Rey stirred her hot cocoa with a peppermint stick while she looked out the window. The snow was falling even harder now, each snowflake piling upon the last. Even though she'd experienced a handful of snowfalls these last few years, this weather continued to astound her.
"Still watching?" Ben asked as he sat down next to Rey. He held a napkin with two sugar cookies, and reached out to offer her one.
"Yeah," Rey took one of the treats. "Thank you,"
"I watched many snowfalls growing up," Ben commented. "Not every Christmas, but often enough. I have yet to grow tired of them,"
Rey turned to look at Ben. "What was Christmas like when you were a child?" she asked. As someone who'd grown up in orphanages and foster homes, Rey often wondered if families celebrated Christmas the same ways they did on television shows.
"It was…busy," Ben replied. "Fun, but busy,"
"What do you mean by 'busy'?"
"Well, it was a big celebration," Ben said. "And by 'big celebration' I mean busy. Christmas Day was almost always spent with the other military families. Other times my mom was deployed overseas," Ben grinned at a memory. "When that happened my father couldn't prepare a turkey or ham to save his life, so we'd end up getting take out. Always drove my mom nuts when she came home and learned we'd eaten pizza or Chinese food for Christmas dinner,"
The grin on Ben's face began to fade as he returned to the present. "What I'd always wanted was a Christmas Day just for the four of us: my mother, father, our dog Chewie, and myself. But the house was either filled with people or missing someone from my immediate family. I mean, we'd had a few Christmas' where it was just us, but I'd wish there'd been more,"
Rey nodded in understanding. "I'm sorry,"
Ben shrugged. "It's how it had to be,"
"At least you had family and friends to celebrate with," Rey offered. "I was with a new set of people every Christmas or two," She tried to hold back the tears forming in her eyes. Rey wasn't an overly emotional person who shared her feelings, but something about the holidays brought it out in her.
Ben took Rey's hand. "It won't be like that ever again," he said.
Rey gave Ben's hand a squeeze. "I know," she said. "We have each other now, as well as our own memories to make,"