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I am Annabelle and I am a calf that was born on Christmas Eve. I live on the family farm with the other farm animals, my best friend Billy and his loving Grandpa. Billy is seven years old and he doesn’t speak. Santa Claus, and the farm legend that on Christmas Day Santa gives us animals a speaking voice, is part of my story, too. My first Christmas, Santa visited our farm and gave all the animals the gift of speech for just one day. It was our secret. When I first saw Santa and his majestic flying reindeer, I decided I wanted to fly like them, too. Santa tied a big red bow around my neck. I was Billy’s Christmas present. Later that day, I spoke in front of Billy by accident (humans aren’t supposed to know), but Billy promised to keep the secret. I told Billy about my dream to fly and he did his best to help me try. Over the next year, while waiting for Santa to return, Billy, his friend Emily and I had a lot of fun adventures and outwitted the neighborhood bullies, the Holder boys.When Santa arrived the next Christmas, he gave us animals the gift of speech again and that’s when I asked him for my wish. It was a very special wish, the kind you make for people you love.

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