"I thought we were going to set it up in the Observation Deck," Nanny said, surveying the tree in the corner of the rec room.
"We were, but then we do spend more time in here," Allura shrugged. "And there is more room and seating in here."
The Christmas tree tradition was just one more thing the Force brought with them from Terra. Their first Christmas on Arus they had a small tree decorated with paper chains and any little thing they could find for decoration. Over the years Christmas trees gained popularity with the people of Arus. Now ornaments and decorations were sold in town and Christmas tree farms had started sprouting up. Since it was still too early for those tree farms to have grown large trees, the Force still cut their tree down from the Castle woods.
At the moment, the rec room was full as everyone unpacked ornaments, drank hot chocolate or spiced cider, snacked on cookies, and goofed off.
Cady twirled around in a circle wearing a Santa hat Mrs. Barlow had brought her from her store. Lance had been coaching her and now the little girl wouldn't stop singing, "Ho, ho, ho!" She had bits of tinsel in each hand and draped over her shoulders.
"Decorate the tree, not my daughter," Allura teased Hunk as he dropped more tinsel on Cady's head.
"Pitty!" Cady squealed, running to her father.
"Yes, you're pretty," Keith scooped her up and handed her a green ball ornament and pointed to a bare spot on the tree. "Hang it on the branch there, Cady."
She looked at the ball and shook her head, "No, Daddy, down."
Keith raised his eyebrows, bewildered, but set her down on the floor.
"Pid!" Cady yelled, scurrying over to where Pidge was untangling a string of lights to hang around the window.
"Thank you, Cady," Pidge grinned at her, taking the ornament from her.
"Oh," Allura gasped, her hands over her mouth. "Cady, you're so smart! What a good girl!" She ran over and picked her up, kissing the little girl all over her face, "You knew to give him green! You're so smart!"
"Did I miss something?" Howard whispered to Felix.
"Pidge flies the Green Lion," Felix explained.
"Oh, wow, Mom, Dad, where did you find this?" Lance asked, as he opened the little box they had handed him.
"What is it?" Darcy asked, coming up behind him.
Lance held up the ornament they had brought for Schuyler, it was a small red lion cub with the words 'Baby's First Christmas' and the year written across its stomach.
"That is so cute!" Darcy grinned. "Where did you get that?"
"Oh we have our secrets," Molly smiled up at her from where she sat on the couch, cradling Declan on her lap.
"Schuyler," Lance crawled over to where she sat on the floor, sucking on the Santa hat Darcy's mother had brought her. "Look what Nana and Pappy brought you," he dangled the ornament in front of her.
She dropped the hat and reached for the ornament, "My!" As soon as she had it clenched in her tiny hand, Schuyler shoved it, feet first, into her mouth.
"No, you don't eat it," Lance tugged it from her mouth and picked her up before she started crying. "You're spending too much time with Uncle Hunk."
"Hey!" Hunk called, well, it came out muffled through his mouthful of cookies.
Lance ignored him, "Let's hang your first ornament on the tree." Schuyler reached out for the little lion and started crying as soon as it was on the tree branch. "You know what you need," Lance looked down at the scrunched up, red face of his daughter. "You need music."
Becca reached up to hang an ornament on a high branch around the side of the tree.
"Let me," Pidge whispered, taking the ornament from her hand and hanging it for her. "It's not often I'm actually the taller one." Although he had grown to 5'10", Pidge was still the shortest one on the Force, Caleb beating him by an inch. He dropped his hands to her shoulders and squeezed them before stepping back.
"They're so cute," Lucy whispered to Darcy.
Darcy fell back onto the couch, watching Lance dance around the room with their daughter while he sang along, off-key, to the Christmas album he had put on. "Yeah, they are."
Lucy chuckled, "I'm talking about Pidge and your sister."
"What, oh yeah, them too."
"Come on, Lance, please don't sing," Hunk pleaded.
"Don't listen to him, you have a lovely voice," Molly spoke up.
"You need to clean your ears out again, dear," Felix called from where he was helping Pidge string lights up around the window.
Allura stood back, holding Cady on her hip, "It looks fantastic."
"Let's light her up," Keith said. "Someone get the lights."
"Got it," Howard flipped the switch, plunging the room into a state of near darkness.
"Here we go," Keith plugged in the lights, highlighting the tree.
A collective gasp and a spattering of applause filled the air.
"It's lovely."
"Really beautiful."
"Nice."
"That tree is the perfect size and shape."
"Ow, Lance, you stepped on my foot."
"Sorry, man."
Keith wrapped an arm around Allura's waist, "Merry Christmas, baby."
She smiled up at him, the various colors of the twinkling lights playing across his handsome face, "Yes it is." She stood on her toes and kissed him.
******************************************************
Allura rolled over in bed and found her way unimpeded. She opened an eye, expecting to see the dark outline of Keith lying next to her, she saw an empty bed instead. A glance at the glowing clock told her it was 4:12 in the morning.
Stretching, Allura stood and pulled her robe on, securing it around her waist. She first checked Cady's room, the little girl was curled up, sound asleep, her blanket clutched in one hand, the snowman Keith had bought lay beside her. After carefully closing the door, she turned to the boys' room. Moonlight filtered in through the window and both babies were sleeping soundly. Allura crept from one crib to the next, making sure they were sleeping and safe.
