Thirty-Three | Avery
I woke up Christmas morning, snuggled against Sam as we heard Kennedy screeching from her room that it was Christmas morning.
“It’s time to get up,” I said with a soft laugh, patting his arm so he’d release me. “You have about two seconds before she—”
Before I could get my words out, Kennedy came flying into the room and jumped on the bed.
“It’s Christmas! It’s Christmas! Get up! We have to see if Santa came!”
She bounced excitedly as Sam groaned while taking a jab to his side from one of her bounces.
“Alright, sweetie. Give us a few minutes and we’ll be right there. Go ahead and wait in your room, and we’ll come get you.”
“Okay, Mommy!”
She jumped off the bed and went running down the short hall back to her room.
It was weird staying in Sam’s bed last night, but after we’d talked to Kennedy about the changes that were going to happen with Sam and I getting married, she seemed to be okay with everything. It could also be that she was just in a Christmas excited stupor and didn’t process any of what we’d said.
“Are you okay?” I asked, worried she’d hurt him. At least it was on his side and not on his balls.
“Yeah. I’ll live.” He climbed out of bed and stretched his arms above his head, a sliver of abs teasing me in the process.
“Well, that’s good because I didn’t agree to marry you only to have you die before we have our wedding day,” I teased, pulling on my robe. It wasn’t chilly in the house I just really loved how comfy it was.
“Why does she have to wait to go in the living room?” Sam asked, following me down the hallway.
“Because she will be overcome with excitement and open everything before we get in there if not.”
“Gotcha. Good to know.”
I felt his hand on my lower back as we stopped at Kennedy’s door. She was sitting on the floor in front of the pink Christmas tree Sam had given her, putting the star topper on. It had a beautiful assortment of ornaments on it from the advent calendar he’d given her.
“You ready?” I asked, a huge smile crossing my face.
“Yes!”
“Alright. You lead the way. Let’s see if Santa stopped by last night.”
Sam and I had stayed up a few hours after getting Kennedy to bed last night, initially to get the gift from Santa into the living room. That only took a few minutes, and then the rest of the time was spent with Sam pretending to be Santa and having me sit on his lap as I told him exactly what I wanted.
We walked into the living room and Sam turned on the lights right as Kennedy stepped inside. Sitting in front of the tree was the large box with the dollhouse from Santa.
I leaned forward and grinned when I saw how big her eyes and smile were.
“Is that from Santa?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
“There’s only one way to find out,” I said, gently giving her a push forward.
She rushed over to the box and immediately looked for the name tag, even though she couldn’t read much of it. We were practicing, but she would definitely learn more once she started kindergarten, and we could focus on it daily.
“What does it say?” she asked, looking up at me. “It has different wrapping paper, so it has to be from Santa, right?”
I grinned, loving how Sam had had the idea to wrap it in a different wrapping paper than any of the other gifts. He insisted that anything from Santa needed that specific wrapping paper, then we would hide what was left so she didn’t see it.
“It says to Kennedy from Santa ,” I said, pointing to each word.
“Oh my gosh!” She covered her mouth with her hands and looked from the present to me, then back to the box.
“Well, go on and open it!” I encouraged as Sam sat in the recliner and recorded her on his phone.
I helped her as needed, tossing the box to the side once the dollhouse was fully unwrapped. She squealed and jumped up and down excitedly as she thanked Santa over and over. Her happiness made my heart full.
We moved the dollhouse to the side so we could continue opening presents, though we had to promise her that she’d have plenty of time to play with it before we went to lunch at Sam’s parent’s house. It was a busy day, and I felt a bit nervous to go to dinner with him tonight because it was at his friend’s bar, and I hadn’t had the time to really get to know anyone yet. Cassidy had asked if she could keep Kennedy for a few hours tonight while we went, and I knew it was more for Sam and me to have some alone time on Christmas than anything. But I appreciated it nonetheless.
The gifts were opened in record time, both Sam and I smiling the whole time as Kennedy continued to freak out over how amazing her presents were. Sam had gotten some stuff we hadn’t talked about, but I couldn’t be mad at how much he loved my daughter. This was just the beginning of a life filled with more love and happiness than I could have ever imagined.
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