day 11!! woo sorry for the late post but i was busy BEING a christmas tree myself. anyway.
the twins are three years old here!
please enjoy!
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"Are you excited, love bugs?" Cady asks, turning around in her seat for a second to look at her daughters. They both perk up a bit and look back at her with eager nods.
"Yeah," Layla says happily, kicking her little legs back and forth. Leo just nods again.
"Good. We're gonna pick a perfect tree, huh?" Cady replies. They both nod again.
"And fairies!" Leo says, holding up her wand. "We hafta hunt for fairies."
"Oh, yeah, can't forget the fairies," Cady chuckles. "We're almost there."
They have an artificial Christmas tree that they had bought the year before the twins were born, after they had moved into their house instead of the tiny apartment they had been in previously. That tree is now getting rather cramped, full of family ornaments and decorative ornaments. So, this year, they've decided to do both an artificial and a real tree. The real one for the family ornaments, and the artificial one for the 'pretty' ornaments.
"We here!" Layla cheers happily when she feels the car stop moving, looking eagerly out the window at all the trees around.
"We're here!" Janis replies, undoing her own seatbelt and going to free Layla. Cady gets Leo on the other side. "You got your fairy wand?" Layla nods and brandishes it. It's actually just a chopstick with some ribbons stapled to the end, but neither of the twins have let go of their 'wands' for a solid four days. "Good. Let's go!"
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"Well, hello there," a kindly older gentleman greets as they make it to the main area. "Welcome, welcome."
"Hi," Cady greets politely, adjusting her grip on Leo as she turns away from the stranger. Leo has always been the shy one, and recently adopted the strategy of, 'If I don't look, maybe they won't talk to me.' It does seem to work pretty well.
"My name is Lewis, pleased to meet you. I take it you're here for a tree," the man says, adjusting the straps on his worn overalls.
"Yeah," Janis confirms.
Layla pipes up, "And-and...um...fairies."
"Fairies?" Lewis says. Layla nods and holds up her wand. "Well, I'll let you in on a little secret. We have lots of fairies in our trees, but they hide pretty well. You'll have to pick a real nice tree for them. But I bet two little fairy finders like you will have no trouble."
Layla looks at him with wide eyes and nods very seriously. Janis chuckles and kisses her temple as Lewis directs them over to the hot chocolate and cider being served by a woman, presumably his wife, and then shows them where to go once they're ready to go find a tree.
"Thank you," Cady says.
"T'ank you!" Layla copies, waving at him over Janis' shoulder.
Lewis waves back and calls, "You're welcome! Let me know how many fairies you find!"
"He look like Santa," Leo pipes up quietly, the first thing she's said since they arrived. Cady nods and laughs.
"He does a little bit, you're right. Maybe they're friends," she says. Leo looks at her in awe. She hadn't considered that possibility. "Let's get something to eat and then we'll go find our tree."
"And-"
"And fairies, of course," Cady finishes. "Ooh, they have lots of yummy things, what should we get?"
"Cake," Leo says.
"They do have apple cakes, those might be good," Janis says. "Apple cakes and hot chocolate?"
"Works for me," Cady nods. "They can share one cake, but get them their own drinks."
"Of course," Janis says, carefully adjusting her grip on Layla as she heads to order everything. Cady takes Leo to the tables nearby and finds them a place to sit.
Janis joins them with Layla after a few minutes, carefully holding both the little one and a tray of hot drinks. Layla helps out by holding the bag of treats.
"It's too hot?" Leo asks, taking her small cup of hot chocolate with a bendy straw and holding it out for her mama to assess. Cady carefully holds the paper cup and takes a small sip.
"Yeah, it's a bit too hot. Here," she hums, taking one of the three pastries and ripping it in half. "Eat for now and wait for it to cool off."
"Mmkay."
"Mine too hot, Mama?" Layla asks, also holding her little cup out to Cady. Cady chuckles before she also takes a little sip of this cup and nods.
"Yeah, it's pretty hot. You have your cake too," she replies, giving Layla the other half of the pastry. They both dig in to the icing covered treat while Janis and Cady get their own things sorted.
"Oh, these are good," Janis hums, taking a bite of her own cake. "What do you think, girls? Yummy?"
"Yeah," Leo says happily around a rather large mouthful. Cady chuckles and gives Leo a gentle peck, sweetened even further by the icing on the baby's lips.
"Little bites, baby love. Don't want you to choke," she says gently. Leo carefully chews her large bite and sticks her tongue out to prove she got it all down. "Good job."
