Okay, so here's another short Avengers story featuring Steve and my OC Olyvia. If you haven't read the stories where they originally from, that's okay, this can be read alone. If you're curious though, go ahead and check them out, the first one is "Sometimes Being Different is a Good Thing", bleh, try saying that in one breath, part 2, "Altered" and Part 3 is "Overcome". And as a NOTE TO THOSE OF YOU READING THIS WHO READ MY OTHER AVENGER FICS, updates will be infrequent again, seeing as how the semester is over and I have no internet at my house. Yes, I've taken forever already just...I needed a break! With finals and life and all. Anyway, I'll stop rambling. Read and enjoy.

Oh, and I own nothing in relation to the Avengers or Marvel.

CHAPTER ONE

The one thing Olyvia liked least about Christmas, was getting the tree. She didn't dislike having a tree, on the contrary she really enjoyed having a real tree so that the house smelled of that wonderful fir scent, it was years of going out in the cold, and the wet, and snow that made her hate going out and getting a tree. That was why she was fine with going and buying one already cut down, despite the Forest Service having poor judgment in what made a good Christmas tree. She and Steve spent a good forty minutes looking around at all their options before finding an actual good tree, tucked away amongst some other scraggly ones. Steve insisted on hauling the tree around so that she wouldn't, but once they got it to the house, he was starting to regret it.

"Oh great…pitch," Steve grumbled, glaring at his hand after setting the tree on the porch.

Olyvia laughed, "Look what chivalry has gotten you. A sticky hand."

She had to jump away from Steve as he went to put said hand on her face, "Hey now, none of that."

"Then help me get it off," Steve said as he headed inside the house.

Olyvia whipped out her cell phone, "Well, let me look up how to get it off. Every time I've gotten pitch on me I've just waited it out after washing my hands."

Steve groaned, making a beeline to the kitchen sink where he began to vigorously wash his hands. Olyvia headed over to the place in the living room they were going to put the tree and began clearing it out again, still browsing on her phone. Oscar and Whisper thought that spot was the perfect place to put their toys and drag the water dish over there. Sadly enough, it was the cat who drug around the water dish, even when the jug that fed the water into the dish was half full. Honestly, the cat was fascinated with water and had super strength. Plus, with her being a cat they were going to have one hell of a time keeping her out of the tree.

"Livy, it's not coming off," Steve whined pitifully from the kitchen.

She couldn't help but laugh again. He sounded so pathetic. Shoving the last of the toys away with her feet, her phone finally loaded the webpage she had clicked the link to.

"Well, you can try margarine and dish soap, salt, water and honey, rubbing alcohol, vegetable or olive oil, or…peanut butter," Olyvia listed off as she headed into the kitchen.

Steve raised an eyebrow, "Peanut butter?"

"Apparently."

"I think I'll try the rubbing alcohol," Steve said, walking around her so he could head to the nearest bathroom.

Putting her phone away, Olyvia went back into the living room to put the pet toys away in the pet room, only to find that Oscar was now sitting in the spot she just cleared, gnawing on a rope toy.

"You are frustrating Oscar," Olyvia sighed as she knelt down beside her dog.

Oscar lifted his head to look at her with his brown eyes, his tail starting to thump loudly against the hardwood floor. Putting her hands on the dog's side, she pushed him out of the way, and then quickly ran to the closet to grab the small sheet of plastic she had cutout to put under the tree so there wasn't any chance of water damage done to the floor. Oscar thought it was a game, and chased after her, while the cat just watched in boredom on the back of the couch. Oscar dropped the rope toy when he saw the plastic in her hands, and went to snatch it when Olyvia scolded him. He dropped his head, and waited until she walked away before picking up his toy and laid down, resuming where he had left off with his gnawing.

Olyvia thought she was finally getting somewhere with the Christmas tree setup when she went to grab the stand, only to come back to see Whisper launch herself from the back of the couch to attack the crinkling sounding plastic on the floor, sliding a good three feet on the hardwood and bunching up the sheet. Steve came back just in time to see this, and see Olyvia sigh in frustration as she glared at the cat.

