Charlie and I open gifts under the tree on Christmas morning and I enjoy my time with him but I also can’t help wishing that Catharine was here with us. I know he feels the same because he points to the one gift that’s still wrapped under the tree and says, “I can’t wait until we give that to Catharine!”
“I can’t, either, bud,” I tell him.
We watch some Christmas movies and I let him stay in his pajamas until about four, when I tell him we have to start getting ready for Catharine to come over for dinner. He’s very excited about this and actually changes quickly, whereas usually I have to argue with him about it or just put his clothes on him myself so as to skip the argument about which parts he can do on his own and which parts he thinks he needs my help with.
The caterers arrive first and set up our Christmas dinner: delicious turkey and stuffing, ham and pineapple, cranberry sauce, rolls and butter, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy and, of course, apple pie.
“Yum!” Charlie says. “Can we eat yet?”
“No, we have to wait for Catharine to get here…” I start to say, but then she’s right there at the front door, arriving a tiny bit early and carrying two gifts.
“Hello!” I say, resisting the urge to kiss her as I go over and take the gifts out of her hand. “Merry Christmas.”
“Merry Christmas, guys!”
“What did you get me?” Charlie asks, pointing at the gifts.
“Charlie, that’s rude!” I tell him, but Catharine says, “It’s okay! Charlie, I’m going to put the gifts under the tree, and we’ll open them after dinner and before you go to bed, okay?”
“Okay,” Charlie says, a bit anxiously.
As we start to eat dinner, I can tell he’s wanting to open the gift, because he keeps looking over to the tree and bouncing his leg up and down. Catharine keeps him entertained with a Christmas story she knows, though, while we’re eating, and the food is really so good that soon Charlie has almost forgotten about the gift.
Almost.
As soon as we’re done eating, he asks, “Can I open the gift now?”
“Don’t you want to have pie?” Catharine asks him.
“Hmmm, after the gift!” Charlie says.
“He’s a good little negotiator,” she remarks.
We go over to the tree and she gives Charlie his gift, which is an activity mat that he can lay down and draw on.
“Awesome!” he says. “Now we can practice drawing Transformers on this!”
“And now you won’t feel the need to draw all over the house, right?” she asks, winking at me.
Last week he had decided it would be a good idea to color all over the walls and floors, while Catharine had been making a snack for him in the kitchen. They’d talked about it and he’d promised to only draw on paper or other drawable surfaces – and now he’d have plenty of space to work with!
“Now, for you,” I tell her, taking the small gift from under the tree, “Charlie and I got you something special.”
Her eyes light up when she unpeels the wrapping off a small jewelry box. I bet she’s wondering if it’s a ring, and maybe it should have been, but we still haven’t even explained the status of our relationship to Charlie yet, so I think that would be taking things a little fast. Then again, we’ve been taking everything else very fast, so I’m starting to think we should at least make it boyfriend/girlfriend official.
“It’s gorgeous!” she says, as she takes the necklace out of the box.
It’s a gold chain with a custom decorated snow globe hanging from it. Inside, there’s a snow angel and when you shake it some, or when it just swings hanging from your neck as you walk, it causes snow flurries everywhere.
“This is a really unique gift,” she tells me, and then looks at Charlie, too. “Thanks so much.”
“It’s because you made a snow angel with me!” he says. Then he looks at Daniel and says, “Daddy, will you make a snow angel with Catharine and me, too?”
I laugh and tell him, “maybe next time we go skiing.”
“Can we go tomorrow?” he asks, expectantly.
I look over at Catharine and shrug, as if to say “why not?” I don’t have to work tomorrow. Or, I always have to work some, but I can do it at home when Charlie’s asleep.
“Why don’t we go up to…”
“North Pine Lodge!” Catharine rushes in to suggest, even though I was going to suggest the resort she had worked at when we met.
She looks anxious to switch the location, and I realize that she probably doesn’t want to see her old co-workers now that she left that job. Maybe they would think she ditched them or something.
“That would work fine,” I say, shrugging.