Chapter Fifteen
Ragnar
It had been a long time since I was excited about Christmas morning, and a really long time since I was as excited as I was about this Christmas morning. Aspen was here with me, and this was our very first Christmas together. The first of many.
We’d talked about what we wanted this Christmas together to look like. We weren’t going to be having guests, so making a huge turkey or ham dinner seemed a waste. And without any children of our own or guests coming, having anything too formal felt overboard.
In the end, we decided to have a lazy Christmas-movie-marathon-type day. It was perfect for my mate facing the exhaustion portion of his pregnancy and honestly, what was better than a cheesy holiday movie? I couldn’t think of a thing.
I’d worked hard trying to figure out the perfect gift for him, but nothing would outshine the gift he gave me yesterday. When we figured out that he was expecting our first child, that was everything.
Getting surprises ready when you were spending nearly every second of the day together was a challenge. I wound up sneaking out of the bedroom around three in the morning to set everything up.
When Aspen had been dealing with the mechanic, I’d stopped at the general store and picked up some supplies and little gifts. I’d love to have bought him a new car, one that didn’t need the laundry list of things his apparently was going to need, but this would have to do. At least for now.
I sat in the hallway wrapping little odds and ends I’d picked up and putting them in a stocking.
Growing up, stockings were my favorite. I loved getting individually wrapped pencils and Hershey’s Kisses and socks.
Goodness, I even loved getting candy canes and toothbrushes.
If I had to unwrap it, it was the best thing ever.
In our house, my mom did the stockings, and Santa brought the big gift. Santa was going to have a hard time bringing a bigger gift than I was already getting this year. Nothing was going to top that. Not this year, not any year.
I got the stocking ready. I set it out in front of the hearth, not sure that it would stay on the hook on the mantel, then wrapped the present I made for him and left it in the same spot before sneaking back into bed. He instantly snuggled in close, and I fell asleep quickly.
I woke to the sound of him being sick in the bathroom. Not the way to start Christmas morning, but at least he wasn’t sick sick. He was morning-sickness sick. And from everything I knew about pregnancy, that was an excellent sign.
How messed up was that when puking became a good sign?
I stood in the doorway. “Can I help you?”
He held up his hand, and I wasn’t sure if that meant stop or come, so I just stayed where I was. A few seconds later, he pushed up onto his heels.
“I think that was it.” He turned to face me. “Go away. This is gross.”
“There’s nothing gross about pregnancy.” Although I soon learned there was a whole lot gross about pregnancy.
“Out.”
“Yes, sir.”
I brought Frosty out for his morning needs and then snuck in to clean up a little and get some fresh Christmas jams on.
We had matching pairs. I didn’t know if we would’ve done that by choice or not, but we didn’t have one. The general store had buffalo-plaid pajamas. That was it. But as I came out and saw my mate wearing his, I was glad for it. We were Christmas-card worthy.
He beamed. “I’m starved. Let’s go eat.”
We had French toast, a quick and easy, warm, festive kind of breakfast. Festive because I added extra nutmeg and used eggnog instead of milk.
I was worried my mate wouldn’t be able to eat, but it was like he’d never been sick at all, and he even had a second helping.
“Are we doing a fire and watching Christmas movies still?” he asked.
That had been his wish, so, of course, that was exactly what we were doing. I’d made most of the cookies yesterday while he was sleeping, but the rest seemed to have done him well. He still had bags under his eyes but more energy today than yesterday.
“Absolutely. Should we do presents first?” I couldn’t wait to see him open mine.
“Presents, plural?” His eyes went wide.
“Yes. Let’s see what Santa left us.”
I heard the second he saw them. He was like a little kid, and I loved it. “A stocking! You got me a stocking.”
“It was my favorite part of Christmas morning growing up.”
“I never had a stocking before.” He snatched it, plopped on the floor, and started opening everything. “I needed one of these!” He held up the carpenter’s pencil.
I saw absolutely no scenario where that was true, but I was loving his enthusiasm. One thing after another, he opened, and he swore each one was exactly what he needed.
Then he pushed himself up and left without a word. When he came back, he had two gifts.
“This is for you, and this”—he handed the other one over—“Frosty, this is for you.”
He pulled the paper off, and there inside was a monster stuffy with a squeaker. It was pretty flat and worked well with Frosty’s small mouth. He snatched it and ran off.
“This one’s yours. I already opened my stocking, so don’t try to argue about it.” Which I was 100 percent about to.
I tore the paper off. Inside was a box, and when I opened it, I’d expected to see… I didn’t know what, but not what was there.
“How did you ever find this?”
“That’s a trade secret.”
I reached in and pulled out one of the very few missing pieces to the Christmas village. It looked practically new, even though the entire series had been discontinued decades earlier.
“I love it so much,” I said, and added it to the set.
“Wait, there’s more.”
I went to the box, peeled back the rest of the paper, and on the bottom was what appeared to be a card.
When I opened it, there wasn’t a Christmas card inside.
Instead, there was a copy of his resignation acceptance from his boss.
And when I flipped it over, there was an acceptance letter for a remote position.
“I can’t believe this happened so fast. I’m so happy for you.”
“I’m pretty excited too. I need to go get my things. But what I thought was going to be the hard part was pretty easy. Now you open yours.”
He unwrapped it, and inside was a bird feeder, the kind that would sit on a window, and some decals to prevent the birds from actually hitting the window. Technically, I’d made it. But it was from a kit a local craftsman sold at the general store. Mostly I just assembled it.
“I love it.”
He crawled over me and hugged me so tight.
“Who would have thought, when I came here that day, we’d be spending Christmas together? Never been so glad that a weatherman messed up so royally.”
“Same, my love,” I said. “Same. Ready for a cheesy Christmas-movie marathon?”
“I was born ready.”
He saw half of one before falling asleep for his first nap.