"Mommy! Daddy! Tree decorating!" Mallory yelled, running into Zoe and Evan's bedroom.
Zoe made a noise of discomfort and Evan chuckled.
"Tree decorating." Evan whispered. Zoe rolled over and buried her face in Evan's chest. Mallory climbed onto their bed and shook her mother's shoulders.
"Mommy! We have to decorate!" Mallory whispered.
"Can't decorate. Sleeping." Zoe said. Mallory frowned at her mother. Evan laughed softly and kissed the top of her head.
"Okay. Then Mallory and I will just decorate the tree ourselves. Maybe it'll be done the way you like. But I don't know." Evan said, slowly standing. Zoe's eyes flew open and she sat up.
"Okay okay! I'm awake. But breakfast before decorating." Zoe said. Evan smiled and Mallory smiled.
"Yay Mommy!" She cheered. Evan watched as Zoe sat up.
"What do you want for breakfast?" Zoe asked, smiling.
"Can we have pancakes?" Mallory asked. Evan smiled and helped Zoe up.
"Pancakes it is!" Evan said.
"Okay! Mommy will cook and you and Daddy can start bringing up the decorations." Zoe said. Mallory cheered and Zoe scooped her up.
"Okay love bug, here we go." Zoe said. Evan took her hand and led her downstairs. Mallory was set down and instantly climbed into her chair at the island and watched Zoe pull out what she needed for making pancakes.
"Mommy is making pancakes! Then we're decorating the treeee!" Mallory sang. Zoe smiled and poured water and the pancake mix into the bowl and started mixing it.
"You should help Daddy." Zoe said. She started putting batter onto the skillet and Evan stood behind her He wrapped his arms around her waist and Zoe sighed happily. Evan smiled and started to hum under his breath as she flipped the pancakes.
+++
"Mommy! I wanna put this on!" Mallory said, holding up her Elsa ornament.
"Lights first Mal. Lights always go first. Baby, you run down and grab me the last bin of ornaments? Mallory and I can start untangling the lights." Zoe said.
"For sure." Evan said. He walked out of the room and Zoe picked up the tangle of multicoloured lights. Mallory grabbed one end and started pulling.
"No! We don't pull the lights!" Zoe said. Mallory sat on the carpet and watched her mother try to untangle the lights.
Zoe slowly started to untangle the lights before quickly realizing that she had gotten her hands and her forearms tangled in the lights.
"Okay baby, where am I - what happened to you?" Evan asked.
"Mommy got tangled in the lights." Mallory said. Evan chuckled and put the box of decorations down before plugging the plug into an outlet near Zoe.
"It helps if you plug them in before you try to untangle them." Evan said smiling.
"Oh shush. So I got tangled in the lights, big deal. It happens every year." Zoe said. Evan smiled.
"Every single year. Yet you still insist on untangling them. Didn't Mallory help?" Evan asked.
"No she watched." Zoe said.
"Huh, I would've thought my daughter would be tangled in the lights. Not my wife." Evan said smiling. Zoe scowled at Evan and Evan started untangling the lights from her arms. When Zoe was finally free she sighed and turned to Evan.
