It was a chilly winter afternoon, the streets of town were emptier than usual, but neither of the Egberts minded as they wandered through the streets by themselves. The young child, John, only six-years-old zig zagged across the sidewalk back and forth as he followed behind his father. He found it rather entertaining to hear the crunching of snow beneath his bright blue boots, and found himself giggling when he compared his tiny footprints to his father's who were so grown compared to his.
The two of them were in town to shop for Christmas gifts, and have been wandering through shops and streets, buying their gifts for family and friends. John was too young to pick out gifts on his own, so mostly what he would do is help his father, giving his thoughts every once in a whole on items chosen. They've been shopping for about two hours now, and John was starting to feel a little sleepy after walking for so long. His father had started to pick up on this, when John started to drag behind more, yawning every few minutes.
John's father stopped walking, turning around to see John stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, yawning quietly, and rubbing his eyes. He laughed a little, waving his hand towards himself as he beckoned John to walk over. When the young boy did, his father crouched down so he'd be at eye level with him. John walked up to his father, wrapping his arms around his neck. The father smiled at the little gesture, picking John up from the ground and hugged him lovingly.
"Say, John, what do you think? Should we go get ourselves some hot chocolate?" His father suggested, picking up his shopping bags from the ground as he continued to walk down the sidewalk. His son clung to him as they made their way to the closet cafe, and his father made calming chatter for him as he walked along the snowy walkway.
"Hey, daddy, look!" John pointed towards the street where cars passed by slowly, almost lazily in fact, but, what little John was that it had started to snow. "It's snowing now, yay!" He bounced a little with excitement, happy to see that there was going to be more snow soon enough.
John's father carefully opened the cafe doors, all the while not letting the young boy from his grip. He walked into the warm comfort of the cafe, crouching down to the floor to place his John down, placing a small kiss on his head. "Here John, you can choose a table to sit at while I order out hot chocolate, okay?" He handed a few of the small shopping bags to him, coaxing him to go. He did, but made his way there by hopping, which just made his father laugh.
"Silly little boy." He chuckled again as he turned around and strode over to the counter, waiting for the worker to walk over to meet him. As he waited, he stared up at the menu that was set up for customers, finding the price for the hot chocolate he wanted to buy. "Hello, I'd like two orders of small hot chocolate, please." He spoke quickly, glancing over to the table area to make sure his son was okay, and he was thankfully.
"Okay then, will that be all for today, sir?"
"Ah, no, can I get a chocolate chip cookie as well, you see," he chuckled a little, "my son just loves them."
"All right, well, your hot chocolates will be done soon enough." The cashier pulled up the total, and as he talked, John's father pulled his wallet out, handing the correct amount of money to the worker, and waited patiently for his order.
Not too long after, he carried two small cups of hot chocolate over to his son, who was happily nibbling on his chocolate chip cookie. "John, would you like to hear a story?" John perked up happily when he received his hot chocolate from his father, as well as when he'd be hearing a story told by his father. "All right," he said as he sat down next to John, "this is the story of how I met my lovely wife, your mother."
"Really?" He asked in an excited tone of voice. "How did you meet mom?"
"Hmm, it was around nine years ago when I first saw her. Actually around this time of the year too." He sighed happily, starting to smile to himself. "Something had been distracting both of us for some reason, and we ended walking right into each other. I felt so sorry that I felt like I needed to repay her in some way."
"And what did she do?"
"She said yes! Ah, I felt so lucky that a girl like her said yes to such a small date. I was surprised when she said I could repay her right then, buy her a drink at a cafe. She took me to this cafe for our first date, and she was just the most beautiful girl I had ever seen." He stopped talking for a few seconds to take a sip of his hot chocolate, resuming soon after. "I couldn't stop thinking about her after she left, and when I checked my pocket, it turns out she slipped a paper in that had her number to call! That was just the sweetest thing she could ever do..."
John sat in his seat, trying to sit tall so he could look as big as his father did. He drank his hot chocolate cheerfully, feeling more awake, but he had some difficulty trying to understand what his father was saying, because he was talking a little too fast for him to comprehend, but he got the basics of it all. "How come we didn't bring momma with us today? We are Christmas shopping, right?"
His father nodded, ruffling John's hair before he spoke. "Right, we are looking for Christmas gifts, but since it's so close, we'll be mailing the gifts a little later than usual. But we left your mother at home because I bought a few things for her, as gifts."
John kicked his little legs that barely touched the floor, kicking them a little under the table as he stared outside the window, watching as the snow fell gently to the ground. They sat in a comfortable silence as they sipped their hot chocolate, and when his father was finished with his own, he took hold of John's small hands. "Okay, you ready to head out now, John?" He nodded, moving to sit in his father's lap.
"Almost done, just a few more things to buy and then we can head home." His father stood up, once again carrying John with him. He made sure to grab his shopping bags before he left, opening the door to walk outside into the chilly breeze that passed. "Won't be too much longer,I promise. We can go home and watch a movie together, okay?"
"Okay!" John smiled, tugging his hat back down. "Can you help me make my wish list too? I need to have it, Christmas is almost here!" As always, John was excited for Christmas, excited that soon he'd be opening his gifts. He'd always loved the winter holidays, he thought they were the best.
"Of course, and after that, you can help momma and make some cookies for Santa, hmm?" He leaned up a little and kissed John's cheek when he giggled. After that, John nestled his face into his father's scarf, which was very warm and comfy, continuing to nibble on his delicious chocolate chip cookie.