You Don't Deserve My Love

Baby's First Christmas

2009

Christmas always held a special place in Mitch's heart but he knew this Christmas, in particular, was going to be one he would never forget.

It was no secret that Christmas started to lose some of it's magic the older you got, so Mitch was beyond excited to experience it with a child around. His new baby daughter wasn't old enough, at 5 months old, to really appreciate the magic but he would sprinkle it all over her regardless.

Scott would say he went over the top, but Mitch would say he didn't go far enough. He had eagerly decorated their new suburban home from basement to attic in an absurd amount of Christmas decorations. There was tinsel on every shelf and banister and a Santa watching your every move wherever you went, including the bathroom. After only three boxes worth of decorations, it became too much and by box number 7, it was just straight up tacky but he only wanted the best for Lily.

It was no secret that he struggled with parenthood, the pressures of raising an innocent and very impressionable little person was overwhelming for him. He had gotten the general hang of it by now, although he still had his shaky moments, but Christmas was something he knew how to do well, so he was going to make Lily's first Christmas as spectacular as possible.

So obviously, a trip to see Santa was on the cards for the young family.

"Mitch, she's not gonna remember this," Scott complained, like he had been doing for the last 20 minutes as they stood in the unmoving, seemingly endless line into Santa's Grotto.

"Yes, but I'm going to remember it. Besides, don't you want your only child to have the most magical first Christmas? We don't get another chance at this, you know, and before we know it, we'll be all out of firsts to celebrate. We have to celebrate and cherish every moment whilst we can."

Scott sighed but didn't put up anymore fight, simply shuffling forward two inches when the line had actually dared to move.

Mitch couldn't really blame him for not wanting to wait in this line because he had never been surrounded by so many hyper, screaming children all at once. They were really grating on every single one of his nerves. He had built up some sort of tolerance since Lily had come into their lives but he still had very little patience for any child that wasn't his own. But that apparently wasn't the problem for Scott.

The brunette watched as his husband smiled and chatted to every child and parent that came within a 5ft radius of them. Scott always had been the more sociable of the two and his love of children was far from new, but it left Mitch feeling a twinge of envy every time he saw how effortless Scott made everything look. He wanted to be able to make new parent friends and set his kid up on play dates and make silly faces at random kids but it just wasn't something that came easily to him. He could only stand back and watch, wishing he could be as natural as Scott was.

"Oh, look, it's our turn!" Scott declared, wheeling the stroller through the little red door into the Grotto. "That wait wasn't as bad as I thought."

Mitch wanted to point out that it was probably because he had spent the entire time talking to everyone and anyone and had cast Mitch aside but he wasn't going to make a fuss over nothing. He wasn't going to let his ridiculous jealousy ruin this experience for Lily, or rather, for himself since the baby would likely be unaffected by it.

"Ho ho ho, and who do we have here?" Santa greeted with a belly laugh.

"This is Lily," Scott introduced, unbuckling her from her stroller and fixing her red dress before handing her over to the stranger.