Under The Tree
I hope you enjoy!
Christmas Eve Eve, 2009
As soon as Olivia entered the house, one of her eight year old son's sprinted passed her, completely unaware of her presence. No sooner, so did a football.
"Stop throwing the football around the house before you guys-"
Before Olivia could finish scolding them, Kaiden beamed the ball at his brother whose hands it flew through and hit the Christmas tree, successfully knocking down and breaking several fragile ornaments. The boys immediately froze. Each took a cautious peek at their very annoyed mother. Olivia breathed deeply in and out while she counted to ten.
"Oops, sorry mom." Kaiden softly apologized.
"I'm sorry too, mom." Kaiser added.
Kaiden and Kaiser both knew how to act when indoors. They knew better than to play ball inside the house but she wasn't as mad at them as she was her husband, who was supposed to be watching them.
"Where is your father?" She asked through gritted teeth.
"He's taking a nap upstairs." Kaiden snitched.
"He's taking a nap upstairs." Olivia reiterated incredulously. "Clean this mess up." She told them, referring to the toys strewn all over the den. "Don't touch the broken ornaments, your dad and I will clean that up and don't think you boys are off the hook. We'll discuss punishments later."
Olivia left them to it while she made her way upstairs to deal with her biggest baby. She prayed God gave her the strength not to suffocate him in his sleep. When she entered her bedroom, Fitz was right where the twins said he was, doing exactly what they said he was. He actually looked silly wearing Nerf safety glasses and cuddling with a Nerf gun. Without waking him up, Olivia extracted the gun from his loose grip. She checked to make sure it was loaded before taking aim and firing.
Fitz immediately jolted awake. He thought the boys came back for another war and felt the bed for his weapon to defend himself with.
"Looking for this?"
His wife's voice made his body go cold as blood drained from it. He looked up to see her standing at the end of the bed with the gun pointed at him daring him to make a move. He swallowed.
Sheepishly, "Uh… hey Livvie. How was work?"
"It was great. In fact, my whole day was going great until about five minutes ago when I came home to a mess and our sons playing football in the house, breaking shit while their father was sleeping instead of discipling them." She spat sarcastically.
"I'm sor-"
"Save it, the boys already said that. Fitz, how am I supposed to trust you alone with them if things like this happen?"
"Livvie, I-"
Again he was interrupted but this time by light knocks on the door.
"Come in."
The knob slowly turned and the twins poked their heads through the cracked door.
"We cleaned up ours toys like you told us to." Kaiser informed his mom.
"Okay, thank you guys."
He pushed the door open wide enough for he and his brother to enter the room. Although hesitant, he and his brother were going to take full responsibility for the house being in disarray.
"Mom, please don't be mad at dad. It's not his fault." Kaiden lowered his head in shame as he confessed, "It's ours. We made the mess not dad so if you want to be mad at someone, you should be mad at us."
"Yeah." Kaiser agreed with his brother.
Fitz got off the bed and walked over to his boys. He knelt down to their eye level.
"Guys, I appreciate you stepping up and taking responsibility for your actions." He told them, meaning every word.
"Does that mean we're off the hook." A hopeful Kaiser tried his luck.
Olivia hated to burst his bubble but… "No. You guys are still in trouble. Go to room and no TV or playing with your toys."
With both of their heads bowed they left to go to their rooms.
"Liv, I think you're being a little hard on them. They're just excited. They're on break from school and it's almost Christmas."
It was a rare occurrence when Fitz was right and even more rare when Olivia admitted he was. This was one of those rare times.
Olivia sighed, "You're right. I am being a little hard on them. I can't punish them two days before Christmas for being excited. The last thing I want to do is kill their holiday cheer."
Now, she really felt bad. Damn Fitz and his logic.
"I agree."
"I'll go talk to them. Can you sweep up the ornaments that broke?"
Fitz nodded and headed downstairs to do his part. Olivia walked down the hall to Kaiden's room. She knocked on the door and waited the few seconds it took for him to open it.
"Come with me."
They took a step across the hall to Kaiser's room.
"Kai, can we come in?" She asked him through the door with his name printed on it.
"Yes."
Olivia opened the door to find him lying on his bed, staring up at the ceiling.
"I have to speak to you boys. Kaiser, sit up please. Kaiden, go sit next to your brother."
They did as their mother said. Olivia pulled the chair from Kaiser's desk and rolled it in front of them, afterwards, taking a seat in it.
"Do you guys know why I sent you to your rooms?"
"Because we broke the rules." Kaiden offered.
Olivia nodded, "And what rules did you break?"
"We threw a football in the house which we're not supposed to do." Kaiser said.
"Right. Daddy and I spoke and we agreed to let you guys off punishment because it's almost Christmas and we don't want you guys to be a couple of Grinches."
"Yaaayy!"
The boys, still sitting, bounced up and down with excitement. Olivia, unfortunately had to cut their celebration short. She knew her sons. They were always scheming.
"That doesn't mean you guys can do whatever you want because it's the holidays. You only get one pass and you just used it so no more breaking the rules or you boys will be grounded for a week regardless if it's Christmas. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes." They answered together.
"Alright." Olivia was satisfied with their responses and her parenting. "Put on your coats and boats, we're gonna go outside and play in the snow for a little bit."
