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Christmas had arrived. It had been a year since Katarina and Josh had found out about their fourth child; A year since they found out they were doing a reprise of their roles in the Great Comet.
But it was Christmas . . . And Josh wasn't home.
They both did their best to make Christmas great for their kids; Josh's management refused to let him leave his tour temporarily to go home for Christmas, so he was planning on sneaking away anyways. He hadn't even told Katarina about it, only Brittain and Lucas knew.
Katarina was in the kitchen, practically beating the cookie batter in the bowl. She had hardly slept the night before, she'd suddenly realized that morning she'd forgotten to get three incredibly important presents, so after wrangling up all of her kids, she braced the Christmas Eve crowds, and then had to deal with a fender bender.
The back of her car was destroyed now, and now she was finally home, with her youngest daughter, Melody, strapped into her high chair, and the three twins gated into the living room. Polar Express was on, and Katarina was desperately trying to whip up food for Christmas dinner before her parents came over.
Her stress levels were off the wall. Her hair was pulled back, and she was sweating profusely in her clothes. She knew she would have to try and change whenever the food was done, and then free all of her children and feed them.
Lucas and Brittain were supposed to have come over, but they'd canceled last minute, telling her that the snow was too thick for them to drive through from their apartment across the state. So Katarina was alone, and struggling.
It was already bad enough that Josh wasn't coming home for Christmas—but it wasn't like it was his choice. His management refused it, but it was also their fault they scheduled him to perform on Christmas at some Christmas-party-bash-thing.
Every night leading up to Christmas Eve, they'd been facetiming for an hour—an hour which Josh spent ten minutes each with the three oldest girls, and then spent the rest with Katarina and Melody.
Today, she'd yet to have heard from him. The snow had stopped in their part of New York, leaving their neighborhood with frozen streets and driveways.
Once she'd scooped the cookies onto a tray and put them in the oven, she set the timer and went to check up on the kids. They were all sitting contentedly, watching Christmas movies. Evangeline brightened when she saw her mother, and she exclaimed, "Mamma! Can we watch Christmas Story after this?"
"Of course you can, baby," Katarina replied, smiling down at her. "Does anyone want any juice boxes? Any animal crackers?"
