Page 21 of Unwrapping His Gift
CRAIG
Five years later…
It’swarm in the house, but it must be a real chilly night as I look outside and watch the snow fall. The trees are still covered in a layer of soft, milky white from the flurries we had last night. I guess I’ll have to shovel the steps and the walkway again, but I don’t mind. There’s something peaceful about working outside in the winter. Everything’s so quiet. The snow just insulates everything – stops the sound from bouncing everywhere. I like it.
Halloween used to be my favorite holiday, but it’s Christmas now, and that’s not because I go around dressing up like Santa and making girls who work in offices happy either. Those days are long gone.
I’m a married man now. A happily married man with an amazing three-year-old daughter and the most incredible wife in the world. I have my law degree, and I’m working as an associate attorney at a very distinguished firm here in Boston. I really don’t see how things could be going any better.
“Honey, are you going to make me drag you down to the party? Everyone’s waiting.” I turn to see my wife, dressed up as Mrs. Claus, a Christmas cocktail in her hand, standing in the doorway behind me, and smile as my chest fills with joy. “You know, it used to be me that would hide in the back room during the Christmas festivities.”
I walk right over to her, slip my arm around her waist, and pull her up against me. I’ll never tire of how warm and soft she is, but seeing as how we have company downstairs, I have to restrain myself from grinding against her and getting myself excited. Five years together and I still feel like a horny teenage boy when I get my hands on her or see her walking around in something that shows off her sexy curves.
“I’m sorry, baby, I just came up here to answer a quick work e-mail, then I looked out the window at the snow and just sort of got lost in my own thoughts.”
“Yeah?” She gives me one of those adorable smiles I love that just melts me. “What kind of thoughts were those?”
I smile back and wrap my other arm around her, careful not to spill her drink. “Thoughts about you mostly. About our life and just how lucky I am.”
“Stop, you’re going to make me cry.”
I lean in and give her a gentle kiss on her soft lips. “Well, it’s true.”
I hear the soft pitter-patter of footsteps that can only belong to one person: my sweet daughter.
“Daddy, Daddy!” Caroline cries out. I brace myself as she throws herself against my leg. “Come downstairs, it’s tea – it’s tea time!”
Daisy makes that little noise she always makes when she’s taken by just how cute our daughter is. I can barely handle it myself as I reach down and lift her into my arms.
“Tea time?”
“Uh huh!” She nods.
“Don’t you meantreetime, honey?” Mommy asks.
“Yeah!” Caroline yelps happily, tossing her arms in the air over her head. My daughter’s happiness brings me such delight. I look over at Daisy as we take the stairs down to the living room. She’s grinning ear to ear.
The voices downstairs grow louder as we reach the bottom of the stairs and turn left down the hall. Everyone is laughing and having a good time, which just causes my smile to grow. I can feel Caroline squirming to be let loose. She’s so excited about decorating the tree with everybody, so I set her down and put an arm around Daisy, and we both watch as she scampers off, waving her arms shouting, “Tea time! Tea time!”
We enter the living room a few seconds after her, where Marissa, my parents, and Daisy’s mom are all gathered around the tree, discussing the best course of action as far as the lights and decorations go.
As usual, Daisy’s mom is being the most vocal, followed by my dad. My mom is nodding a lot and sipping her glass of wine but not really saying much. While she may be a bit of a snob, my mom isn’t the most creative. She’ll just mostly end up backing up my dad on whatever he says and chip in with the actual decorating part, but she won’t have much to say when it comes to the brainstorming aspect of it all.
Marissa turns when we both come in the room and smiles. To this day, I still feel a sense of relief and happiness when she smiles at me, knowing that she was once distrustful of me when I first reentered Daisy’s life.
“There they are!” she says, loudly enough to get everyone else’s attention. “Now we can finally get to it!”
The parents turn around, and instantly Daisy’s mom rushes over to me, grabs me by the sleeve, and pulls me over to the tree.
“Okay, we need your opinion here, Craig. Do you think we should have white lights and have them start at the top and coil down counterclockwise and do green and red lights going up in a clockwise fashion? Orjustgreen and red? Because you can’t do a Christmas tree without green and red or it looks like a window at Macy’s. At least that’s what I think!”
I have to stop myself from laughing. I love Daisy’s mom, I really do. This is her fourth Christmas with us now. Sadly, we weren’t able to make the first Christmas Daisy and I spent together work, as she was still drinking and still avoiding everything that had to do with the holidays, but as I promised Daisy, I worked with her, and we were able to get her mom into a program, and as of this December, she’s just over four years sober.
“Wow, I’m not sure, Shelly,” I reply, pretending to ponder her question. I really think both would look fine. I turn and motion to Daisy to come join me. “What do you think, babe?”
“I think green and red,” Daisy replies instantly. I chuckle. She always has an opinion. Just like her mom. “I’m not a huge fan of the white.”
“I don’t mind white,” my dad chimes in. “What do you think, Caroline? Do you like white lights?” My dad has really taken a liking to my daughter over the years and always makes sure to include her in everything.