Happy 7th :) Got to get up early tomorrow to finish essay but can't sleep- wish me luck! Not so sure about this one but too late now, so please do let me know what you think. I'm not as far ahead of myself as I was with this, so your encouragement is extra important :). And thank you so much Amy (no idea, they just sort of come to me at random intervals :P) , Izzy and Lizzi for your reviews, love you all :) You guys never fail to cheer me up!
Keep a look out for more tomorrow!
Love Florencia xxx
Saturday 7th December 2019
-9.46am
She woke up late come Saturday morning; the faint winter sun was already leaking sleepily through the curtains when at last she opened her eyes. But it was Saturday morning, she reminded herself, and lie-ins on Saturday mornings were practically a necessity, provided that she wasn't called out to a crime scene, of course.
She blinked a little now, stretching out across the bed like a cat in the afternoon sun as she yawned softly, slowly becoming aware of the warm arms wrapped tightly around her waist, holding her close against a warm, solid presence behind her. She rolled over carefully, chest now pressed up against her fiancé's, looking right into his eyes as he smiled at her sleepily, brushing a curtain of messy blonde curls away from her face.
"Morning, you."
"Morning," she yawned, stretching her arms out above her head, leaning over to wrap her arms around Harry's neck as he pulled her in close; lips locked together passionately, tenderly, lovingly, taking comfort in the warmth of his body pressed closely to hers, perfectly content.
"What time is it?" Nikki asked sleepily as she broke off the kiss at last, rubbing at her eyes in an attempt to keep them open. Not that it mattered to her too much at the moment, not when all she wanted to do was stay curled up in bed with Harry all day long, but at the same time she knew they couldn't. Partly because of the huge pile of ironing waiting for her in the corner of the kitchen, and partly because she and Harry had promised Joycelin that they would put up the Christmas decorations today, and that was a promise which neither of them dared go back on. Nikki could remember it well; at Joycelin's age, decorating the house for Christmas was almost as exciting as Christmas itself.
Harry pulled away from her a little more in order to lean across to check the time on his alarm clock, yawning as he threw himself back onto the bed, his arms back around her neck, his eyes closing once more. "Quarter to ten," Harry mumbled sleepily at last. "But so what; it's Saturday, we don't have to get up yet."
"We should probably go and check on Josi, though," Nikki pointed out. "Or else god only knows the state we'll find the place in when we finally stop lazing around and get up."
"She's fine, I checked on her about an hour ago," Harry assured her. "She's fine: she's busy creating a Playmobil safari all over the living room floor. Getting from one end of the room to the other might be a struggle, but other than that I don't think she's causing too much havoc."
"I know, but we promised her we'd go and get a Christmas tree today, remember? And we know from last year that all the good ones are usually gone by early afternoon, no matter how early on in December it is."
"True," Harry yawned, frowning a little at the thought of having to drag himself out of bed for good this time. "Can't we just buy a nice, perfectly proportioned fake one that folds up nicely and doesn't have to be squished into the back of the car in order to get it home, or drop pine leaves all over the living room floor? It'd save us a fortune in the long run."
"Yes, but can you imagine the look on Joycelin's face when we tell her that she's not going to get the promised run around the Christmas tree farm with the owner's sheep dog this year because Mummy and Daddy are stingy and want a plastic tree from the back of the next directory?" Nikki pointed out, laughing at the look of realization and defeat on Harry's face. "Exactly. Right, I'm getting up," she announced, pushing back the bedclothes and moving to step out of bed, bursting into giggles as her fiancé tightened his grip around her waist, pulling her back down beside him. "Harry!"
"Come on, 5 more minutes!" Harry pleaded with her. "5 more minutes and then I'll heave myself out of bed quietly, I'll even fork out for a bloody 6 foot pine leaf shedding monstrosity without complaint. Please?"
"Fine," Nikki sighed, feigning annoyance as she rolled his eyes at him. "But only 5 more minutes. Or else Josi might try to make her own breakfast again, and I don't know about you, but I'm so not in the mood for cleaning pancake mix off the ceiling."
-12.09pm
"Daddy?" Joycelin Cunningham asked as she wandered ahead of her parents down yet another row of potential Christmas trees, stopping at last to inspect a group of them and finally pointing to one on the end of the row. "Daddy, what about this one?"
"Well, I would say yes, but there's no way we're going to fit that through our front door really, is there?" Harry pointed out. "Josi, it's huge!"
