Hot Chocolate ⚣

Let's Kiss Under the Misteltoe

     "Babe." Brendon pointed to the garden section covered in snow.
     "Yes?" He just pointed. I looked at him, and down his bicep, to his tricep, to his slender finger and to some hanging plants. Yay, winter gardening.

     "Have fun with your Christmas plants." I tell him jokingly, and walk further into the Home Depot. I look around at the lightbulbs, looking for the exact ones we need in order to light the bathroom properly. Along the way there's some Christmas trees, 12 ft. inflatable front yard snowmen, lights, staple guns, ornaments, wrapping paper- oh! Staple guns!

I grab a teal staple gun and put it in my basket, it looks nice, it's a pretty color, so it's probably the one we need. Eventually, Brendon finds me in the crowds of New Yorkers during Christmas time. I'm in the paint swatch section, looking for bedroom colors for us and the guest rooms.

     "I'm glad I found you!" I say,
     "So I have narrowed down the six colors I'd like to go in the house somewhere, even though we aren't looking at it yet and I found two for our room we can test on Monday okay? And I picked up this cute staple gun for you and I think it comes with the staples and everything but I also got the lightbulbs, 40 watt right?" I expect an answer but he's just smiling. He puts five bagged up plants and hooks into the hand basket. Yay, Christmas plants.

     "40 watts, right?" I repeat.
     "Sure, whatever, look what I got!" Brendon shouts a bit too loudly.
     "I know! Plants!" We laughed a bit, I don't know why. He tilts my head up and placed a soft kiss on my lips, of course, people stared, but nothing too bad.
     "Mistletoe." He whispers.

I understand his draw to the plant now, kisses. He has five of them, we have twelve doors that lead into rooms or bathrooms, which ones he chose left me in anticipation.
      "and yes," he continues, "40 watt bulbs for the porch, 20 for the bathroom."

Once home we set off in different directions to upkeep the house. He starts immediately on the lights on the house, excited about a new staple gun with improved range and power. Dork. I begin dinner and email the owner of Brendon's old apartment complex to look for his favorite winter coat that he lost or most likely left. After a while, Brendon calls me outside to look at his work, and I'll admit, the white lights on the grey and white house looked nice, calming, and gave the house a warm feeling.

Homey, I think they call it, Brendon makes home feel homey. 

Over dinner, Brendon enthuses about the power of the staple gun and how he cut his decoration time in half, he reminds me of my father when he talks about that kind of stuff, I guess some men are into that stuff, like dad and Brendon. My thoughts trail to Brendon as a dad, and soon come back to his hardware and handyman fetish. No kids, not any time soon.

We kiss each other goodnight and cuddle up in bed.

.

When morning comes things are normal, wake up, breakfast, shower, turn off the Christmas lights, get dressed for the day. By the time 10 am rolls around, I've completely forgotten about the five mistletoe plants hanging somewhere in our house, until I run into one.

I approach the doorway to our bedroom and notice Brendon leaning on the doorway, a hanging bundle of leaves in a bow hang above us, and he smiles knowingly. I lean up to him and tilt his head down,
     "I guess we got caught under the mistletoe huh?"

This was only the first of our many, many kisses under the mistletoe. He positioned himself under the mistletoe-d doorways and call me or just carry it around for when he could get a moment from me.

The fun lasted three weeks, and our enjoyment never wavered. There seemed to be a new stereotypical phrase about mistletoe every time we were under it, and I think that's why the plant hung so long; we were in an unsaid competition to see who would run out of dumb mistletoe comments first.

Or because I love to be snogged by him when I'm least expecting.

Yet, we never found out. We had to take them all down a week before Christmas when it became more of a hassle than a cute accessory at our Christmas party. However, walking through doorways and watching him pop up to smother me and make me lose my train of thought was amazing.

These will definitely be making a Christmas comeback next year.