do her chores right, she sneaks outside with Jason into the dangerous storm. They close the gate, but the wind and ice keeps them from making back to the house, so they prepare to spend the night in the barn.

Worried about their father, who is still out in the cold, they make their beds on loose hay in a horse stall, not expecting the special surprise that will make this a wonderful Christmas after all.