12 Days of Christmas Prompt 2/12: “I hate Christmas Shopping.”
I’m so slow at writing these and I only have 5 days left to do 10 prompts lolol. Anyway, this one is kinda long and currently unedited, but enjoy!
With a long sniffle and a slam of the door, I was home. I unclamped my sore fingers and let the shopping bags bags slide to the floor.
“It’s official. I hate Christmas shopping.”
Darry looked up at me from the couch where he sat, feet on the coffee table, watching football. “It was really that bad, huh?”
I stripped my coat off and kicked away my boots, “Let me tell you about the day I had. So the mall was absolutely swamped, which wasn’t a huge deal if it wasn’t also a mess! I swear, none of the clothes in any store had been folded in about a week. And apparently today was Santa’s big mall appearance, so I didn’t get any lunch because there was absolutely no navigating the food court. And then, to top it all off, tonight was the town parade. Did you know that Darry? So all of the main roads were blocked off and there was absolutely no detour signs, only policemen telling you to turn and giving bad directions. So if you’re wondering why I got home so late and you end up with the wrong sized sweater on Christmas, that’s why.”
Without turning from the TV he replied, “Sounds like you had quite the day.”
Anger flared and I leaned against the archway. “Did you even listen to what I just said?”
“Yeah. I can watch the game and listen at the same time.”
With a roll of the eyes I pushed off the arch and headed towards the kitchen. Yeah, he can listen alright, but only when the game’s on commercial. Swinging the fridge door open I looked around it’s contents for the little cardboard box. Inside was a piece of carrot cake that I have been dreaming about for hours. After shuffling the milk over and pulling out tonight’s raw dinner, looking behind the beer and all the way in the back, I accepted that it wasn’t here anymore.
“Dar?”
“Yeah?”
“Where’s that slice of carrot cake I had?”
In return a triumphant shout came from the living room. I slammed the fridge door and walked back out there.
“Where’s my carrot cake?”
He glanced at me before returning his gaze to the tv set, “Oh, I uh ate it.”
“Why would you do that? I was planning on eating it when I got home!” Today just officially became a Bad Day.
“Sorry. It was in there a few days, I figured you didn’t want it anymore.”
With a huff I turned and headed back to the kitchen, “You could have at least asked first!”
I opened the snack drawer and began rifling through the boxes of crackers, cans of peanuts, and bags of chips looking for a snack. As I pulled out a box of crackers, Darry came into the room.
“Hey, I’m sorry okay. I guess I should have asked you first.” Normally apologies were all I needed to hear to forgive and forget, but his tone sounded more annoyed than apologetic and today, I was out for blood.
Opening the fridge I ignored him, “Do we have any cheese left or did you go ahead and eat that too?”
The door slammed shut on me, and I barely got out of the way in time. Looking back I came to face Darry, whose hand was planted firmly on the fridge. One glance at his stormy face made me bite my retort.
“What is your problem?” His voice was low and we locked eyes. “We’ve talked about this, we don’t take our bad days out on each other.”
“Yeah, and we also listen to what the other has to say, remember?”
His eyebrows knitted together as he pushed off the fridge, “I listen?”
“Uh huh, what did I tell you when I got home?”
Shrugging he looked away, Darry’s eyes slowly wander back to me, “Something about how the mall was packed.”
“Oh no, no, no. The mall wasn’t just packed, all hell had broken loose. And then on my drive home I almost had a nervous breakdown because the city parade was tonight so I ended up getting lost since they didn’t bother putting up detour signs, and drove around downtown for an hour. So yeah, sorry if I’m a little pissed off.”
From just the look on his face I knew he had actually listened this time. “I didn’t know all of that happened.”
“And you know what I was thinking about during all of that? Coming home, sitting on the couch with you, and eating that carrot cake.”
Darry rolled his eyes, “You and this damn carrot cake. Let’s go to the diner for dinner and you can get more.”
After today’s drive home, being in the car again was completely unappealing. I grabbed the box of crackers and pulled out a sleeve. “I don’t really feel like going out again. Getting two out of three ain’t bad I suppose.”