"True," Joycelin admitted thoughtfully, turning away from the Christmas trees and glancing down towards the shop part of the farm at the entrance, her eyes suddenly lighting up.
"Mummy? Daddy?" she asked hopefully, eyes wide, giving her parents the puppy-dog-eye look she only ever put on when she wanted something. "Can I go and play with Ruffles the sheep dog?"
"Hey, I thought you were going to help us choose a tree!" Harry complained. "Or do you just want to decorate it? Oh, go on then," he gave in, a part of him suspecting that he and Nikki were going to find it a whole lot easier choosing a suitable Christmas tree without the hindrance of their 8 year old. "But stay where Mummy and I can see you, OK? Don't go wandering off!"
"I won't!" Joycelin called, skipping off down the row of trees towards the sheep dog in the distance. "Oh, and Daddy?"
"Hmm?"
"What about that one?"
"Which one?" Harry asked. "Josi, you haven't even looked at it properly…" he trailed off, simply staring at the tree his daughter had pointed out more or less blindly, the tree which was perfectly proportioned, small enough to fit through the front door yet not so small it was going to look ridiculous in the corner of their living room. "Oh. Josi, how did you…?"
But she was already gone, running off eagerly towards the sheep dog, completely unaware of her parents' bewilderment.
"How on earth did she do that?" Nikki asked Harry in amazement. "She didn't even look at that tree properly and yet it looks perfect, how on earth…?"
"Ah, maybe not perfect, though," Harry sighed, crouching down beside the tree to inspect the plastic tag wrapped around its stump. "You haven't seen the price tag."
-2.35pm
"Josi, darling?"
"Hmm?"
"You do realize you're going to have to clear all this off the floor if we're going to decorate the tree, don't you? We can't even walk across the room as things stand, can we?" Nikki pointed out. The three of them had ended up spending a good hour at the Christmas tree farm before they had finally managed to find one they liked, with no help from Joycelin, who had been perfectly content chasing Ruffles the sheep dog between the aisles of trees. And then they had spent a further half an hour trying to wrestle the thing into the back of the car once they had chosen it, only to have the boot of the car fly open on the motorway 10 minutes later. As much as Nikki hated to admit it, she was beginning to wonder if Harry had a point about real Christmas trees being far more trouble than they were worth. Now they were finally home and had managed to place the tree in the corner of the room, however, due to the chaotic mess of Playmobil animals which was currently their living room floor, actually decorating it was going to be a challenge.
"But Mummy, it has to stay like that, it's a safari!" Joycelin protested from her position on the floor beside the assortment of African animals (along with several polar bears and a koala which didn't escape Nikki's attention). "If I have to move it then the lions will get too close to the meerkats, and then they'll eat the meerkats…"
"Nice try, but it's perfectly natural, Josi, it's called the circle of life."
"Well, not all lions would eat the meerkats, of course. The vegetarian lions wouldn't," Joycelin told her mother seriously; Nikki biting down hard on her tongue as she fought to stop herself from laughing.
"Vegetarian lions?" she repeated. "Josi, there's no such thing as a vegetarian lion!"
"But there are vegetarian sharks, so why not vegetarian lions?"
"What? No, no sweetheart, that's just in Finding Nemo," Nikki explained struggling to keep a straight face. "That's a movie. A cartoon movie. Real sharks all eat fish."
"But what if they're allergic to fish, like Nana?" Joycelin asked, frowning. "What if they can't eat fish, surely they'd have to be vegetarian sharks then?"
How was it that a simple request for her daughter to clear her toys off the living room floor had turned into a discussion as to whether or not it was possible for sharks to be allergic to fish? Nikki wondered bewilderedly. Now she thought about it, she wasn't entirely sure.
"Look, Josi, just clear them off the floor please, or we can't decorate the Christmas tree," Nikki told her, smiling as her daughter practically sprang down to the floor to pick up her plastic animals; it was amazing, the effect Christmas had on children.
"Mummy?"
"Hmm?"
"Can I put the star on top of the Christmas tree?"
"Well, I would say yes, darling, but how exactly are you planning on getting up high enough to put it there?"
"Daddy's going to lift me up," Joycelin stated matter-of-factly, lifting the gold star out of the decoration box.
"Am I? First I've heard of it!" Harry remarked, feigning annoyance. "OK, go on then, being as you asked so nicely. But only if you promise me they'll be no wriggling. We don't want you kicking down the tree like last year, do we?"