She knew where he was. Stifling a yawn, she shuffled down the hall and stopped in the doorway to the rec room. The Christmas tree lights were on, the steady glow casting a warm light on the room. Keith sat on the sofa, staring at the tree, a mug of coffee in his hand.
"What are you doing up?" Keith whispered.
"Looking for you," she whispered back.
The room was so quiet neither thought it would be right to speak out loud.
Allura crossed to the sofa and sat beside him, tucking her legs under her. "Want to talk about it?"
He reached out and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her to him, "Talk about what?"
She knew he was avoiding her question, but she also knew what was on his mind. Laying her head on his shoulder, she looked at the tree and spoke quietly, "Its times like this I miss my parents the most. It would have been wonderful to have had them there for our wedding and for the births of our children, but it's the quiet, family times that I miss them the most. They would love this, the full house, the holidays. Mother would have been baking and planning our evenings. Father would have been spoiling the children and telling stories."
Keith turned his head and buried his face in her soft, golden hair. It frightened him, sometimes, how well she knew him. "My father would've been telling bad jokes and dressing up like Santa."
Allura wrapped her arm around him and held on to him tightly, pressing her face to his throat.
That sat in silence, wrapped around each other, surrounded by memories.
"We have so much to be thankful for," Keith's voice was hoarse. "But I can't help but think of what we don't have right now."
Allura tilted her head back to look at him, "You can't think that way, Keith. As long as we remember them, talk about them, teach our children about them, our loved ones will never really be gone. They're with us all the time, all around us."
He kissed her forehead, "It really only gets to me on his birthday and at Christmas, it was his favorite holiday. Now that I'm a father myself, it all takes on a different meaning."
Allura felt a lump in her throat. She turned and sat up on her knees so her eyes were level with his, "You amaze me, Keith, and I am so happy our children have such an incredible, thoughtful father. After everything we've been through, after meeting in the midst of war, we have everything."
He flashed her a weak smile, "I know, hon, and I love you and everything we have."
"Tell me what Christmases were like when you were growing up," She asked, settling back beside him, her head on his shoulder.
Keith wrapped his arm around her, toying with a lock of her hair, "After church on Christmas Eve, we would go to the base holiday party where my father would dress up as Santa Claus for all the kids who had parents serving elsewhere. He'd hand out small gifts and candy canes. Then we'd go home and my brother, sister, and I would exchange gifts and give our parents the gifts we had for them. When we were young we left out cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for his reindeer. The next morning we would wake up and our stockings would be at the foot of our beds. Dana was always the first one up, she would come into the room I shared with Gerald and wake us up. Then we would all go into our parent's room and sit on their bed while we opened our stocking. We always got oranges in our stockings, some kind of old tradition I never really understood, but none of us wanted them, so we would give them to Dad." He cleared his throat, a smile playing on his lips. "We then all had to get dressed and we had to go downstairs together, so Dana, Ger, and I would sit on the top step and wait while Mom and Dad took their time getting dressed. When we finally went downstairs, we had to wait in the hallway for Dad to set up his camera and Mom to start the coffeemaker. Our presents were separated into three piles, and they had to be the same size or we'd fight. Every year, Mom tried to get us to go one at a time so we could all see what each other got, that never worked. I think the longest it took us to open presents was fifteen minutes. Then Mom would bring out some garbage bags and we all had to clean up the wrapping paper we had ripped off. We'd have some light breakfast and just hang out together, playing with our presents, pretending we liked the clothes we got. We'd have dinner at around five, a ham dinner with all the trimmings. Mom always said that since we had turkey for Thanksgiving, she didn't want it for Christmas. We had, uh, we had a lot of fun."
Allura laid a hand on his thigh and squeezed gently, "Someday Cady and her husband and Declan and Gideon and their wives are going to be cuddled up in their homes sharing with them their Christmas memories."
Keith snorted, "Yeah like Cady is ever going to get married."
Allura looked up at him, surprised, "What?"
"Why do you think we had two boys? They'll act as her guards to beat away all the young men who think they can get near my daughter."
She smiled at him, "It's going to happen someday, Keith. A handsome young man, maybe a space explorer, will come into Cady's life and sweep her off her feet."
He took a sip of his coffee and shook his head, "Nope."
"What? Do you think she'll spend the rest of her life living here in the castle and hanging out with you?"
"Sounds good to me."
"What about the boys?"
"What about them?"
"Are you going to let them date?"
"Those handsome devils?" Keith smiled. "Like we'd be able to keep the girls away."
"Oh," Allura looked at him, indignantly, "So it's okay for the boys to date and get married, but not for Cady."
"Yup."
She shook her head, "Someday, Keith, someday you'll have to cut the cord."
He sighed and hugged her tightly to him, "Do we have to go to this thing tonight?"
"Smooth way to change the subject and yes, you know we do," she kissed his cheek. "It's all part of being married to the Queen."
"At least it starts early, so we should be out of there at a decent hour."
"And then tomorrow is Christmas Eve," she added. "And we won't have to leave the castle for the next two days."