Snowblood

Chapter 10: So This Is Christmas

There was no right or wrong way to celebrate Christmas, Kari knew that. For the first twelve years of her life, they'd had a big ham dinner on Christmas Eve with Nana and Pop-pop, because her grandparents  had to drive to Delaware the next day to celebrate with Aunt Rida (the Karida of her generation) and her family. The next morning, it was fried ham with sticky buns, then ham sandwiches for lunch, and finally they went over to Aunt Alison and Aunt Maggie's to round out the day.

Now that she was living at Aunt Alison and Aunt Maggie's, they went to church on Christmas Eve and had waffles and sausage in the morning, then made a big turkey dinner for mid afternoon. After everyone recovered from their turkey comas, they had an informal open house for whoever wanted to drop by. It wasn't wrong, it was just different. This year she'd helped by making dessert, a yule log cake like her mom used to make. It was a thin, light sponge cake that you spread with filling and then rolled up and frosted to look like a log, and everybody had loved it. She was fine up until people started arriving in the evening, because that was when she and her family would have come by.

So she retreated to her room with Boo, rather than let her bad mood spoil Christmas for anybody else. Even if Drew was alive and Mom was okay, it still wouldn't be the same. Pop-pop died and Nana moved to Florida, got a rejuvenation, and she's having fun down there. So feeling like this is stupid.

Knowing that didn't help.

Someone knocked on the door. "Kari, honey?" It was Aunt Maggie.

"I'm here," she said. "Boo...was getting overstimulated with all the people, so I brought him in here." Boo was, in fact, curled up sound asleep on the bed, as she'd given him an extra mouse in the hopes he wouldn't beg at the table.

"That was a good idea. Can I come in?" she asked.

"Sure, if you want." Kari shrugged.

Her aunt Maggie slipped into the room. Her hair was a soft, dark cloud around her face and shoulders. "The rest of your cake is all gone," she told Kari. "It was a huge success and there are three requests for the recipe. How are you doing?"

"Okay," she shrugged again. "You know."

"Yes, I do.We all pretend the holidays are nothing but joy and fun, but they're not.  They're a lot of work and a lot of stress,  and more so for some of us than others." Her aunt sat down on the foot of her bed.  "By the way, later you should let Peridot know that when you said you didn't want another mother, you only meant you didn't want another parent, and you weren't putting down two mommy families."

It took her a moment to remember that she had said something like that to Peri a couple of weeks back.  "Oh! I'm sorry, I never meant it like that--."

"It's okay.  We know you didn't, but Peridot is only five and needs some things explained to her.  Doctor Kuwano is also one of her favorite doctors, so she doesn't understand what you have against her.  For that matter, I don't understand why your hackles raise up whenever someone mentions her.  Your dad's a grown man.  You must have considered the possibility that he would meet someone new.  Even if they weren't divorced, with your mom the way she is now, I don't think it would be healthy for either of them to...try and live together like a married couple any more."

"I know," Kari groaned. "She's like, Peridot's age now, mentally.  It's that...he's not here.  If he was, even if he brought Dr. Kuwano, it would mean he was still....part of us, our whole family.  But he isn't."

Aunt Maggie sighed. "You made it very clear you didn't want him here last Christmas, you snarled at him when he called you on your birthday, and if you called him or sent him a card on his, I never heard about it.  You do realize you're living here with his permission, and that he sends us money every month to cover your living expenses?  We didn't even have to take him to court.  He does it voluntarily.  He puts money in your college fund, too."