| Subject: Re: Family Christmas - C8/8 plus |
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fananicfan
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Date Posted: 17:47:34 06/17/07 Sun
In reply to:
fananicfan
's message, "Family Christmas - story after How We Became Us in the series" on 09:10:59 06/11/07 Mon
CHAPTER EIGHT – Old Traditions Become New
Saturday, December 24, 2005
Harm skipped his morning run, and he and Mac made love before getting out of bed. The shower wasn’t big enough for two, so Harm showered first. He knocked on Mattie's door on the way to the kitchen to start a pot of coffee and breakfast while Mac showered.
The day seemed to take on a life of its own, with one activity naturally flowing into the next. Harm's parents came by fairly early. Trish put a couple of presents under the tree and left an unwrapped box next to it. The plain box left near the tree aroused everyone's curiosity, but between being kept busy and being respectful, no one peeked.
Trish had asked if she could make the holiday meal when it was uncertain if Mac would be able to come to London, and Mac had no problem with keeping that arrangement. Mac could cook, but she didn't particularly like to and she didn't feel that a big holiday meal was the first meal that she should tackle for Harm's parents, but she, Harm and Mattie all helped with the preperations, following Trish's explicit directions. The kitchen was too small for even four adults to work in at the same time, and the others had seemed to find a way to rotate in and out of the kitchen without causing anyone undue holiday stress, so Frank, not wanting to be left out, pitched in to set the table. Everyone working together made it a real family dinner.
The meal was wonderful, and they were all stuffed when they left for church for the early evening Christmas Eve service.
After retuning from church, they opened the gift from Harriet. The note attached to the cover of the photo album said: Bud and I pulled some photos that had been archived and also made copies of ones that we'd taken through the years to start this album for you.
The first picture was one of Harm receiving his first DFC at the White House just before he'd met Mac for the first time. The next photo was of the two of them dancing at the NATO ball. Next, was Harm and Mac at Bud and Harriet’s wedding. The next photo was taken at the Sudanese Embassy at some point before they'd become hostages. Next, Harm and Mac were at baby AJ’s christening. After that was a copy of the recruitment poster that showed Harm's picture. The next picture was of Mac taken during her ‘15 minutes of frame’ when she was the prosecutor in the first televised court martial. Then came a picture of Harm and Mac crossing the finish line of the JAG-a-thon. Next was a picture of Harm and Mac taken on Christmas Eve 2001, the year they met Jennifer Coates. A copy of one that he already had framed, the two of them next to a Humvee in Afghanistan was next. After that was a photo of Harm and Mac taken at Bud and Harriet’s house on Christmas Eve, 2002. The next photo was a picture of Harm and Mac walking arm in arm at the admiral’s retirement party. The next page was empty, but Harriet had left a note in the pocket – insert a wedding photo here. The next page had another note: We’re sure that your long life together will make it easy for you to fill the remaining pages.
After the photo album was viewed, it was time for Trish to reveal the contents of her box. Trish sat with the box in her lap. "Harm told me that this Christmas was about traditions. When I was a little girl, we’d hang our Christmas stockings up on Christmas Eve so Santa could fill them. My Harm and I did that with little Harm until..." Trish trailed off. Everyone in the room knew that the rest of the sentence was...until Christmas Eve 1969.
Trish opened the box and pulled out two matching stocking holders. "Harm and Mattie, I have no idea where he found them, but Harm’s father bought these more years ago than I care to admit. He bought two because the two of them had to match." Trish extended her arms, and Harm and Mattie each took one of the metal stocking holders from her hands. They were replicas of an F-4, the type of plane that Harm's father had flown. Trish knew that she'd cry if she didn't keep going.
Trish pulled a third holder out if the box while Harm and Mattie placed theirs on the mantle. "This one..." Trish began as the object cleared the top of the box "...use to sit in the middle between the two planes. I thought the set should stay together, so I brought it for you, Mac." Trish took one last look at her former stocking holder before passing it to Mac.
Mac took the holder and looked at the small, but very detailed scene on top of a weighted wooden base. The scene was a room with a fireplace with stockings hanging from the mantle and a decorated tree nearby. You could see little cookies on a plate with a glass of milk on a table next to a comfy chair. It was the scene of the perfect family Christmas, the one of her dreams and the one Harm wanted this year. Mac moved to place her holder on the mantle and watched as Harm and Mattie opened a space between theirs for hers. Mac placed her holder on the mantle between the two planes. It was Mac’s turn. If someone didn’t say something to break the sentimental mood of the moment, she feared that she’d cry.
