Author's Note: Okay, everyone else was writing a Christmas story, so why not me to. This is a few different perspectives on Christmas for the Dukes.
Big thanks to Vinsemouse for beta work.
Warning: The warning is placed here for vinsmouse, who wanted a spew warning here, claiming it might be a bad idea to drink while reading the funnier parts. So please keep in mind that drinking any kind of beverage while reading this, might be hazzard'ous to the health of your screen.
Disclaimer: The Duke Boys are not mine, I don't own the Duke boys, nor the General Lee. I promise that once I'm through with them, there will be nothing broken that a trip to Cooter's garage can't fix….
Christmas Times
If there was one holiday that Luke had always loved it was Christmas. There really was something magical about it. All the special things that happened every year. When they were young he, Bo and Daisy would be sitting at the kitchen table nibbling on cookies and watching their aunt bake even more.
Though since their aunt had passed away it was Daisy making the cookies, and it was also she who swatted at Bo with the dough pin as he tried to snatch some of the cookie dough. Luke couldn't help but laugh as some flour fell from it and came to rest in Bo's hair. Of course, his wise crack comment of Bo starting to look like frosty the snowman had Bo grabbing a pinch of flour and throwing it at his cousin.
Daisy got so mad! Screaming at them to get out of her kitchen before she did something she would regret and the two boys knew better than to press their luck. The two of them was running from the kitchen faster than grease went from the pan to the fire. Falling over each other as they stumbled outside out of reach of her rolling pin. It was just one of those things that was so much fun about Christmas.
Of course the fact that he had to help Bo wash all the flour and dough out of his hair hadn't been so fun. Who had known that would be so hard to get out when he rubbed in the handful. He had thought it was just a simple matter of dunking his cousin in the water trough, how was he supposed to know that turned the dough worse and the flour to glue…..
It had sure been a long and cold half an hour spent with the garden hose, and the way Bo kept complaining about getting soap in his eyes hadn't helped at all. In the end he just up and told Bo that if he didn't shut up and let Luke work in peace he would shove him into the oven and see if it would all bake into a cookie.
The whole time their uncle was laughing his heart out at them. Ready to give them the next chore even as Bo was rubbing his hair dry with a towel and Luke was handing him a dry shirt.
It was a good thing he was sending them out to get a tree, and that was a chore they never minded. It had been one of the proudest times when he sent the two of them out to do it alone the first time. Luke was old enough for it and Bo was trying real hard to prove he was too, maybe he wasn't really but he sure did try to act it. Helping Luke carry the tree all the way back rather than complain he himself was too tired to walk all the way home.
It always took them really long since it was so hard for them to agree on the perfect tree, both of them wanted the perfect tree but they had different opinions of how it looked. One reason their uncle always sent them out was because it gave him and Daisy a chance to finish in the kitchen while waiting for them to get back.
When they returned with the tree all the cookies would be done and most of the food as well. That made it much easier for Jesse to control them as the temptation was cut down to less than half. Keeping them outside decorating up the place with some pine branches also helped a great deal in that area. It was many years of practice that let Jesse get the farm in order for Christmas smoothly.
The trick was to let them blow off some steam before sending them out of the house. It was the way they spent so many hours cooped up in their room planning, making and wrapping gifts that had them itching. They never could take sitting still, even if it was by their own choice. They just had to live it out and stretch their legs some.
When they returned with the tree they were just about ready for some hot chocolate and cookies before they got down to decorating it. The last thing they did was getting down on the living room floor with one last cup of chocolate looking at the decorations while Luke reached up to the tree to tinkle one of the little silver bells in it. Bo making some quite livid threats about just what he would hit Luke over the head with if he did it one more time.
That was Jesse's cue to send all of the children off to bed. It took a bit to keep Bo from trying to peek out, but Jesse's threats usually did it. Telling them all that Santa wouldn't come unless they all were asleep. Another tradition Jesse had started was to bring a glass of water to Bo to put beside his bed. His favorite excuse for trying to peek had always been wanting a glass of water cause he was thirsty.
Even if he didn't do that no more it was a way for Jesse to tease one of his boys and he found it very hard to resist those.
