Chapter 24
Do you ever get that feeling? The one
when you wake up and you haven't opened your eyes yet but you feel like someone
is staring at you? That's how I woke up that morning. I didn't open my eyes...
I didn't want to. I was exhausted and I probably could have stayed in bed all
day. I laid there for a little bit longer hoping whoever it was would go away,
but he didn't.
"Auntie Grace" I heard him
saying from the side of my bed, "Are you awake?"
"Nope," I said still keeping
my eyes closed.
I felt him climb up onto the bed
beside me and the next thing I knew one of my eyelids had been pried open.
"I see you in there." He
said laughing, "Wake up."
I squinted my eyes open and looked
over at the clock on the table... 6:50 am.
I opened them the rest of the way and
sat up in bed yawning and stretching my arms way up over my head. I glanced
over to where Nick should have been sleeping and noticed that he was already
up. I looked over at Baylee who was laying beside me, his hands propped under his
chin and sighed.
"So..." I said looking down
at his innocent face, "where'd you come from?"
"Georgia?" He replied, but
it was more like a question than an answer and of course that wasn't what I'd
meant.
"No silly, I mean do mommy and
daddy know you're awake?"
"Yep. Daddy and Uncle Nick told
me to come up here and wake you up!"
"Ah ha!" Those two were
bigger children than the actual children.
"Guess what Aunt Grace?" He
yelled as he ran towards the door and spun back around to look at me, his face
glowing in the sunlight that bounced in the window.
"Yes Tater?"
"Santa came last night!"
"Oh he did?"
"Yes he did!" His excitement
made me smile. "He brought me a scooter!"
"Sweet!" I said trying to
match his enthusiasm. "You can show me how to ride it later."
"No silly, it's for little
kids." He rolled his eyes at me as he bounced up and down with excitement.
"I see," I said sounding a
bit dejected. "Okay well run downstairs and tell daddy and uncle Nick that
I'll be down in a minute."
And with that he ran out of the room.
~~~~~~~
I slid out of bed and walked tiredly
to the bathroom. We'd stayed at my parent's house late the night before and I
really could have used a few more hours of rest. I stood in front of the mirror
in the bathroom and took a deep breath.
"Ugh. You're pale, you look like
crap and you're dying from cancer." I said it out loud to my reflection.
I'd said it everyday for the past several weeks.
I let the words echo in my heads for a
few moments as I washed my face in the sink and brushed my teeth.
"But..." I went on closing
my eyes and trying my best to think positively, "It's Christmas day, you
are surrounded by family and friends and you're marrying the man of your dreams
in just 6 days."
I opened my eyes and looked into the
mirror again... this time I smiled.
This had become my morning ritual. I
gave myself a moment each morning to get out all of my negative thoughts, those
things that were bothering me most. I was allowed to list as many negative
things as I wanted but I'd made the rule that for each negative I came up with
I had to find a positive. It had become more difficult lately to think of
enough positives to match the negatives, but there were definitely still
positives there. I knew in my heart if I ever lost sight of the positives...
well I might as well go ahead and give up.
I threw on some clothes and went out
to the landing. I looked down the stairs and into the living room where Nick
and Brian were wrestling with Baylee. I laughed as Nick lifted him up over his
head and pretended to body slam him onto the couch. Brian came up from behind
and tackled Nick and Baylee fell off the couching because he was laughing so
hard. I stood there for a few more moments taking it all in, enjoying these
moments and making them last before I headed down to join them.
"Good morning," I said
cheerily as I walked over to the stereo and flipped on some Christmas music.
Nick hopped up off the couch and came
over to where I stood. He wrapped his arms around me and kissed my neck.
"Good morning babe."
We spent the next hour watching Baylee
unwrap his gifts and then the next several hours after that putting them
together and playing with them ourselves while he snored softly on the couch.
It had been such a wonderful experience getting to view Christmas through a
child's eyes. I'd all but forgotten what it really felt like to be a child on
Christmas morning until I watched him ooh and awe over each small gift.
We'd gathered in the kitchen for lunch
and were all sitting around enjoying quiet conversation when Nick disappeared
into his office. He came out a few minutes later carrying a sloppily wrapped
envelope that had a red bow stuck to the top. He handed it to me and smiled.
"Sorry about the shitty wrap
job." He said as he sat down beside me and motioned for me to go ahead and
open it.
I laughed, "it's okay... but I
thought we'd finished with gifts." We'd promised not to go overboard with
our gifts that year. We'd done a lot of work on the house and we're spending a
good deal on our wedding.
"It's just a little something
extra," He said as if it were nothing at all, "go on... open
it."
I gently unwrapped the envelope and
then slid the seal open pulling out the card. I opened it up and inside were
two first class tickets to Australia. I held them up and looked over at him
questioningly. I'd always wanted to go to Australia, but hadn't ever expressed
that desire.
I'd stared at them for a few moments
when I felt him take my hand. I turned and looked at him and he smiled.
"I want you and I to go to
Australia for our honeymoon. We're going to stay in the same room, in the same
hotel that I stayed at while I was in Perth."
"Aww... thank you Nick." I
said leaning over and kissing him.
"It's nothing really... I just
want us to see the sunrise there together."
I couldn't help but smile as a
teardrop rolled down my cheek.
***