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Merry Christmas

Aries

"Mum, when is Santy Clause gonna come?" Raymond asks, pulling my hand with one of his, and pointing to the tree with the other. It was magnificent, with golden lights and multi-coloured ornaments. Below it, there were currently only three gifts. One from Soleis to me, one I got her, and the monster truck from both of us. (Raymond is four now and is going through his monster-truck phase).

I pick him up and sit him on my lap on the couch.

"He only comes when we are all asleep, in the night," I explain. Raymond's face fell for a moment, and he knits his eyebrows, thinking.

"Can I sleep now?" he asks. I laugh and shake my head at him.

"No, it's not even dark out."

"Oh, right." At that moment, Soleis comes in from the kitchen, carrying a tray of biscuits.

"Mummy has biscuits!" Raymond calls and leaps off my lap to run over to her. Soleis bends down to give him a biscuit, then comes to sit on the couch by me. She offers me a biscuit and I take it, eating while we both watch Raymond run around.

Our cat named Jamma walks in, oblivious to the tornado known as Raymond coming her way.

"JAMMA!" Raymond cries and runs to her. She bolts and runs out the cat door into the cold snow. Raymond laughs and shoves the rest of the biscuit into his mouth.

"He's so full of energy today," Soleis comments, biting into a biscuit.

"I'm not sure how we're going to get him to bed," I reply, and take the rest of her biscuit from her hand.

"Hey," she protests, but is unable to stay  mad for long, and soon we're both laughing. The holiday spirit is contagious, and it's quickly infected our whole house.

While we're distracted, Raymond comes up and snatches a biscuit from the platter, then runs off, giggling.

"Hey!" Solies and I say in unison, and then get up to chase him around the house.

Soleis catches him in our bedroom, picks him up, deposits him on the bed, and promptly starts a tickle war. I joined in, and and we only stop when we all are gasping for breath.

I lay on my back, clutching my stomach and staring at the ceiling fan, filled with happiness given to me from my amazing family. Soleis lays next to me, her hair tickling my face. She turns to me and smiles. It causes me to melt a bit, just as it did the very first time I saw that smile.

I wrap my arms around her, and Raymond tried to squeeze into the hug as well. I let him, and he settles between us, falling into a light slumber within minutes. Soleis looks down at him and shakes her head, grinning at our son.
"It's bedtime", she mouths and she slowly stands up. Carefully, so she doesn't wake him, she picked him up and carried him out to his room.

She came back after a minute or so and flopped next to me.

"He's exhausting," she mumbles into the sheets. I giggle at her.

"Tell me about it. While you were at work, today, he was running around like crazy yelling at the cat and screaming Christmas songs." Soleis giggles back and turn her head to me. We just sit there, staring into each other's eyes, until we both fall asleep.

THE NEXT DAY. . .

Soleis

I woke up to Raymond pouncing on me.

"Mum! Mummy! Wake up, Santy Clause came!"I groan but sit up, hazily seeing Aries doing the same.

We get up and follow him to the living room, both of us desperately trying to be awake enough to be excited. Raymond stands in the middle of the presents and picks one up. Aries, now fully awake, snaps a picture with her ever-present camera. Raymond runs up to us with the present he was holding.

"This is for you two! I made it at VPK!" Raymond announces proudly as we unwrap the box and find a card in it.

The card has a drawing of us three on the front, with the words 'I love my mummies'.

"Thank you, Ray, this is beautiful," I say as Aries hugs him. Before I get a hug, he wriggles away from Aries.

"Raymond's presents now?" he asks hopefully. I laugh.

"Of course," Aries says.

Raymond grabs a present excitedly and began unwrapping it. Aries took pictures as Ray went through the presents, making sure to examine each one before moving on to the next. Raymond ended up with a notebook, a teddy bear, a few lego sets, and of course, the monster truck.  I got Aries one of those detachable lenses you could put on phones so the images would turn out better. This way, she wouldn't have to lug her nice camera around everywhere we go.

As Raymond was playing with all his new gifts, Aries gave me a package. I unwrap it gently and gasp when I can tell what it is.

It was a sketchbook. My last one was long filled, so I was due for another one, but that wasn't what made it special. The cover was a picture of a bird. Not just any bird... the bird. The same bird from all those years ago, the first thing Aries had ever seen me draw.

I look up and see her blushing.

"Just because... you know, the last one was filled and I thought you might want ano-" I hug her, cutting her off.

"Thank you," I whisper in her ear. "I love it."

"Merry Christmas, Soleis," she replies, and we stay like that, wrapped in each others arms, for a long while.

I suddenly remember, and pull away slowly, leaning my head on her chest. She starts rubbing my arm, and we both watch Raymond for a bit. He runs up to his room for another toy, and I put my lips to Aries' ear.

"I'm pregnant."

Aries gasps and turns her face towards mine, making our noses bump into each others'. She kisses me hard and I smile, separating from her. I lean back on the couch and put my feet on her lap. She smiles at me and then looks down at my stomach.

"Really?" I nod.

"Yeah. I just found out yesterday, but I thought today would be better to tell you." She nods and looks back up at my face.

"I love you," she says. I move to where I'm straddling her hips and kiss her nose.

"I know. And I love you too." I take her hand and play with her engagement ring, the one I gave her years ago. She looks down at our hands and entwines our fingers. I put my head on her shoulder and wrap my arms around her. She does the same and we sit like that until Raymond comes bouncing down the stairs.

He sees us hugging and runs over to us, jumping onto Aries' lap with me. We laugh and I adjust so Aries can be more comfortable. He turns to me and smiles, and I look at my beautiful son.

"Hey, Ray. Mummy has something to tell you." He sits back onto Aries' lap and looks at me.

"What is it? Do you have another present for me?" He eagerly looks around, trying to find something. I shake my head.

"No. It's more of a birthday gift, but not for you," He looks up at me, puzzled. I giggle and hold one of his small hands. "You're going to have a baby brother or sister." His eyes widen.

"Really? When?!" I smile at him and shake my head.

"I'm not sure yet. Probably in about seven or eight months." He pouts.

"But that's so long!"

"I know. But you have to wait, or else it won't work." He looks over at Aries.

"Do I really have to wait that long?" She nods. He looks back at me. "Okay." I put him on the ground.

"Go play. You have a lot of toys right now to get through. Go build a Lego set." He smiles again, this time at the prospect of his new toys. He runs upstairs to get his legos, and Aries pulls me into her side. She hugs me and kisses the top of my head.

"We have the best family imaginable." I smile.

"Yeah. We do," I look up at her. "Merry Christmas, Aries."

"Merry Christmas."

Look at the cute little sketch Loki9401  drew for us! (At the top)