"Let me guess, you've been fighting with her the whole time," Steve chuckled.

"Her and Oscar," Olyvia said, setting the tree stand down so she could pick up the cat and held her out to Steve, "Hold her please."

He took the cat, allowing Olyvia the space and both hands to set things back as they were, and place the tree stand in its spot.

"Now the tree," Olyvia said.

Steve tossed the cat over to the couch, "I'll get it."

"Watch where you put your hands," Olyvia said with a smile.

"Don't have to remind me of that."

Putting the tree up didn't take much time and wasn't much of a problem, it was keeping the cat out of the tree that was the issue. Steve kept Oscar from marking the tree as his territory at least, so that was one less mess to clean up, but the cat was posing a problem. Olyvia spent a near hour on her phone looking up methods to keep a cat out, and wound up eating an orange and placing the orange peels around the stand, hoping that'd keep the cat away.

"I'm hesitant to decorate it now," Olyvia said as she looked at the empty tree.

"We could just put up lights," Steve suggested.

Olyvia nodded, "We could…and put the fragile ornaments higher in hopes Whisper won't climb the tree."

"Aren't all the ornaments fragile?"

"Not all, but I don't have many that aren't. Hmm…such a dilemma."

After debating over it a few moments, they decided to go ahead and at least put the lights on, then see if Whisper got into the tree anymore before putting up ornaments. After having no further issues with that for a few days, they went ahead and put them up. Since they didn't have a stool or step-ladder available to them, to put ornaments higher up on the tree Olyvia had Steve hold her up to do it. With his super-strength he was easily able to hold her up, and it wasn't like he minded either.

"Steve, you're doing it again," Olyvia said, hooking another ornament onto a branch.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Steve replied, a smile tugging at his lips.

"So that isn't your hand on my rear again?"

"Well, you are my wife, aren't I allowed to touch?"

Olyvia rolled her eyes, "It's just rather distracting. And it sort of tickles."

"Don't tell me you're ticklish there too," Steve said incredulously.

"We've been married for almost two months, I think that'd give you enough time to figure out I'm ticklish everywhere."

Steve nodded in agreement. She really was super ticklish, he could hardly kiss her without tickling her. The only time she wasn't as ticklish, was in their more intimate moments where her brain was too preoccupied with other things to bother with her tickle-nerve-center.

"Okay, that was the last one, you can put me down now," Olyvia said after putting up the last ornament in the box she held.

Steve pouted slightly knowing he had to put her down now, he was enjoying his job far too much. But he did it anyway, only not in the way Olyvia expected. He started to lower her down gently, before taking the few steps there were to the couch, and dropped her down onto it. She let out a squeak of surprise as she fell and bounced against the cushions, and shot a glare at Steve as she went to push herself up. He soon joined her there though, pinning her back down onto the cushions.

"Maybe next time I should add gently," Olyvia said before Steve's lips were on hers.

"I'm sorry, did I hurt you?" Steve asked, abruptly pulling away to check over his wife.

"No, but I didn't exactly expect to be dropped," Olyvia replied.

"Oh…well, sorry," Steve apologized before kissing her again.

Squeezing her hand in between their chests, she pushed against Steve, easily pushing him away just enough so he couldn't reach her anymore, "We still have the rest of the tree to decorate love."

Steve glanced back over to the tree before turning his gaze back to his wife, "I think it looks great."

He tried to go back in for another kiss, but Olyvia's arm wouldn't waver, "It's unfinished, it looks funny. The rest of the ornaments need to go up."

With a sigh, Steve got to his feet, offering a hand to his wife to help her up as well which she took. Going back to the box of ornaments, the couple resumed where they had left off. Whisper came over to investigate once the pretty, sparkly, tempting ornaments reached a lower area, only to be shoved away by Olyvia's foot. Once finished, they took a step back to admire their handiwork. It looked really nice, and full of memories, such as the ornaments Olyvia was handed down by her parents, and even some she made herself. And then of course there was the memory made of putting it together for the two. After staring at the tree for a few moments, they both looked down at the cat. Now to keep the trouble-maker from breaking any of them.