Kaiser and Kaiden cheered and hopped off the bed to get ready. Olivia went downstairs to inform her husband of their plans. Of course he was on board. Christmas was his favorite holiday and winter was his favorite season.
The minute they all stepped foot outside an immediate snowball fight ensued. It started off as every man for themselves but they quickly teamed up. Kaiser went with Fitz and Kaiden with Olivia. Kaiden's team hid behind cars and trees while Kaiser's team build a fort in the snow to take cover. Since no one kept score, there were no winners. Due to the low evening temperature, the Grants only spent about an hour outside before they went back in.
They changed out of their wet clothes and changed into warm pajama sets. Afterwards, settling in the den to sip on creamy hot chocolate and relax as a family of four.
"Mom, I know we apologized earlier but we just wanted to say we're sorry for messing up part of the tree again." Said Kaiden, who was snuggled into her side.
Olivia kissed his forehead.
"Awww, thank you. I accept your guys' apologies. Your dad actually did worse to the tree when you boys were only a year old."
"Olivia..."
"Really?"
"What did he do?"
The twins were eager to hear how their father ruined the Christmas tree.
"Well…"
Christmas Eve, Seven Years Ago…
Why Olivia trusted him to watch two babies by himself, was beyond Fitz. Did she not learn her lesson last year when she allowed him to change their diapers unsupervised. The good news was he wasn't in the same predicament thanks to the bracelets on his sons' wrists. The bad news was one of the twins had a cold and they were not happy about it. The twin known as Kaiden was the one who was under the weather and currently screaming his head. Part of the reason being he was also naked. Fitz was in the process of changing him, a process that took longer than it should have. If weren't for Fitz stopping every two seconds to push Kaiser's walker away from the Christmas tree, he would've been done by now.
"Okay Kaiden, daddy's almost done... Kaiser, no." Fitz sighed frustratingly.
Kaiser was being a little nuisance. No matter how many times Fitz scolded him, he kept pulling on the tree. When Fitz took him out of his walker and placed him in his highchair, he had a full blown meltdown. Fitz then took him out of his highchair and placed him in his crib. Still, the water works wouldn't stop. He was going out of his mind listening to his babies' sobs. Eventually he put Kaiser right back in his walker and instantly the crying stopped from him.
Deciding to just let him do his own thing, Fitz continued changing Kaiden. After all, Kaiser was only one years old. Fitz doubted he could pull an entire Christmas tree down. Boy was he wrong. Just as he sealed one side of Kaiden's diaper, he heard a loud crashing sound followed by Kaiser's cries. Fitz looked across the room to see the Christmas tree had actually fallen over on top of his son.
His first thought was the obvious… to run over there and get the tree off of his son. His second thought was to teach his little spawn a lesson and let him stay under the tree until he was finished with Kaiden. Fitz chose the latter. As a parent, it wasn't his best nor proudest moment but Kaiser kind of deserved it. Maybe next time he'll listen. What Fitz didn't anticipate was his wife coming home at that exact moment. He didn't hear her come in because the twins cries were deafening. Olivia followed their wails into the den.
"What's with all the- FITZ!"
There had been plenty of times Olivia wanted to kill Fitz throughout their relationship. Never had she ever actually considered it until this very moment. Being the good mother she was, she waited until after she removed the tree off of her son, made sure he was free of injuries, and comforted him to unleash her wrath on her husband.
Christmas Eve Eve, 2009
"Wow, gee thanks dad." Kaiser said sarcastically.
"You so deserved it." Was Fitz's reply.
Kaiser wanted revenge and it didn't take long for him to plot it.
"Mom, I know you gave us only one pass but can we maybe get another one?"
Olivia shrugged, "Depends… what do you have in mind?"
Kaiser walked over to her and whispered in her ear. A mischievous grin immediately spread across her face.
"Okay, but I'm only giving you one more pass. That's it. Deal?" She whispered back to him.
"Deal."
They shook hands to validate their agreement.
"What are you two conspiring over there?"
Fitz wasn't oblivious. He knew how both of them operated and knew they were up to something.
"Nothing." Kaiser snickered.
Kaiser waved Kaiden over to him. Olivia distracted Fitz. Kaiser whispered his plan to get their dad back, in his ear. He nodded as his way of telling his brother he was in. Kaiden walked back over to where his parents were sitting on the couch without Fitz even noticing.
"Hey dad, wanna wrestle?" Kaiden asked him.
"Let's do it."
They moved the coffee table to make more room and to avoid bumping into it, possibly breaking it. Kaiser stood off to the side by the tree while his carbon copy and father rolled around on the floor. Kaiden pinned his dad on his back and got off of him. As soon as he did that, Kaiser knocked the tree over. Oh how the tables had turned… Fitz was now under the tree.
Author's Note: When I was 1 years old, a Christmas tree actually fell on me so I was told. I was in my walker and I kept going over to the tree, yanking on it. My mom told me to stop and tried to prevent me from doing it but I was persistent. Her attention was divided between me and my two older brothers so she couldn't always be there to stop me. Long story short, I pulled the tree so hard it fell on me. It's the same one we still have - pathetic, small, fake and I love it. As punishment, my mom let it stay there while I cried for a few minutes lol. When she told me this story, I wasn't even mad because if you really really know me then you know I definitely deserved it lmao. Hell I know I deserved it. Well anyway… I hope you enjoyed! I hope everyone as a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY HOLIDAY!