In the blink of an eye, November turned into December and that meant Christmas was on the horizon. Christmas was Nathan's favorite holiday. But it was going to be a different Christmas this year. This year he would have Allie and Archie to celebrate with. He wanted to make this Christmas extra special for Allie since this would be the first one without her mother. Nathan decided to build an ice rink in the backyard. He put up a fence around water he had poured onto the lawn and the ice rink was created. Allie loved it. She invited her friends over at first. Then the townspeople wanted to join in the fun. It was a safe option than the pond by the school.

After her date with Robert, Allie was on cloud nine. Nathan decided to take Elizabeth's advice and let her be a young lady. Nathan allowed Robert to spend time with Allie as long as he was at the house and the door to Allie's room stayed wide open. Nathan found Robert to be a well-mannered young man who would not dare touch Allie inappropriately.

It was a few days before Christmas. Nathan headed into town to pick up Allie's presents from the mercantile. They still needed to find a tree. Nathan would ask Ned where the best place to find a tree. After doing a few chores at home, Nathan rode Newton into town. He tied Newton up and went inside the mercantile. When he got inside, he heard a loud voice.

"You incompetent fool!" The voice said. Nathan opened the door quickly. Nathan saw Lucas standing there yelling at Ned.

"I'm sorry Mr. Bouchard. The food delivery is going to be a couple days late." Ned said.

"And how am I supposed to feed my guests!" Lucas yelled.

"It's not Ned's fault." Nathan said.

"Stay out of this Grant." Lucas said.

"I won't stay out of it. You seem to bully everyone in town when you don't get your way. The food delivery is going to be a couple days late. Your guests can eat at the café in the meantime." Nathan said.

"My guests don't pay for "café" food." Lucas said.

"Your food isn't anything special." Nathan said.

This angered Lucas. Lucas got straight into Nathan's face. Nathan was waiting for the bunch. Suddenly, Lucas backed up and stood by the counter.

"Good morning." Elizabeth said.

"Good morning, Elizabeth." Lucas said.

Nathan smiled at Elizabeth and Little Jack in her arms.

"I was just telling Nathan here how much I love Christmas." Lucas said.

"Oh really." Elizabeth said.

"Nathan here is a Scrooge when it comes to Christmas." Lucas said.

"Actually, Christmas is my favorite time of year. I'm not a scrooge. Scrooge's yell at people when they don't get their way." Nathan said with a smirk.

Lucas scoffed.

"I must be going now. Elizabeth, would you mind joining me this afternoon in the library. More books arrived and I would like to show them to you." Lucas said with a charming smile.

Nathan could see that this request made Elizabeth uncomfortable.

"Sorry Lucas, but Elizabeth is helping Allie and I find a tree." Nathan said.

"Really?" Lucas asked.

Elizabeth nodded.

"Absolutely. I know the best spot." Elizabeth said.

Lucas scoffed. He said his goodbyes and left.

Nathan went over to the counter and asked Ned if any packages arrived. He went into the back to look.

"Thank you." Elizabeth said.

"Lucas sure is something." Nathan said with a smile.

"You haven't found your Christmas tree yet?" Elizabeth asked.

"No. We are going to go find one this afternoon." Nathan said.

"I wasn't lying. I know the best spot. I could show you." Elizabeth said.

"Really?" Nathan said with a smile.

"Yes." Elizabeth said. They both locked eyes. But as soon as Ned came out with the packages, they averted their eyes.

"Here you go, Nathan." Ned said.

"Thank you, Ned." Nathan said. Nathan counted his packages and found a small package. He smiled and opened it up.

"Is that for Allie?' Elizabeth asked.

"Yes. It is a charm bracelet. Her mother had one just like it." Nathan said.

"It's beautiful." Elizabeth said. Nathan smiled and so did Elizabeth.

Later that afternoon, Nathan and Allie met Elizabeth at the spot that Elizabeth told him to meet at.

"We have to find the perfect tree." Allie said.

"If anyone can find it, you can." Nathan said.

Allie smiled and ran ahead. Nathan and Elizabeth walked together.

"How is your father?" Elizabeth asked.

"The cold weather has flared up his cough. It takes a while to settle him down." Nathan said.

"That's terrible." Elizabeth said.

Nathan nodded.

"Has your relationship changed at all?" Elizabeth asked.

"Softening. He is great with Allie. I had to come to terms that he was dealing with demons that I couldn't see when I was younger. And those demons prevented him to be the father he wanted to be." Nathan said.

"I'm just glad you get to have the father you always wanted. Even for a short while." Elizabeth said.

"Me too." Nathan said. Nathan stopped to look at a tree. While he was looking at the tree, he felt something hit him in the back. Nathan turned around. Elizabeth had hit Nathan with a snow ball.

"Oh. It is on!" Nathan said with a smirk.