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" Olyvia wailed as she pressed her face against the cold glass of her bedroom window, "No! No! No! No! No! Nooooooooo!"

"Livy…it really isn't that bad," Steve said, regretting informing his wife that morning of the weather outside.

"I hate snow!" Olyvia shouted, slapping a hand against the window pane. Already there was four inches at least on the ground, and it was still snowing. Shooting a glare up into the sky, she then ordered, "Stop it! Now!"

Steve chuckled and wrapped his arms around Olyvia's waist, giving her a peck on her cheek, "What, you weren't dreaming of a white Christmas?"

"No."

"So I'm guessing we're not going to go out and build a fort or have a snowball fight or play with Oscar in the snow? He loves snow."

Olyvia laughed humorlessly, "Ha! No. Too cold."

Sliding his hands to her hips, Steve burrowed his face through her hair to give her a kiss on her neck, "What if I promise to warm you up afterwards?"

That got a genuine chuckle from Olyvia, "Sounds to me like someone is rather eager for attention."

"I always want attention from you," Steve replied, "So is that a yes?"

Olyvia groaned, "I hate snow."

Turning her around to face him, he then kissed her on the lips, "I promise to warm you up real good. And I'll make breakfast."

"With hot cocoa?"

"With hot cocoa."

"Okay then," Olyvia agreed, "Let me find some decent enough clothes, and we'll take Oscar out and build a snowman or something."

Steve kept true to his word and warmed his wife up real good after freezing her butt, fingers and toes off in the cold, so much so that both were sweating as they crawled out from under the covers of their bed. Even so, Olyvia wasn't going to go out and throw snowballs for Oscar again anytime soon. Getting dressed once more, they headed downstairs where Steve got started with breakfast while Olyvia passed the time playing some Christmas music on her piano. After eating, and having the marvelous hot cocoa, Olyvia went to study for her finals, which were next week, and Steve turned on the television to watch the news. Olyvia couldn't help but roll her eyes, Steve spent a lot of his time watching the news. Sometimes she wondered if he was waiting for some catastrophe to be announced so that he could race to the scene to help. It was only a few hours into their activities when the lights died and the TV went black.

"Great…power's out," Olyvia muttered, setting her pencil down in her notebook.

"I'll open up the curtains," Steve said, heading to the windows to do just that. With it being the afternoon, there was enough natural light that could be let in through the windows for them to see around the house.

Closing her notebook and textbook, Olyvia swiveled around in her seat to face Steve, "Let's play a board game!"

"Shouldn't you be studying?" he asked.

"I'll study when the power's on so I have better light," Olyvia replied, "So let's play a game. When the power would go out at my parent's place, we'd play game at the kitchen table with an oil lamp for our light. It was fun, so could we do it?"

Olyvia gave him a pleading look, which he couldn't say no to.

"I guess we could," Steve said, "Give us something to do to pass the time."

Olyvia smiled, "I'll go grab our games, then we'll choose what to play."

The first game played was Scrabble, and they played a few rounds of that before moving on to Mexican Train with the dominos, which only lasted one game since it only confused Steve. They played through a few rounds of Sorry! before it was time for dinner. With the power out, their only option was to make sandwiches. Olyvia made herself a thick peanut-butter and jelly sandwich, the ratio of peanut-butter to jelly being 10:1. She liked peanut-butter, a lot. Of course, she had a tall glass of milk to accompany it. Steve meanwhile made himself a turkey sandwich, his body needed the protein more than fat and sugar.

The power still hadn't come back on by the time it was for them to go to bed, and Olyvia partially hoped it would still be out on the morrow so that she wouldn't have to go to school, but she needed to go to school so she was hoping it would be back on. Waking up to her phone alarm at six in the morning, she glanced over to her alarm clock to see it was flashing a time at her. So hopping out of bed, she got herself ready and went to school. Steve took this chance to go out and finally buy Olyvia some Christmas presents, now that he had thought of some things to get her. It was just two weeks away now, Steve couldn't believe how fast the time had flown by.

