ONCE UPON A DECEMBER

2022 – Christmas Eve

"Gabriella, stop fussing about. Everything is perfect. Come eat Santa's cookies with us," Troy coaxed.

It was a perfect Christmas scene in the humble Queens townhouse that was home to Troy and Gabriella Bolton and their family. Gabriella looked back lovingly at her husband, who sat in the middle of the couch with his mother to one side of him. He patted the empty spot beside him and looked imploringly at her. She had been a machine over the last few days in preparation for hosting their very first Christmas for the family. All three of Lucille, Jack and Maria had arrived the night before into LaGuardia. She'd been frantically scrubbing, cleaning, preparing for their visit, cooking, getting dinner ready, wrapping presents and along with that, doing all the usual things that came with being the 'stay at home' portion of the parenting duo that she and Troy had become. She'd wanted to be more prepared, but when you have two kids under the age of three, time would tend to get overtaken by feeding time, nap time, bath time, nappy time and play time.

Despite the challenges, it all had come together beautifully, and she had just finished placing Santa's gifts underneath the tree, meticulously checking the they were all wrapped in different paper and that the hand writing appeared differently than on the presents from 'Mommy and Daddy.'

"Sweetheart, you do realise that Josh is only three? I hardly think he's going to figure out the rouse, not just yet," Maria Montez chuckled from where she was seated in one of the arm chairs.

Maria had found herself setting into the life of being 'Abuelita' quite well, and was nestled with a pair of knitting needles and a ball of purple wool, in the midst of a pair of booties for the littlest of the Bolton clan, Sophia.

"Then again, the kid does seem to have inherited his mothers brains," Jack pointed out wryly.

"Yep, definitely didn't come from me," Troy added, and they all laughed gently, aware to keep the noise down from the sleeping children not too far away.

"I just want it all to be perfect," Gabriella sighed. "The last year Josh has grown from being a little baby into a real little person, you know? This might be the first Christmas that he has memories from. Obviously Sophia won't remember any of it but it's still her first Christmas so it's important we get it right."

"This is how she got through law school in four years while working full time. Sheer perfectionism and determination," Troy observed. "Sit down or I'll return all the presents I got for you. The kids will have piles of wrapping paper around them and you'll be empty handed."

She pouted her lip but decided to give in, sitting on the sofa and relaxing into his side. She accepted the cookie that he held out to her and took a bite.

"Look around you, babe. It is perfect, right here like this. We're all ridiculously full from the delicious dinner, everything that can be prepped for brunch tomorrow is done, the tree is amazing, the presents look beautiful – and most importantly, we're all here together."

"Gabriella's always been a little controlling about the holidays," Maria pointed out. "I distinctly remember the year that I trimmed the tree without her – all hell broke loose, she flew into her room in an adolescent huff and I had to take it all down so we could do it together."

"I just like the holidays! And it's special to be able to share it with our kids and family," Gabriella said, squeezing Troy's leg and looking around at her mom and his parents. "I have great memories from the holidays, all about that day where you put up the tree, when holiday music starts playing in the stores, rushing around the week before Christmas for last minute gifts."

"I remember in freshman year when you spent hours meticulously cutting out green cardboard to make a 'tree' to stick on the wall in your dorm room, and then coloured card to make baubles and everything," Troy chuckled.

"You've come a long way from there," Jack laughed, gesturing around the room at the tree, lights in the window and other decorative items around the room.

"When did the two of you become so grown up, hosting your own Christmas, practically kicking your mom's out of the kitchen to look after the food yourself," Lucille pondered, a bit of nostalgia in her voice.

"I ask myself that question regularly," Troy chuckled. "Sometimes it feels like Gabriella is the grown up and she's just dragging me along for the ride."

Gabriella rolled her eyes. "Hardly."

As though to prove her point, the sound of whimpering sounded from the baby monitor that was resting on the coffee table. Troy was the first to his feet, taking a moment to lean over to press a kiss to Gabriella's forehead and murmur, "I've got her, stay sitting." He had the routine down pat, on the way in to the nursery, taking one of the pre prepared formula bottles from the fridge and popping it into the microwave. Gabriella was still breast feeding but they were in the process of weaning Sophia off the breast feeding in preparation for Gabriella to return to part-time work in the new year.

"Like clockwork, she is," Gabriella observed with a sigh.

"Is this the last feed until morning?" Jack asked.

"She's getting there. Most nights she's now sleeping through, but sometimes she stirs at about 2am. But it's always 6am on the dot for the morning feed," Gabriella answered. "Which doesn't matter too much, Troy gets up then anyway, whether it's a week day or not."

"Every once in a while, I'd love to sleep in," Troy's voice came as he came back into the living area. He had Baby Sophia cradled in an arm, suckling on her bottle contently. "But now it's just habit to do that morning feed. It's our routine. It works pretty well – Sophia is usually back to sleep just as Josh starts to stir in the morning."

"He was so surprised to see me in his room this morning," Maria chuckled. She was bunking in Josh's room on a futon.

"Are you sure you don't want us to move Sophia in with us?" Troy asked his parents, concerned. He'd suggested putting Sophia with them so that Lucille and Jack could have a private room, rather than sleeping on a fold out mattress in the living room.

Lucille shook her head. "Absolutely not. Keep the kids in their usual routines. In fact..." she snatched up the receiver of the baby monitor that was on the coffee table. "I'm putting myself on baby duty tonight."

"Lucy that's sweet, but totally unnecessary," Gabriella protested, but she knew all too well that the protest was fruitless.

"Darling, just don't bother. You know this is why you have the grandparents come visit, gives you a break," Maria pointed out with a wink.

"If we move into a bigger house, think you'll stay longer then?" Troy joked.

Troy and Gabriella stayed up with their parents for another two hours – far later than what had become the new bedtime she and Troy were accustomed to. Their parents were still on Mountain time and it was only when Gabriella started blatantly yawning that Jack encouraged Troy and Gabriella to whisk themselves off to bed.

After washing up and brushing their teeth, Gabriella slipped on an old Stanford t-shirt and Troy stripped down to his briefs, the couple settling into bed together. As the years had gone on, they were still very passionate about each other, but between childbirth and having kids and the exhaustion that came with it, there were many nights that would pass without making love – however they would always cuddle up tight, kiss and share some intimacy. Gabriella knew that what she and Troy had was rare – she had friends from school and college who were similarly married with a couple of kids and she knew that some of them had completely lost that intimacy from their relationships.

"Sixteenth Christmas of knowing you," Troy murmured into her ear as he nestled into his wife from behind.

"In one week it'll be sixteen years to the day since we met," Gabriella pointed out with a smile, her hands rubbing over his strong arms that surrounded her. "You're sexier than ever, and I'm this old frumpy..."

"Ssshhhhh," Troy admonished her. He knew that she often felt self-conscious about her post pregnancy body, but he found it sexy, and he would keep telling her until it resonated. "You're more beautiful than ever."

"You just love my breasts. They'll reshape soon, you know, as I stop breastfeeding. Back to being saggy..."

He very blatantly cupped her breasts, squeezing them. "Beautiful no matter what."

They fell quiet for a moment, and Gabriella shuffled around, turning to face him. Their faces were just inches apart. "I love Christmas so much, and a huge part of that is because of all the memories I have from the last sixteen years with you."

"We do have lots of good memories," he said, thinking back in flashes to all of the Christmases they'd spent together. "And a couple of shitty ones thrown in."

"Mostly good though," she said, with a contented smile.

"I love you."

"I love you too. Merry Christmas."