All My Christmases

1990

"Mom, do I have to?" Chris whined as he watched his mother Lisa, spin frantically around the kitchen, placing several homemade Christmas sugar cookies into a decorative tin. "I don't want to meet those people!" He whined, knowing full well what was about to happen. His mother always found herself being the head of her own personal welcome committee. Most of the time it wasn't the worst thing in the world, walk down the street, meet the new people, and come home. However, today was an exception, and having to go meet these new people was the last thing that he wanted to do.

"Christopher! I am sorry your friend moved away, but we have new neighbors now. You are coming with me to take these down the street," his mother said as she grabbed her winter coat and threw it on. "Now, quit complaining and put on your jacket." She motioned towards his winter coat that he had thrown over the back of the kitchen chair. No one could have paid him to put it on and walk out the door.

"Yea Chris, quit complaining, besides I think I saw a girl outside yesterday! Maybe she can be your girlfriend!" His older sister Carly teased as she helped to zip up the coat of her younger sister.

"I'm going to kill you!" Chris said as he grabbed his sister's hat off her head and ran away, his mother grabbing it from his hands on his way out of the kitchen. "Girls are disgusting! I hate Carly!" He stood with his arms crossed, even more mad at the situation. Not only did he lose a friend, but he was replaced by a girl.

"Christopher Robert Evans!" Lisa yelled, causing his baby sister to cry. "Oh my God, Merry freaking Christmas! I swear, just you wait until your father gets home! Get back in this kitchen this instant young man!"

Chris's shoulders slumped as he silently walked back into the kitchen and begrudgingly shoved his arms through the sleeves of his jacket. Not only had one of his best friends in his neighborhood had moved away, but did so right before Christmas break, when they had planned to spend most of the time together. But now, his plans were ruined, and he already hated the new people who had moved into his house, even if he hadn't met them.

The Massachusetts winter nipped at Chris's face the second he opened the front door of his house and navigated the snow-covered front path down to the sidewalk. The crisp white snow crunched under his shoes as he made the same walk to the house that had been a second home for the last 5 years. He walked down the middle of the snow-covered street, not worried about cars coming down the skinny road of his sleepy neighborhood. He walked up the rounded front drive of the house he used to freely walk in most days after school and on the weekends, but this time he was forced to stop and knock. This time when the door opened, he didn't recognize the face staring back at him. A bright blue-eyed brunette stood in the door as she yelled for her mom and let Chris and his family inside.

The house looked the same, yet wrong at the same time. The decorations were all off and the furniture was in all the wrong places. His friend's dog no longer ran up to greet them but instead a chunky black nosed at Chris's pant leg as it tried to weave its fat body between them.

The brunette's mother escorted the family into the kitchen while introducing herself as Susan and her daughter as Charlotte. "Char, why don't you and the kids go down to the basement to play?" Her mom suggested as she pulled out a kitchen chair for Lisa to sit at. Charlotte silently moved towards the basement door, opened it, and walked down the stairs. The Evans siblings all followed in a similar fashion, leaving their mom upstairs to make friends with the new neighbor.

Charlotte sat down on the couch that was set up across from a large television, with random boxes and toys sprawled out across the floor.

"Don't you talk?" Chris asked harshly as he took off his jacket and tossed it over the arm of the couch.