Page 251 of Back in the Saddle

After showing us those, she set them on the coffee table then went to another bag that Eric had brought in, this one Pottery Barn.

“And a stocking for you.” She tossed a white, honeycomb faux fur stocking at me. “One for Uncle Eric.” She tossed a bright red cable knit stocking at me. “And one for Henny!” she brandished the last above her head.

From what I could tell through the movement, it was a brown velvet stocking with black embroidered pine trees and black trim.

“I think they got things covered,” Moses murmured, humor in his tone.

“Whose idea was Pottery Barn?” Ava asked suspiciously.

“Uncle Eric’s,” Maisie replied. “Gracie told him the mooses were lonely, and Uncle Eric said mooses live in a forest, we had to find trees. So we looked at the trees at Michael’s, but they’d been picked over. Then Aunt Shirleen texted Uncle Eric about Pottery Barn, and he said we should try another store, and that’s when we got thepillowsandstockingsandtrees. And this!”

She went to the last bag and pulled out a creamy, thick throw that was fake fur on one side, and had the forest design with deer and mountains in black on the other side.

I made a mental note to steal that for my house while Eric came back with Gracie and a packet of AA batteries.

They got to work unboxing three glass trees of varying heights that looked great with the moose, and even better when they got the batteries in and lit them up.

I got to work on trying not to sigh like a grown-up Victorian lady at how adorable they were with all their dark heads bent together putting batteries into glass trees.

I’d turned into a total sap.

I didn’t care even a little bit.

“Can we eat now?” Roam asked.

“Meatballs!” Maisie shouted and raced to the kitchen.

Ava sighed and got up. I got up with her, since everything was in the oven keeping warm so we had to respread the spread.

In the end, the food was great, and although the extra touches to the Christmas décor weren’t splashy, they definitely upped the ho-ho-ho factor. Better still, they’d always remind Eric of Gracie and Maisie. Huge bonus.

And I was thinking Maisie had an eye, because the deep purple she picked provided the perfect pop of color and looked really good on the tree.

Most of all, through this, I was struck by three things.

Christmas blessings, if you will, of the early variety.

The first, the present company made Jeff instantly comfortable. The getting-to-know-you portion pretty much ended at introductions, and then it was all about football, strategizing how to hide all the cords (Jeff pulled that off with some bough placement magic and a slight adjustment to the tree) and an in-depth discussion about Phoenix’s shooting ranges.

The second, Henny loved the girls. Henny loved the adults. Henny could give two shits about cat toys, but he loved batting ornaments along the floor, even if they broke and necessitated me finding Eric’s broom and dustbin to sweep them up.

Henny was having the time of his life, perhaps literally.

Henny was finally home, and Henny had a family.

The last, I didn’t have to worry anymore, because Eric had the same.

He had a lot of brothers. He had sisters. He had nieces.

And they were all the best kind. The ones he chose for himself, and the ones who would take a bullet for him (definitely literally).

I was thinking this thought as Eric and I were in the kitchen, cutting pieces of cake to pass around.

I felt his hand come to rest on the small of my back and looked up at him to see he was very close.

“Hey,” I whispered.

“What’s got you looking like that?” he whispered back, tenderness in his eyes as they moved over my face.

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