Are you ready to meditate with Kari?
Make sure that you're lying down in your bed and you're comfortable.
Everything is just right in your room.
It's time to let go of your day.
Relax.
See if you can be as still as a statue.
If it's possible.
No twitching,
No wiggling,
No moving.
So you're all ready to listen to the story.
Heidi,
Cherry and Veya were on a cruise.
They were so excited and it wasn't an ordinary cruise which made it even more exciting.
It was a Christmas cruise.
A Christmas cruise.
12 days they were on it.
12 days of Christmas.
They decided to go at the last minute.
They'd been invited by one of the bestest bestest friends Aveline and Aveline had invited her friends Arabella,
Lee and Matthew.
She'd also got her very special stuffy Mr.
Piggy along on the trip.
On the first day of Christmas,
First day of the cruise,
Aveline along with all of her friends met the cats on deck.
Cherry was beside herself.
Part of the theme by the way of this cruise was everybody had to dress in something Christmassy every single day.
So when Aveline saw the cats she couldn't help but laugh because all three of them had Santa hats on.
Heidi had decided to change her glasses from black frames to red frames.
Cherry had got a red OMG t-shirt on and Veya was wearing a red sparkly princess dress.
They looked very cute.
Everyone hugged.
They tried to hug Cherry while she was bouncing all over the place and finally she ended up saying OMG Aveline I can't believe it.
I can't believe that you've invited us on your cruise.
How sweet.
I've never been on a cruise.
I've done so many things.
So many things.
I mean I can't tell you how many exciting things we've done.
Right Heidi?
Heidi said yeah.
Right Veya?
Veya said mmm yeah.
But this said Cherry.
This tops it all and the fact that we're here for 12 days like the cowl.
12 days of Christmas my true love said to me.
It's just like that.
I can't believe it.
I'm so pleased that you thought about us.
Aveline said no problem.
I can't wait.
We're gonna have so much fun and I'm being here with my friends and it's just gonna be so much fun.
OMG said Aveline and all of her friends laughed.
Cherry said it's just like me.
That's so funny.
OMG you're right though.
We are.
We're gonna have so much fun.
One of the first things that they all did was visit the three pools.
Not one pool.
Three pools on this giant ship that they were cruising on and they were all different.
One of them had waves so it was like a wave pool.
One of the other pools had a giant really really tall swirly curly slide that dropped into the pool and then the other pool was more like a kind of relaxing more like what the grown-ups would do paces in.
You know when they just go back and forward and back and forward swimming back and forward.
All of them decided that the third pool was very boring and they would only be visiting pool number one and pool number two.
So for the first couple of days all they did was play in the pool which was absolutely awesome and then on the third day they discovered that every night there's some kind of show but on the third night it was karaoke.
Karaoke.
That's when everyone sings to music even if you're not a very good singer it doesn't matter you could be really good or not so good.
Everybody enjoys karaoke.
When Aveline and her friends met the cats in the karaoke place they couldn't believe who was already on stage singing.
Santa.
Yes Santa was on this cruise and he looked like it was his perfect cruise.
It looked like this cruise was designed for him like he was the star in the whole show and Mrs.
Claus and they were both on stage and they were singing we wish you a Merry Christmas together.
Karaoke style it was very very sweet all the cheeks were bright red and both of the curly white hair was glistening in the lights and it was just really nice.
Cherry said this is really really nice.
Heidi said I didn't know that Santa could sing.
Aveline said well you know we don't really get to see Santa the rest of the year we don't in fact we don't really get to see him at all he just kind of comes and gives us his presents and then he disappears right?
Heidi said very good point that's right we don't really know very much about Santa at all do we?
Veya said me me wonders what his favorite food is and whether he likes princesses.
Cherry said you know what I bet he likes chocolate because whenever you read stories about Santa and Mrs.
Claus she's always making him hot chocolate with marshmallows and stuff so yeah I bet he likes chocolate well we know he likes cookies because every single girl and boy normally leaves him cookies right so I must like chocolate chocolate and I bet he likes his hot chocolate and I bet he likes his cookies or he would really like us to bake him cookies sometime we're gonna have to bake him some cookies I wonder if he only gets cookies at Christmas or if he gets cookies all year round.
Heidi said I'm sure he just gets cookies all year round I bet Mrs.
Claus makes him cookies all year round you wouldn't just get cookies once a year would you?
Cherry said no you won't think so because mind you can you imagine how many cookies Santa has to eat on Christmas Eve that's a lot a lot of cookies so maybe he does only eat them that one night in the year because you know I think I'd be sick of cookies wouldn't you be sick of cookies?
Everyone everyone nodded that's a lot of cookies.
Cherry decided that she was gonna sing a song she was waiting until Aveline and Arabella and Lee and Matthew finished their song they were singing oh holy night and they did it so well they all sounded really really nice Cherry was getting a little bit nervous she said to Heidi I'm nervous do you think do you think do you think it matters that I'm really really good I'm nervous because I don't want to make everybody feel bad because you know what that's like sometimes you know if you really really really really good at something and then everybody else is not so good I mean it's not fair is it it's not fair when you're really really good at everything.
