The Yule Log

I couldn't count how many times I came against the sheets. He was just that good. All the while he whispered how good it was, how much he loved me, how long he'd dreamed of us. No stupid porn talk, no trash; he made love to me with his voice like he was with his body: in slow, determined, honest conviction. I think he rode me continuously for over an hour before he whimpered my name and I felt him shudder into the condom. I was totally gone. I only registered that things had changed when I felt him gently pull out and hold me to him before peeling back the covers. I fell asleep, wrapped in his strength, whispering words of love to him as I drifted off. I was home.

We did make it to Mom's for the mid-morning opening of presents. How she kept the kids from ripping them all apart before we got there I'll never know. As usual, Jesse went by the shop before we arrived and made up coffee and cocoa for the day. Yeah, he won the favor of my siblings with that alone.

Katie took one look at us when we arrived and grinned from ear to ear. She was able to make Jesse blush as he set down the coffee dispensers by commenting that he had obviously picked the right Hamilton. Mom, ever the observant woman that she was, pulled me aside later and asked if I'd found a place to live. I couldn't help but hug her and laugh. I hadn't asked for it, but I'd gotten everything I wanted for Christmas.

*****

Christmas night, Jesse gave me another present; he gave me what I'd only tasted the night before. We made love all the way through to the New Year; not constantly of course, he had the shop and I had school to prepare for. The family came over to Jesse's for New Year's Eve, and we rang the New Year in playing sax and guitar together for our family. It was the perfect start for the rest of our lives.

I never left Jesse's house; it took me forever to call it "our house". It didn't take me as long to get used to living "out" in a small town. Amazingly, we got so much support that what little difficulty we did face was easily weathered. It took me no time at all to learn to love Morrisville the way Jesse did. Teaching turned out to be the best decision I ever made, except for loving Jesse. The school did grow over the next several years and the town benefited from it. After a few years, Mom moved in with us. She had gotten too old for me to let her live alone. She put up some token resistance, but I knew she secretly wanted to be with us. Every Christmas the house was more decorated than the year before; our home became the center of all the Hamilton gatherings. Life simply grew brighter with each New Year.

Of all the joys in our lives, the simple ones have been the best: duets on Friday nights, dinners with mom, afternoon coffees, making love, and taking the time to appreciate our blessings. The Yule Log has become a Hamilton family tradition. We passed it on to our nieces and nephews with the hope that they too would be blessed by it. I look back and cherish every moment of my life after my return to Morrisville and to Jesse, but I will always hold that first night in the light of the Yule Log as the memory I cherish the most.