Page 75 of A Holly Brown Christmas
Just like the Browns always did.
When it was time to leave, it felt weird knowing she wouldn’t be back tomorrow. It was going to be the first time in her entire life that she wasn’t going to spend Christmas Day with her family, and it left her feeling extremely emotional. She’d cried when she hugged and kissed everyone goodnight.
At the door, Lucas stood with their bag of gifts in one hand, and Shmoop’s leash in the other. Holly knew this was a good thing, but it wasn’t nearly as easy as she thought it would be.
And that’s why it took almost an hour to get completely out the door.
Back at her house, she padded around a bit until Lucas picked her up and carried her over to the couch, cradling her in his arms. “If you’re not ready to miss out on Christmas Day with your parents, that’s totally fine. There’s no pressure.”
“I know, but…” She let out a long breath. “It’s going to be okay. I know I’m acting like a baby, but I’ll be fine. Really. I swear.”
The look he gave her said he didn’t quite believe her.
“We don’t have to be over at my parents’ house until three. We could still have Christmas morning with your parents.”
“They already gave us all our gifts and we gave them ours,” she said sadly. “It would be silly to go over.” But then she remembered something that came to her earlier about starting their own traditions. “Besides, this is our chance to maybe make our own Christmas morning traditions.”
He grinned. “Like…?”
“Like homemade cinnamon rolls in bed while we wear our matching Christmas jammies!”
“Um…yes to the cinnamon rolls, and a maybe on the jammies.” He chuckled. “I don’t think I’ve ever worn flannel pajamas with snowmen on them.”
“Then you’re missing out on pure joy because they’re adorable.”
“What other traditions can we make that don’t involve cartoon snowmen?”
“Then I guess watching Frosty is out.”
“Holly…”
“It can be whatever we want! If there’s a special breakfast we want, or when we want to open our gifts to each other, or…” She shrugged. “I’m kind of new at this too, so feel free to chime in anytime.”
Grinning, he kissed her cheek. “How about we play it by ear and see how we feel in the morning?”
“I guess…”
“But I’d like to introduce a Christmas Eve tradition.”
“You would? Really?” she asked excitedly. “What is it?”
“It’s that after we come home from visiting with family, we put all our gifts under the tree, and then go into the bedroom and unwrap each other.” He kissed her. “And we make love as eve turns to day.”
“Ooh…I like the sound of that. Can we start on that right now?”
He glanced at his watch. “That’s a lot of pressure on our stamina, but sure!”
Laughing, he picked her back up and carried her into the bedroom so they could start their very first tradition.
And honestly, she had a feeling it was going to be her forever favorite.
Christmas Day with the Brooks family was vastly different from Christmas Eve with the Browns. Lucas already knew that it would be, but because of all his family drama, this differed from any Christmas Day they’d ever had.
“I’m sorry, but what exactly is happening right now?” Holly whispered to him.
Shmoop was running around with his nieces and nephews, there were remnants of wrapping paper scattered all over the place, and his mother and sisters were in the kitchen where it looked like an entire cookbook of recipes exploded.
“Uh…Mom? Is everything okay?” he asked.
