Our First First Christmas

3- Ice Breakers

It's cold the next morning.

I wake up on the couch alone. Nick is long gone, the blanket tucked around me snug like a burrito. I hear voices echoing out from the kitchen, one male and one female, and since Nick is the only male in the house, I know it's him immediately. Unless Lia decided to bring a guy home, which I seriously doubt. The scent of something absolutely delicious baking fills the house as I struggle out of my burrito and fling it over my shoulders. When I turn the corner into the kitchen Lia and Nick both look up at my appearance. I take a seat at the peninsula.

"Good morning," Nick smiles shyly at me, eyeing the familiar blanket around my shoulders, "cinnamon roll?"

"Oh, yes please! I knew I smelled something good."

"Were you warm enough last night?"

I tighten the blanket around me. "You radiate more body heat than humanly possible and you're still always cold. Make it make sense." I watch as Nick pours extra icing on mine just how I like it. "You've been in the kitchen an awfully long amount of time since I got back, is Irene punishing you for something?"

He shakes his head, but before he can respond Lia cuts in with an exasperated sigh. "You guys finally made up? It took you longer than I thought it would. Thank god."

I nod with a small "I think so," as Nick silently hands me a cinnamon roll. I give him a grateful smile and take it from him, the icing instantly making my fingers sticky. "Can I have a napkin, please?"

Nick rips me off a paper towel from the roll on the counter. "Here," he takes the cinnamon roll from my fingers and puts it on the paper towel before giving it back to me. He brings his index finger and thumb up to his lips, licking the sticky white icing off his fingertips. "You're coming with us to the park, right? You'd better hurry up and get dressed. We're leaving right after your mom comes back from work."

❆  ❆  ❆

It's after lunch by the time I'm being squished into the car like the good old days, our two moms in the front and three kids in the back. The neighborhood park is only a couple of blocks away, so we arrive in a matter of minutes. It's crowded already, cars lined along the sides of the gravel road that lead into the park. I begin to grow excited as I look out the car window at all the white tents camouflaged against the snow. I forgot how much I enjoyed this event every year- how there had been nothing quite like it in New York. Even though the events in the big city were bright and crowded, none of them could beat the event our neighborhood holds every Christmas Eve.

I'm opening the door before his mother even has the car in park. Nick is right behind me, grabbing my hand to stop me from running ahead like a little kid. "Vendors first, Cass?"

The neighborhood holds the event, but people from the surrounding towns come and join in on the fun. Our small park is actually quite crowded this year. Under the tents small business owners set up shop for the day, each one selling their own unique Christmas product. I love going from tent to tent and admiring all the detail and hard work they put into doing something they love. Christmas scented soaps and candles, beautifully decorated Christmas cookies, and my favorite, the hand-crafted ornaments.

Ever since I was little everyone called me an "old soul". While Nick always roughed around and acted like a little boy (a personality which he has yet to grow out of), I was the opposite. I enjoyed walks, puzzles, old TV shows. Of course, Nick and I would find middle grounds to play. Our parents were hardly ever around, what with both our fathers out of the picture at an early age and our mothers absorbed in anything but their families, so we usually only had each other for company. Card games like War and shows like Tom and Jerry were always our favorite. As we got older, we compromised, happy to sit through a sports game or wander through boring old lady tents like today just as long as we were together.