“Because, Caden, it’s fun,” Emma replies with a huge grin on her face.
“Darling, I love you and I love our kids, but this staying up till three am on Christmas Eve wrapping Santa’s presents is just wrong. We never got our presents from Santa wrapped, and if I remember correctly, you didn’t either.” She fucking ropes me into this every year, and like a pussy-whipped boy, I do it. Why do I do it? I look over at my beautiful wife of ten years, and the smile on her face as she hums Christmas carols is all the reason I need. She has enough Christmas spirit for the both of us and then some.
“You’re right. We just had a frenzied, free-for-all Christmas morning, which isn’t so bad when you’re the only kid. But we have the twins and little Jason, and there needs to be some semblance of organization now.”
Jason just turned four, and I’m not really sure any of them care about organization.
I give her a sideways glance. “Really, Emma? Christmas wrap flying all over the place is organized, not to mention the Nerf guns you put in their stockings. Between the wrapping paper and the shooting Nerf darts, I don’t see any organization there.”
She laughs. “But admit it. You love every minute of it!”
I roll my eyes. Hobbes is lying at her feet, and as I go to grab the roll of wrapping paper I intend to use, he rolls over onto it. Damned dog. I laugh to myself. I really do love that dog. He’s getting old now, and I have to say, it’s hard to watch him age. I remember when he turned seven and Emma was devastated. When I asked her why she was so unhappy, she cried and said, “’Cause he is now considered a senior dog. We’ll be lucky if we get two or three more years with him.”
Well, it’s been three years, and we’ve been damn lucky. I have no idea how much longer we have, but I can assure you we’ll cherish every minute with him. He is definitely a member of this family.
I walk to her, wrap my arms around her from behind, and softly kiss her on the neck. “Baby, it doesn’t have to be our chaotic Christmas. I love every minute I have with you and our family. I wouldn’t trade this life for anything.”
She looks up at me as I lean down to kiss her. We continue our wrapping, and as Emma places the last piece of tape on the last package, we hear whispering on the stairs.
I look at my watch. “Fuck, they can’t be awake already,” I whisper.
“They are. Come on. We’ve gotta hide.” She pulls my arm and runs, tugging me behind her as she heads toward the basement stairs. Hobbes looks up and watches us, moans and lies his head back down. Emma pushes me into the stairwell; she follows and closes the door behind her, leaving it slightly open so we can watch the kids.
“Holy shit! Look at all these presents, Cadi!” Aiden exclaims in an excited whisper. Aiden is the oldest to his twin sister Cadi by three minutes, which he never misses an opportunity to remind her about. We should have never told him he was the oldest.
“You shouldn’t swear, Aiden.”
“Why? Dad does it all the time.”
“And if dad jumps off the Brooklyn Bridge, does it mean you should jump too?” She admonishes him, and Emma and I try to contain our laughter.
“Of course I’d jump in after him, ’cause he’d need me to save him.”
Cadi rolls her eyes. “You’re so full of it, Aiden. Dad is invincible! He’d be saving your ass ten times over!”
I’ve always been Cadi’s hero, and sometimes it’s hard to live up to her expectations of me, but I do the best I can. After all, she’s my princess.
“Ah-hah! You just sweared too.” He is trying to look at all the packages. “Besides, you’re just saying that ’cause you’re daddy’s little princess.”
I giggle. Like I said…
“Of course I am, but that doesn’t alter my opinion of him.” She rolls her eyes and says, “It’s swore, moron. There is no such word as sweared.”
“Well, you can save Dad, but I’m gonna take his place as prez when he retires!” Aiden says proudly, puffing his chest out.
His words make me proud too, but then I look at Emma and see the worried look in her eyes. She has fully accepted my role in the club, but I don’t think she can wrap her head around Aiden’s.
I shrug my shoulders and whisper, “His mind will change. No need to worry about that now.”
She nods and leans into me.
We look back through the crack in the door and see Cadi looking around the room. “Aren’t you the least bit concerned where Mom and Dad are?” she asks. “They weren’t in their room, and now they aren’t down here.”
“Hell no! We’ve got a shit ton of presents to open. I think we should start now and get a jump on it.”
“No! You know the rules. We don’t open anything until the whole family is downstairs.”
“I suppose we’re gonna have to wait for Aunt Ari, Uncle Rebel, Aunt Honey, and Uncle Sainte too.” He whines and looks so disappointed. I believe he really thought he was going to get to start opening early.
