Mom's new love (marina)

Christmas joy (mostly)

December 25th
Maya pov

"It's Christmas!" I heard faintly from in the hallway, knowing that it was Evie waking Harley up. "Mama! Mommy! It's Christmas!" She yelled again once she'd swung our bedroom door open and was stood in the doorway with messy hair and a giant smile. Harley was following behind, her eyes squinting and her hair also a mess.

"Merry Christmas my babies," I said, opening my arms for Evie to dive into, kneeing Carina as she did so and Harley came to lie on the end of the bed, clearly not being one for waking up so early.

"Bambina," Carina groaned as she was kneed in the stomach.

"Sorry Mama. Can we go downstairs now?"

"Five minutes, let Mama and Harley wake up a little bit," I whispered. "I'm going to make Mama her coffee while you stay here, okay?"

"Okay Mommy." I then made my way downstairs into the kitchen to see our new little puppy still sleeping in his crate. In the middle of my kitchen was a tiny fluffy puppy that was a beautiful golden colour, as per Evie's request. I couldn't believe she hadn't realised that Carina went out last night to pick him up from Travis' and that's why she wasn't home for bedtime.

I quickly let the little puppy into the backyard to go to the bathroom, the puppy which remained nameless as I figured Evie would want to name him. Once he came back inside, I grabbed Carina's coffee, shut the door and made my way back upstairs.

"Can we go now Mommy?" Evie asked, bobbing up and down in the bed.

"We sure can," I smiled, "Go wait outside the living room door with Harley."

"Did you let the puppy out?" Carina asked once the girls were downstairs and we were making our way out of our room.

"I did and now he's back in his crate asleep," I said, kissing her cheek and linking our hands as we made our way downstairs. "I just hope he doesn't bark before we show her because that gives it all away," I whispered with a giggle.

"Open the door, Bambina," Carina encouraged Evie who couldn't contain her excitement and was jumping around next to Harley who still looked half asleep, it was 5:45 after all. Evie pushed the living room door open forcefully to reveal all the Christmas gifts spread out under the tree.

"Oh my gosh! Look how many Santa brought!" She squealed. I had never in my life seen a child so excited about anything, I was actually worried she was going to pee her pants.

"Harley's are the red ones and yours are green," I explained, although I wasn't sure if the information was going in to Evie's head. I then felt Harley's arms around my shoulders from behind,

"Merry Christmas, Mommy," she whispered. Even though this Christmas was more about Evie because it was her first one, I couldn't lose sight of Harley's Christmas because it's usually just the two of us so this probably felt so weird to her.

"Merry Christmas baby girl," I said, kissing her cheek as Evie got herself settled on the floor with Carina. "My baby bug's sixteenth Christmas," I gasped, "I can't believe how big you're getting."

"I don't feel big, I'm six at heart," she shrugged.

"Well, that's fine by me." She then released my shoulders and sat opposite Evie on the floor and I took a seat on the couch next to where Carina had moved to.

"Open the smallest ones first, that's the rule," Harley explained, pointing to the little gifts at the top of Evie's pile.

"Okay."

.
An hour later, the girls had opened all of their gifts as well as Carina and myself opening ours from each other. Harley was happily sitting on the floor building Lego - it is a tradition for her to get Lego for Christmas - while Evie watched her and attempted to help. "Oh my goodness, Evie, I've forgotten one of your gifts!" Carina gasped, causing her to look at her with the cutest confused look on her face. "It's in the kitchen, come on," she said, all of us getting up to follow. Evie looked bewildered, as if she couldn't possibly think what else she'd asked for. She'd gotten a couple of puppy stuffed animals and that seemed to please her so I wondered why I had a living puppy sitting in my kitchen, but oh well.

"Open the door, Eves," I said because all four of us were stood like statues in the hallway. She timidly pushed the door open before her eyes widened and she slapped her hand over her mouth, Carina capturing the whole moment on camera. Before anyone could say anything, Evie broke down in sobs. "Evie, oh my gosh, what's wrong?" I panicked, crouching next to her and rubbing my hand up and down her back.

"It's a puppy," she sobbed, pointing at the golden labradoodle that was excitedly looking back at her.

"Yeah, one the colour of syrup just like you asked for," I said, still trying to comfort her sobbing.

"I'm so happy!" She sniffled with a grin. She was crying happy tears. I sighed in relief and pulled her into my arms and pressed a kiss to the side of her head. Happy tears. Happy tears, I kept telling myself.

"You can get him out of the crate if you want." I looked up at my wife and daughter with wide eyes, Carina crying herself while filming Evie and Harley stood with a giant grin on her face despite knowing exactly what was going on because I told her two weeks ago. Evie opened the crate door and sat on the floor for the puppy to crawl over her lap.

"Have you thought of a name for him, bella?" Carina asked after she finally stopped crying.

"Waffle because you put syrup on waffles and he's the colour of syrup," she explained as the dog licked away her tears. "I want to call him waffle."

"I think that's a great name," Harley smiled, kneeling next to Evie to pet him as well. I still can't believe that I have into a puppy after all these years.

.
Later in the afternoon, we were all dressed, we had full bellies and Harley's Lego sets had been built. Evie hadn't left waffle alone all day and refused to let the dog out of her sight, resulting in her wandering around the garden with him while he went to the bathroom. At about 3pm, we were sat together in the living room waiting for the Ripleys, who were due to come over at about 3:30, when the doorbell rang. "Must be Vic," I said, standing up with Evie and waffle following behind. "Pick Waffle up so he doesn't run away," I told Evie before opening the door.

"Auntie Vi—" Evie began to squeal before both of our faces dropped. Jessica the social worker was standing on our doorstep beside a woman I had never seen before. "Make her go away, Mommy," Evie whispered to me, her voice shaking. Carina then began to make her way to us after not hearing Vic's voice.

"Merry Christmas, Bishops. I'm sorry to be bothering you on such an important day but this couldn't wait. This is—" Jessica began before being interrupted.

"I'm Danielle, Evie's mother."