princess samara

dear samara,

when isaac, shelby, max, sunday, and hailey were little, i made up
stories like this for them.

once upon a time in a far away kingdom there lived a precious little
princess named samara. she had beautiful curly hair, twinkly green
eyes, and a cute little pixy nose.

every morning, when the sun first peaked beneath her curtains, she
would jump out of her royal bed to peak out the turret window.  then
she would decide if she and her kitten would fish in the bubbling
stream, explore the great forest, or ride her royal pony.

that morning she spied her father, king matt, and brothers, prince asa
and prince phin, mounting their royal horses!

she quickly scooped up her kitten, ran down the hundred stairs, and
pounced out onto the courtyard.

"papa, please let me go with you!"

"she can't go! she's way too small," said prince asa and prince phin.

"they're right, samara.  this is a very dangerous hunt, and you are
much too little.  i couldn't bear for you to get hurt,"  said her kind papa,
the king.

off they galloped, leaving princess samara in a trail of dust.  she
stomped her royal foot, picked up her kitten, and stormed into the
castle kitchen.

flour was floating in the sunlit doorway, fragrant bread was baking in
the ovens, and chocolate pies were cooling on the window ledges.

"may i help? please let me help you make something!"

"out!  out of my kitchen!" said the royal baker.  "you are much too  tiny
to be of any help here."  but she smiled gently and gave princess samara
a delicious bun, still warm from the royal ovens.

sharing the treat with her kitten, princess samara plodded sadly to her
mother's chamber.  she found queen emily and all her maidens on their
hands and knees peaking beneath her royal bed.

"oh, samara, you are just in time!  we have been counting out coins
from the royal treasury to give to the poor villagers.  one of the coins fell
to the ground and prince ilo crawled under the bed with it. we are
terrified that he will plop it into his mouth and choke to death!" queen
emily cried.

princess samara scrambled under the bed and handed her kitten to
prince ilo, who promptly dropped the coin.

"thank heavens you are still small enough to do important things," said
queen emily and gave her the biggest hug in the kingdom...and lots of
kisses, too.

merry Christmas,
miss lea