“Do you want to see if Santa came?” Teddy teased as they made their way to the living room. Regardless of whether the kids truly still believed in Santa, Teddy and Nick had had fun waiting until they were asleep to bring out the pile of presents for each and putting “Love, Santa” on the tags.
“Oh, wow.” Natalie stopped short in front of the illuminated tree in front of the picture window. Her wonder made Teddy feel twenty feet tall, especially since she was usually the realist of the bunch. “Look, James. They—Santa—did different papers for us.”
That was another trick Teddy had learned from his parents. Natalie’s presents were all done in paper depicting a classic red fire truck decorated for the holidays, while James’s paper was covered in teddy bears wearing Santa hats. Like kids everywhere, they roared through the gift opening, but Teddy got plenty of pictures of their happy faces.
“She does look like me.” Natalie hugged the older girl doll they’d carefully picked out, along with a set of first responder outfits for the doll. “Take my picture with her for Grandma Ivy?”
“Absolutely.” Teddy snapped the photo, then added it to a special shared folder he had going for Aunt Iris and Grandma Ivy.
“Now, you get to open something,” she announced, still holding onto the doll.
“Me?” Teddy blinked from his position on the couch next to Nick. They had done their private presents for each other the night before, wanting to make this morning all about the kids.
“Yeah. You and Nick.” James joined Natalie in rooting around behind the tree until they came up with three small, slightly crumpled gifts. Teddy had to rub his chest. His heart might seriously not survive this moment.
“Me first.” James thrust his package at Teddy. For the first time, Teddy got why his mom had always opened gifts so slowly. He wanted to savor every ounce of this sweetness, every wrinkle on the wrapping paper. “We made it in class.”
It was a house shaped frame made out of Popsicle sticks with a hanger on the top to make it an ornament. And in the center was a drawing. Like most of James’s drawing efforts, it starred a lot of stick figures of varying sizes and facial expressions.
“Tell me about it,” Teddy urged.
“It’s me in the middle. And that’s Natalie next to me. And there’s you and Nick. And over there…” He pointed at a whole group of circle heads with smiling faces. “That’s Teddy’s family. And on the other side is Grandma Ivy and Aunt Iris.”
“It’s beautiful.” Teddy had to give himself a stern lecture about the inadvisability of tears.
“We were supposed to draw our family in the house.” James made a face. “But we got lots that don’t live with us. I didn’t want to leave them out.”
“You did a great job.” The whole don’t-cry thing had him grasping around for Nick’s hand. “I love it.”
“Me too.” Nick’s voice was gruff, and he squeezed Teddy’s hand right back. “Thank you.”
“Mine next.” Natalie thrust her packages at them. They opened them at the same time to reveal neatly painted wooden ornaments. Nick’s was in the shape of a Santa face while Teddy’s was an elf with a candy cane.
“They’re perfect,” Teddy managed to gasp.
“We made them at the after-school program,” Natalie explained, proud smile on her face. “We got to choose the shapes. Samantha tried to take the last Santa head, but I told her that I had two foster dads now, and one really is Santa with a suit and everything. So she traded me.”
“Wow.” Nick blinked a bunch of times, like he too was trying hard not to cry. And wow indeed. It was the first time in all these weeks that Natalie had used the word dads in conjunction with them. Others had here and there like Joyce and Teddy’s mom, but it didn’t feel as real as when Natalie said it.
“And you remembered Nick’s story about how we met?”
“Yup.” She laughed, a most welcome tinkling sound. “You in one of your crazy costumes. Nick in his. I know you guys aren’t really Santa and his helper, but sometimes…you kinda are.”
“You’re my Santas.” James stole the last of Teddy’s breath with a fierce hug for both of them. “And my foster dads. Maybe you can be both.”
“Maybe.” Teddy had to swallow hard again. “And you’re our kids. Both of you. I’m so proud of you. These are great presents. I’m going to treasure them always.”
And he would. No matter what happened with the permanency meeting, he wasn’t ever going to forget this Christmas and every special second. The ornaments were lovely, but the real gift was the way these kids had expanded their little family. The house had already been a home, and he and Nick would always have their commitment to each other, but the kids brought a whole new dimension to the household, an extra layer of warm and cozy that made all the challenges so worth it.
New Year’s Eve
“Will Teddy like the cake?” Natalie asked as Nick gave her a small spoon of frosting to taste test. It was funny how the same kid who’d had a spectacular “you’re not the boss of me” meltdown the night before could be so sweet now, so concerned about Teddy’s birthday. More of the forward and backward thing, but at least lately it was more like two steps forward, one step back.
“It’s chocolate. He’ll love it.” Nick was more of a savory cook than a baker, but the kids had demanded to do Teddy’s cake themselves. And he’d insisted that Teddy take the day for himself, going out shopping and to a movie with Rhonda, who shared his birthday. This left Nick alone with the kids, a rarity. He’d be working a bunch of weekends to make up for getting the holiday off, but it would be worth it. They’d had a pretty good day aside from some morning tears from James over the upset to his routine. However, he’d brightened when Nick had taken both kids and the basic drone that had been James’s Santa present out into the crisp, clear, cold day. And lunch had been a treat of accompanying Nick to his favorite diner.
Now, they were making a mess in the kitchen, but Nick couldn’t complain overly much as long as the kids were happy.
“He needs a lot of candles,” James chortled as he sorted through the box of assorted cake decorations they had left over from previous celebrations.
“How about we not burn the house down?” Nick plucked the super-size box of candles away from James. “Maybe one candle and then some of those Happy Birthday flags?”
“Oh, okay. But more candles means more wishes.”
“That’s not how it works.” Natalie looked up from her job spreading the filling on the layers. “One wish per birthday.”
“I need mine to hurry up and come.” James’s voice was wistful as he picked out some toothpick flags for the cake top.
“You just had Christmas presents,” Nick reminded him.
“Not for presents. The wish.”
“Ah.” Nick wasn’t sure whether to press him for more details or not. The kids’ ongoing wish for Grandma Ivy to get better was a given, but it was becoming clearer that her stay in the care facility was going to be a long one, if not permanent.