A/N: Happy holidays everyone! I wrote this story as a Secret Santa gift for rough-water. Merry Christmas, I hope you like it.
A silver storm accompanied by howling wind rages on outside in the bitter cold, while inside two birds of a feather lie all snuggled up together in front of a roaring fire. The flames lick at the wood, causing it to sizzle and pop loudly as the couple enjoy a comfortable silence together. At least, it was silent until Eddie accidentally woke the sleeping Patricia.
"What are you doing?" she mumbled.
Unwilling to admit that he'd been stroking her hair, he replied, "Nothing. What are you doing?"
"Well, I was resting after preparing to host Christmas Eve tomorrow, but now I really need to clean the oven, dust the mantle, vacuum the foyer and the guest room, and finish baking," she said while trying to squirm out of her husband's arms.
"Haven't you already done enough work? Both of our families have been here before, it's not like the Queen's stopping by."
"I know, I just want this Christmas to be perfect. It's our first one since the wedding."
"It will be perfect." When Patricia looked skeptical he added, "As perfect as it can be when the Williamsons and the Millers are in the same room." Patricia laughed at this, remembering the time when Eddie's uncle laughed so hard he accidentally snorted tea out his nose right onto the front of Mrs. Williamson's white blouse.
"Yeah, we're a pretty crazy bunch aren't we?"
"There's no denying that, but I wouldn't have it any other way."
"Neither would I."
Noticing the storm outside had stopped, Eddie came up with the perfect way to give his wife a break from stressing about the holiday. "The storm's over, Patricia. Let's go outside for a bit."
"Eddie," she whined, "I still have a lot I need to do."
"What you need is to have some fun."
"But, baby it's cold outside."
"Then I'll keep you warm. C'mon, please?"
"Fine, you know I can't resist your puppy dog eyes."
The couple bundled up and stepped out in the crisp air, walking into a winter wonderland. The fine, powdery snow covered everything in sight like icing on a gingerbread house, and icicles hung from the gutter like the colored lights Eddie so carefully put up.
"Snowball fight!" he yelled, and footprints soon littered the yard as the two scrambled to build up their defenses and stockpile ammunition.
"You're going down, Krueger!" Patricia taunted from behind her nearly finished fort as Eddie attempted to simultaneously bombard her with snowballs and build his fortifications.
"Not if you go down first, Yacker!"
Snow flew through the air as each side tried to score hits on the other. The valiant fight ended when both Patricia and Eddie abandoned their forts and stormed each other, resulting in a draw.
Her breath forming clouds in the icy air, Patricia asked, "What now?"
"Do you want to build a snowman?"
"I thought you'd never ask."
Working together, the couple proceeded to roll snow across the yard and assembled a rather chunky snowman under the branches of the evergreen outside the living room window. Seeing as how they had no extra corn cobs, buttons, coal, or top hats lying around, Patricia and Eddie had to get creative in decorating their man of snow, but with some pebbles, twigs, short pine branches, and a carrot, they still managed to bring him to life. Figuratively, of course.
"Let's see, a carrot for a nose, pebbles for buttons and eyes, and twigs for arms. He needs something else, too bad we don't have a hat," Patricia thought aloud.
"He needs hair," Eddie said gathering a few short pine branches and arranging them on the snowman's head. "That's better."
"We should call him Frosty," Patricia declared, deciding their creation should have a name.
"Really, Yacker? Frosty the Snowman?"
"Well what did you have in mind?"
"I was thinking he looks an awful lot like your Great Uncle Ruben, with one eye being slightly bigger than the other and that little bald spot on the top of his head."
"Oh my gosh you're right," Patricia exclaimed. "All he needs are some wiry glasses and they could be twins. Ruben the Snowman it is."
Since it was getting dark and they were starting to get a little too cold, Patricia and Eddie decided to make a pair of snow angels before retiring inside.
"Piper and I used to do this all the time whenever it snowed, even if there wasn't much on the ground."
"That's adorable. Are she and Ben coming tomorrow?"
"No. Now that they're living in New York they won't be able to visit the Liverpool area very often. We're lucky they made it to the wedding."
"I'm sure they wish they could be here."
"Yeah, Piper said she'd Skype me later. She's been pretty busy since she got hired to play in the orchestra for a couple of Broadway shows and now she hardly calls me."
"You might not talk much anymore, but that doesn't mean you care about each other any less."
"True."
Once inside, Eddie decided that some hot chocolate was in order and proceeded to make some with double the chocolate, marshmallows, and a tower of whipped cream. They sat down to sip the hot beverage and were in the middle of smearing whipped cream on each other's faces when the phone rang.
"Hello?"
"Hi."
"Piper?!"
"Hey, Trix. Ben and I just caught the last flight to Liverpool, it turns out we'll be able to make it to celebrate Christmas with you after all. We were going to surprise you, but then Ben was worried there might not be enough food if we just barged in. You know boys, always thinking about food."
"Always," Patricia responded, noticing that her husband had left the table and was rummaging through the cupboards for who-knows-what edible substance.
"I have to go, we're about to take off, but I'll see you tomorrow, yeah?"
"Yeah. I'm glad you guys can make it. It wouldn't be the same without you."
"I know just what you mean. Bye, Trixie."
"Bye, Piper."
"So that was your sister?" Eddie asked from the kitchen.
"Yep. Turns out her and Ben are going to make it after all."
"You're not going to start stressing out again about making this the most perfect Christmas ever, are you?" Eddie cautioned coming to stand beside his wife.
"No. Baby, all I want for Christmas is you."
"That's good. Look up."
"When did you put that there?" Patricia asked about the mistletoe hanging above their heads.
"When you were upstairs cleaning this morning. Are you going to kiss me or what?"
"Merry Christmas, Darling," Eddie whispered when they broke apart. Needless to say, it was a very merry Christmas at the Miller household.