I want to take a moment and wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy and Healthy New Year.
Thank you to all who have read and a special thank you to those who have commented or sent messages. I didn't write any of this to get reviews but it has been an encouragement more than you will know.
I will mark this story as complete but perhaps I'll update it for Christmas 2022 and hopefully other stories before than.
Christmas 2021
Kate told Caroline, "give me five minutes before you come up to bed, I have a present for you and before your mind wanders, no, it isn't that kind of present."
"Can it turn into that kind of present?" Caroline asked as she smiled and flashed her eyebrows.
"If you play your cards right…now give me five minutes."
Five minutes later, Caroline walked into their bedroom to find things sprawled all over the bed. "What's all this?"
"Well, tomorrow is December and 2021 was maybe a little better than 2020 but not by a lot so I decided I needed to treat you and by you, I really mean us and this is a homemade advent calendar. Some are small and others large, some were free while others weren't, some are for you while others are for the family and for one, Flora must be asleep and our bedroom door locked."
"Can I have a preview of that?"
"Nope, that specific one is for December 10th so you need to wait but if you want to be creative, you can woo me with your own pre-Advent gift," said Kate.
After a bit of wooing, Caroline said, "it's past midnight; can we look at the one for the first?"
"Caroline, you are worse than Flora trying to get the chocolate from her Advent calendar. At the very least, I think we need to wait for sunrise each day."
"You're no fun; sunrise is too late this time of year, I'm already at work most days."
"You just need to be patient and as for the fun part, it might be a little more believable if you weren't still trying to catch your breath. For the first, I will make an exception but not until the morning."
Some hours later, Kate handed Caroline a bag and as she opened it, "a new travel mug," said Caroline.
"Since yours broke, you complain the tea at school is rubbish so now you can bring some from home."
Each day and each gift was unique, some practical, some romantic and some flirtatious; a love note slipped into Caroline's bag, a new charcuterie board, peppermint candies, voucher for a free massage, meat and cheese for the aforementioned charcuterie board for a stay at home date night but Caroline couldn't wait for the 10th, just one more day to go.
Flora was sound asleep and Kate walked into their bedroom only to have Caroline swiftly, yet quietly close and lock the door behind her. Full of anticipation, she pulled her wife close and stared at her with hungry eyes.
"Caroline, I think I might have misled you about the 10th. We can certainly do whatever you have in mind but," Kate opened a drawer and reached back and pulled out a box, "I was thinking about the time when Flora was five and she found our box of artisan chocolates and ate them all and was sick that night."
"Oh," said a crestfallen Caroline.
"I do however like your plan," as Kate lifted the lid off the box. "I believe you liked the dark chocolate and cherry," as she fed her wife.
They ate a chocolate and a half before the original plan was abandoned in favor of Caroline's but they would still hide the rest from Flora.
For Flora, time seemed to stand still as she waited for Christmas whereas for the adults, the time was flying by. She busied herself, reworking her Christmas list time and again, making all the required homemade gifts and whining to everyone that Christmas is taking forever to get here.
Lawrence took pity of her and decided to play with her, scrabble junior, the game was after all a family tradition. She had long ago stopped being the baby who cried all the time or even the annoying little sister who wouldn't leave him alone. She had her own thoughts, opinions, made him laugh and he realized how much better his life was with her in it. He thought to himself, what's wrong with me, look what this pandemic is doing to me.
Lawrence was changing. Perhaps he was taking a different path than William had but with all that is going on in the world, he was beginning to mature and think of the future and not everyone does; his father was an example of someone who never really did grow up. He got a job, bought a car, was dating someone. Young love, and that's what it was, he was smitten from the moment he met Colleen and now he was alone again. They hadn't broken up but she had a breakthrough case of covid and now they were forced to be apart, absolute torture but perhaps it gave him insight into his mum's relationship with Kate early on.
Having spent so much time apart in the first year of the pandemic, they began to have Celia and Alan over at least once a month for a traditional Sunday roast. Definitely not on the list for Alan's heart healthy diet but an occasional cheat day with family was good medicine for them all. They laughed at all the same old stories but they seemed newer, better, fresher and all the little annoyances didn't seem so important anymore. Even Celia and Muriel began to call each other more often.
And time marched on and the advent gifts kept coming. At least once a week, there was a note, a poem, a love letter, always reassuring Caroline that no matter what, they were in this together, for better or worse Caroline was the woman she wanted by her side, the woman she needed by her side.
Flora wasn't the only one impatiently waiting for Christmas, Calamity was as well. At seven and eight years old, patience wasn't something they ever had a lot of and waiting for Santa seemed to make the little they did have disappear. Diversion and tiring them out is always a good tactic. Bundle them up for the cold and let them run around and see the sheep and have time together. Kids have a many forms of silliness, some which can be appreciated by adults but others only flourish when around other children. Flora and Calamity, they weren't quite sisters, weren't quite cousins but they were each other's friends, support and partner in silliness.
Gillian was often a mess but when life happened, she always managed to pull herself together and find strength from within but just as importantly, she learned to lean on others for support. She never would have thought that the 'snotty bitch' she met all those years ago would have become such an integral part of her life but how wrong she was. And when Caroline and Kate married, it changed the dynamic but doubled the friendship. More than all the years before; she felt it now during the pandemic and when she needed an ear to listen, a friend to talk to, someone to help her, she had not one but two sisters.
And time marched on and the advent gifts kept coming until finally it was Christmas. They were all gathered at Kate and Caroline's and while new variants seemed to come and go and nobody knew what next week would bring no less next Christmas they were together today.
Kate and Caroline were snuggled together on the couch when she thought, Kate, her Kate, her rock, her support, friend, confidant, lover, partner and so much more. As she looked around the room, she was struck with the thought, what's so good about this pandemic…on the surface, nothing but when you dig down, you see it, people showing kindness to neighbors, daughters helping parents, brothers supporting sisters, when you dig down, even in these dark times, you can see it, love actually is all around.
Note: Love Actually was written and directed by Richard Curtis with an all star cast. Many of you probably know and some may not that Nina Sosanya was in this movie as well.
