When the Stars Align (Anthony Rizzo)

39| Not All Who Wander Are Lost

Kelsey

Come Christmas Day Anthony's apartment was filled with his family and mine. There was enough food to feed a small village and dozens of presents sat under the tree. It looked like something off a hallmark movie in here. But it was a blissful feeling, being in a room with so much love. I'm so thankful to be surrounded by people I trust and care about. Not a lot of people can have this, and I'm so lucky that I do.

"Kelsey, you look amazing" Laurie insists as she grabs my hands to get a look at my outfit. I had my favorite Christmas sweater on and my favorite pair of jeans that allows me to eat as much as I want and not have to unbutton my pants.

"Thank you. I was thinking about doing something different with my hair but I'm not sure. What do you think" I wonder. She had a good sense of style, I trusted her.

"I don't know, I think you're beautiful as is. You don't need to change a thing" she insists and I smile.

"Thank you" I say trying not to happy cry.

Eventually we gather around the living room and pass around all the presents. Although Anthony's parents weren't too familiar with my family, they still supported us and always asked how they were doing. Once John warmed up to the idea of us being a immigrant family he really enjoyed the meshing of our two families. My family supported and helped out with the Anthony Rizzo Family Foundation and his parents were here for Tatiana's graduation and have early taken a liking to Isaiah. Just as Anthony and I fit together our families did too and it was making for such a great first Christmas together.

"Alright, open mine first" Anthony insists as he sets a box next to me. I just shake my head because there's no point in starting a argument. I was in way too good of a mood to do so anyway, even if it was just a playful one. So I pull off the paper and see what I was working with.

Under the wrapping paper was a brand new state of the art telescope. It can see thousands of miles away and even snap pictures of what it sees so I can look at it forever.

"Oh my god... Anthony you didn't" I gasp.

"What is it" my dad wonders.

"It's my happiest childhood memories" I admit.

"I know you said you wanted the one that was in the fire, but that one was defiantly gone so I got something close to it. I tried to figure out the brand and model and try to get something as close to that as possible" he explains.

"This is the sweetest thing ever. I didn't think you actually you got it for me" I admit.

"I know what you want I can't always give you. I can't give you the stars or the sky or the moon, even though I really want to. But I figured this was a good place to start" he claims.

"It's perfect, thank you so much" I insist as I pull him into a kiss. I try to show him what my words couldn't say and I hope he got the message.

Next I make him open my gift to him. I got him a new glove with the words "if you be my star" and a bat that says "then I'll be your sky."  I know he's picky about his equipment but his dad helped me pick out what he needs and he seemed excited about it.

But my favorite part of his gift was the star I purchased. Turns out you can buy stars online and name them and everything. Then they send you a picture of it in a glass case so you can hold it to the sky and find it.

"What is this" he asks as he holds the glass case out in front of me.

"It's our star" I say and he gasps.

"You bought us a star" he squeals like a little kid finding out he's going to Disney world for the first time and I smile.

"I did. I named it Elissa which means "wanderer" in Greece. And I named it that because it's who we are. We're wanderers and all who wander are not lost. We might not know the way or the destination, but we know we're right where we need to be" I explain.

"Oh Kelsey, this is the most beautiful thing I have ever gotten. I love it so much. I can't wait to find it so every night that we're apart I can look up there and know that it's us. And even though we've wandered apart we can still be under the same stars and that's pretty amazing" he admits.

"And we can even look at her through our new telescope" I tease and he laughs.

"That works too" he admits.

We open up the rest of our gifts and try out anything we wanted to. I know Anthony and Isaiah got a bunch of new baseball things they can't wait to put them to use, but until the batting cages were open again all they could do was wait. So we put the gifts away and make our plates. We gather around the tables set up in the living room and eat our food. Loud conversations carry on from all areas of the room as we laugh and smile and share stories. And not a moment goes by where I'm not in the moment soaking everything up.

"So can this be a thing? Every Christmas we celebrate together? Because I haven't had this much fun since mom was alive and since I'm going off to college I'm gonna need something to look forward to when I come home for holidays" Tatiana insists.

"I don't see why not. Maybe it'll become a family tradition. No matter where we are or what we're doing, we all meet somewhere to spend Christmas together" I say.

"I love that" Anthony's dad John admits and I smile at him. I know he was on the fence about this at first but he's taking such a liking to my family. And I truly believed he changed, not that he's acting like this for Anthony's sake. He really does want to be with us and I can feel it in the way he smiles.

After dinner people start to head back to where they came from. Anthony's parents have a early flight home and my family all had to be home in case something comes up. So we send them on their way and clean up from the Christmas festivities. I see my new telescope sitting by the window and decide to open it up. I put it together and point it to the sky and start to look around. The smile on my face had to have been huge as I danced among the stars. This telescope was no joke and I can't wait to spend all my nights looking at the sky.

"Did you find our star yet" Anthony questions.

"Yeah, it's right here" I say as I move to the side. He looks at the telescope and smiles big.

"She's beautiful. And I love the name. We should name our first girl Elissa" he claims.

"First girl huh" I tease and he starts to blush.

"You heard me" he smirks.