Elizabeth laughed and screamed when Nathan threw a snowball at her. Elizabeth hid behind a tree and threw snowballs at Nathan. Some hit Nathan. And Nathan threw snowballs right back at Elizabeth. The two were laughing so hard that they didn't see Allie come back.

"We are supposed to be looking for a Christmas tree!" Allie shouted. Nathan looked at Elizabeth who looked right back at him. They started throwing snowballs at Allie. She laughed and hid behind a tree. All three of them were in a snowball fight.

After a while, there was truce. Not far from the snowball fight, they found the perfect Christmas tree. Nathan cut the tree down and dragged it back to the wagon.

When the tree was in a wagon, Elizabeth began to mount Sargent.

"Why don't you come over to ice skate? Bring Little Jack. It is beautiful this time of day." Nathan said.

Elizabeth smiled.

"Let me go get Jack and grabbed my skates." Elizabeth said.

After hauling the Christmas tree in the house, Nathan set it up in the living room. They would decorate it later. Allie grabbed her skates. Archie would go ice skating too. Nathan grabbed his skates. As he was putting his skates on, Elizabeth arrived with Jack.

"This is great." Elizabeth said looking at the rink.

"All for Allie." Nathan said. Nathan held Little Jack as Elizabeth laced up her ice skates. When they got on the ice. Elizabeth took Little Jack's hand while Nathan took the other hand and they began to ice skate. Little Jack laughed as he was ice skating. His laugh made Elizabeth and Nathan laugh. After going around the rink a couple of times, Archie volunteered to take Little Jack and go get some hot chocolate while Nathan and Elizabeth skated alone.

"I didn't know if I was going to skate with Jack. I almost fell a couple of times." Nathan said.

"Me too." Elizabeth said laughing. The two decided to have a race. Allie was at the other side of the rink. She counted down from three, but when it got to the number two, Elizabeth took off.

"Cheater!" Nathan yelled. Nathan started skating fast, He almost caught up to Elizabeth when he lost his footing and fell down. He slid a couple of feet before stopping.

Nathan turned over on his back. Elizabeth skated over to Nathan.

"Are you alright? Did you hurt yourself?" Elizabeth asked.

"Just my pride." Nathan said.

Elizabeth laughed.

"I'm sure it has been hurt plenty of time. I think it will recover." Elizabeth said.

Nathan groaned. Elizabeth grabbed Nathan's hand and helped him get up.

"Hot Chocolate." Archie yelled. With Elizabeth's help, they skated over to the side of the rink and grabbed the hot chocolate. Allie went inside as did Allie. Jack sat in between Nathan and Elizabeth.

"I can't believe he is going to be one on Christmas Eve." Elizabeth said looking at Jack.

Nathan smiled and sipped his hot chocolate.

"We are having a party on Christmas Eve. We would like for you, Allie and Archie to be there." Elizabeth said.

"It would be an honor." Nathan said.

Elizabeth smiled and sipped her hot chocolate. Nathan noticed that Elizabeth was in a deep thought.

"Penny for your thoughts." Nathan said.

Elizabeth gave a sad smile.

"I'm just thinking about how Jack isn't here to celebrate his first birthday." Elizabeth said.

Nathan took a sip of his hot chocolate.

"That's not true. You have a living, breathing part of Jack right here." Nathan said stroking Little Jack's hair.

Elizabeth smiled.

"I know, but it's not the same." Elizabeth said.

"I know. I don't think death is the hardest part. The aftermath is difficult. The future is hard to see without that person." Nathan said.

"I agree. There is always going to be difficult days. Especially around birthdays and anniversaries. But we have to move forward." Elizabeth said.

"Easier said than done. What does moving forward even look like?' Nathan asked.

"I guess living the life that person always wanted you to live." Elizabeth said.

Nathan nodded. After finishing her cup of hot chocolate, Elizabeth decided it was time to take Jack home and make him dinner. She thanked Nathan for a fun day and that they would see him on Christmas Eve.

After dinner, Allie, Archie and Nathan decorated the Christmas tree. The ornaments were a mix from Nathan's collection and some ornaments that Allie had made. While Allie was occupied with decorating, Archie brought over hot cider for Nathan and sat next to him.

"Elizabeth is a lovely woman." Archie said.

"She is." Nathan said.

"Do you think that you two could be something?" Archie asked.

Nathan sipped his cider.

"She is still in love with her husband." Nathan said.

"From what I saw today, it seems like she still loves her husband but is falling in love with you." Archie said.

"It's not possible. We'll be leaving in June. She deserves someone who will be here. I don't want to start anything with her and then leave. I don't want to break her fragile heart." Nathan said.

"You could always stay in Hope Valley." Archie said.

Nathan sighed.

"We talked about this before. I have a life in Hamilton. A business. Friends." Nathan said.

"You could have that life here." Archie said.

"I'm not cut out for small town living." Nathan said.

"You could have fooled me." Archie said.