A Very Merry Murphy Christmas 

“Emma.” Brody sighed. “For the fifty-seventh time, leave the tree alone.”

I peeked over the kitchen counter just in time to see Emma sit back on her knees and grin widely at Brody as he walked over and gently took an ornament out of her hand. He kissed the top of her curly-haired head and hung the ornament back toward the top of the tree. “Actually…” he said under his breath, tilting his head to the side as he stared at the tree.

“What are you doing?” I smiled to myself as I watched him take all the ornaments, one by one, from the bottom half of the tree and squeeze them into the top half.

“There.” He stepped back after putting the last ornament up and admired his work. Turning to face me, he proudly gave me the same big grin that our daughter had been blessed with. “Now she can’t take them off and eat them.” He scooped her up in his arms and walked into the kitchen.

I leaned to my right and looked at our sad-looking tree. The bottom part was bare except for the few rows of lights he hadn’t been able to move up, and the branches at the top were all weighed down by too many ornaments.

“Wow. Eat your heart out, Charlie Brown,” I teased playfully.

“Hey, it might not look like much, but at least now she’ll quit pulling ornaments off and eating them. I’m so worried she’s gonna choke.”

Emma laid her head down on Brody’s chest and smiled at me as if she knew what he’d just said.

I reached out and tucked a rebellious curl behind her ear. “You have your daddy wrapped around your little finger, don’t you?” She sat up quickly and shot her arms out, innocently leaping into my arms.

Pulling her in close, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath of her hair. She still had that baby smell that I loved so much. “Can you believe she’s already nine months old? Where did the time go?”

“I know.” Brody sounded a little sad. He planted another kiss on her chubby cheek and walked over, opening the fridge. “This baby thing takes a little getting used to. She moves faster than some of the guys on the ice.”

“She is a little stinker sometimes, huh?” I agreed.

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