We're a Wonderful Wife Ch. 09

"A little bit," said Karole with a slight scoff.

"Well, Christmas day is a day of rest, we spend it with our families, but Boxing Day, that's the crazy day."

"What's boxing day?"

"That's the day after Christmas, we ALL gather at the restaurant for dinner, family, friends... we sing, we laugh, you're going to love it," said Tam

"Is it too late for me to move back to Georgia?"

"WAY too late. I'm going to get some lefse, would you like some?" Tam asked

"Vun!"

Karole had heard about the tradition of the train from Lanh but didn't believe that grown adults would put that much emotional value on setting up a toy train, but there they were on their hands and knees underneath the Christmas tree linking pieces of track together. There was Kim-ly, playing with boxes and an old sheet making a mountain with a tunnel for the train to go through in the back corner. The little ones, Arlo, Anh, and Him-chan were "helping" mostly with the little 1:48 scale people, and quite often an employee of the Lionel railroad needed rescuing from the mouth of one of Lanh and Don's little helpers.

The hard part was making sure the track was connected properly and electricity was flowing down the rails. Don had a little hand car with two little guys working the hand pump that skittered around the layout testing the track, if the track isn't connected perfectly that little toy will stall or jump the track. It jumped quite often indicating issues with the track, but this isn't the hard part of setting up the train, the hard part was keeping Arlo and Him-chan from grabbing the hand car and running off with it. Happy that her tunnel was constructed properly and not snagging the handcar as it ducked through the tunnel portals, Kim-ly joined Karole and Tam on the couch and watched Don and Lanh finish up their annual labor of love. Tam was still wearing a Santa hat and a fake white beard, courtesy of Sarah and Chip. She sat deadpan, pretending not to notice her adornment to the amusement of anyone that noticed. After Kim-ly sat down Tam turned to Karole and said, "What would you like for Christmas little girl?"

Karole thought for a while, then gazing at the activities in front of her wistfully she pointed at Don and Lanh as they crouched over their train set and set up their passenger train and said softly "I want that."

"You want Don or Lanh?" asked Kim-ly, then she laughed. "You can't have both, Santa Tam can only haul one down your chimney."

Karole didn't realize that she said that aloud and now she felt stupid. "No... I just want someone who will love me for me, someone who isn't just wanting these boobs or this ass or..." her gaze shifted to the floor, and she fell silent.

Over at the tree, Trung hoisted Arlo up, the little fellow was finally old enough to put the angel on the top of the tree. Karole never noticed that someone took a purple sharpie and tinted the ends of the angel's blond hair purple.

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Christmas morning was everything that Karole had never had. While she and Kim-ly slept, Santa delivered mounds of gifts which hid Don's train layout. Stockings that were hung by the chimney with care were filled to overflowing, treats that Karole had never dreamed of appeared around the house. Karole was awakened by Kim-ly's pre-dawn rush to the bathroom which seemed to signal her own urge to go. She was certain that Krissy knew exactly where her bladder was and had her foot on it at all times, her daughter was using it as a gas pedal. If mommy was too comfortable for too long, a stomp on the gas pedal was needed. Instead of climbing back in bed and going back to sleep until she was sure that breakfast was ready, Kim-ly came and shook Karole's shoulder. "Come on, get up."

"Lea'me alone, Krissy's asleep."

"Come on! Santa's been here."

"Air ain' no sech thaing as santa," mumbled Karole.

Kim-ly resorted to cheating to get Karole out of bed. "Coffee's ready."

Drawn by the scent of fresh brewed coffee, Kim-ly and Karole crept down the stairs to find Don, Lanh, Ralph, and Sandy sitting in the living room, sipping coffee and waiting for them to join them downstairs. A toasty warm fire crackled in the fireplace, mounds of gifts were piled under the tree, and best of all, among the snacks and treats on the coffee table, the two air pots full of coffee sat waiting for them. "Merry Christmas sleepyheads!" called Sandy. "We thought you were going to sleep in all morning!"

Karole glanced at the German Cuoco clock on the wall and it was 5:45, the latest she's slept in since they left Colorado. As she began to sit down Don said, "Wait a minute, tradition must be observed."

Karole looked around with a guilty look on her face. "What? What did I do?"

"It is the job of the youngest person in attendance who can read to distribute the gifts," quoted Don.

Karole looked at the mountains of brightly wrapped packages, where were they hidden? "Ah suppose..." she started to move toward the imposing piles when Sandy said, "Ahhh, wait a minute. I remember the tradition being changed not too long ago to read "the youngest ABLE-BODIED person in attendance who can read. Wasn't there a young man here in bandages who couldn't move very well for a couple of years?"

"YEAH!" called Lanh as she smacked Don's arm.

"I'm still 100% disabled, unless you've been bribing the VA," whined Don, but even though Karole was the youngest he had no choice and he got up and began distributing the gifts. He made sure that the first gifts were the traditional "Ugly" Christmas sweater. Never having had a Christmas sweater (or a need for one) Karole pulled on her big, floppy, red and green creation of wool right away.

"Ah love it! It's so warm! Thank y'all!" and she settled back, sure that being the new member of this gathering that this was it, but she was shocked when Don kept stacking up package after package in front of her, it was quickly apparent that she and Kim-ly got the majority of the haul. "What is all this?" she gasped.

"Most of it isn't for you," pointed out Kim-ly. Sure enough, most of the tags said To Krissy, from Santa.

"Ah... ah don' know whut t' say!" gasped Karole, she's never seen largess of this nature in her life. For her part Kim-ly was shocked too, she was positive that her decision to have a baby was going to be met with scorn and sneers, but she's been bathed in love and support and suddenly she allowed Karole's tears to set off her own.

Lanh crouched between the overwhelmed expectant mothers and said, "it's ok, we just want our little angels to have a nice Christmas too."

In the corner two blond apparitions watched, the ghost with her hair tips dyed purple turned to the older one and said softly, "Let's go. You know how the rest of this plays out." And they faded from the room.