Hearing Mike's refusal, the other three girls from The Plastics immediately stated that they needed to go home to help their parents prepare for Christmas.
Any good Christmas party requires making special sweets like Christmas tree-shaped pastries, reindeer cookies, and Santa Claus cookies.
On Christmas Day, these sweets can be mixed with candies and shared with those around you.
Moreover, families with the means can even decorate a sparkling Christmas tree unique to their home.
"Alright, after the school Christmas performance tomorrow, we'll celebrate properly."
Seeing that everyone had declined her party invitation, Regina didn't seem too disappointed.
After speaking, she winked at Mike, ambiguously stating, "Mike, tomorrow's private celebration will have a surprise waiting for you…"
For her daughter's Christmas activities, June, who was not short on money, specially prepared many beautiful outfits for her, including Christmas mini-dresses, cosplay reindeer costumes, and sweet candy outfits.
Several of these beautiful outfits were not suitable to be seen in public, so they could only be a treat for Mike.
Of course, while helping her daughter with her outfits, June did not forget the other girls in The Plastics.
It could be said that every girl in The Plastics had a share of those beautiful clothes.
Beside them, the three other members of The Plastics, who also understood the hidden meaning in Regina's words, all blushed slightly.
Although they had practiced with Mike before, role-playing with him on Christmas Day still made the girls feel both excited and a little shy.
"Mm-hmm—" Seeing the girls' interesting reactions, Mike also became interested. He then smiled and said, "I look forward to your performance tomorrow night—"
So, they agreed that after the school Christmas party tomorrow, they would go to Regina's to hold a private Christmas gathering.
Afterward, Mike was driven home by Regina. As soon as he entered, he saw Connie baking cookies.
"Mike, come quickly and try Connie's special cookies," Connie called out with a sense of accomplishment.
She had somehow gotten hold of character-shaped molds and made many human-shaped cookies.
In the cookie box, Mike saw cookies modeled after himself.
"They taste good." Mike tasted the cookies and gave them a high rating.
"I'm glad you like them. I'll share these cookies with the Cooper family later. Sheldon and Missy will definitely love them…" Connie said with a smile.
Besides Mike's image, these cookies also featured cartoon templates of Sheldon, Georgie, and Missy.
Later, at the Cooper family's dinner gathering, Connie's special cookies were indeed popular with the Cooper family children.
As dinner was nearing its end, Mary spoke up and invited, "Tomorrow night, there will be a Christmas Gospel prayer event at the church. Does anyone want to attend?"
Gospel means news that is beneficial to everyone.
That is to say, tomorrow's church Christmas event will be a sharing of good things that have happened throughout the year, with the believers and Pastor Jeff.
The format should be more like a symposium.
It could be seen that without Mr. Lundy, who was full of artistic cells, helping with ideas, Mary's ability to plan events had clearly declined.
"Are there any nun dance performances?" Georgie asked with a peculiar train of thought.
"No!" Mary glared at him fiercely.
Strictly speaking, in the church of Medford Town, Mary could be considered a nun based on her position.
There was absolutely no possibility of seeing her dance.
Seemingly sensing that everyone was not interested in the church's Christmas event, Mary continued to reveal, "Tomorrow, Pastor Jeff will also lead everyone in singing Gospel songs to pray for blessings for the believers."
In the eyes of believers, having a pastor sing blessings for everyone is a sacred and solemn matter. And being able to participate in such a ceremony is considered a great achievement.
However, the news Mary revealed still failed to pique everyone's interest.
After all, no one in this family except her was a Christian, so naturally, they weren't interested in that blessing activity.
Georgie was the first to say, "I'll still go to the school's Christmas party tomorrow. At least there will be many interesting performances there."
Then Connie and Missy also stated that they would go to listen to Mike's newly composed Christmas song tomorrow night.
Yes, the fact that Mike had written a new song for The Plastics were no longer a secret at home.
Seeing that everyone was not interested in the church Christmas event she had planned, Mary could only turn her gaze to her youngest son.
"Tam and I have an appointment to go to the school's Christmas party tomorrow," Sheldon immediately said.
"Alright, it seems I'll have to go and receive the blessing alone tomorrow," Mary pouted and said in a low voice.
It was clear that not getting her family's support made her seem a little disappointed.
Later, after dinner, Mike returned to Connie's and observed the empty living room, suggesting, "Connie, how about we decorate a Christmas tree in the living room tomorrow?"
"That kind of thing has no use other than decoration, and it's very expensive…" Connie analyzed from a practical perspective.
Decorating a very small Christmas tree would cost about one hundred dollars. If you bought a large Christmas tree directly from the mall, it would probably cost over a thousand dollars.
And Connie and the Cooper family, who had been in a tight financial situation for many years, clearly had little interest in such an unprofitable expense.
"Leave the decorating to me. I just earned a little money recently," Mike thought for a moment and said.
When celebrating a festival, it's all about the atmosphere.
Moreover, the stock market had surged again during this period at the end of the year, so spending a few hundred dollars was not a big deal for Mike now.
Hearing Mike say this, Connie smiled and said, "In that case, you can invite the Cooper family tomorrow to decorate the Christmas tree together. Georgie and Missy should really like it."
"Got it." Mike made an OK gesture, settling the matter of the Christmas tree.
Time came to the next morning.
Before the Christmas party (Christmas Eve), school was basically on holiday, just waiting for the evening's festive performance.
Mike, who had a lot of free time during the day, told the Cooper family about decorating the Christmas tree at Connie's.
Just as people visit elders for New Year's greetings, the Cooper family's Christmas dinner gathering would actually be held at Connie's.
Hearing that Mike was going to decorate a Christmas tree at home, George immediately expressed interest, saying he could dig up a pine tree from the nearby woods.
The choice of Christmas pine trees is generally between two and five meters.
After some discussion, George took his son Georgie to the nearby woods to dig up a pine tree about two and a half meters tall.
Meanwhile, Mike took Missy and Sheldon to the big mall in Medford to buy colored lights, ribbons, sequins, small stars, and other materials to decorate the Christmas tree.
"Missy, if Santa Claus could grant you one wish, what would you want?" In the mall, after most of the decorative items were purchased, Mike looked at the little girl beside him and asked.
"I want Santa Claus to give me another Barbie doll so she can keep my Bobbi princess company," Missy said, looking up with her small face and blinking her big eyes.
"Santa Claus isn't real—" Beside them, Sheldon, who was carrying a pile of decorative materials and walking with difficulty, interjected to spoil the mood.
"Heh, don't be so absolute," Mike smiled and also asked, "If there really was a Santa Claus, Sheldon, what would you want?"
"I want a physical copy of Dr. Hawking's 'A Brief History of Time'…" Sheldon imagined for a moment, then regained his rationality and said, "But even if there was a Santa Claus, he wouldn't be able to stuff such a thick book into my sock."
"If that's the case, shouldn't you prepare a good quality sock first?" Knowing the two little ones' wishes, Mike teased Sheldon.
"You're right, I also need a pair of socks!" Sheldon thought seriously about Mike's words, then turned and walked with difficulty towards the sock section of the mall.