Another Life

39

"Whats about these one?"

"Jay, this tree is way too big."

"What? No it's not, it fits perfect."

"Yes it fits upright but width-wise. The box is empty and it still looks bare."

"No it's not, there's still a couple in the bottom."

"A couple is not going to cover the six-hundred branches left without a decoration."

"Okay, six-hundred is a very big over exaggeration."

"What about these one?"

I look over my shoulder from Jay to see the tiny hand decoration Macie was holding up. It was the one she had made at preschool last holidays and seeing the difference in size of the two hands - the paper one and the real ones holding it - in just over a year made me grin.

I point to the tree. "Yeah, Mae, that one goes on there."

Macie nods and puts the decoration on the tree, on the same branch she had put three of her other ones on before glancing up at me with a wide smile for a beat, and then her hands return into the box.

The sound of the box tipping over from behind and it makes me turn, where I catch Alfie digging through the remainder of the ornaments now rolled out on the floor. I call on his name and he giggles, stuffing what was in his hand into his mouth. I quickly kneel down and take the small ball out. "Oh no, baby we don't put those in our mouths, it's yucky."

I give the decoration a wipe and stand back up to put it on the tree, and then I hear the one of a kind noise. Before I can turn around, Jay is calling out Alfie's name and the giggle becomes a laugh. Jay grabs the second decoration from Alfie's mouth, looking up to me with a shake of his head and as a way of hiding his smile away from the nine-month-old.

*************

Every year, Navy Pier do a big firework show on New Years Eve and at this point it was just tradition to go as a unit. A few years ago we would have brought cases of alcohol and got drunk as much as the next person, but because Kim, Jay and I would be bringing kids and after the killer hangover of November 1st, we had said to limit it to a few beers per person.

Knowing we'd be out for hours, I wrapped the kids up before we left. It was eight by the time we started getting shoes on and as we were doing that Macie started peeling off her layers in the middle of the hall.

When her hat came off her head, Jay took it from her grasp and put it back. "You need that on, it's gonna be cold."

"It's not cold." Mae argues, trying to un-zip her coat.

Jay nods, squatting down to zip it back up again. "Not in here it's not, but we're gonna be outside for a very long time and it's gonna keep getting darker, so you need to keep this on."

I look over my shoulder to Jay. "Have you got enough layers on?"

He shrugs. "I'll be fine. Have we got the blankets for the kids?"

"They're in the car." I reply, fixing Alfie's hat to his head.

He nods again, patting his coat pocket looking for his keys and when they jingle he moves his hands away, putting them on Macie's hat to rest it back on her head. "Mace, stop taking things off please, you will get cold."

I understood why she was wanting to take it off, I had wrapped her up in a vest, short-sleeve, long-sleeve, jacket, coat, two pairs of pants, multiple pairs of socks, as well as her gloves, scarf and hat, and with the warmth of the house she must have been boiling under it all, but I knew she'd get cold otherwise and then complain through the whole thing, and we still had a good few hours until midnight yet.