Underneath The Tree: A Buckingham Nicks Christmas

Knocked Me Right Off My Feet

Santa Monica, California
Christmas Eve
Saturday, December 24, 2022
(11:45 pm)
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Aaron Buckingham had been hearing all his life that he was the spitting image of his father.

He had never exactly loved those comments, wondering if people saw Aaron Morris Buckingham or "Little Linds" - his mother's nickname for him as a child. He, too, played the guitar, electing to teach music in the inner city to kids in public school instead of pursuing a career as a musician. Like his parents he was a staunch liberal, and he was happier when people commented on his thinking like his father, whom he idolized, instead of looking like him. He could not, however, deny the resemblance. He looked just as much like Lindsey Buckingham as his niece Stephanie was growing up to look like Stevie Nicks.

He stood in the corner of the dining room where the bar had been set up, talking to his brother-in-law Jason about Joe Biden's flaws in handling the turmoil in Afghanistan, his other brother-in-law approaching them with a Heineken in his hand and joining in, as worked up about Vladimir Putin and Ukraine as Stevie - who hollered at CNN daily - had been from the beginning of the invasion.

Julia, Sara and Amber, aligned and trotting towards them like three fourths of the Sex And The City cast, appeared in front of the three men.

"Dude!" Sara was the one to announce it first, her pregnant belly on display as she lifted her hands to the air for emphasis and her shirt rode up. She was addressing her brother. "Dad is giving Mommy the ring, like, now! Seriously, people, let's get the fuck out there ASAP!" She pronounced it "asap" instead of the letters individually, and Jason smiled. I love this dramatic, ridiculous, adorable girl, he thought.

"Dad wants us all around when he does it," Amber chimed in. "You too, Jason...Jodie...you're family!"

"Somebody wrangle my kids," Julia said, looking suddenly all around the party, scanning for two aloof teenagers who were both Buckinghams and McVies. She turned to Jodie and said, "Baby, go find them, please? My dad says everyone."

"Roger that." Jodie kissed his wife and winked on his way into the living room to find their children.

"Okay, okay, Buckinghams unite!" Sara called out. She found her mother, who'd escaped Julia some time before on her way out to the deck to talk to Waddy, and Stevie was now in the archway between rooms, talking a mile a minute and drinking champagne with Mick and John. She saw Stevie reach up and give a big bear hug to John McVie, whose heart was anywhere but there because of his loss. Sara sometimes forgot Aunt Christine and Uncle John had known each other as long as her parents. "Stevie!" she called out to get her mother's attention over the sound of Donna Summer's "I Feel Love" blasting through the house. Stevie heard her name and turned towards her daughter. "That means you too, Mrs. Buckingham! Out on the deck! Dad says Buckingham family meeting!"

Stevie was herded by all four of her children and their spouses and children out to the deck, where Lindsey stood alone at the railing. The sight of the entire family he and Stevie had created from love over fifty years was overwhelming, and he wondered if it was the weed, missing Christine, seeing everyone together - or all three - that made him suddenly emotional. He blinked back a tear and smiled.

"Lindsey! What the heck?" Stevie was laughing, smiling as her children pushed her forward towards him. She nearly tripped over her own black suede boots, and Lindsey took her hand to help her as she stumbled, suddenly remembering the sight of a twenty-two-year-old Stevie sitting on a bed in a room at the Tropicana Hotel in Los Angeles, a few weeks before Christmas 1970, the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movie Top Hat illuminating her eyes and hair in the near darkness after he turned out the lights so they could make love for the first time. He had tripped over her boots on his way back to the bed from the light switch, and she had held out her arms with a little giggle to catch him before they'd fallen backwards onto the creaky bed in each other's arms. It was almost too much love for him to take.