Baby, It's Cold Outside

White Christmas

I've been shopping for five hours now. Crazy, I know. I had woken up early this morning and got ready for a day of craziness. I left a note before leaving, explaining where I was and not to worry. Gran had called when she woke up to ask me to pick up groceries for Christmas dinner and a few things for the café and then Grace had called and asked if I could pick up a few things for her. So, here I am, five hours later, finally checking out. I bought everyone presents, I got everything gran and Grace needed, I bought super cute cookie cutters, a few gingerbread houses, and I picked up a bunch of stuff to put into baggies to hand out to the homeless shelter.

That's another tradition we have. Every year, we volunteer at the homeless shelter and fix a big dinner for them and hand out baggies and small gifts. It's so worth it, especially when you see their eyes light up.

I drove to Grace's house to drop off the things she needed before heading home. Grace is at the café, but Ben and the kids are home.

When I got home, I carried everything for gran and the café in, leaving the presents in the car until later, when there would be no prying eyes.

"Jessica! Here, let me help you." Grace ran over to me and I gave her the bags for the café while I took the bags for gran upstairs and put everything away.

After I finished putting everything away, I went back downstairs and started helping Grace with stuff. We made fresh coffee, hot chocolate and cappuccinos, we baked cookies, brownies and pies and then we made a few of our famous little sandwiches before we set everything out and decorated some of them.

***

A few hours later, while we were serving a couple of our customers, gran and grandpa came in with a lot of bags and hurriedly went upstairs. Grace and I looked at each other and laughed.

While we were in the kitchen, Ben and the kids came in, "Man, it is coming down out there." Ben shook the snow off of him and the kids before sending them upstairs and then walking to the back where we were.

"Well, the weatherman did say we were going to be getting a blizzard, sweetheart." Grace smiled and kissed him before turning back to baking.

"I know, but I was hoping he was wrong.." Ben said, smiling back.

"Here Ben, you can take my spot. I'm gonna go keep an eye on the front." I smiled and walked out of the kitchen.

***

An hour before closing, we get one more customer. It's a young man, looks to be around my age, maybe a little older. He's quite handsome, honestly. Snap out of it, Jessica!

"Hi! Welcome to Family Sweets! What can I get for you?" I asked, smiling.

"Can I get a cheeseburger with onion rings, and a bottle of water for here?" He looked back at me after looking at our small menu.

"Of course. That'll be $5.50 please." Ben came out and grabbed his order receipt before going to fix it. "It'll be a few minutes if you want to go find a seat, and then I'll bring it to you." I smiled as I gave him his change.

He nodded and went to find a seat. I glanced outside and saw the snow wasn't letting up and decided I should probably go get the presents out of my car before I can't even get outside.