Christmas trees are absolutely the most beautiful things I can think of. They're so colorful, lively, hopeful (if that makes any sense). I love Christmas and everything that comes with it. I love the lights, the emotion, the diversity and versatility, the unification, just all of it.
It's Christmas Eve and my mother decided it to be a good idea to have us decorate the tree together. So here we are, Adeline, John, and I, drinking mugs of abuelita hot chocolate, with decorations sprawled around us. Adeline has been very energetic for it only being nine in the afternoon, but she's been jumping around from the ornaments to the tree, happily hanging up the various items. John has been the complete opposite: only sitting on the couch and drinking his mug of abuelita. I've been somewhere in between, both helping with the tree, which in Spanish is el árbol de Navidad, and lazing around with John.
"Nida! Nida! Ayúdame por favor!" Adeline pleads, handing me a basic red ornament. I smile at my boisterous sister and take the red ball from her hand, before walking over to the plastic tree. As I reach to hang it up, Addy grabs my wrist and guides me to where she thinks it would be perfect. Another grin comes from me, yet allow my little sister to show me where to put the ornament, and hang it on the tree.
Childhood joyousness bubbles inside of me as we finish the tree, a smile never leaves my face. 2 cups of abuelita and 30 minutes of decorating before we are actually finished. All that's left to do it put the angel on top of our tree. Unfortunately, our tree is more than six feet tall, and my 5'4" height isn't cooperating. I stretch as my as I can, on my tip toes and almost reach the top, but miss nonetheless. Behind me, John snorts.
"Shorty." He laughs, making me a bit irritated. I stomp over to him and throw the angel into his chest.
"You do it then, puto." I retort. John gets up and struts to the Christmas tree, putting the angel on top with all his 5'10" glory. He turns around with a cocky smirk, his arms crossing.
"'John is the greatest person in this family.' Say it, Nida." Johnny boasts, walking towards me with the same stupid smile. I roll my eyes playfully and flip him off, before hearing an exaggerated gasp from Adeline. We turn towards our younger sister, her with a hand on her chest and wide eyes.
"You used the bad word finger." She says, her voice barely above a whisper. Without being able to contain ourselves, John and I start laughing to the point where we are gasping for air.
It's not often when we have moments like this. My siblings and I don't normally have carefree times to laugh and have all our problems be nonexistent. I'm always so busy and when I have time off, I'm with Daniel. Do I feel bad for spending a lot more time with my boyfriend than my siblings? Maybe just a little bit. But the Vargas family, no matter how separated, still have this strong bond whenever we get together. Our little 4 person family, with a father in an entirely other country, is all we really have. I've never met anyone in my family other than my siblings and parents. My aunts aren't really my aunts but rather my moms close friends that we just gave the title to.
Us Vargas', we're strong and unified. And that is how we'll forever stay.
"You know what niños?" My mom says, appearing from the hallway. "You guys did a great job. Santa is going to be so excited." Adeline beams at her words, while John and I just look at my mom blankly.
"When are you gonna tell her?" He asks, relief coming from me that he purposefully didn't say that a certain someone wasn't real. I don't want her childhood to be ruined the night before Christmas.
"Next year, now be quiet." Mom chastised and then address us as a whole again. "Who's ready to go to mass?"
We groan in unison, the want to go to midnight mass nowhere to be seen. Honestly, who wants to sit in church for two hours on Christmas Eve into Christmas Day? Not I, that's for damn sure. In protest, John flops on the couch, Adeline onto the floor, and I throw my arms around my mother and lazily lay on her shoulder.
"Mama, por favor, don't make us go." I whine, my siblings following suit. Mom wraps her warm arms around me and laughs, the feeling of motherly comfort rushing through me.
"You kids are supposed to be children of the lord. How else are you supposed to celebrate the birthday of baby Jesus without going to mass and you welcoming the day as a community?" She attempts to reason, however we groan again in response.
"Mom! Jesus will understand!" John complains, his voice muffled by a pillow.
"Por favor mommy!" Adeline pleads. My mom laughs again and lays her head against mine.
"Fine. No mass, but that means you all get to say ten 'Hail Marys' before bed." She negotiates. We give noises of approval, my arms tightening around my mom.
"Bueno, good night my children." Mom announces.
We groan again.
•••
[A/N]
I know. I know. I know. I'm the fucking worst. It took about a month to update and the update is just a stupid filler chapter. I know. I hate me too. BUT THE NEXT CHAPTER IS THE LAST ONE AND I DONT KNOW HOW TO FEEL! I want to cry. I want to be happy and allow their story to end and be free. At the same time, their my babies! Urghhhhhhh!
How are you guys?
I love you!
Bye!
~ Erica Letta
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Spanglish | editing
Teen Fiction"Daniel please-" He growled cutting me off mid sentence; making it obvious that he's pissed beyond belief. I never knew that telling him my past would upset him, at least not like this. I thought that after all we've been through, after everything t...
