Christmas Time Is Here: Academy Exclusives

That's Christmas To Me

A/N: Song Lyrics are Pentatonix...

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Owen knelt, concentrating on building a fire in the fireplace. He paused, hand trembling slightly as he placed a piece of wood on top of the kindling.

His childhood had been full of fires in the fireplace during the month of December. Not just the week after his birthday up to Christmas. But the entire month, usually always starting the day after Thanksgiving. His mother insisted.

Presents usually showed up under the tree a few at a time, often marked 'Do Not Open Until Christmas'. He left those alone but a few packages wouldn't be marked and he wasted no time in trying to see if he could figure out what was in them and not alert anyone to the fact he'd been sneaking peeks at the presents.

Come to think of it, he never was caught by anyone unless it was his nanny.

Nanny Fiona truly had eyes in the back of her head.

She also had a kind and cheerful heart and never minded if he stayed up trying to catch Santa for hours past his bed time every Christmas Eve. In fact, she'd insisted that Santa wanted him to share the cookies they were leaving for him and every year, he went to bed, with green and red sugar from the holiday snickerdoodles they had made with Cook, rimming his mouth and ensuring he had sweet dreams.

He was getting a late start this year. It was only a few days until Christmas, perhaps they should talk about new traditions to start next holiday season. He mentally added the nightly fire to the list that he intended on starting later this evening.

The fireplace is burning bright, shining along me
I see the presents underneath the good old Christmas tree
And I wait all night 'til Santa comes to wake me from my dreams
Oh, why? 'Cause that's Christmas to me

Nathan wrapped his arms around Sang as she stared out the front window. "What's on your mind, Peanut?"

She shrugged one slim shoulder. "I still miss snow." She admitted. "It was always a huge part of Christmas when I was growing up. Building snowmen, making snow angels and having snowball fights for hours on end before we came in to the house and had cookies and hot chocolate." She said, glancing over her shoulder at him.

He dropped a kiss on the tip of her nose. "Well, it's certainly rare for any snow to show up in Charleston but we could at least make sure to always have the cookies and hot chocolate part of your favorite memories."

She smiled. "That would be great, Honey. We could also have the snowball fight portion of the tradition too. If it's hot enough, we could always substitute water balloons. And if it's not, well, I saw an indoor snowball fight advertised at one of the stores. It would be cool too..."

He laughed. "I'm sure we'd have just as much fun with that as our usual water balloon fights." He said. "Anything else that really used to make your holidays bright?"

"Well..." Sang thought for a long moment. "Before she got sick..." Her voice trailed off and she stared out at the yard again.

"What used to happen before?" he prodded her gently to finish the sentence.

She sighed and turned in his arms, resting her chin on his chest as she looked up at him. "Before she got sick, there would always be mistletoe around in the doorways and they always kissed beneath them." Her voice quivered a bit at the emotion behind the memory broke through. "They used to love each other before it ended up the way it did."

Nathan kissed her forehead. "You know, Sean's always in to up his mistletoe game. Now we'll never hear the end of it from Mr. B about all the mistletoe attacking the house this year." He teased.