Trish broke the silence. "You three aren't done yet. What good are the holders without stockings?" Trish pulled out a green stocking. "This one I bought for Harm because it goes with the color of his eyes." Harm came over for his stocking, kissed his mother on the cheek and moved to hang up his stocking. The next one was red and it was for Mac. Mac came over to Trish, and thanked and hugged her before hanging up hers, too. The last one was a golden yellow, and that one was Mattie's. Mattie hugged her grandmother before hanging her stocking up as well.
With the stockings hung, it was time for Mattie and Mac to start baking cookies. After the two ladies had moved to the kitchen, Frank asked for a key to the apartment. Harm asked why he wanted the key, and Frank told him that his tradition was to make Christmas morning pancakes and that he'd be over early to get started. When Harm gave him a questioning stare, Frank confessed that it was so that Santa could fill the stockings. Harm retrieved a key to give to 'Santa.' It wasn't late, but Frank and Trish made the rounds before leaving to say goodnight and tell everyone that they'd see them tomorrow.
With Frank and Trish gone, it was time to surprise Harm. After setting the timer on their batch of cookies, Mac and Mattie went into the little bedroom and set up Harm's laptop before calling Harm in. They sat him in front of the laptop and opened the file labeled ‘Eve.’ Mac and Mattie left the room so that Harm could be alone.
A video began to play on the monitor. Harm knew that it must have been shot recently because Christmas lights could be seen in the footage. The photographer had shot the video as if the camera were the person, so, as Harm watched, it was as if he were there walking up to The Wall himself. When the camera scanned passed the section that Harm knew contained his father's name, he couldn't help but mumble, "Back the other way." As the camera moved back to the correct section, Harm's eyes scanned with the camera to find his father's name. As the camera zoomed in on it, Harm felt a little more emotional than usual. This was the second year in a row that he hadn't been there. His eyes remained fixed on the name, forgetting that he wasn't there, but seeing it on a computer monitor instead. He hadn't visited The Wall, but had spoken to his dad's picture to tell him about his promotion and being assigned a command position in London. He'd also spoken to his father's picture before leaving London to get married. Harm was so wrapped up in the moment that he spoke to his father as if he were really at The Wall. "I know that I haven't told you yet that Mac and I had a wonderful wedding and a great honeymoon. We also got custody of Mattie, so you're a grandpa." Harm's fingers reached up to run the tips over his father's name, but the computer screen wasn't cold like the granite would be, and it broke Harm's concentration...he wasn't there. "I'll try to get there next year, but if I don't, know that I'm thinking about you and that I'm hopefully celebrating Christmas somewhere with my family." Harm let his fingertips fall away from the screen and waited a moment to compose himself before he shut down the computer and left the room.
Harm entered the kitchen, kissed both ladies on top of the head and thanked them. He asked who'd done the camera work, feeling sure that it had been Bud, but to his surprise, it had been Bud's brother, Mikey.
Once the cookies were baked and the kitchen was cleaned up, Mattie set out three cookies and a small glass of milk before hugging Harm and Mac and going to bed. Mattie went to sleep easily, with the smell of freshly baked cookies filling the air.
In bed, Harm and Mac had to admit that today had been the best Christmas Eve that either one of them could remember. They also agreed that the smell of freshly baked cookies wafting through the air was a wonderful scent to fall asleep to, but it was apparently an aphrodisiac as well because they didn't get to sleep until after they'd made love...twice.
Sunday, December 25, 2005
Harm and Mac woke to noise from the other room. This time, Harm was pretty sure that it was Frank making pancakes, but he hadn't shared the information about an early morning visitor with Mac.
Mac grabbed his arm and leaned in to whisper, "We forgot to eat the cookies and drink the milk that Mattie left for Santa, and now she's up. We blew it. I know that she doesn't believe in Santa anymore, but..." She wasn't sure how to explain what a faux pas she felt they'd made.
Harm whispered back, "Don't worry. I'm sure that Santa got the cookies and milk when he filled the stockings." Mac looked at him with an odd expression. "Just because the red suited Santa Claus who's been described to generations doesn't exist, doesn't mean that someone or something doesn't work to make families happy and miracles happen at Christmas. You just have to believe."
Mac's eyes were wide with curiosity at what his comments meant. In her wide-eyed look, Harm could see the child inside her who wanted to believe in a Santa of some kind. Harm reached for her and his lips crashed down on hers, but she pushed him away. "Did you forget about Mattie? She's awake, and we should go fix her breakfast and let her open her presents."
"It’s not Mattie. It's Santa," he said as his lips again fell on hers and, this time, his kiss was so intense that she was caught up in it and couldn't pull away. Harm's steadfast belief that Santa was filling stockings while eating cookies in the other room had drawn her in. She wanted to believe. By the end of that second kiss, her rational thought was gone. Their bodies were now doing all the talking as they loved each other as they had last night.
