Page 51 of Kiren

He shook his head. “Can we have more Christmas?”

I foundThe GrinchandRudolph.Kiren bounced in my lap, the happiest boy on Earth. We both knew the songs from both shows by heart and sang along.

My heart nearly broke because I realized right then how lonely I’d have been this Christmas without a boy. Until I had Kiren in my arms, I hadn’t known how alone I would have been, but now that I knew what I had, I never wanted to give it up.

“Those shows were great. I’m glad we watched them,” I said.

“I love them, Daddy. Want to watch them again.”

“Me, too.”

I hugged him hard to my chest.

He laughed and kissed me all over my face.

That night we made love, still in the hands and mouth stage. I diapered him afterward and he rolled dreamily into my arms and fell asleep.

The tree was deliveredon Sunday just after lunchtime. As I set it up in the tree stand and trimmed it to fit, Kiren kept coming up and sniffing the branches.

“Mmm, smell good.”

Together, we got all the ornaments and lights from the boxes. There was only one hiccup when Kiren dropped a silver ball ornament. It shattered on the tile.

He started to pout.

I put my finger to his lips, tapping twice. “No pouting. It happens every year.”

I grabbed the dustpan and broom, which I already had out to sweep up errant pine needles, and whisked the broken pieces away.

“See how fast it is to clean up? No big deal.”

His eyes went from big with shock to big with wonder. “Yes, Daddy.”

I went to the kitchen and dumped the broken pieces in the trash. When I returned, Kiren was back to decorating, singingJingle Bellsquietly to himself and wiggling his ass to the beat.

With two people working diligently, the tree was adorned within a couple of hours. We both stood back to admire our handywork.

“It’s shiny, Daddy.”

“We did great.” I clapped my hands. “I think it’s time for hot chocolate in front of our new masterpiece.”

“Yes, please!” Kiren hopped and skipped around me, following me into the kitchen chanting, “Santa is coming. Santa is coming.”

“Yes, he is. But not for another couple weeks.”

“Stockings, Daddy?”

“Yes. We can put stockings up.”

He ducked his head and began to pout again.

“What’s wrong, sweetheart?”

“I don’t have one.”

“We’ll get new stockings, one for each of us. Okay?”

He put his arms around me and hugged. “Best daddy of all.”

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