There was a deep furrow in April's brows that Jackson had seen many times before, consistently in the operating room whenever she was deep into and focused on a surgery. Wrinkles appeared just above the bridge of her nose. She had complained about her hand beginning to cramp slightly a few minutes ago and then not brought it up again as she continued with her task. Once she was set on a task, there was nothing in the world capable of stopping her. That was a lesson that Jackson had already learned about his wife a long time ago. Even Riggs had been able to echo the sentiment and remind him of that after only knowing her for a few months overseas. Sometimes it was best to step back and let her do her own thing.

But that didn't mean that he couldn't try. April was one of the most stubborn women that he had ever known but he had grown up under the care of another significantly stubborn female surgeon. Jackson would have liked to think that had gotten him ready for treading the waters with just about anyone else in the future, his wife included. This seemed mild enough.

"Are you sure that you don't want me to take over doing some of those? I don't mind." Jackson asked, gaze focused on her despite holding onto their three year old daughter on his lap.

"No, no, I've got this," April answered with a shake of her head.

Although the actions disproved her words, she dropped the ballpoint ben in her hand briefly and stretched out her fingers, slowly bending each one of them individually. Her thumb popped loudly when she bent it in and she sighed before pressing her fingers against each other and allowing more of the knuckles on her hands to pop. There were a couple spots of ink dotted across her fingers but she had been careful not to smear any ink. She'd only had to rewrite one address so far and that had been from an incident with putting on the stamps. She thought that she was doing fairly well.

"You sure? We can split up the rest of what you've got left." He offered again.

"Babe, I love you, but your handwriting is so messy and so easy to confuse with Harriet's and I would like the post office to deliver them to the right place since we're already late getting them out this year." Her eyebrows crinkled up, picking up the pen again.

"Alright, alright," Jackson began to slowly back off. "But you do realize that Harriet is currently doing more to help you than I am, right?"

"Yes, because she's Mommy's special helper." Her hazel eyes softened as she looked at their daughter. She had been tasked with putting the stamps onto each envelope, sitting on her father's lap so he could watch her and make sure that she did it correctly and April didn't have to rewrite any of the envelopes. "And she's doing a very good job."

"Yes, she is," Jackson agreed. "And she's doing a very good job at it."

"Thank you," Harriet piped up.

As April checked off one more name from her list, she paused to count how many were left. "Fortunately, there's only eleven left," she let out a heavy breath. "So we should be done soon and then we can take these off to the post office. One more thing is done on my to-do list."

"We mail letter to Santa too?" Their daughter asked, looking with wide eyes between her parents.

"Yes, we will mail your letter to Santa." April nodded her head. "Did you put a stamp on it? It's got to have a stamp to make sure it goes all the way to the North Pole in time. That's a very important part."

"Yes!" She squirmed off of her father's lap and landed on her feet, hurrying back to her bedroom to get the letter.

"Have you seen what's in her letter?" April asked as she set off to writing names and addresses again.

Jackson chuckled. "Yeah. She wants a puppy, and a kitty, and a pony. I know that definitely came from your side of the family." He answered with a fond smile. As she finished up the address, he took it and added a stamp to it, putting it on top of the stacked pile.

"I believe it was you who put up all the farm animals in her nursery." She replied smugly. She knew why he had done it, of course. That had been back when they had thought they would be raising her separately and he had made sure that the nursery at his house still had a piece of her mother in it. It was sweet. The first time that she had seen it, she hadn't been able to stop smiling. "I wouldn't be opposed to having a pet, you know," she commented quietly after a few seconds, not wanting Harriet to over here. "It might be good for her to have a little furry friend around the house. It could teach her some responsibility."

"A pony?" He laughed.

"Obviously not a pony." She rolled her eyes. "And not a baby animal, either. That's too much work right now. But we could adopt a cat or dog from the shelter, one that's pretty much already trained with all of the basics."

"It'd have to be a cat." His nose crinkled slightly. Between a cat and a dog, he would have preferred a dog, but he had to look at their situation realistically. "Or we'd have to put in a dog door on the backyard because there's no way that we'd be able to come home and let him out enough. But I really rather not have a dog door. That's a safety hazard."

"Why don't we go check out an adoption shelter on our way home from work? I think she's old enough." April suggested.

As if cued, Harriet came back into the dining room where they were set up working, her feet slapping loudly against the hardwood floor. "I got my letter!" She announced loudly, holding it up for both her parents to see.

"Very good." Jackson praised and scooped her up. "We've got a few more cards to get through."

Pen on paper once more, April finished making her way through the list of people who would receive cards. She was the type who always wanted to make sure that she sent out more than enough, and they had begun to receive a few – primarily from her sisters and their families, who were always early with that type of thing. It was a nice opportunity to show Harriet photos of her aunts and uncles and cousins who she didn't get to see enough. But her list of Christmas card recipients went beyond just family, making sure that a good portion of the surgical and emergency room staffs also got a copy of the Kepner-Avery family card.

By the time that she had finished her way through the list, her hand did hurt as she passed over the last sealed envelope to her daughter for her to put a stamp on. There were a few extra copies of the card and envelopes and she picked one up, admiring the photos that had been chosen for it.

About a month ago, the three of them had gotten their photos done professionally for the card. Harriet was in an adorable red velvet dress with white tights and Mary Jane's on, her hair in two big, curly pigtails. Her little baby teeth were on full display with the bright smile on her lips. She loved to be in front of a camera and wasn't shy at all when it came to having her picture taken, something that April and Jackson both loved to take full advantage of. Their phones were filled with pictures of their daughter.

"You look so pretty and happy on the card, ladybug," she commented as she pushed it across the table toward Jackson and Harriet. "Do you want to put a copy of our Christmas card on the fridge? That way everyone who comes over can see it."

"Yes!" Harriet grabbed the card and bounded off again to put it on the fridge. It's low and at her eye level, but it would get moved up later. "Go mail Santa now?" She asked when she returned.

"Yes," April nodded. "Why don't you go put on your coat and a beanie? It's cold outside."

Jackson grabbed the pile of cards, shuffling them so they were more orderly as he stood up from the table and pushed the chair in. "I'm surprised that we didn't run out of stamps," he chuckled. "I guess she's going to be a little bit of a perfectionist just like her Mom."

"My hand hurts so much," April admitted with a huff.

"Lemme see it." He said. She stretched out her hand toward him and Jackson took it with both of his. His thumbs massaged into the palm of her hand, going out toward the edges and up toward her knuckles before returning to the center of it. A content sigh parted his wife's lips as he rubbed it, shutting her eyes briefly and her shoulders dropping down as she allowed herself to just relax. It was something that he hadn't seen her doing a lot of lately. Rationally, there was no need to get worked up or stressed about Christmas cards – but he was right to call her a perfectionist. That part of her came out stronger than ever during the holiday season.

"Thank you." April stretched up onto her toes to place a quick kiss against her husband's lips, pausing just to smile. "We better get on our jackets too so she doesn't get impatient waiting on us."

"We know that she is the real boss around her," Jackson agreed with a chuckle.

Both of them moved toward the front of the house so that they could get their shoes and coats from the hooks by the front door. April had just finished buttoning up her jacket when their daughter came barreling toward both of her parents. Jackson squatted down to tie the laces of her little boots that she had put on, a bright pink pair that she had gotten from Grandma Catherine.

"You ready to go mail our Christmas cards and your letter to Santa?" April asked.

"Yes, please!"