Page 30 of All I Want For Christmas

They decided that they were going to have friends and family over and cram all of the holidays Matt would be missing in the next few months into one big party, and their friends came through like champs, bringing food, drinks, and a lot of love and support.

They had Christmas cookies—made with the frosting and sprinkles that, unfortunately, Lindsey and Matt hadn’t gotten around to using in any other way—they had New Year’s Eve hors d’oeuvres, and Super Bowl sub sandwiches and chips, strawberry cake for Valentine’s Day, Irish beer for St. Patrick’s Day, and jelly beans and chocolates for Easter.

“This is even better than Chreaster!” Liam decided, helping himself to chips and jellybeans at the same time.

Lindsey bit back her caution about upset stomachs and just smiled. “It really is, isn’t it? Did we miss anything?” Last year Matt hadn’t been home for Christmas so they’d celebrated Chreaster in April when he did have leave.

“I don’t see any fireworks or burgers.”

They all turned to find that Caleb had arrived.

“Fireworks?” Aidan asked, running at the firefighter. “Really?”

Caleb scooped Aidan up in the arm that wasn’t filled with a huge sack of burgers. “I figure people celebrate Christmas in July, so maybe we should do some Fourth of July at Christmas time.” He grinned at Matt. “Seemed appropriate to send a soldier off with a proper salute.”

Lexi came into the kitchen with Shay, Caleb’s niece, holding one of Lexi’s hands and her son Jack holding the other. She grinned at Lindsey. “He’s really excited that he could come up with something Logan couldn’t even pull off.”

“I’m not sure the city allows fireworks in people’s backyards in December,” Lindsey said, lifting a brow, waiting to see what Caleb was up to.

“Well, it just so happens that I have an in with the fire department and I was able to get a special permit…and convince some of the firefighters to put on a little show.”

Lindsey’s eyes got wide. “You’re not serious.”

“I most definitely am.” He said. “We’re going to have to pack all the food and fun up and head down to the waterfront…and probably share the show with a few other people who might wander by…but there’s going to be a lot of red, white, and blue going off in about an hour.”

Just then the doorbell rang. Everyone invited to the party—i.e., everyone they knew—felt free to just walk in and make themselves at home.

“Thatwould be the boys’ Christmas present,” Matt said, coming up beside her and wrapping his arm around her waist.

Lindsey felt a niggle of trepidation. “What did you do?”

He grinned. “Come see.” He looked around. “Where’s your brother?” he asked Aidan.

“Playing upstairs. Our present is here?”

“Yep.”

Aidan wiggled and Caleb set him down. “Can I see it now?” Aidan asked.

“Get your brother,” Matt told him.

Aidan went thundering upstairs and Matt looked at Lindsey with a giddy expression. She groaned. He’d gotten them something big. Like a dirt bike or a canoe or something equally ridiculous.

He’d gotten them a trip to Disney World when Aidan was only three. And then Matt hadn’t been able to go along. It had been too much for the boys at three and four and too much for Lindsey by herself, so her mom had ended up going along. But Matt had been so excited to give them something amazing and she hadn’t had the heart to tell him that he hadn’t really thought it out.

That was a side effect of him not being here all the time. But it wasn’t his fault that he didn’t really know what age-appropriate activities and giant-assed-over-the-top gestures were.

Then again, a dirt bike or canoe or god-knew-what-else was going to be somethingshe’dhave to learn about and maintain and…

The boys came running down the stairs and flew toward the front door.

“Whoa!” Matt started after them and Lindsey followed.

She knew nothing about canoes.

Not that it was a canoe for sure, but she’d known nothing about the archery set he’d given them at ages four and five—alsotoo young—or the martial arts classes he’d signed them up for at ages five and six.

That had been a little more age appropriate, but she’d had to re-arrange schedules around them and learn about roundhouse kicks and jab punches. Yes, Matt had signedherup for a class too. It was never a bad idea to know some martial arts and a few self-defense moves, he’d insisted.

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