- Christmas 2020 -
"What the hell is going on?" Alex asks surprised as he walks into the loft after a long day of work. With Christmas coming up he doubled his hours so he is free for the holidays this year. This Christmas is their first as a family of four and he wouldn't want to miss it for anything in the world.
All those years before he met Jo, he didn't give a crap about Christmas - it only reminded him of awful, disappointing days filled with violence, screaming and hiding; once the holidays started and his dad wasn't at work their days became nightmares. Instead of presents they got a drunk dad and a crazy mom for Christmas.
His holidays spent in foster families weren't any better.
So when he moved to Seattle he just skipped the holidays and worked through them.
But then he met Jo and suddenly he had someone to be grateful for and to celebrate this special time with. Sure, the first few years she was still a resident, which means she had to work on almost every Christmas, but as soon as she got home they celebrated together - watched Christmas movies on TV, ordered pizza, had some beer and exchanged presents.
But this Christmas is different. It is their first as parents and even though the twins are still way too little to get what is going on, Jo wants it to be special for them and he secretly wants that too.
"I got us a tree. And now we are decorating." Jo smirks as she puts another ornament on the crappy, little tree she put up next to the TV.
"I think even decorating won't help here. It looks kind of dead." Alex comments as he takes his coat and shoes of and walks over to his wife.
"Shut up. It's cute." She snaps followed by a laugh, slapping his hand as he goes to touch the tree.
"Sure." Alex answers shortly, turning to his babies in their swings. "What did you do to them? Are they drunk?" He questions, lifting up his baby girl, inhaling her sweet scent as he blows raspberries on her little cheek.
"Well, as you can see they are trying on their new Christmas outfits and no, they just like staring at the lights like little weirdos." Jo jokes, handing him an ornament. "Here put that up."
"What is this?" He asks, trying to read what the ornament says.
"It's your ornament" He takes it from her with one hand and puts it in one of the branches before he reads it - 'First Christmas as a Dad'.
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- Christmas 2024 -
"Parker! Over here!" Their four year old shouts from behind the little snow fort they built this morning. They are currently having a snowball fight against their dad, which it looks like they will win. Like the little villains they are, they slowly surround Alex in his hiding space behind the tree, each of them armed with two big snowballs to throw at their dad. He's totally outnumbered and as much as Jo would like to help him, the little four months old that finally fell asleep on her chest is a good excuse not to. Instead, she sits by the window watching her other three playing outside in the snow.
She would have never dreamed that her life would look like this one day. Back when she was little Christmas was the worst. She never really believed in it. Sure a few of her foster parents tried to make it magical but other foster parents didn't give a crap at all. She remembers this one family that didn't even bother to put a tree or a little decoration up. They even tried to convince the kids that it was November not December, so they didn't have to waste money on presents. That was the time Jo lost all hope in Christmas and Santa.
When she was living in her car she had other problems then getting herself into Christmas spirit and during med school she used the holidays to learn for upcoming tests.
With Paul she, for the first time, got the feeling what Christmas could be like, but after they got married and he started to hurt her, she lost all hope again.
Then she meet Alex and even just sitting on the couch together watching crappy Christmas movies and eating pizza felt more like Christmas than any Christmas before did.
And now she's here, watching her husband and kids playing outside in the snow, giggling and screaming, having a blast, running around in way to big, gender neutral, hand knitted hats that their grandma made them. She herself sitting inside of their fully decorated house by the fireplace, patting their four month old's butt while she's sleeps contently on her moms chest. It sounds cheesy but this year Jo had not a single wish on her wishlist because she has everything she ever wanted.
