"Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle all the way!" Abbey Anderson skipped around her apartment in a red plaid jumper, white blouse, and a velvet Santa hat over her brown curls. She was throwing tinsel everywhere, the silver decorations glistening in the light of the apartment.
"Abigail!" Annie called out from the kitchen. Abbey threw the rest of the tinsel in the air and ran to her mother. Annie had to laugh to see her daughter decked out in Christmas. She picked a piece of the silver material out of Abbey's hair and kissed her cheek. "Wanna help me get the house ready for the Christmas party?"
"Otay, but I'm not finished yet," Abbey turned on her heals and marched to the living room again. Annie followed and laughed at her four year-old's decorations. The ornaments were all on the bottom half of the tree.
"It looks great Sweetie," Annie said. "I think I'm going to move some of the ornaments though…"
"Wait!" Abbey jumped up. "It's not finished!"
"It's not?" Annie tried to follow along. Sometimes Abbey thought at a million miles an hour faster than anyone else.
"Nope," Abbey shook her head. She ran to the box of decorations and pulled out more and more. Jingle bells and garland piled up in her arms. "We need more…"
"More what?" Annie asked.
"Decorations," Abbey sighed as if she couldn't understand why her mother wasn't following. She stepped toward her mother, now sitting on the couch and shook the jingle bells next to Annie's ears. "For Daddy."
"Oh, I get it," the bells made noise; the garland had a strong smell. Annie was sure she had cinnamon smelling candles in the decoration box. That way, Auggie could enjoy it as well. "Great idea Abbey," Annie kissed her daughter's nose.
Auggie got a ride home from work with the Campbell's; they were followed by Jai's car which had a bunch of other co-workers with him. He leaned his head against the cool window as Jeremy, Joan and Arthur's three year old, hummed along to the Christmas carols that played on the radio.
Auggie had been at work for three days non-stop. He missed Annie and Abbey terribly. It was Christmas time and they weren't together until tonight, Christmas Eve. Now granted, before Abbey and Annie, Auggie wouldn't have minded working through Christmas, being that the prospect of heading to Illinois for the holidays with his family wasn't exactly appeasing. But now it was so much more different, and he strived to be home.
Just as he was thinking that, he felt the car come to a stop. "We're here!" Joan announced. They exited the car and Auggie led the way upstairs to the apartment.
He didn't even get his key in the lock when the door swung open and Abbey wrapped herself around Auggie's leg.
"Merry Christmas Daddy!" Abbey said. Auggie grinned and picked his daughter up off the ground.
"Merry Christmas Abbey," Auggie echoed. "Hey, you jingle," he pointed out, being that she did just that when he lifted her.
"Yups, Mommy put jingle bells on the tree and on my shoes," to emphasize, she kicked a little to ring the bells. "And we has candles that smell like cinnno…cinna…cimia…"
"Cinnamon?" Auggie offered. Abbey nodded and the bells in her hair sounded too. "Well I like them, you should wear them all the time," honestly, not one of Auggie's worst ideas. "Did you say hello?" he gestured to the people behind him.
"Hello Ms. Joan, Hello Mr. Arthur…" She said. Then she raised an eyebrow and looked toward the ground. "Hello Jeremy." Auggie put Abbey down and she ran off, jingling down the hall.
Within the hour, the party was in full swing. Besides Jeremy, Abbey had her cousins and a few other friends to play with. Auggie excused himself from a conversation with Jai and Michael when he felt a squeeze on his shoulder and the scent of Annie's perfume trail behind him.
"Annie?" Auggie said as he entered their kitchen. He heard her on the opposite side of the island and he stepped around the table and wrapped his arms around her.
"Hey there, long time no see Mr. Anderson," Annie turned in his grasp and kissed him lightly.
Auggie kissed her back. "Same to you Mrs. Anderson," he grinned. "So the jingle bells…"
"Abbey wanted you to enjoy the Christmas decorations as much as she and I do," Annie explained. "It was a big deal; it took her an extra hour."
"We sure have a thoughtful little girl, don't we?" Auggie said.
"She really loves you," Annie said. "And she missed you this week, we both did."
"Don't worry, I applied to take Christmas off for the rest of my employment at the CIA," Auggie chuckled. I'm not missing another holiday with my favorite girls," Auggie said.
"And guy," Annie reminded him, moving his hand from her hip to her stomach.
"Oh right," Auggie grinned wider and leant down to kiss Annie's still flat stomach. "Next year there's going to be four Anderson's hosting this Christmas party." Just then a set of clicking heals stopped at their kitchen door.
"Uh oh," Annie whispered, "I think Dani heard us."
"Best go do some damage control if you don't want anyone at work knowing till after the holidays." Annie nodded and Auggie realized there were jingle bells in his wife's hair as well.
"Love you."
"Love you too," Annie kissed him before chasing after her sister. "Danielle come here!"
Hmm, should there be a baby boy Anderson or a baby girl Anderson? Any takers?
I'm going to attach a New Years Story to this (hence the title) and just to clarify, no, I'm not doing a new one for each year, but they are chronological, so, like, now Abbey is four, I won't go back to when she was an infant.
Also, all my stories are separate story updates, so if you would like to read the next installment, an Author Alert would be best advised.
Merry Christmas to All, and to All a Happy reading!