"Now here is our Christmas tree," Logan pulls down the large artificial tree bag on the living room floor. "It doesn't look like much now but just give me a few minutes and we'll be up and running, ready to decorate." Logan pulls the three pieces out of the bag and arranges them from largest to smallest.
"You see here, this is the biggest piece, where it's widest at the bottom. I'm going to flatten this base out and put this piece in." The bottom portion of the tree is placed down. It's branches drop and fan out. The sound of small hands applauding rings out.
"You like that, buddy?"
"Yes, daddy! Put more!"
"I'm just getting started, little guy, keep watching" Logan continues to assemble the Christmas tree, placing the second section and then the pointy tip of the top of the tree. His son watches on nearby, his toy trucks and teeny tiny play people forgotten, as Logan narrates the process.
Soon the entire tree is in place and its branches fluffed up accordingly. Logan reaches behind the tree to place the plug in the power strip. He turns to his son an makes sure he has his attention before flipping the switch on.
"Okay, little man, watch this! What do you think?"
The toddler's eyes light up and the tree comes on and shines with beautifully colored lights. "Yay, daddy! Tree pretty, tree pretty!", the boy with sandy blonde hair exclaims, while looking up in wonder.
The look on his face makes it all worth while. He's never seen his son so enamored. This might be the first Christmas that he actually remembers, Logan considers.
"Alright, let me wrap this ribbon garland around here, just like mom likes it, then we can start putting on ornaments. Maybe we can get a good head start on finishing before your mom gets home. We can surprise her!"
"Good, daddy – Lets go!", he squealed with excitement.
With the ribbon in place, Logan brought over a box with small, soft, stuffed ornaments for his son.
"Come here, little man. Let me show you how to put these on the tree, to decorate it."
Logan picked up a small teddy bear with a Santa hat and placed it gently on a bottom branch. "See you just take these and put them all around the tree, like this."
"Santa bear!"
"That's right, little guy. That is a Santa bear. Here, try this one." He hands his son another small ornament.
"I do, daddy", and he places it on on the tree, nestled between the branches.
"Great job, buddy. Keep going and we'll be done in no time." The little boy happily goes back and forth between the box and the tree, adding treasures as he goes.
Logan sees that they are, of course, all close to the bottom and spaced way to closely together, but that's okay. He and his son are doing something together. Even though he still so small, Logan loves these little moments. He never really even has able to imagine that his life would be like this. The thought of children and family were often marred by feelings of obligation and detachment, a symptom of his own upbringing. Everything is different now, thankfully, and he owes it all to one person.
Be home soon. One more store to conquer! *climbing emoji*
"Okay bud, we've got most of the decorations up. We'll leave the star and Mommy's favorite ornament out for her."
Logan notices his little boy has retreated to the sofa with one of the last plush toys for the tree from its box. This one is a Rudolph figure, that looks very similar to the storybook version he's been reading to him for the past week.
"Aren't you a clever boy", Logan says to his son, who is now also wiping his eyes and fighting sleep. "Let's get you down for a nap. Mommy will be home soon and then we will eat some more turkey!"
The child placed his head on his father's shoulder as he is picked up to be carried to his room. Logan gently removes the toy, leaving it on the sofa, knowing that his son would want his Baby Shark lovey to sleep with instead. Finally making it upstairs, he places his son into his bed, handing him his lovey, which was nearby.
He lovingly smoothed back the child's hair and gave him a quick kiss on the forehead. After pulling up the blanket and putting the rail in place, Logan backed out the room, turning on the white noise machine and leaving the door cracked on his way out.
He shuffled back down stairs to re-disperse the ornaments that Eli "helped" put on, then finished placing a few other decorations around the front room, before removing all the boxes and bags back to storage.
He decided a little time in front of the tv with a cold beverage was in order and retired to the hearth room, hoping to find a soccer game on.
"Hey babe. What have you been up to? Where's Eli?"
Logan met his wife in the kitchen, coming in to the house from the garage door.
She was loaded down with shopping bags from her Black Friday shopping excursion, which he quickly helped divest her from. Giving each other a hello kiss, Logan placed the many bags out of the way in the dining room to sort later.
"I just put him down for his nap about an hour ago. He should be up just in time for some dinner. It looks like you've had a productive trip. I hope you felt comfortable using the joint account for all of this. You know I don't want to to have to worry about splurging anymore."
"Don't worry, babe. I put a healthy dent in it today, with the help of Mom, and I promise I won't worry my pretty little head about it", she imitates a Southern accent for the last clause, while still managing to roll her eyes at his prodding statement.
"Thatta girl", he says gently swiping at her rear end. "Speaking of moms, where is yours?"
"Oh, she's still out in the Jeep sorting through the bags and dealing with something over the phone. There is also a ride on Mercedes in the back that I'm sure she could use some help with."
"A ride on toy! How big is this thing? How did you manage to get in the car and how in the world are we supposed to get all this stuff up to Nantucket?"
"First, to answer your questions – I told you Mom is really enjoying the space that a larger SUV offers – she bought it with the baby's stuff in mind, transporting back and forth to help us out, but she has found many uses for it since. She thought it was apropos for a "Huntzberger" to drive around in a luxury vehicle, even if it's only a toy. Plus it was "a thousand percent off", her words, not mine. Secondly, we played the pregnancy card and batted our eyelashes a bit, to get a couple of teenagers from the store to help us load it in. Might have set the feminist cause back a few days with that one, but oh well... Lastly, I think we could get away with leaving the the big gifts behind and open them when we get back. You know, have a Christmas One and a Christmas Two."
"Well, at least you've thought this through. That actually sounds perfect – a private Christmas at home. I can give you those naughty things I had in mind."
He comes toward her playfully, grasping out to touch her and pull her in closer. She makes moves to evade him, laughing at his antics the whole time. He stills manages to bring her in for a hug and lets her go just enough to caress her expanding baby bump.
"That's how we got this one, Huntzberger. All those naughty games you play... You keep this up and Santa might take all his toys back", she grins up into his beautiful face.
He gives her back a playful frown and kisses the tip of her nose. "Hopefully, you'll be with me for a very long time. Santa wouldn't take you away from me. I've been so good this year. And I missed you today. How are you feeling?"
"I'm feeling good, for the most part. My feet are achy and I have to pee but that's to be expected. Mom and I snacked our way though the day. I had to excuse myself no less than 10 times to find a restroom."
"You go see to that, and I'll help Lorelai unload the rest of gifts. Then we can eat, put on a movie and you can rest."
"Aye Aye, Captain", she responds, turning on her heel with a small salute, her blue eyes sparkling.
"I'm looking forward to those leftovers. We really outdid ourselves yesterday, even Luke was impressed."
"I'll take care of it, babe. Handle your business and go put your feet up. I've got to covered."
She turns to blow him a little kiss, then continues her way upstairs to get more comfortable.