Luke could always tell when it was Christmas morning. Bo kept trying to wake him early so they could get Daisy and their uncle up. Luke himself loved to see how long he could fool Bo and let him believe he was still asleep. It was a game they both enjoyed playing.
Yeah, there was nothing like a Christmas at home the way Luke saw it, and the jungle was a far cry from it. The Christmas weather was a pouring rain and the barrack was leaking. The fern in the corner just didn't look like no pine, no matter how much a lonesome soul wanted it to. The boys had put a few wrapped things under there for buddies, but no one would be opening them come Christmas morning because that was when they would be marching out for the next fight. Some of them gifts would never be opened because the name on the old newspaper wasn't gonna be returning after the battle.
The cookies and treats sent by loving families took some of the loneliness away, and someone who had gotten some cocoa had used it to mix up a batch. Lukewarm water with not near half enough of the chocolate made for a miserable excuse but it was all they had.
He should be sleeping before they moved out, but he couldn't. Instead he was writing letters to his family because that was the only way he could be with them. Talking to his baby cousins and his beloved uncle through a paper and trying to let them know much he missed them all. Even though he knew they knew, because their letters let him know they missed him just as much as he missed them.
Christmas in Vietnam was a strange thing. It was not really a cheerful thing, but it was a lot of kindred spirits trying to make the best out of their miseries. No one could quite defeat the loneliness of having no family near, but they could at least cherish each other for the friends that they were.
Not everyone would be so lucky as to get any presents or treats by the mail and at Christmas everyone got down to sharing. Not of their Christmas gifts though many wrapped something up for their buddies. It was the cookies and the treats they shared, there wasn't one who didn't at least get some ginger breads or sugar cookies. They made sure of that.
Luke was lucky, his family never missed a chance to spoil him or so it seemed. He was spoilt. Daisy didn't only bake him cookies, he got socks and handkerchiefs, tootsie pops and little hand made things she'd made special for him. Bo would be getting him papers and pens and beg him to keep writing. He would put a bag of candy from the store in the package since he couldn't make any cookies and he would always find some small token for Luke to treasure where he was.
Jesse was more practical, he knew that there wasn't really nothing much he could get his nephew, but his words of comfort in his letters meant a lot to the tired poor soldier. The sad truth was that anything they sent him might get lost at any given time, most likely would, and it broke his heart thinking about losing them things they had sent him. The harmonica from Bo, Billy the Kid and the little bear that was dressed just like Bo that Daisy had made.
Jesse was far too practical for that. What he sent was an undershirt and a pair of long johns for the cold nights. Something civilian that didn't have the US Marine Corps written all over them. They would be stained and torn in no time at all, but it was nice to have something like it for as long as it lasted. It wasn't however something he couldn't stand to lose in the line of fire.
That was something his uncle knew and that was why he did it. Later when Luke was back with them again he would make up for all the times they had lost when Luke was overseas.
Marching out to fight at Christmas, hiding in ditches, crawling through a jungle. Looking up at the stars and wondering how the promise of the new born Jesus Christ could ever be celebrated somewhere, where everything was just about killing. It was all what he had strove against and war wasn't the way of the lord.
It was hard to put your faith in God as your friends died around you, but Luke knew this was not what the good lord above wanted for his children. Christmas wasn't really about peace on earth over in the jungle, it was about killing before you got killed.
He didn't quite understand how it had come to be that way. How it suddenly came he was so far from home one year with no way of getting to them? Why he spent the night weeping because he missed them so bad? The sound of laughter and singing was replaced with screaming and explosions. Shrapnel was flying through the air killing people as sure as any bullet.
There was no Santa to look for, the only ones wearing red was the surgeons in the field hospital and the red they wore was the blood of the injured.
Lying where he was it was hard to shut it all out. He wanted to, oh he so desperately wanted to, but it was so very hard. It wasn't until he heard Bo calling his name and Jesse put a heavy but gentle hand on his shoulder that he came to the realization that he wasn't in Nam anymore.
The tree was in and decorated, all the cookies was baked and there was a plate of them on the table, and he was home. He was back home for Christmas on the farm with his family, the war was over. Like a nightmare that you had just woke from, it was over but so very hard to forget about.
On the other hand, even if he would never be able to completely forget about it, his family was sure good at chasing the dream away and allowing him to enjoy some well earned Christmas spirit.
The End
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