Heidi said I think everyone will be okay don't worry Cherry I think everyone is comfortable in their own talents and it doesn't matter whether you're good or whether you're not so good remember you're just going to have fun.
Cherry said you know Heidi you're so small and you're right you're right.
She got on stage the lights were shining in her face by now there were lots of people lots and lots of people in the karaoke place she thought about whether anybody was there that was like a talent recruit you know someone that might possibly make her famous if they hear the singing like when you're walking down the street and someone says to you you should be a model.
Cherry was thinking right now this is her moment she could possibly become a star things might never be the same after this all these things were running through her head they could be like some music producers in the audience just waiting waiting for talent she started singing.
Last Christmas I gave you my heart but the very next day you gave it away she was really trying.
This year to save us from tears I'll give it to someone special.
Everyone thought she was doing marvelous not talent like she's going to be a pop star marvelous but she was doing absolutely wonderful.
You couldn't help but smile at her.
Her little veins were popping out on her on her cat throat she was so intense about it and what was interesting was the whole song she was singing to Mr.
Piggy.
Now at first Heidi noticed that she was singing to Mr.
Piggy remember Mr.
Piggy is Avalyn's stuffed teddy but Heidi thought why is she's just singing to Mr.
Piggy and then Veya noticed and said to Heidi me me me thinks that Cherry likes Mr.
Piggy.
Heidi said I think I think you might be right seems like she's singing this whole song to Mr.
Piggy and Mr.
Piggy was just kind of swaying along in Avalyn's arms I wonder if they've been talking to each other said Heidi hmm interesting she said.
A few days later they discovered that on the top deck there was enough space for everyone to play you could run and play games and play chase and play soccer well as we know Cherry loves soccer and all the other cats love soccer and it just so happened Avalyn and her friends loved soccer too they decided that they were going to have a special soccer game they invited Santa and Mrs.
Claus and some other friends that they've made along the way because you know you see the same people almost every day on a cruise no matter how big the ship is and you get to meet so many people and get so many friends and Cherry is very very charismatic and she meets everyone and everyone that meets her always ends up being her friend and well you know Avalyn is so sweet and her friends are so nice that they met so many friends and by now it looked like Cherry was getting closer and closer to Mr.
Piggy she sat with him when they ate things and she made sure that she rearranged everybody's seats so that she could sit right there next to him and it looked like they were chatting away most of the time very interesting on this particular day when they were going to play soccer Cherry invited Mr.
Piggy onto their team there were two sides of six the girls were on one side with a few new friends and the cats were on the other side with Santa Mrs.
Claus and Mr.
Piggy the game was a lot of fun Cherry carried Mr.
Piggy everywhere they ran all over together the soccer game was definitely a hit and they decided that they were going to play soccer quite a few times on this cruise one of the other things that they all like to do was go into Avalyn's cabin get on her big bed with all of her friends Mr.
Piggy the cats everyone all on Avalyn's bed all would snuggle in together and tell each other Christmas stories they would tell each of the stories about their bestest Christmases and all of the memories that they had so far little bits little tiny memories of different things that had happened to them at different holiday seasons their bestest memories and whenever you think about all the happy times it always makes you happy right so this was a really nice time for all of them because it made them all warm and fuzzy inside thinking about all the happy times in the past Cherry decided she was going to tell Mr.
Piggy she loved him not in like her boyfriend and girlfriend kind of way just in like she felt like she knew Mr.
Piggy like she'd known him a whole life and she didn't know why but she really really liked Mr.
Piggy it looked like Mr.
Piggy really really really liked Cherry she told him you know I've been thinking Mr.
Piggy and you know I think that we're really good friends and I really like you and I really really actually I think I love you yeah I do I love you I do love quite a few people because I am a loving kind of loving loving kind of cat but with you I really do love you Mr.
Piggy told Cherry that he loved her too they snuggled in together Heidi decided she would tell everyone a story a Christmas story that she was going to make up right there and then they all got underneath the blanket the lights were down low once upon a time said Heidi far far away there was a little girl a little girl called Avalyn Avalyn had lots and lots of friends Arabella Lee Matthew Heidi Cherry Veya mr.
Piggy Santa mrs.
Santa and many many more Avalyn smiled as she listened to Heidi story all of these friends were very special special friends and they all did something very special on Christmas Eve every Christmas Eve no matter where they were even if they weren't together even if many many many years had passed they had a tradition each one of them would close their eyes think loving thoughts about each other and wish each other a merry merry Christmas cherry said oh hey day that's really nice I'm gonna do that everyone agreed that they were all going to start to do that every Christmas Eve Heidi made everyone get quiet again and carried on with her story a story went on for quite some time and everyone got very very relaxed was really nice to be together to be all warm and safe and snugly one by one they started to drift off into sweet dreams and then some time later after that Heidi noticed everyone was asleep all of them fast asleep having the bestest bestest dreams you
