Lauren and Joey both had the day off on Friday, and Joey had been looking forward to spending the morning with Lauren in bed knowing they had nowhere to be for the rest of the day. Lauren, however, apparently had other plans, because when Joey woke up and instinctively rolled over to look at the love of his life, he discovered that she was already out of bed.
He padded into the living room, expecting to see her curled up under a blanket on the couch with Diane. Instead, he found her standing precariously on a chair, trying to hang fairy lights on the Christmas tree.
"Now look who's in the Christmas spirit," he said, and she jumped, turning around to him.
"Joey! Do you want me to fall off the chair and die?"
He chuckled. "You wouldn't have died," he said, holding out his hands to help her down off the chair, but she ignored them and jumped off herself. She handed the string of lights to him to take over, while she got some ribbon and started winding it around the branches.
They hung baubles until there wasn't an inch of green showing, put up small stockings with the letters L, J and D on them, and then all that was left was for the star to go on top of the tree. Joey watched Lauren's face crease in a frown as she wondered whether she'd be able to reach - even though she'd stopped growing about 15 years ago and had never once been able to reach the top of the tree in the last few years they'd decorated together.
"Just get on my shoulders Lo," he said, shaking his head at her and crouching down.
"No, I'll be too heavy-" she started to protest.
"Lauren!"
She sighed, clambering unsteadily onto his shoulders. He slowly stood up straight, his hands gripping the tops of her thighs so she wouldn't fall. She reached out and carefully placed the star on the top of the tree, leaning back and smiling at their handiwork.
Joey lowered her back down to the floor and she kissed his cheek. "Thank you," she said.
He smiled. "Anything for you." After a pause he continued. "Can we go back to bed now?"
Lauren laughed, tugging him in the direction of their bedroom ready to cuddle up with him for the rest of the day.