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The twins look delighted when a large cart rolls up to take them to the trees for sale. Cady and Janis each hold one in their lap and smile at the delighted giggles of their babies.
"Here we are," the kind woman driving says. "If you want to see any other areas just give us a holler, and we'll be here to take you back up once you've made your decision."
"Thanks," Janis says, helping all three of her girls down with a kiss to their cheeks. Cady smiles and laces their fingers together as the girls run ahead with their wands held aloft. "Don't go too far, girls! Make sure we can see you."
"Okay, Mommy!" both twins yell behind them, running their little fingers over pokey pine needles as they go. Layla trips over her clunky snow boots, but just pushes herself back up and carefully examines the tree she fell next to.
"You okay, Ladybug?" Janis chuckles. "What do you think of that tree?"
"Big," Layla says, trying to look up at it and falling over backwards again.
"It is big. We need one a little smaller, that won't fit in our house," Cady says. She crouches down next to the baby and kisses her cheek. "Any fairies?"
Layla shakes her head. "Hiding."
"Mm. Lewis did say they're pretty good at hiding," Cady hums. "We'll have to look pretty carefully."
"Speaking of looking carefully," Janis says. "Where is Leo?"
"Uh oh," Cady says. She looks around everywhere they can see for the bright yellow coat Leo had on. Nothing. "Leo!"
"Leo, baby, where are you?!" Janis yells. Cady picks Layla up so they don't lose yet another child and runs after her wife. "Leo!"
"Lolo? Bumblebee, where did you go?"
Janis peeks through to the next aisle of trees. Nothing. Cady checks on the other side.
"Here she is."
"Thank god," Janis sighs in relief. She follows her wife between the trees and runs over to her baby. "Leo, snowflake, why did you run so far?"
"The tree smelly," Leo says happily, pressing her little nose back to the branch she had practically been inhaling.
"Yeah, they do, but you need to stay with us so you don't get lost," Janis says, her heart still racing. "You scared us. Come on, Bumblebee."
"Sorry Mommy," Leo apologizes. Janis bends down to her level and pulls her into a tight cuddle.
"We forgive you, baby. You need to stay with Mama and I though, that's important. You and Layla have to hold hands with one of us, now. Come on," she hums, kissing Leo's hairline and picking her up. Cady kisses Leo's cheeks over and over, making her giggle.
"We thought the Grinch took you!" she exclaims. "I would've been so sad."
"'M here, Mama," Leo says sheepishly. "'M sorry."
"Don't worry about it, munchkin. Just stay close now so we know you're safe," Cady hums, kissing her chubby cheeks one more time. "Ooh, your little cheeks are getting cold."
"We'll have to go fast, then," Janis hums. "We have to find our perfect Christmas tree."
"Lolo, you found a fairies?" Layla asks. Leo shakes her head.
"No, I forgotted to look. Lala, trees are smelly!"
"Why?" Layla asks, looking to Cady for an explanation.
"Um... I don't know," Cady says. "I don't know very much about this kind of tree. But we can learn about it when we go home, okay?"
"Okay," Layla agrees with a nod. "Can climb a tree?"
"Not these trees, Ladybug," Janis says. "If we climb the trees they could get hurt. Lewis needs his trees to stay healthy and pretty for Christmas."
"Oh."
"We'll go to the playground when it gets warm outside again and you can climb all the trees you want," Janis says to cheer her up. Layla nods happily.
"Mama?"
"Hmm?"
"Down, p'ease?"
"Okay. Good manners," Cady says. "Do you want to hold hands with me or Mommy?"
"Uh... Mama," Layla says, putting her little hand in Cady's. Cady smiles at her and squeezes it.
"Okay. Come on, we have to go find some fairies! And our tree, I'm getting cold."
"I think Leo's cold too," Janis chuckles, squishing Leo close to her. Leo nods, her little teeth chattering slightly as she clings to her mommy. "Poor baby. Here." Leo whines as Janis sets her down. "Do this."
Leo looks confused, but begrudgingly does some jumping jacks. She doesn't quite get the rhythm right, she's just jumping up and down and clapping, but it gets her blood pumping enough that her little body warms up slightly.
Janis takes her hand and starts them walking after Cady and Layla. "Are you having fun, pumpkin?"
"Yeah," Leo says happily. "I luh you, Mommy."
"I love you too, sweet girl," Janis replies.
"An' Mama. An' Lala," Leo continues, jumping up and down a couple times to leave footprints in the snow. "An' Daffy an' Ellie."
"You just love everybody, huh?" Janis chuckles. "That's a very good thing, Bumblebee. We love you so much."
She smiles with a weird sense of pride as Leo nods and skips alongside her, humming a little song to herself and casting her spells with her magic wand.
"Mommy! Lolo!" Layla yells from a ways ahead. "We finded a tree!"
Leo looks up at Janis. Janis nods. "Go on, baby."
Leo runs ahead to go get her mama and sister. Janis follows quickly and they make it at almost the same time.
"Layla's set on it," Cady says. "Would it fit?"
"Let's check," Janis says. She pulls the tape measure out of her pocket and hands the list of measurements of their house to Cady. She measures the height first. "Lala, come here. What's this number?"
"Uh... um..." Layla says, crouching down to try to read it. "Nine... seben."
"Good girl! Do you remember what the name for that is?" Cady praises.
"Ni...ninedy?" Layla asks.
"Yeah! That's a big number, that's so good!"
"Ninedy-seben, Mommy."
"Good job, Bug," Janis praises. "Ninety seven inches, that's..."
"Just over eight feet," Cady says. "Plenty of room that way."
"Alrighty then, now... this way," Janis grunts, snapping her tape measure sideways to measure the width. "Lolo, what's this number?"
"Fibe... zewo," Leo says. "Fifdy."
"My smart little munchkins," Cady says, delighting internally. "That's pushing it a bit, but it's only about two inches wider than the door. I think it'll be fine."
"We'll just push really hard," Janis chuckles. "Well, it'll fit in the house. Hopefully."
"Will it fit on the car?" Cady asks.
"Hopefully," Janis repeats.
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"Jay, mpenzi, it said on the sign that they could help you," Cady says anxiously. Janis is standing on the side of the car trying to tie their perfect tree to the roof. "You're gonna hurt yourself."
"No, I can do it," Janis insists.
"Mama, wanna go home," Layla whines. "Too cold."
"I know, love bug, we'll go home once Mommy gets the tree tied on," Cady says. "Almost done."
"Mama, we snuggle p'ease?" Leo yawns, reaching out for her. Cady unbuckles her seatbelt, since they aren't going anywhere for a while, and holds her in her lap. Layla undoes her own seatbelt and climbs down to join them.
Cady unzips her coat and both of theirs, squishing them both close and zipping her own back up to hold in their shared body heat. Her daughters both nuzzle into her chest as she kisses their little foreheads and rocks them gently from side to side.
They all jump when they hear a thump and several profanities come from above them. Cady peeks her head out of the car to see her wife repeatedly banging her head against the roof of the car.
"Mommy say grownup words," Leo says, also trying to peek at what's happening.
"Janis," Cady says gently. "Come down here."
Janis pouts and climbs down, leaving their tree only half secured. "I wanted to do it myself."
"I understand, love, but the girls are tired, and cold. They're more important than your pride right now," Cady murmurs, holding the twins with one arm and reaching for her wife with the others. "Let them help you get it on and then you can be our big strong person and set it up yourself when we get home, okay?"
Janis lets Cady gently kiss her cheek, and feels some of the tension melt out of her body at the feeling of her wife's warm lips against her frigid skin.
"Okay. I'll be right back," she sighs. Each twin gets a gentle peck on the forehead before she turns around and heads back to find an employee to help them tie the tree down.
"Mommy," Layla whines sleepily. Cady kisses her temple and hushes her gently.
"She'll be right back, baby. She just has to find somebody to help her get the tree tied on and then we can all go home."
Layla nods and cuddles back in, sighing peacefully at the warmth and love of her mama and twin.
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Janis does eventually return with Lewis, who manages to help her secure the tree in a grand total of about two minutes. He gives them a final salute and reminder to come back next year before he starts the trek back to his spot. Janis pouts slightly as she heads around to take one of the twins.
Cady unzips her coat and passes her a half-asleep Layla. Janis heads to get her buckled back into her car seat, and Cady follows suit with Leo. Once the babies are secure and cozy with blankets over their laps, Janis and Cady finally take their respective positions up front.
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Janis gently squeezes Cady's hand as she drives. Cady squeezes back and turns around to check on the twins, finding them both sound asleep in their seats. Their little heads are slumped to the side and chubby hands are limp around their fairy wands. Cady looks between them and her wife a couple times with a small smile.
Sometimes Christmas miracles are small.
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hope you enjoyed!! see you tomorrow!