After lovemaking, Mac lay on top of Harm’s body with her head resting on his chest. All of a sudden, her sense of smell was stimulated by an aroma in the air. "Santa's cooking bacon," Mac stated.
"That's not Santa. He doesn't cook. Frank's cooking bacon, and there should be some pancakes coming up to go along with that bacon."
"You knew that Frank and Trish were coming this morning and you...you...you had your way with me?"
"Hey, you're on top so I'd say that you had your way with me." Mac looked horrified and got up immediately. Harm tried to ease what appeared to be embarrassment. "It isn't like we're sixteen and had sex in my parents’ bed." Harm shrugged with a boyish expression of innocence on his face. "We're married. If they'd walked in on us, we could've said that we were working on that grandchild that my mother wants so much."
Mac cheeks were a beet red color as she scrambled to dress. "You're not funny, mister. Now get up."
Harm was finding the situation very funny, but Mac wasn't. "You'd better go do anything you need to do in the bathroom before I get there in five minutes, because I'm not greeting your parents until after I've had a shower."
Harm knew that he'd better do as he was told before his wife blew a gasket and he lost his chance to 'have his way with her' tonight. He slipped on a robe and grabbed his clothes before leaving Mac to get in and out of the bathroom before she fed his ass to the crabs. He opted not to take a shower, but gave himself a quick sponge bath with a warm washcloth before dressing. He feared that five minutes wouldn't leave enough time to shave if he'd showered, and he was sure that his mother would be disappointed in her pictures if he weren't clean shaven, holiday or not. Having three women in his life was making it complicated, but he managed to be ready by the time Mac knocked lightly on the door, telling him that his time was up.
Mac was in her robe, holding her clothes when Harm opened the bathroom door. "You can tell Trish and Frank that I'm getting dressed, and then I'll get Mattie up and be in to join you."
Mac took a quick shower and, after waking Mattie, was in the kitchen in search of breakfast in just under fifteen minutes. Mattie had used the bathroom, but came out in her pajamas for breakfast only a couple of minutes after Mac.
While everyone sat and ate breakfast, Frank explained a tradition that he'd had in his family. “My father would make breakfast on Christmas morning while my mother wrote her list. After breakfast, my mother would start the dishes while my father and my siblings and I wrote our New Year lists.”
Mattie asked, “You mean, like New Year's resolutions?”
“I suppose you could call them that. My father would've called them goals or want lists. You'd write down things like finish the fifth grade, make the baseball team, or save enough money for a new bike. My dad said that we wrote the lists on Christmas day because it was the spirit of the season and the support of our family that would help us achieve the goals on our lists."
"What did you do with the lists when they were finished?"
"We'd fold them up and put them in an envelope with our name and the date printed on the front, then seal the envelopes and give them to my father. He'd put them in an old shoebox. At Thanksgiving, he'd pull out the old shoebox and we'd get our envelopes before dinner. As a part of our Thanksgiving tradition, before the prayer was said, each one in the family had to give thanks for at least one thing that had happened in the year prior, and reviewing the list usually reminded us of at least one thing that we were thankful for."
After breakfast, everyone moved their dishes to the sink, and Harm, Mac, and Mattie wrote their lists while Trish and Frank did the dishes. When the lists were finished, they put them into envelopes with their name and date on them, and gave them to Frank to hold until Thanksgiving. Mattie then ran to her room to dress before the rest of the day's activities began.
The scene of the stockings and the decorated tree reminded Trish of the Christmas scene on the stocking holder that she'd passed on to Mac, and she posed everyone for a few pictures before present opening began.
Santa Frank had indeed come and filled the stockings, balancing them nicely with candy, trinkets, and a little cash, and he'd eaten the cookies and drunk the milk.
Between her parents and her grandparents, Mattie's gifts included a cell phone and the funds that she needed for her drivers' training. Mac had the class time scheduled so that she should be able to have her learner's permit by mid-January.
Mac got a bottle of her favorite perfume from Mattie. Mac's gift from Harm was a pair of one carat total weight diamond stud earrings.
Harm got a dark blue and a dark green silk shirt from Mac. Mac said that she couldn't decide which color she liked best...she thought either went with his eyes, but that his ugly shirts were on their way out. Harm laughed, knowing that the shirt that he'd been wearing the day that they'd finally decided to be together was the target of her remarks. Mattie gave Harm a photo of her taken at the wedding reception in a frame bordered in silver.
Harm's parents had booked two hotel rooms at their hotel near the airport for New Year's Eve, one for Mattie and one for the newlyweds as a Christmas present to Harm and Mac.
As the day began to give way to night, the curtain fell on the first Rabb Family Christmas.
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