The twins, Nat and Kat, insisted they were too old for church, so while Mom and Dad were worshiping, as instructed they cleaned up some of the wrapping paper scattered about the living room, and as a reward sampled more than a few of Mom’s special Christmas cookies, the kind with more than a hint of rum in them. Stuffed, they sat on the couch remembering past Christmases.

“My favorite was the time Dad brought home that puppy,” Nat said.

“Oh yeah, Blackie. He lasted almost one day,” Kat remembered.

“Until he ate Mom’s new Christmas hat,” Nat said. “Feathers everywhere.”

“And puppy poop,” Kat added.

“Poor Blackie.”

“Maybe we should have got Mom a hat,” Kat mused.

“I always wanted a pony,” Nat said.

“Me too,” Kat agreed. “We could ride him together.”

“Or we could each have our own.”

“I’d name mine Flower,” Kat said.

“That’s a silly name for a horse,” Nat said.

“You can name your horse whatever you want,” Kat said.

“Remember the time you broke Grandma’s rocking chair?” Nat recalled.

“It was you,” Kat declared.

“It was your fault. I was doing fine until you jumped on,” Nat said.

“You have to learn to share,” Kat said.

“I wish we still had that train,” Nat said.

“Yeah, the one that went around the tree. It was neat.” Kat thought for a moment. “Remember about the caboose?”

“I’d forgotten about that,” Nat said. “Dad told us that in the old days trains had a caboose.”

“That’s right. He said the caboose was the rear end of the train. And we thought that was naughty. Rear end.”

“But then we started playing train,” Nat said. “We’d take turns being the caboose.”

“On Grandma’s rocking chair.”

“And that’s when it broke.”

“That was so fun, even when it broke.”

“It was.”

“Want to try it again?”

“But we don’t have a rocking chair.”

“We could use a regular chair. We could do the rocking.”

The twins played caboose, rocking together, rocking and rocking, until Mom and Dad came home.