Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 77904 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77904 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
That was an understatement. Our attic was a treasure trove of holiday memories, and I cherished each one. They each held a story, a piece of our history, and I loved revisiting the memories with the kids. When Samantha found the box of glass ornaments, she gasped, “I found my snowman!”
“Great.” I stepped over and glanced into the box, making sure it was the right one. “Carry that one downstairs and put it on the table.”
“Okay, but what about the box with the fairies?”
“Um, that one’s at your father’s, remember?”
“Oh, man,” she pouted. “Why did he have to get those?”
“I don’t know, honey.” I was just as disappointed as she was. I could still remember the day Mom and I bought them at a little shop in the mountains. I loved them, and when I couldn’t find them last Christmas, I searched high and low for them—until I came across a picture of the kids on Chad’s Facebook and spotted them on Chad’s tree. I feigned a smile as I told her, “I’m sure he just wanted his tree to be special and remind you of home.”
“Well, it doesn’t. It just reminds me that he took something that didn’t belong to him.” She rolled her eyes and started downstairs. “I’m gonna get them back.”
“Just leave it, Samantha. We’ll get some more later.”
“They won’t be the same!”
I would’ve continued arguing with her, but she was already downstairs, and there was still so much that needed to be done. Nathan was pilfering around in some of his old sports boxes, so I asked, “Can you help me with the tree?”
“Yeah, just a sec.” He kept digging, then whipped out an old baseball glove that was at least two sizes too small. “I was wondering where this was!”
“I was saving it for you.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. I thought you could give it to your son or daughter one day.”
“They are not gonna want my dirty, old glove.”
“Well, I’m keeping it all the same.” I grabbed the end of the tree as I asked, “Now, are you gonna help me or not?”
“I’m coming!”
He rushed over and grabbed the other end of the tree, and together, we managed to get it down my death-trap set of stairs. We set it up in the corner of the living room, and the entire room lit up when we plugged in the lights. Samantha was beaming as she gasped, “Oh, Momma. It’s already pretty.”
“Well, it will look even better when we get the ornaments on it.”
“I’ll go grab the other boxes,” Nathan offered.
“I’ll come help.”
In no time, we had the rest of the totes down from the attic and circled them around the tree. The air tingled with anticipation as we started putting various ornaments on the tree, and it wasn’t long before we had a real masterpiece on our hands. I stood back and smiled as I told them, “Oh, my. It looks even better than it did last year.”
“Yeah, it looks pretty good.” Nathan took a step back, appraising it from a distance. “So, now what? Are we gonna put out the rest of the stuff?”
“I’ll do it. You guys can go do your own thing and...”
“No,” Samantha fussed. “I wanna help.”
“I don’t mind helping.” Nathan gave me a look. “As long as we can order pizza or some Chinese for dinner.”
“I think we can manage that.”
“Awesome.”
We dove back into the boxes and collected the rest of the decorations. It took us a bit to figure out where to put all the Santas and snowmen, but after some careful consideration, we found the perfect spots. I hung garland across my mantel and doorways, and with a little help from Nathan, I strung lights from the ceiling as you headed down the hall to the kids’ rooms, making it look like a Christmas tunnel.
The kids loved it all, and while it had been fun, they were quickly growing tired and hungry. “Are you guys ready for me to order dinner?”
“Yes!” they both cheered.
“Pizza?”
“I want pepperoni!” Nathan answered.
“And I want cheese!” Samantha called out as she headed to her room. “With extra cheese!”
“Okay, I’m ordering now... And just a heads up. Ronin is going to come by and eat with us.”
“Then, you better order two pepperonis because last time, he ate most of mine.”
“He does have a habit of that, doesn’t he?” I chuckled.
“Yeah, he does. And not just my pizza. He eats all the good snacks, too.”
“I’ll be sure to order extra pizza, and I’ll do the same with the snacks.”
“Thanks, Mom.”
He slipped off to his room, and I placed our order for pizza. Within an hour, Ronin was there, and we were all sitting at the table eating pizza. The kids were talking about all the snow we’d gotten and the snow we were expected to get overnight, and before I could stop him, Ronin was telling them all about the night he took me sledding.