I apologise that this wasn't up yesterday... I tried to get a lot done yesterday and it didn't help that I needed to be at a party before 6 pm. So I didn't have a lot of time...

Oh, and you'll never guess that I wrote most of this on Friday and haven't even started the next one... Does it surprise you that I still haven't been that organised?

Enjoy this and I would say that I would see you tomorrow (as that is when I am meant to be posting the next chapter) but I don't know how attainable that is...

EIGHT - Decorated storefronts and houses with twinkling lights and wreaths

Rachel couldn't fault Michael's excitement. And it was incredibly infectious.

She had never been one to cover the outside of her house in lights. The inside, for her, was a different story. She did try to decorate the outside of her house once… and ended up in hospital with a broken arm because she was doing it by herself and the ladder she was on wasn't placed properly. From that point, it was just easier to get her Christmas tree to be in the middle of a window so that it could be seen from the outside.

But there were a few houses down her road that did make the effort. Some made too much of an effort in Rachel's eyes.

Michael had been on at them all day to go out and walk around and see all of the houses lit up. Alison had done something similar and Eddie had vaguely agreed that they would do the same. It wasn't really Rachel's idea of fun but there were more ideas that she was open to when it featured her boys.

They made sure to wrap Michael up nice and warm before putting on their own coats, scarves and hats. It had been a rather chilly winter which meant that every layer that they had on would be needed in one way or another. Rachel was sure that they would warm up once they got moving but she couldn't lie and say that the chill that hit when they walked to the end of her driveway made her want to turn around and return to the warmth.

She mainly saw the lights as she drove past. It wasn't quite a blur, but seeing anything past the colours and flashes was hard.

They walked their usual route around the block (the walk they would do when Michael had a little too much energy that they didn't really know what to do with). Rachel had worried about how many lights they would see but it seemed like some of her neighbours went to the effort.

In fact, they only got five houses down before Michael stopped them to gaze at the house that was covered in lights.

To Rachel, it was horribly over the top and she was sure that one of the reasons why the curtains were closed was due to the almost blinding light. It was also a very adult of her to be more worried about the electricity bill than the beauty of it all like Michael was doing.

It was the only house on their walk that had overdone it in Rachel's eyes. The others that had been decorated had done it tastefully with only a few lights and some unique wreaths.

It might have been Michael's idea but Rachel knew that they'd agreed to it to make sure he slept that night. And sure enough, he was asleep, his head resting on Eddie's shoulder, by the time they had returned to hers. Eddie went straight upstairs to get him to bed while Rachel made herself useful by putting the kettle on.

Eddie smiled at her when he entered the kitchen, silently telling her that it had been a success.

"I would hate to be the house up the road." He said as he accepted the mug that Rachel handed to him. "I hate to think what their electricity bill would be."

Rachel couldn't stop herself from bursting out laughing and the confused look on Eddie's face didn't help her to stop. She would tell him when she got her laughter under control and she was sure that he would understand but she couldn't help but think that was the perfect way to end a perfect evening with her boys.