It didn't snow again after the first storm, and the snow had melted within days. Olyvia was more than relieved since she hated driving in the snow, and didn't want to have to worry about making it to her finals in time to take them. She was overjoyed once they were over, being some of her hardest ones yet, and was looking forward to the Christmas holiday, and having no snow. Steve however, was a little bummed when Christmas Eve rolled around and it not being a white Christmas. He could live without it though, it wasn't like it ruined the whole holiday. There was one thing however that he and Olyvia were still butting heads over.

"Presents are to be opened Christmas day. We are opening presents then," Steve said adamantly.

"But it's been tradition in my family to open them Christmas Eve after a Christmas dinner," Olyvia rebutted, "I want to stick with family tradition!"

"Well it's been a tradition in my family to open them Christmas day," Steve retorted.

"In the morning?"

"Yes…why?"

"Oh, just a present of yours works better at night," Olyvia replied.

Steve looked at her in confusion, and she just shook her head. He wasn't going to get it anytime soon.

"We aren't going to reach a compromise here, are we?" Olyvia asked rubbing her forehead since a headache was starting to develop.

"You just want to open yours a day early."

"And you don't?"

"I stick with tradition," Steve replied.

"As do I!" Olyvia exclaimed in frustration, pulling on her hair, "Urgh, we're just arguing in circles here. We need to make a compromise, or we're both going to end our first Christmas together as a married couple on a bad note."

Steve took in a deep breath to help calm himself down as he thought over what sort of compromise they could make that Olyvia would be okay with. They both remained silent as they thought over the same thing.

"How about we open one present tonight," Steve suggested after a few minutes of silence, "Then the rest tomorrow morning."

Olyvia sighed, "I guess that'd work. You better choose carefully then."

"You're referring to this present of mine that apparently won't work any other time of the day?" Steve asked with a sigh of frustration.

"Well, it could 'work' any time of the day, it just typically occurs at night. Better atmosphere."

Steve looked at her in confusion again, still not understanding what she meant. Olyvia slapped the palm of her hand against her forehead, "You are so dense. Shall I give you a clue?"

"I thought the point of presents was to be surprised."

"Well, you might appreciate getting a clue because I'm pretty sure you'd prefer to get this present early," Olyvia said, reaching into a pocket and pulling out something that she shot like a rubber band at him.

Steve caught it as it dropped from where it hit him on his chest, and looking down into his hand found it was the garter Stark had gotten for their wedding. He was still confused.

"Now think of what else might be lacy, and worn under clothing that might benefit you."

Finally it dawned on him.

"Oh," Steve muttered, before looking over at the piles of presents, of which Whisper was chewing a ribbon on one of them so he walked over and shoved her away.

"It's not wrapped under there," Olyvia said with a mischievous smirk.

"No?"

"No. It's kind of hard to wrap oneself in the wrapping paper."

"So when exactly do we open presents then?" Steve asked.

Olyvia laughed, "Present, you mean. And after dinner. That's been my family's tradition."

Steve let out a disgruntled groan. She just loved teasing him like this, and he both hated and liked it at the same time. It was infuriating as all hell though.

"So when's dinner?" Steve asked, following his wife as she made her way to the kitchen.

"I'm about to get started," Olyvia said, "Do you want to help so it'll get done faster?"

Steve nodded in reply, making Olyvia laugh again from how eager he seemed. Perhaps she should use this sort of tactic when she wanted him to wash dishes or something.

After working on the main meal dishes, it was onto dessert, and since Steve had been asking, pestering really, if they would be having apple pie, she decided to go ahead and make one of those alongside a pumpkin pie.

"I love apple pie," Steve said almost dreamily as he watched Olyvia slice the apples.

"Don't drool all over the counter," Olyvia said with a chuckle, "We already have a puddle on the floor from Oscar."

Steve glanced down at their dog sitting next to him, who was staring up at Olyvia with pleading eyes and had just a waterfall of drool coming down both sides of his mouth.

"Gross," Steve muttered, "Please tell me you got a bib for him as a present."

"That would have been a good idea wouldn't it?"

"I guess that's a no then."

