Hell's Coming with Me

Interlude: Christmas on the Ranch

Interlude: Christmas on the Ranch

Another way I differed greatly from some members of my family was after Thanksgiving. When December 1st, dawned bright and early, it found me full of energy. I was humming Christmas carols at six am while I started the coffee pot and started to make plans.

Beth detested the holiday. She did everything she could to avoid the holidays, avoid decorating. Beth only came home on December 23rd because it was commanded of her by my father. She used to try to make excuses to stay away, but my father never bended his views on spending Christmas together.

However, that didn't mean that my father enjoyed decorating or planning for the holidays. That usually fell on me. Well Lee and I used to split the tasks between us, and when Kayce was younger could usually rope him into it as well. But this was the first year that Lee was dead. That meant that no one was feeling very Christmasy, but I needed to keep up traditions.

"Morning, Lily," Gator greeted me when he came into the kitchen around six-thirty.

"Morning Gator," I didn't bother to look up from my paper.

"Want anything to eat?" Gator asked, as I took a sip from my coffee. I was contemplating which tasks needed to be completed first. Decorations definitely needed to be done first.

"Sure," I said absently. He chuckled and started to get the ingredients for his breakfast out of the refrigerator and the cupboards.

By the time that Gator slid a plate of warm food across the island, I had managed to flesh out a manageable list. I had most of the tasks delegated across multiple days. The tasks that would require an assisting hand, I would have to tell Rip. He would need to loan out a few of his Wranglers to assist me in the decorating process and also the Christmas tree cutting.

Once I was finished with breakfast, I went upstairs to get dressed for the day. I pulled on a pair of jeans, a red sweater, and my cowboy boots before I left my bedroom. I pulled my hair up into a messy bun as I thundered down the stairs. Daddy stopped and stared from the dining room entrance.

"Hey Daddy!" I called out cheerfully, skipping to his side and leaning up to press a kiss to his cheek.

"What are you doing, sweetheart?" Daddy asked, raising an eyebrow at my exuberance this morning.

"Christmas Daddy," I shot him a stern look. He laughed and shooed me out of the door. He knew if he didn't let me go do it, then I would rope him into the decorating process.

I spent my morning running around the property, making a list of what we would need to decorate. Then I tried to mentally run through what type of decorations we had, and wondering if I needed to purchase any more. . . But that wouldn't be determined until I managed to gather all the decorations.

Therefore, that meant I needed to stop in at the bunkhouse. The decorations were housed in the attic space above the bunkhouse. All of the decorations. I didn't have the ability to put up the Halloween decorations this year since it was too close to the death of my brother, but I needed to do this.

When I went into the bunkhouse, I found it in absolute disarray. I shook my head and turned on the radio to the channel playing the Christmas carols. I let the sounds of "White Christmas" echo through the empty bunkhouse as I started to clean up the bunkhouse.

I grabbed the empty bottle of beer off the table and threw them into a garbage can. Then I started on the kitchen counters. Once I was finished with picking up the beer bottles, I started on the dishes. I wiped the counters, the stove, and the kitchen table.