Love At The North Pole

Chapter Sixteen: Christmas is Ruined

"Good morning fellow elves of the North Pole. It's 7:00 am and time to wake up and make some toys. The weather today is--"

I sleepily hushed the alarm clock beside our bed and let my arm hang down off the side of the bed while closing my eyes and going back to sleep.

"We have to get up, honey," Bernard's morning voice said and I felt his arms wrap around my waist from behind.

I whined and adjusted my head on my pillow, not wanting to face another dreadful day with the plastic nightmare.

"I'll make you a hot cocoa," Bernard said quietly before kissing my cheek and getting out of bed.

I heard his footsteps go down the stairs, Holly's little morning coos meant he had grabbed her from her crib on his way down the hallway.

I scoffed to myself and finally sat up in my bed, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes before I stood up and made my way downstairs to the kitchen where the rest of my little family were sitting eating breakfast.

"Good morning, honey," Bernard smiled while sliding my cocoa over to my open chair.

I smiled and placed a kiss on my baby's head before taking a seat at the table to drink my cocoa. "Good morning."

"How do you think today's going to go?" He asks while spooning a bite of baby food into Holly's mouth.

"Well, I don't know. Judging from yesterday's events, I think we're in for a long day today with all of these 'changes' he wants to make. I honestly think we should just lock him up until my dad comes back," I shrug, taking a sip of the hot liquid.

Bernard laughed and wiped Holly's mouth before looking at my totally serious face. "Wait, you're not joking."

"Why would I joke? This plastic maniac wants to change everything in the North Pole and ruin Christmas for every kid in the world," I explain, growing more upset with each word.

"Honey, honey, I understand. But we need to just stick it out until Santa gets back. The elves would be worried and ask questions and I just feel like it's already enough trying to watch him right now. It's almost over though... I promise," he smiled and set down Holly's food on the table.

She vocalized her emotions by letting out an impatient screech as her dad stood up to give me attention and not her.

"Oh, my mistletoe. Who are you today bossing your dad around? That's my job, missy," I giggled while tapping on her little cheeks and watching her little hand come up to push mine away. "She's sassy today, babe. I know who she's going with today."

"You," we both said at the same time causing us both to laugh and lean into each other to meet in a kiss.

"I love you, B," I smiled and looked at my husband with his nest of bouncy dark curls in a mess from sleeping.

"I love you too, Claire bear," he said before attacking me with kisses all over my face.

As I laughed and jokingly tried to push him away, Holly thought of it as a little game and started screeching and slapping her high chair causing Bernard to break out into laughter against my skin, slobber spraying all over my face from his mouth.

"Bernard!" I drug out in disgust while pushing him away and wiping my face against his shirt to get it off. "That's gross."

"I'm sorry, babe. It was an accident," he laughed, struggling to get the words out as he wiped the tears running down his face.

"Time for work," I shook my head and grabbed Holly to go take a quick shower and prepare for our long day.

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