Steve continued to watch Olyvia make the apple pie, and even snatched a few slices of apple until he was caught and had his hand smacked away. Once it was made, it was on to the pumpkin pie until the oven was open to bake their desserts. Once they were in, they could have their dinner, since the last of the side dishes would have finished cooking.

The two were able to relax for a short while before the timer went off, and heading back into the kitchen Olyvia got the food out and put the pies in while Steve finished setting the table and cut the ham, which took enough time for the dishes fresh out of the oven to cool off a little. Finally, they could sit down and enjoy the meal, now that it was past five o'clock. Olyvia watched in amusement as Steve ate practically half the meal, before she asked if he had enough room for dessert as the timer went off.

"Um…yes?" Steve replied uncertainly, he was actually getting to the point of being stuffed, "I always have room for apple pie."

"Well, it'll have to cool off for a little anyway," Olyvia said as she pulled out the pumpkin pie, since the apple pie had to cook for a little longer, "When it's finished."

Steve went ahead and finished up his plate and called it quits, wanting to be able to have at least two pieces of pie. When the timer went off again later while he and Olyvia were entertaining Oscar and Whisper in the living room, Steve jumped up to follow his wife into the kitchen so he could see and smell the fresh baked apple pie.

"Steve, please don't hover, I know you're going to drool all over my neck and shoulder."

"I'm not going to drool," Steve said indignantly as she pulled out the pie.

Setting it down, Olyvia turned to face Steve before pointing to the corner of his mouth, "Then what's that?"

He lifted his hand to his mouth to find nothing was there, and Olyvia laughed, "Gotcha."

"Ha," Steve said blandly.

"So…what shall we do while we wait for it to cool down?"

"But it's best eaten warm!"

"Do you want to have taste buds?" Olyvia asked, and Steve nodded glumly, "Then wait for it to cool at least a little."

Steve sighed heavily as he trudged out of the kitchen as Olyvia gently pushed him along his way, "Fine."

Olyvia would have waited an hour to cut into the pies, just so it would have been a guarantee that they had cooled at least a little, but Steve was eager to make short work of that apple pie so the wait only lasted half an hour. While he dished out a slice for himself and a few scoops of ice cream, Olyvia got herself the pumpkin pie. She didn't start eating it though until Steve was nearly done with his own because she was staring at him in shock seeing how fast he was eating through it, and most likely burning his mouth.

"One would think you really liked apple pie," Olyvia muttered before finally taking a first bite of her dessert.

"I love apple pie," Steve said, "And you did a really, really, really good job with it."

"Thanks. I'm glad you're enjoying it."

Going back to her dessert, she wasn't even halfway through before Steve went back for a second slice.

"You're lucky you're a super soldier because you'd end up fat eating like this otherwise," Olyvia called out as he left.

"I only eat like this because I'm a super soldier," Steve rebutted.

"Touché."

Once Steve finished his second slice, and Olyvia her first, they put their dishes away and headed over to the tree for Olyvia to choose a present to open. After sifting through them for a few minutes she went ahead and chose the one from her sister Kristie.

"A purse! Oh my gosh look at this purse, it is huge! And beautiful!" Olyvia exclaimed, hugging the red and black plaid purse to her chest, "I love it!"

"Do you really need another purse?" Steve asked.

"It's so pretty," Olyvia said happily, not hearing a word Steve said, "I must transfer everything in my old one into this one right away."

"What about my present?" Steve asked indignantly as she got to her feet.

Olyvia paused mid-step over his leg, "Right…your present…," she then motioned over to the presents under the tree, "Go choose one."

"Oh, I don't think so," Steve said as he got up as she stepped over him and headed to the couch where her purse was, "You have teased me enough today woman."

Turning back around to face him, Olyvia smiled wryly as she set her new purse down onto the couch, "You're going to have to catch me first."

