95: Holly Jolly
Easton
“Come back here Luci Lou.” I chant menacingly as I wipe the whipped cream off my face.
I see Jackson squirt icing on Sydney’s forehead. She gets up and tries to escape him. He has her pinned into a corner as she laughs hysterically. He gets too confident though and she reveals her own hidden whipped cream can; getting him right in the face. She leaps off the floor and out the back door where I suspect Luci escaped to also.
I grab some paper towels and wet them, handing some to my twin. Dad laughs and we look
over to see him snapping pictures with his phone. He appears happy. We were all worried about him last night.
I walk out the door where I can see Barrett and Cole built a snowman but they’ve now started a snowball fight with Joel. Luci is helping the boys as Joel protests the numbers aren’t fair. Janet sits on the porch swing.
“You three make quite the family.” She remarks with a smile.
“You heard Cole call her Mommy.” I sit in the chair next to her.
“I did. I wondered when that might happen.”
“She says she’s ok with it.” That’s my biggest fear. That we overwhelm her.
“She is Easton. You can stop fretting about that. Luci’s fears and reticence always stem from worry over it hurting the other person. In this case it would be Cole. I heard what the toad threatened about custody. Luci has an extremely empathetic heart.”
“I know. I don’t want her to get overwhelmed.”
She turns her head to look at me. “You’re exactly what she needs. You’ll make sure she’s taken care of emotionally and mentally. She told me about Tamara. I hope it helps. I thought the psychologist was enough at the time. Of course, Brooklyn hadn’t tried to kill her yet.”
I turn my eyes back to the snowball fight. “I want her to have everything she can to fight with. To have complete faith in herself.”
Her hand squeezes my arm. “You’re doing an excellent job of it.”
“I’m going to help poor Joel, I think.” I run out and hear excited squeals.
“Daddy’s here. Hide Barrett.”
1/6
+8 Paints
95: Holly Jolly
“Great.” Luci laughs. She hurries to drag over a plastic playhouse and slide. “We’ll hide behind
those. Start making snowballs.”
We are hiding behind some thick bushes. Snowballs are flying our way. When I stand to toss one over their shields, I get hit right in the side of my neck. I turn and Luci stands there. She pelts me again before turning to run back to the boys.
“Sneaky.” I call out.
Joel laughs. “She got me earlier like that.”
“Start throwing them over. I’ll watch for her and we’ll get her.”
She sneaks out and I wait to allow her in closer. But right as I move into the open, I get hit with two snowballs. Cole and Barrett giggle as they run back. While I’m distracted, Luci runs back
too.
“Alright you three. It’s war.”
“You’ve been outsmarted by two rascals and a Luci.” Banning says as he joins us. Jackson and Kingston are with him. “Syd went to help Luci. We sent Becker to even out the odds.”
“We have more adults.” I start as he shakes his head.
“Those two are super sneaky snowball fighters. Trust me.” No sooner does he finish than a whole pile of them fall on our heads.
The girls laugh. “Too much talking.” Syd taunts us.
“We need to make a pile and then go around each side to pelt them.” Banning tells us.
By the time we finish, it’s gone quiet and we haven’t had snowballs being thrown over the bushes anymore. We break into two groups to surprise them. Banning jumps out “surprise” only to find them gone.
“Damn….” He mutters and then we hear them laugh as snowballs hit our backs.
“Catch the little ones.” I shout as I take off for Cole. He squeals and turns to run. I lift him over my shoulder. “Gotcha.” He laughs as I run toward Luci. She turns to take off but I’m faster. I snag her around her waist and lift her up too.
“Not fair. You said catch the little ones.” She protests laughing.
“You’re smaller than me. You qualify.” I joke and march them back.
“Hot chocolate by the fire everyone. Come get warm and dry.” Mrs. Isabelle calls out. “We’ll play charades.”
2/6
9 Paint
95: Holly Jolly
I set Cole down. “Coming Nanna.” He says happily. I can’t help but smile to hear that. He got a
real grandmother too this year.
Luci, I hold onto. “Umm fire, warmth…hot chocolate.” She says hopefully.
“Not yet. I have a snowball with your name on it.” I grab one and crumble it over her head as she laughs.
“I still won.” She fires at me.
“You did. Let me give you your prize.” I wrap my arms around her and take my time kissing her.
“That’s my prize?” She teases.
“It is. Mine would take a lot longer if I won. Let’s go thaw you out.” I grab her hand and we walk slowly toward the house. “This is fun. I see why you do this every year.”
“The holidays here are always fun. I need to stop by my apartment this afternoon. The rest of my gifts are there.”
“There’s no more room in Dad’s tank. We’ll run home and get my truck and then go back. Can Cole come or is there something he shouldn’t see?” I brush snow off her hat.
“No it’s all wrapped.”
We leave after Luci thoroughly hugs the entire Olmos family. “Gift exchange girls lunch the day after Christmas? Or dinner?” Syd asks her, stealing a second hug.
“Let’s see what works better for Stormi.” She sends a text on her phone. “Might have to bring
my shadow.”
I nod at her. She’s not going by herself.