“And what would that be?”
“Coming home and sitting on the couch with you. I’ll just replace the carrot cake with crackers.”
Darry’s face lit up, “Well lets go, I’m missing the game!” As he walked out of sight and down the hall I heard him call back, “If only we had some Christmas cookies, that would be a better replacement than crackers.”
Sighing I rolled my eyes remembering that he was also ate the last of the cookies I got from work last week. Walking into the living room I would have reminded him of that, but like I said before, he only listens when they’re commercials on.
12 Days of Christmas Prompt 1/12: “How many Christmas lights does one person need?”
A chilly gust of wind slipped through the crack of the closing door. Darry had gone out to start up the Challenger and after feeling the biting air I couldn’t be more grateful to have a warm car waiting for me. In the meantime I stayed inside with the kids, tugging on their winter jackets and pulling knit hats down to their ears. Tonight our small family was driving around town, looking at our neighbors Christmas lights. Seeing the glinting lights was a favorite tradition of mine, it was something I always did with my family and now I was able to pass it down to do it with our kids.
That is if we ever got out of the door. Currently our little Michelle, a four year old bundle of sass, was not having it with her coat. “Mama, I don’t wanna! I don’t like this!”
“What don’t you like Mimi? Huh? Are your sleeves stuck?”
“I don’t know!” Her cheeks were flushed red and she wriggled in her jacket, fine blonde hair becoming static charged and floating up to meet her hat.
“Well first we gotta check that attitude little miss.” I crouched down to her height, squaring her dead in the eyes. “Take a deep breath.”
With a huff she obeyed, agitation still holding strong in her bright blue eyes. “Alright, now let’s take your coat off and get you situated.”
After an impressive two minutes we were out the door, hot chocolate in one hand and our two year old Jack on my other hip as Michelle hopped towards the car. Wind whistled in the air as it whipped by us. Winter had certainly come this year with one of the coldest December’s we’ve had in a long time. Usually I like to walk around the neighborhood to look at the lights, but with tonight’s temperature and windchill we all would have froze to death.Sliding into the warm car after Michelle was a relief from the wind.
“Man is it windy out or what?” Darry met me with a muffled hum in reply. Looking over I noticed his jaw ever so slightly moving. “What are you eating there, Dar?”
Michelle interrupted his answer, climbing into his lap. “Daddy, can I sit with you?”
“Of course baby girl.”
I waited a moment to continue my teasing as he put the car in drive and rolled out onto the street. “Certainly you haven’t gotten into cookies already. Because you know those were for the ride tonight. And you wouldn’t have had one before the rest of us, right?”
“Daddy, you eat the cookies? Without me?!”
“Nah. I wouldn’t do that Mimi. You’re Mama’s just seeing things that’s all.” He glanced at me, seeing if I would buy it. But little did he know the crumbs left in his beard sold him out.
Chuckling I slid over to his seat and brushed them away, “Yeah, sure. Tell that to the crumbs left behind.”
A smile pulled at his lips, “Well… I may have had one. Why don’t y’all have one too so we’re all even?”
The kids let out a triumphant squeal and as soon as they got a cookie in their mouths, silence took over.
“Let’s put some Christmas music on Dar.”
We moved from neighborhood to neighborhood, the twinkling lights leading the way from house to house. It wasn’t until we got to the South side that the decoration display really kicked it up a notch.
“Mama, look!” Mimi gasped and pointed at the most exuberant lighting display we’ve seen all night. The house itself was stunning as it was, but the lights were something else. They zig zagged across the roof, covered every bush in the front yard, and outlined every window and door.
“Wow, would you look at that?”
Darry scoffed, “I wonder what their electricity bill looks like. How many Christmas lights does one person need?”
“A lot to make it look pretty!” Michelle explained, still mesmerized from the house.
Serenity fell upon us with the music softly playing, the kids munching on cookies, my hot chocolate tasting just right, and the soft glow of lights surrounding us. It was finally starting to feel like Christmas.
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