Even though she knew she didn't have much of a chance outrunning her super soldier husband, she still took off at a run, heading up the stairs. Steve gave chase, and all the running, and the screaming that started just a few seconds later got Oscar excited and he chased after the both of them thinking they were all going to play a game, who ran over the cat, which then caused her to get up and chase after the dog. Oscar was very sad to find his owner's bedroom door shut when he reached it, plopping down on his butt in front of it to wait for them to come out to play, sitting right on the cat. Whisper yowled and hissed loudly as she squirmed out from under, just as Oscar jumped back up to his feet. He didn't have much chance to do anything before the cat attacked his face, biting and clawing at him. Letting out a yelp, he shook her off before growling and barking back at her. The door then opened, and Steve stuck his head out.

"Not now you two! We're busy, we don't have time to babysit," Steve scolded.

Oscar stopped immediately, and laid down, looking up at Steve with an apologetic look. Whisper however, was looking to go back to chewing on Oscar's face. So reaching down, he grabbed her by the scruff of the neck, walked to the next nearest room, which was the bathroom, tossed her in, and shut the door. He was not about to let the pets disrupt him now.

Olyvia thought they would be sleeping in, she thought Steve knew better than to wake her up early, but she thought wrong. She found herself being shaken awake, and blearily looking over at the alarm clock found it was freaking five thirty in the morning!

"You dare…wake me…this early?" Olyvia rumbled as she squinted up at her husband.

"But it's Christmas," Steve replied, "Don't you want to open your presents?"

"I don't want to that much," Olyvia replied, rolling over onto her stomach and burying her head under her pillow, "Wake me in three hours."

Steve laid back down beside her, and waited impatiently for three minutes before shaking her by her shoulder again.

"It better be nine o'clock, or else I just might have to hurt you," Olyvia growled.

"It's Christmas," he repeated again.

"I like sleeeeeep!"

With a disgruntled growl, Steve shoved his head under her pillow, "But it's Christmas."

"If you think repeating that over and over is going to change anything, it's not," Olyvia grumbled, opening one eye to look at her husband, knowing he was there by his breath against her face.

"I'll make breakfast again," Steve said, "And hot cocoa. Or orange juice, whatever you want."

"Not going to cut it this time."

"But it's Christmas!"

Olyvia grumbled again, and debated over what to do. She wasn't all too hungry right now, food not sounding very appetizing at such an early hour, but later she would be hungry. It also depended on what Steve would make, whether it would be worth getting up.

"What sort of breakfast?" she asked after the few minutes it took for her to deliberate.

"How about…french toast?" Steve asked.

Olyvia pursed her lips. French toast sounded good.

"And bacon?" Steve added.

That sealed the deal, "Okay, we can get up and open presents then."

"Yay!"

"Never wake me up this early again. Ever. Got it?" Olyvia asked, sitting up and running her fingers through her tangled hair as she stretched.

Steve nodded, and got up, pulled on a pair of grey sweat pants and a long sleeved white shirt before heading out. Upon entering the hallway, he could hear Whisper yowling in the bathroom. Right, he had never gotten her back out after throwing her in there last night.

"Sorry," Steve said to the cat as she pushed her way through the door when she saw it first opening and she ran down to the end of the hall and down the stairs.

Olyvia took her time getting up, lazily putting on her flannel pajamas that she didn't get around to wearing last night before stumbling out into the hallway and downstairs where Steve was waiting by the tree. He already had their separate piles made up she took so long. Sitting down next to him, she scooted her pile closer and then leaned onto his shoulder, letting her eyes shut.

"I love you," Steve said as if he was reminding her that he did.

"I love you too," Olyvia replied, and sat up straight again, "Anyway, presents."

They first opened the ones addressed to the both of them, two from her parents and one from Dianne and Loki. The first one from Olyvia's parents was a quilt, and the other was a digital picture frame. Olyvia spent a few minutes explaining it to Steve before opening Dianne and Loki's gift. It was a quart jar filled with all assortments of shells and agates with sand at the bottom that Olyvia guessed the two had collected themselves, a note attached saying it was just something pretty they could use as decoration. With those out of the way, they moved on to their own piles. From his in-laws, Steve got a new winter coat, which would be well used, living in Ashland, Rosemary's contribution were the gloves to go with it. Olyvia was thrilled with the knee high black leather boots she got from her parents, but growled at the snow pants she also got. She would need them though. And from Rosemary she got a wooden picture frame that could hold five different pictures she had made herself in her woodshop class.

