Chapter 37-Christmas Eve

'Gerry, are you sure that you don't want me to help you?' I ask. It's become tradition that Gerry's exes, daughters, and Jack, Brain and Esther all come to ours for Christmas dinner, then at New Year we usually all go to either Jack's or Brian and Esther's. It's also become tradition on Christmas Eve that Gerry gets very, very stressed about preparing all the food.

"I'm fine, I promise! Shouldn't you be getting dressed?" he asks.

'What's wrong with my onsie? Nobody else is going to see me!' I answer.

"Lazy!" Gerry shoots back.

'I hope that you're going to make some of my favourite gingerbread biscuits today! Complete with icing on the top!' I say. "There's no point in making any for anyone else, you'll just scoff them down!" Gerry teases.

'You're no worse with any type of cake! Jack and Brian are always moaning about when Brian brings in some cakes that Esther has made, you always eat 80% of them!' I answer. "That's true enough. I won't be able to talk to you for a while, I'm making you and Caitlin's Christmas cake!" he responds. I don't like normal Christmas cake/pudding; Caitlin doesn't either, so Gerry makes us a separate one.

"I honestly do not understand why you don't like normal Christmas pudding..." Gerry says a while later.

'Well, some people have different tastes!' I've just fed Jessica, and I'm now walking her up and down the hall, burping her and trying to get her to sleep. 'Come on little one, shh, shh' I try to reassure her. At this, she starts to cry.

'Oh well don't then!' I answer to this.

"Sandra take her upstairs, I can't concentrate! " Gerry whinges. 'All right!' I answer grumpily, stomping upstairs.

'Jess, calm down. Please! I don't want your Daddy getting angry!' I tell her. I try rocking her to sleep, but to no avail. Perhaps I should sing to her? Hmm...

10 minutes later...

So far, Jessica has heard my rendition of rock a bye baby, Mary had a little lamb, and little mouse with clogs on. For some reason, the latter always used to make me miserable whenever I heard it when I was little... I felt sorry for the poor mouse!

Ooh, I know one! Baa Baa, Black Sheep! I used to love it as a kid!

I sing it to Jessica, and she's beginning to look tired. 'Shh little one, Mummy's here, I love you.' I smile, placing my daughter into her cot. I sit on the chair next to it, and put my hand into the cot so Jess can grab onto one of my fingers.

About 10-20 minutes passes, and Jess is asleep. She has a tight grip on my finger, though. I manage to wriggle it out of her grasp, make my way quietly out of her room, and go back downstairs.

I'm a little grumpy about Gerry snapping at me, so I decide to put the TV on and ignore him. I flop onto the sofa and Lucky makes himself comfortable on my lap. Bella hasn't moved from her bed in the kitchen all morning, she's been hoping for a treat or scrap from Gerry!

"Er, Sandra? Wake up" I must have dropped off. I open my eyes to see Gerry sitting next to me with a plate full of gingerbread biscuits, my favourite! 'Aww, thank you Gerry! I take it this is a peace offering?' I ask. He nods, looking bashful. "Yes." He answers simply.

I wrap my arms around hum, place the plate of biscuits onto the coffee table and wriggle onto his lap.

'I forgive you.' I smile, snuggling into him and closing my eyes contentedly. "I'm sorry Sandra, I really am. I love you and Jessica very much... I'm sorry for snapping at you." he answers.

'That's all right, I said that I've forgiven you!' I smile, kissing him. 'Can I have a cookies now? Pleaaase?' I ask. "Of course." Gerry hands me an iced gingerbread cookies. I bite into it. 'Yummy! And they are still warm!' I say in-between bites.

"Thank you. And don't worry, you can eat all of them, I made an extra batch for tomorrow." Gerry says.

'Yay! Oh, by the way, at about 8 I'll bring Jessica down and then we are all going to watch the Muppets Christmas Carol together.' I say, finishing off my biscuit.

"Can't we watch something different?" Gerry begs. 'No! It's the standard Christmas Eve fare! No arguing!' I answer back. Gerry rolls his eyes. "I can see that there's no point in arguing with you, then!" he replies.

Evening...

'I think I'll go and have a bath now... then I'll feed Jess and we can watch the film.' I say.

"Okey doke, then. I'll take the dogs for their walk, Bella has been pretty hyper today!" answers Gerry as I make my way up the stairs.

"D'you want me to make up some formula milk or are you going to breast-feed her?" Gerry asks. 'Gerry, I breastfeed her morning and night, it's formula milk throughout the day! I swear that the word "routine" is not in your vocabulary!' I answer.

"Sorry!" Gerry replies.

"Peek-a-boo! Is that your Teddy? Is it?" I've just had my shower and I'm about to dry my hair when I hear giggles from downstairs.

'Gerry! Have you got Jess up? She was supposed to be napping!' I call down.

"Er... yes. I went into her room to see if she was okay, and she was awake..." Gerry trails off.

'That's okay! I'll be down in a couple of minutes.' I answer.

'Right, let's watch the film!' I've got changed into my pyjamas, and fed Jessica.

"Okay." Gerry answers, opening the TV cabinet and searching for the DVD.

Jessica decides to make herself comfortable by snuggling herself into my fluffy dressing gown. 'I was just about to go and get something to eat... oh well.' I say to her.

"Leave her alone! Let her sleep! I sleep all the time and you don't tell me off!" Gerry says.

'I suppose.' I answer as he makes himself comfortable as the adverts before the film comes onto the TV screen. I try to reach for the remote but I fail miserably.

'Gerry, get the TV remote please! Skip the ads!' I whinge. "All right, calm down!" Gerry reaches for the remote and obediently presses skip.

'I'm looking forward to tomorrow.' I smile, snuggling into Gerry. "I am too. I hope that you've wrapped all my presents!" he answers.