November 10th 2020

Chapter 315
Their Welcoming of Spirit

As Christmas mornings went, the one they had that year in Austin was possibly one of the warmest they'd had in a long time. It wasn't hot, but then it wasn't chilly cold either, and there wasn't one single flake of snow in sight. This could potentially feel more frustrating to anyone who had grown up in colder places, but even if that was the case, most of those involved here had been here more than enough to take it all in stride. There was plenty more to the spirit of the day than temperature.

"You know, I had a few other ideas for this morning," Maya whispered to Lucas, as the two of them lay in the dark in her bedroom at the Hunter Hart house.

"Did you?" Lucas whispered back, with a strong feeling like he knew exactly what at least some of those ideas were. Still, he waited until she'd nod, and she did. "So, what's stopping you?" he asked. He knew the answer to this as well.

Maya opened her mouth to reply but stopped all at once, as she heard something… and he heard it, too… and it came closer… The door opened a crack, and a strange outline appeared in the shadows before it came forward and they realized Haley was holding a very docile pup. Una, the first of Coraline's puppies to be born, had previously been nicknamed Sleepy, which continued to feel appropriate. She was still relatively small, just so that the four-year-old was able to loop her arms around her and lift her off the ground.

"Right," Lucas whispered, and Maya smirked, kissing him just where his beard relented to his face before rising out of the bed to gather both girl and dog at once.

"Oh, okay, that's one big sack of potatoes," she intoned in what felt like an impression of Pappy Joe. It got a laugh out of her little sister at least, before she remembered herself and quietly spoke.

"Merry Christmas?"

"Yeah, I think so," Maya laughed, kissing her little cheek before bringing her to where she might release her armload on to the bed. The dog soon found her feet and climbed up toward Lucas, who collected her and brought her around. A few more wishes were exchanged, in every combination they could have come up with, between Maya, and Haley, and Lucas, and Una the dog, too, as Haley insisted.

"Are the others awake yet?" Lucas asked the girl.

"Uh huh," she nodded.

"Mom and Dad, too?" Maya asked, and at this she shrugged. "But the twins and MJ are up."

"No, down," Haley shook her head.

"Right, okay," Maya scooped her up again, and out they went toward the living room, where they found the trio sitting and crouching around the tree. "Hey, hey, show me your hands," Maya called to them as she set down Haley and the young one dashed to join her siblings.

"Show me your hands!" she repeated. Nellie, Gracie and MJ all did as told.

"We didn't open anything," Nellie promised.

"She wouldn't let us," MJ revealed, pointing to Gracie.

"We're not supposed to," she reminded him, better not to come up like a tattle.

"Hey, you know what we could do right now?" Lucas asked, coming along with the dog at his heels. She carried along and went to settle between the twins. The little Hunters looked up and shook their heads, all of them looking like such an array of Katy and Shawn's features mixed into a trio of combinations.

What they could do, as they soon leapt to do, was a Christmas breakfast, the better to surprise them once they came down the stairs. They split into two teams, Maya and Lucas each taking one of the twins and one of the smaller kids. Maya, Gracie, and MJ went along preparing some fruit, and a special hot chocolate mix shared by their grandmother over in Arkansas, while Lucas, Nellie, and Haley set themselves to mixing up a good batch of pancake batter. They could have had just this, all of them in their best holiday PJs, making breakfast with the little Hunters, and it could already have been a perfect Christmas, all before Shawn and Katy even had the time to come along to find the six of them had moved on to other items to add to the table.

Moments like these, it was impossible not to look at the parents here, both of them having come such a long way, too, since they had started their lives in Texas. After nearly fourteen years of it, they couldn't exactly say 'it seems like not so long ago' anymore, and yet it was still in them, this past where a table full of noisy, happy kids on Christmas morning, seemed as unlikely as anything. But they had made it happen, together, and it was everything they could ever want.

As curious as the kids had been about the presents earlier, they had completely forgotten about them as they'd helped prepare and then ate their breakfast. MJ shared the dream he'd had in the night, and it was almost an epic in and of itself, involving Santa and a kidnapped reindeer. He was given all the space to tell his tale, and he did so gladly, making the twins giggle while Haley looked at him with wide eyes and a hanging jaw repeatedly nudged into chewing by her father.