"Now I wonder what my husband got for me," Olyvia said as she shook one of the three gifts that were from her husband. By now she was feeling much more awake and was more into the gift opening process.

"Just open it," Steve said, grabbing one she had gotten for him.

Doing just that, being very dramatic with the ripping and tossing of wrapping paper, she found Steve had gotten her more canvases for her to paint on, now that she had gotten more into acrylic painting, and some new brushes she had been contemplating getting herself and mentioned once.

"You remembered," Olyvia said before leaning over and giving Steve a peck on the lips.

"Of course I did," Steve said, "I remember everything you say."

"Everything?" Olyvia asked doubtfully.

"Well…everything that's important," Steve replied, "Which is everything."

Olyvia chuckled and gave him another kiss, "You're silly. Thank you though."

As she reached for the next one, Steve went ahead and opened his which also were art supplies. He couldn't help but laugh a little, seeing as how they got each other similar items. It was nice though that they had a hobby in common they could do together.

Opening up her second to last one as Steve grabbed the last gift from her, she found it was sheet music for all of Trans-Siberian Orchestra's music. She let out an ecstatic squeal, nearly knocking Steve over it was so loud.

"Ow, I think that one rivaled Rosemary's screams," Steve said.

"Sorry," Olyvia whispered, "It's just…just…Trans-Siberian Orchestra! And sheet music!"

"You're welcome."

She gave him another kiss, this time throwing her arms around his neck and planting a big one on his lips. Steve was a little surprised by it. Perhaps he should buy her sheet music more often.

She grabbed the last present, the one Steve asked she open last, but set it in her lap, waiting for Steve to open his first. Attached to his present was an envelope, so he opened it first, expecting a Christmas card inside, but instead were two season passes to the Ski Resort not far from Ashland.

"So the gift inside will make more sense," Olyvia said as Steve looked over the passes, "Mom and I sort of collaborated with our gifts."

"I thought you hated snow and everything associated with it," Steve said in confusion as he began ripping off the wrapping paper.

"I do," Olyvia replied, "But…I'm not going to make you miss out on a winter activity I doubt you've ever tried just because of that, or go by yourself."

Opening his box, he found inside snow pants to go with the jacket he had gotten.

"Do you have the proper attire?" Steve asked.

"I do," Olyvia said, "It's hiding in my trunk so you wouldn't see it and become suspicious."

"Well…thank you," Steve said, "I think it sounds fun. When will we go?"

"Hmm…how about some weekday next week, that way it won't be super packed," Olyvia suggested.

"It's a date."

Olyvia smiled. It had been some time since the two of them had actually gone out on a date. It'd be a nice change, even if they would be going out in the snow.

Now that he had finished his pile, Olyvia opened her last gift, looking at the cover of the sketchbook in confusion because she recognized it as the one she got Steve for his birthday in July. There was no mistaking the little doodles and sweet nothings she wrote all over the cover of it. When she opened it up, it made sense. Every page was a drawing of something involved in her life, such as pets, places she and Steve went to, herself…herself quite often actually, and so on and so forth. She flipped all the way to the end, every single page, filled with memories so carefully and beautifully drawn out.

"I was hoping to actually give that to you as a birthday gift," Steve said, "but I wasn't quite to the end so it became a Christmas gift."

"Thank you Steve, it's very sweet," Olyvia said, flashing a warm smile at him.

"I look forward to filling many more up with even more memories that we'll make," Steve said, pulling her close and wrapping his arms around her waist to hug her.

"As do I," Olyvia said, "Starting next week, with the skiing."

Steve chuckled, "I guess so."

Pivoting around so she was facing the same direction as Steve, Olyvia cozied up next to her husband as they just sat amongst the mess of wrapping paper, letting Oscar sift through it and Whisper play in it, while they just relaxed for a few moments.

"So was this a good first Christmas as a married couple?" Steve asked as he caressed her arm.

"Yes, it was perfect."

And perfect it was indeed.