“Tall dark and modelly?” Syd jokes.
“That one. Merry Christmas Syd.” I narrow my eyes at them talking about Vince.
“Merry Christmas Luci Lou. Your hockey player is eyeing you hard after your Vince comment.” Syd grins at me, but misses the way my brother glares at her.
“He knows Vince is married. Bye.” Luci winks at me as she pulls away from Syd and Cole holds his arms up for me to carry him.
“I not sleepy today.”
“All those cookies.” I tease as I tickle him.
We go back to her apartment and she packs more clothes and the remainder of the gifts. I
216
95: Holly Jolly
+9 Paint
glanced around it wondering when I can convince her to move in with me. Dad offered for her to do it now. My brothers and I agreed we shouldn’t leave him right now.
Cole skips his nap in all the excitement of the day which means he’s half falling asleep over dinner. “Come on Coco. Quick bath and you can sleep.”
“Wait, milk and cookies for Santa. I can’t forget. And I need to tell Firetail goodnight.” He perks up. I help him get it ready after opening the freezer door.
“Six cookies is probably too many.” I gently tell him.
“But Daddy, he has reindeer. And Mason at school says that Santa runs on sugar especially on
Christmas Eve.” Cole insists.
“Yeah he definitely needs it to be up all night.” Becker agrees innocently. “How many reindeer
does Santa have? Like twelve?”
“Eight Uncle Becker.” Cole corrects him very seriously.
“So like ten cookies.” He nods seriously with Cole.
I glare at my brother. It wouldn’t be a big deal if I could just put them back later. Cole’s observant though so he’ll notice. Or I’ll make him eat them.
“What if you leave some carrots or apples for the reindeer? Then like two cookies for Santa
with a note that there are more in the kitchen.” Luci suggests.
“Ooh that’s a good idea. Will you write that for me?”
“Yep and you can sign your name.” Luci grabs the paper while he chooses the two cookies. He writes his name with her help. We take the milk and cookies into the living room and leave them with his note. Luci follows with two carrots. I hurry him off for his bath after he hugs all
Dad and his uncles goodnight.
He sings Jingle Bells during his bath before we tuck him into bed.
“Come get us when you wake up and your clock is green ok?” I remind him and he nods.
“Dream about Firetail delivering ice cubes with his friend Icicle Spark. They travel through Freezeria to Tealand and fill up glasses there.”
“And then they use snowmen to deliver the tea glasses.” He adds on.
“Yep on ice sleighs.” I throw in.
“Daddy helped.” He says as his eyes close. “Wuv youuu.” He mumbles.
4/6
95: Holly Jolly
We kiss him goodnight and I lead her to the other guest bedroom where I kept his presents.
Dad and I put his bike together last night with my brothers doing their version of supervising.
We carry it to the living room.
“This is the first year he’ll probably notice what presents are from us versus Santa.” She says nothing in reply to me. I debated doing Santa at all with Cole. My mild Santa aversion is because I dislike him getting all the glory over the parents. I’m pretty certain Luci dislikes
Santa completely.
“I was thinking before about letting him get two gifts from Santa and the rest are from us. Stockings too since that’s what Cole thinks.” I reach for her hand. “What do you want to do
Luci?”
“I…um that sounds like you decided.” She looks over at the tree all lit decorate ours with Cole. She wasn’t here for that.
- up.
Next year
we’ll
“I decided as a single parent a while back. I’m not anymore. I need Cole’s mom to make that decision with me. What do you want to do for our Coconut, Luci?”
“I like your idea. I don’t think they should be his top two gifts. One should be in the top three and then something small.” Her cheeks turn pink.
“Even better. Here, this is the stuff for his stocking.” I hand her the small bag and watch her fill his stocking. It doesn’t take long to set his presents out. I didn’t go overboard. He’s got his new bike since he outgrew his. That’s from Santa along with a Spider–Man action figure. My brothers each got him another superhero action figure. I add the talking Darth Vader mask, the Lego set he asked for, hockey helmet and his jersey.
I wrap my arms around Luci as she looks it all over. “Do you like Christmas sweetness?” I ask
her softly.
“Mostly. There are parts of it I don’t. Santa isn’t my favorite Easton. He’s magic for Cole though.” She admits.
“I’m not big on him. We can phase him out if you want.” I offer.
“Let’s not worry about that tonight. I haven’t spent Christmas morning with others in a while. What happens here?”
I wrap her up tighter wishing she hadn’t been alone the last few years. “This year will be very different. Mother always did things a certain way. Very organized. But we talked about how we’d like to do things last night. Cole will wake us up. We come find his presents and eat breakfast in here while he plays. Then we’ll take turns opening gifts. Big lunch around one.”
5/6
95: Holly Jolly
“I like that. I’m glad I’m here.” She whispers.
“Me too sweet Luci. Our first Christmas…you won’t be alone again for one.”
14
Ivory Row
I’ll put a picture of what their shirt would look like up tomorrow morning. Get your tissues out for the next chapters. This is your warning for what’s coming tomorrow. Christmas morning…….Coco and his stuffies…..
