Christmas With The Castles
Post Series
He was in his element. Decorating for Christmas was a big deal in the Castle household. Everyone spent the afternoon and early evening at the loft for dinner and decorating. Kate and Castle would string the lights. Alexis hung the garlands, the wreaths, the stockings. Jim would help Castle wrestle the tree into place. Lily would place ornaments and decorations on every surface she could reach, while Reece and Jake would help Martha build the train set and the Christmas village, with some assistance from their sisters. Together they'd all trim the tree.
It was magical and every year it became more majestic and more hectic and Castle loved it. The kids made more and more decorations every year that joined those Alexis had made, the decorations he and Martha had amassed over the years and the decorations Kate and Jim had added. They had new ornaments he and Kate had picked out together, ornaments they'd added for their first Christmas married, their first Christmas with each of their kids and the loft told the story of the family they'd made together as it became a winter wonderland with every decoration found its home for the holiday season.
Dinner eaten, cocoa drank and goodnight kisses from their grandparents and big sister, the kids had gone down for the night and Kate and Castle descended the stairs from their rooms and took in the scene before them.
"Looks wonderful, babe" Kate told him as he wrapped an arm around her shoulder, tucking her in against his side. She came easily, curling around him.
"Yeah," he agreed, content to pull his wife into his arms and hold her. The looked around at their families handiwork. Lily surprised them with a new paper angel she'd made at school which they'd put at the top of the tree. Castle had spent the week at home painting ornaments with Jake and Reece. Castle straightened a few decorations, admiring the childish innocence and remembering the afternoon they'd spent making the snowman he was looking at, Alexis joining in the fun with her younger siblings too.
Their kids had wild imaginations like their father and it made Kate and Castle smile to see what they did when given free reign. Castle looked over the room, looking at all the things his kids had picked out themselves this year. The twinkling lights Lily had wanted to hang in the window. The reindeer Reece had wanted to put on the coffee table, complete with light up nose. But Castle had to admit that is favourite addition this year was the Batman figure Jake had insisted be added to the Christmas village Castle had bought when Alexis was a little girl. "He has to watch over peoples so the Grinch doesn't steal Christmas!" Jake had explained to him. So there he was, perched on the church roof. Jake and Reece had both been delighted when Kate had unearthed a mini Santa hat that would fit him, left over from a Christmas ornament that had broken a few years before and never quite recovered.
Kate chuckled. "Oh yeah, Jake is definitely his father's son."