Finally, they had ended up around the tree, and presents were exchanged. They'd already opened one present each already of course. The day before, when they'd gone to the elder Friars' house for their Christmas Eve party, they had been visited by Santa Claus himself, who had presented them each with their one special gift, in thanks for how good they'd been that year. After he'd gone, Haley had taken it upon herself to comfort Lucas, who sadly had completely missed the visit by some pure coincidence. She went on and on, saying that Lucas would have liked him, because he had a good beard, just like Lucas had a good beard. When she found some kind of white residue on her fingers after touching his face, she was informed, much to her pleasure, that Santa must have left some magic with her. She had then gone around, poking everyone she could see, the better to share her magic with them.

As tended to be the case, Maya and Lucas spent all morning and until after lunch at the Hunter Hart house before driving off to the elder Friars' for the afternoon and evening, with dinner in between. After the presents had all been unwrapped and all the paper collected thanks to Lucas' quick thinking, inspired by a long ago competition of 'find the candy wrappers' in a haunted house, the question had turned to what they'd do next. No going out to play in the snow today, that was for sure, and it was bright and sunny outside but what they all wanted to do was be here, together, so…

So, they turned the living room into a veritable blizzard of paper snowflakes before enjoying their lunch – just this once – on the couch and the floor, where they could enjoy the movie of their choice. It didn't even have anything to do with Christmas, truth be told, but it was what the kids wanted, and getting all four of them to agree on a movie was hard enough to make happen on a regular day, so no one argued.

With the movie over, Maya and Lucas had been left to relinquish their cozy PJ morning, as they got dressed and collected their things, wishing everyone a great rest of the day before heading out. Maya was made to promise that she would pick up Haley the next morning, for Stage Ready holiday camp.

It was such a contrast, to go from the house full of little Hunters, over to join Thomas and Melinda, along with Pappy Joe and Patty. It was by no means boring, not in the slightest, but maybe for how much their lives were presently commanded by this endeavor for children, it felt harder to leave them.

If their moods had been in any way lessened by this split, the car ride treated them to an unmistakable lift. The first single off Ree's new collaborative album was just now starting to get airtime, and Christmas early afternoon was the moment where Maya and Lucas both got to hear it on the radio for the first time. The album had been released just three days ago, and already was doing very well for itself. Between camp and Christmas, it hadn't really hit Maya entirely, everything it could mean for Ree, and herself, and the album. Sitting in the car though, hearing the song was in high demand, it was hard for it not to feel as real as could be. It was just as well that she wasn't the one driving for how excited she got. Before long, Lucas just had to go ahead and pull the car to the curb, so he might partake in his wife's giddy joy.

"Are we sure we didn't pass out under all those snowflakes and this isn't a dream?" Maya asked with a smirk still lingering.

"It would be like us to have synchronized our dreams," Lucas suggested, making her laugh.

The whole day so far, from making breakfast, to making snowflakes, to just enjoying themselves with Shawn and Katy and the kids, and now to have this moment of celebration in the car… They could almost call it the perfect balance to their snowless Christmas, each thing strengthening the belief. And the streak carried on.

Reaching the elder Friars' home, it felt like arriving in the midst of Santa's village before even making it through the door. After last year, with the fire, with Thomas and Melinda's brief relocation to their son and daughter-in-law's house while the repairs were underway, it seemed as though the two of them had gotten it in mind to make this as good as two Christmases, one for this year and one for the one before.

"This kind of reminds me of the Christmas we had, in the middle of summer," Lucas stated as they walked up from the car, arms loaded.

"You mean the time we made it winter even though it was crazy hot outside? Yeah, I kind of see it," Maya nodded. "At least this time the other houses are decorated, too, so it doesn't seem so weird."

Melinda Friar had never lacked for very festive outfits on Christmas Eve and Day, and this year did not disappoint one bit. It might have been her very top one as far as Lucas could recall in his lifetime. If it wasn't for all their previous years seeing her in outfits like this, they might have found it so hard not to laugh even a little bit, but they managed it in the end.

They came to find Thomas and Joseph Friar in the midst of an 'argument' as to a previous Christmas, some thirty-odd years prior. Both of them were certain that they remembered a funny incident at the family's party a certain way, and they would go over it again and again, telling Patty Robinson about it all as though she had been appointed to decide which of them was right. So far, all she managed to do was look from her husband to her stepson with an amused smile. The two of them were so alike, especially as they argued their sides of it all, that everyone just had to listen and watch and guard their own laughter. In the end, it was impossible, and they were all laughing over it, taking it as a starting point to the sharing of many more stories, of memories, which made the rest of this Christmas Day as good as that which came before.

About two years later, quite by chance in chatting with Mr. Sanderson, Missy's grandfather, Lucas would get an account of that infamous party, confirming which of his father or grandfather had gotten it right. He never saw the point in telling them. The memory they had was perfect all on its own.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners