“Chocolate chip cookies and a nice, tall glass of milk,” Aunt Rachel assured Patton.
“And I think Uncle David and the twins put some cookies out too,” Uncle Wally added.
“Santa will know they’re not from me,” Patton said confidently. “Then, they’ll get more presents than I do!”
Grant adjusted his pillow with no intent of budging. “Legend has it that Santa only visits little boys who have been good all year long, so you need not waste your time trying to suck up in the eleventh hour, Son!”
“Daddy,” Patton grumbled, shaking Grant’s arm. “Get up!”
“Okay,” Grant said, throwing the covers off and tucking Patton under his arm like a football in one swift motion. He stood up from the bed. “But, I have to warn you…if Santa has to alter his route because you’re still awake while Uncle Zach and your cousins are all snug in their beds with visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads like good little boys and girls, you’ll probably get shafted on gifts anyway, so this is a gamble.”
Hailey bumped into David on her way back into the living room. “Have you seen my husband?” she whispered. “I thought he was in the bedroom with Patton.”
“Yes,” David nodded with a grin, “and if you value good ole tradition at all, you might want to act fast! As we speak, he is in the kitchen assuring Patton that he has it on good authority that the whole milk and cookies story was a profitable scheme concocted by Borden and Betty Crocker, who hoped to make names for themselves by monopolizing the commercialization of Christmas.”
“Oh, my poor three-year-old…” Hailey rolled her eyes as she started briskly toward the kitchen.
Arms crossed, Hailey leaned against the door casing as Patton walked toward her holding a paper plate with two yellow Zingers on it and carrying a bottle of water. He looked up at his mother, his blond, curly hair a mess and his features mimicking the easy confidence that reminded her of how much he took after his father. “Santa Claus doesn’t even really want milk and cookies,” Patton told her. “It’s all manipulation on the part of the manufacturers.”
“Is that so?” Hailey grinned at her son before raising a skeptical eyebrow in her husband’s direction.
“What man wouldn’t appreciate a little variety, Hailey?” Grant shrugged. “Just tryin’ to help a brother out!”
“Santa Claus likes Zingers, but only the yellow kind,” Patton said.
“How convenient!” Hailey chuckled.
“Huh?” Patton asked as he continued past her to sit his goodies for Santa along the fireplace hearth with the others.
“I mean… how convenient that Grandma had just stocked up on them,” Hailey smiled as she followed her son, all the while glancing over her shoulder at Grant. Once the Zingers and water were in place, Hailey gave Patton a kiss on the cheek. “Run on to bed now before Santa catches you up and passes right over Grandma and Grandpa’s house. Mama and Daddy will be in there in a minute!”
Patton scampered off down the hallway toward the bedroom, and Hailey turned back to Grant. “I need to have a word with you, Mr. Claus,” she whispered.
“In my defense, I thought about telling him that on the first Christmas, the wise men brought gold, frankincense, myrrh and yellow Zingers, but I feared he would share that revelation with his Sunday school class, and then you would kill me.”
“Good call,” Hailey nodded.
Grant pointed to the mistletoe hanging above them. “Tradition, right?”
“Are we sure the entire legend of the mistletoe wasn’t orchestrated by Cupid and his evil followers as a way to begin marketing Valentine’s Day as early as December and encroach on the whole Christmas juggernaut?” Hailey smiled sarcastically.
Grant grinned as he took Hailey in his arms and began kissing her. Just as he got lost in her kisses, he felt a strong hand on his shoulder. “I hate to break up this party, but I would love to get a couple hours of sleep tonight, and the kids will be up before sunrise!” David insisted.
Hailey laughed. “I’ll go get Patton to sleep, then I’ll join you,” she promised.
Randy chuckled as he placed an elf hat on top of Grant’s head! “Mom’s making coffee.”
David smiled at his brother and shoved an instruction manual hard into his chest. “You ever put together a dollhouse?”
“Thank you for getting Patton’s basketball goal put together,” Hailey whispered as she dug through a bag of stocking stuffers and strategically filled Patton’s stocking.
“That was a piece of cake…three pieces, and I was done. Two minutes, tops,” Grant said, flopping on the couch. “Please tell me how it is that I have one son…yet I have spent my night putting ridiculously tedious stickers on four little girls’ dollhouses?”
Hailey smiled. “I’d say it definitely puts you in the running for uncle of the year.”
Melissa hung stockings along the mantel in her robe as Rachel took a couple bites out of the chocolate chip cookies her girls had left for Santa.
“Dude, you weren’t supposed to eat all the Zingers,” Wally whispered. “You’re supposed to make it look like he left some!”
“Alas,” Grant shook his head, speaking slowly and too loudly, as though English was Wally’s second language, “what you see as a mistake, my three-year-old will see as proof.”
Hailey rolled her eyes as she stood to hang Patton’s stocking with the others. Nora proudly examined the whole scene. Big, old fashioned, colored bulbs were lit on the tree, and below the tree was bountiful evidence that Santa had come!
There was a gentle tap and the front door cracked opened. “Did we make it?” Jack whispered as he and Jessica slipped inside. Jessica tossed her long, dark hair to the side and waved eagerly at her sister and brother-in-law!
“Just in time,” Randy said, walking toward them with mugs of hot chocolate in both hands.
A few hours later there were kids in Christmas pajamas asleep amongst piles of wrapping paper on the living room floor.
Randy put his arm around Nora, his eyes full of pride as he looked around at their beautiful family. Leah was sitting on the floor next to the Christmas tree twirling a blue Christmas ball with one finger.
Grant was on the couch, sitting Indian style with a box of assorted chocolates in his lap, smashing each of them with his fingers until he found the one he wanted.
