Brody & Kacie Special Christmas Scene

“That thing is way too big!” Kacie said with wide eyes.

I turned away from the huge pine tree, half covered in snow and cocked an eyebrow at her. Grinning, I couldn’t help myself, “Why, thank you.”

She rolled her eyes and shook her head, “I meant the tree.”

“Come on, the bigger the better, right?” I wiggled my eyebrows at her, “At least that’s what you’ve always said.” I watched with pure delight as her eyes bugged out of her head and darted toward the girls who were throwing snow at each other, blissfully unaware that I was making sexual innuendos at their mother.

“I don’t even know what to say to you right now.” Kacie giggled.

“Say yes. Let’s get this one. I know it’s big, but think of how fun it’ll be to decorate.”

“I don’t even think we have enough ornaments to cover half that tree.”

“Oh, I’ll take care of that, don’t you worry.”

“What do you think, girls?” Kacie looked to them for approval. They jumped up and down and started chanting my name as I grabbed the saw. “Brody! Brody!”

Sophia had given us the very important job of picking out the 2013 Christmas tree for the family room at the Inn. Kacie said they normally went to the church Christmas tree lot and grabbed one, but that wasn’t gonna fly. I wanted to show the Twinkies a real, old-fashioned Christmas this year. We bundled up in our snow pants and boots and drove out to Sullivan’s tree farm. After grabbing a cup of hot chocolate from the warming house, we loaded onto a big, wooden wagon pulled by Mr. Sullivan’s tractor. He drove us out about a quarter of a mile and dropped us off amongst rows and rows of trees to pick from. As we hopped off the wagon, I grabbed a saw from the small box and off we went to find the perfect one. It only took about 15 minutes before I spotted it. It was a beautiful, twelve-foot tall Balsam Fir and it was screaming at me to take it home. I felt like Clark Griswold himself, determined to conquer that giant beast.

I started at the base and sawed slowly until only a small section of trunk remained attached.

“Twinkies! Come help me give it a push!” I called to Lucy and Piper.

They ran over and we counted down together as we pushed the tree over, the wood crackling and popping as it fell. When it finally crashed to the ground, the girls squealed and clapped. I dragged the tree to the main pathway and we waited a few minutes before Mr. Sullivan looped around again.

It took some work to attach that tree to the top of my pick-up but eventually, Mr. Sullivan and I got it done. We were almost back to the Inn when I remembered to make a pit stop.

“What are you doing?” Kacie asked as I pulled into the parking lot of Hobby Lobby craft store.

I threw my truck in park and hopped out, “Stay here, I’ll be right back!”

A few minutes later, I dropped a dozen big plastic bags in the back of my truck and climbed back into the driver’s seat.

“What did you do?” Kacie asked, narrowing her eyes in suspicion.

“You’ll see.” I winked.

We made our way up the snowy driveway of the Inn and sent Kacie and the girls inside, out of the cold. I wrestled with the tree for a bit, eventually getting it off my truck and in the house. Sophia and Kacie had the spot in the family room next to the fireplace cleared and ready to go with the tree stand.

“Holy cow, that’s huge!” Sophia’s hands cupped her cheeks as I pulled the tree into the room.

Fred snickered and I fist-bumped him as I went by. We had the same sense of humor.

“I know! Isn’t it awesome?” I grunted, trying not to knock furniture over as I pulled the gigantic tree through the family room. I lifted it gently into the tree stand and breathed a sigh of relief when it fit. Not gonna lie, I was a little nervous.

Once it was up, you could truly see how massive this tree was. It towered over everything else in the already large family room, but was still a good seven feet from the 2-story ceiling. Lucy and Piper stood in front of it, their eyes glowing as they inspected it from top to bottom.

“Oh, I almost forgot!” I called out, sprinting from the family room out to my truck. I grabbed all the bags out of the back and hurried back inside with them. I’ll admit it, I love Christmas so much and may turn into a giant kid myself when it comes time to decorate. There’s no such thing as ‘too much’ regarding Christmas decorations.

“Mommy, look!” Lucy yelled as I started pulling boxes and boxes of ornaments out of the bags, every color, size and shape you could dream of. I even picked out some of the weird looking blown glass ones that girls seem to love. Piper dropped to her knees and started sifting through the boxes. Her little face looked adorable as her eyes darting around, concentrating so hard on each and every ornament.

“I can’t believe you did all this.” Kacie walked over and wrapped her arms around my waist, “I take that back, I totally believe you did all this. Thank you.”

I kissed her on the top of the head, pausing for just a second to smell her coconut-scented hair. “For you guys… anything.”

“Wait! I forgot the best ones!” I released Kacie and went over to my duffel bag. I took out two small wrapped boxes and handed them to the girls.

Kacie frowned at me, confused as I walked around behind her and wrapped my arms around her waist so that I had a clear view of Lucy and Piper. They opened the packages, their faces twisting into huge grins when they saw what was inside.

“What is it?” Sophia asked.

“Look!” Lucy held up her Cinderella ornament proudly as she looked over at Piper who pulled out her Snow White ornament out of the box.

“Push the button on the bottom.” I said.

They flipped their ornaments around and pushed the little silver buttons in unison.

Lucy’s started playing ‘A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes’ as Piper’s played, ‘Some Day My Prince Will Come’. Their faces beamed as they pulled the ornaments up to their ears and danced around the family room, amongst the pine needles and ornament boxes.

Kacie turned and threw her arms around my neck. “You have to be the most thoughtful person I’ve ever met.”

“Nah. I just love them…and you.” I planted a kiss on the tip of her nose.

“I love you, Murphy.”

“I almost forgot, I have a present for you too.” I whispered in her ear.

She eyed me suspiciously. “You do?”

“Yep, but I have to give it to you later. It’s attached to me and definitely too big to hang on this tree.”

  

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