emma approved holiday fic exchange for rosesantas
Their annual office holiday/Christmas party
The annual Highbury Group holiday party is always an ordeal. It’s always more elaborate than it needs to be. She is Emma Woodhouse (well, technically she’s been Emma Knightley for a while but, it’s neither here nor there) after all and everything she does has to be perfect. Everyone has a family now so she can’t just call up Annie and have desserts whipped up in two days. Everything has gotten so much busier and she has to do things much farther in advance.
It’s at a hotel this year. Since she got married they moved the party from the office into a hotel. Once children started attending, Santa started coming too. And the party continued to grow. There were activities for the kids and families and there were activities for the grown-ups.
Tonight, Emma was finishing up the final details at the party while her husband was at home, tasked with getting their children ready for the party. They had two sons and Emma was hoping for a little girl. Things hadn’t been easy for them – they struggled for a year before they successfully got pregnant with IVF.
George was born first (and for the record, she did not get the idea from the Duchess of Cambridge, it was a family name) and then Thomas. They’re five and two respectively. She was happy with her family, especially after struggling to become a family, but she so desperately wanted a baby girl.
She might be pregnant now, she won’t know for a few weeks, not until she’s certain the IVF has taken – they had some false alarms their first time around where she got her hopes up only to find it hadn’t taken. It was hard when things didn’t go according to plan, but it all worked out in the end.
She finished directing the catering staff and then slipped away to change. Guests would be arriving soon. She’s still very much the same after all these years, yeah, she’s improved in some ways (due to Alex’s influence) but she still runs her blog, although it’s evolved into a mommy-blog. She still loves fashion and has been known to chase after her two year old in four-inch heels.
She slips out of the hotel room she’s rented for the night (the kids will go home with the babysitter and she and Alex will spend the night) and finds that the first guests are starting to arrive. She greets them graciously, as she’s always been a gracious host, but she keeps checking her phone, waiting to hear word from Alex on how things are going.
She picked out the boys’ outfits a while ago and she knows they probably won’t like them. Her little boys, like all little boys, hate getting dressed up. They hate the ties and blazers she insists they wear to formal parties, but they look so cute. She can’t help it. She doesn’t have a baby girl and she wants to dress someone up.
Alex lets her dress him of course. He resists less than their children. She checks her phone again, but sees no message. She busies herself with the appetizers and mingles with some of her employees.
Finally, she phone lights up with a message from Alex saying they’re on their way. She smiles and puts her phone away, mingling near the door, waiting for her husband and children to arrive.
She loves being a mother. She never thought about it much, probably because she’d lost her own mother so young, but she’s never loved anything more. It really is the most fulfilling thing she’s ever done. When she first started Emma Approved, she was set on making people’s lives better. As a mother, she shapes their entire lives and it’s the most rewarding thing ever.
She knows her family has arrived because she feels tiny arms wrap around her leg.
“Mommy,” the voice cries.
“Hello, George,” she says getting down on his level to look him in the eye.
“Mommy, when can I take my jacket off?” he looks up at her with his big brown eyes.
“As soon as you are finished taking your picture with Santa, okay?”
“Santa is here?” he says, his face lighting up.
“Of course, let’s grab your brother and go see Santa.”
She picks up her son and spots her husband across the room. She approaches him and he kisses her on the cheek.
“It looks great Emma,” he says.
“Thanks. George wants to take off his jacket so I think it’s time for the boys to take a picture with Santa.”
“Good, does that sound good,” he asks the two year old in his arms.
Thomas nods in response and the Knightley family makes their way over to Santa. The boys climb onto his lap without any prompting and George lets Thomas tell Santa what he wants for Christmas first. He really is an excellent older brother. They even smile when Alex snaps pictures of them.
“Are we done?” George asks.
“Yes,” Emma says and George’s jacket is immediately thrown on the floor as he runs off to play with the other children at the party. She picks up the jacket, folds it, and sets it down for the night. Thomas is clinging to Alex’s leg so picks him up and carries him as they socialize for the rest of the night.
Thomas is asleep when the babysitter takes him home and George is drowsy from too much sugar and too much running around. They bid their children goodnight and head off to their hotel room.
It’s been a long year filled with IVF and her father’s health problems and she’s happy to have a night alone at a hotel with her husband. It doesn’t happen nearly as often as it should.
Everything has gone well at the party, and she is perfectly and completely happy.
