Page 5 of The More the Merrier

Logan sat up and blinked. "A blizzard? In the desert?"

I pointed out the window. He followed my gaze and gave a low whistle when he saw the thick blanket of snow. "Holy shit."

"Do you know what this means? We have an excuse not to go home for Christmas! A really good one!"

"Hot damn." He reached over and shook Noelle gently. "Noelle, honey, wake up. You have to see this."

"Ughhh." Noelle threw a pillow over her head to block out the light. "I'm sleeping."

"You can sleep later. We can stay in bed all day if we want. Look out the window."

She finally sat up, glaring at both of us. "On Saturdays I get to sleep in as late as I want," she grumbled. "That's the rule."

"I know, I'm sorry, sweetie. I just got really excited and wanted you to see this. It snowed. It's still snowing." I rushed to the side of the bed and took her hand, pointing out the window.

She finally looked, her eyes growing wide. "What in the world? It doesn't snow here!"

"It did, though. And they are saying it's a surprise blizzard. It's not expected to let up for a couple days. We don't have to go home for Christmas. Mother Nature just gave us a perfectly acceptable reason to bow out, stay home and enjoy the holidays, just the three of us."

"What?" Noelle was suddenly fully awake as she bounded out of bed. She paused for a second to stare out the window and then rummaged in the dresser, pulling on an oversized sweater and leggings. "It's a good thing we went shopping yesterday! Daddy, you make breakfast. Liam and I will get the tree and decorations down. I'm not sure I have everything I need for Christmas cookies, but that's okay, we'll just have to wing it."

She pulled on a pair of fuzzy socks and bounded out of the room. I'd never seen her go from zero to one hundred so fast.

Logan chuckled and came up behind me, kissing my neck. "Well, so much for a lazy Saturday morning. I guess I'd better get dressed."

"Guess so." I turned to face him, wrapping my arms around his waist. "We get to spend Christmas together!"

"Looks like it."

Logan

I was actually a little sad about not going home, but it was worth it to see Liam and Noelle this happy. "Merry Christmas, babyboy."

"Merry Christmas, Daddy."

I gave him a kiss, and pulled on a pair of sweats and a beat up old t-shirt from my alma mater. "Well, we have our marching orders. Better get to it."

I wandered into the kitchen and drank a cup of coffee while making pancakes and bacon for breakfast. By the time the food was ready, Liam had the tree up and ready to decorate, and Noelle had already hung the stockings and put out the nativity. None of us were overly religious, but Noelle and Liam had a church background and the little nativity set made them happy, reminding them of the happy parts of their past.

"Breakfast is served," I called.

They both stopped what they were doing and hustled to the table.

I stacked three pancakes and three slices of bacon on each of our plates, and poured a fresh cup of coffee for everyone, draining the pot.

Noelle drenched her entire plate in sticky syrup and took a huge bite, leaning back in her seat with a happy sigh. "This is the best surprise. Thank you Daddy!"

Liam chuckled, looking confused. "I didn't have anything to do with it."

"You woke us up!" Noelle explained happily. "A blizzard in the desert right before Christmas probably won't happen again in my lifetime and I don't want to miss a second of it. We have to decorate and bake cookies and watch Christmas movies and drink hot cocoa, and build a snowman, and sing Christmas carols and make love by the tree…" she trailed off, presumably trying to think of more things we could do.

I could already see the wheels turning in Liam's head as he tried to figure out how to accommodate all the things she wanted to do. He was probably trying to figure out how to cram it all into the next two days, but that was unnecessary. I was always the more sensible one, or as Noelle called it, the boring, reasonable one.

I cleared my throat and stepped into my natural role. "We can do all of those things, I'm sure. But first things first. We need to call our families and let them know, and we need to check in with work and find out what the plan is for the next week."

Liam bit into a piece of bacon and chewed thoughtfully. "I'll probably have to do some work from home. I can't see the offices being open as long as the snow keeps falling like this. The city isn't set up to clear the roads. They don't even own a snow plow. And there's no way I am driving in this."

"Agreed. I'll probably have to do some work from home, too, but not much. Nobody's going to be out trying to buy houses in this weather."

---