When Chester opened his eyes the following day, he turned his head a little to look at Sam who was still resting her head on his shoulder. He slowly moved his left hand up bringing it close to Sam's face, moving some of her hair that had fallen into her face. As he was moving a piece of her hair behind her ear, she slowly opened her eyes looking at him. Sam smiled when she saw that he was looking at her. “Good morning” Chester stated to her softly.
“Morning” she replied in a whisper.
Chester moved his hand away from her face bringing it back down to his side, “How are you feeling?”
“Better, now that I’m home.”
After Sam said that, Chester moved her a little more closely to him. He turned his head and kissed her forehead. Moving his lips from her forehead, Chester rested his cheek against her forehead. They both ended up staying a little bit more in bed before finally deciding to get up.
When they finished getting dress, the both of them went downstairs. Sam was about to make her way into the kitchen as so was Chester when the door bell went off. Looking at the clock that was hung on the wall in the dining room, Chester noticed that it was 11:24. Wondering who it could be, Chester told Sam that he would get it and walked over to the door opening it. Who was standing on the other side of the door were Lily and Draven.
Chester moved to the side a little and let them in. Draven got excited and ran further into the house. Chester turned his attention to Draven and saw Sam standing near the small steps. He smiled to himself and when Lily was inside, he closed the door behind her. The two of them then made there way over to Sam who was sitting down on the top step with Draven. Sam looked up at Chester and Lily and smiled at them. She turned her attention back to Draven who was showing her a piece of paper. It must have been something he drew over at Lily’s. She leaned down a little and gave him a light kiss on his forehead whispering something to him. After she did that, she got up off the step and made her way over to Chester and wrapped her arms around his waist.
“Mom, I want to thank you for watching Draven for us last night” she told Lily.
Lily just smiled, “It was no problem. I love to watch Draven anytime.”
Sam turned her head to look at Chester. She raised an eyebrow seeing if they should ask her mother on what they talked about as they where getting ready this morning. Chester nodded his head. Sam turned her attention back to Lily, “Um mom? Are you doing anything for Christmas?” she asked her.
“Nothing. Why?” she questioned.
“Chester and I where wondering if you like to spend Christmas with us?”
Lily looked at them before asking, “You guys are still having Christmas?”
Chester and Sam just looked at each other.
Lily continued on, “I’m just kidding. I know you guys haven’t had time to put anything up. And of course I would like to spend it with you guys.”
“We will have the decoration up before Christmas is over. As a matter of fact where going to pick out a tree today” Chester told Lily.
Draven heard that and asked excitedly, “We are?”
Chester turned to look at him, “Yes. We are.”
He quickly got up and walked over to Sam and Chester. He took a hold of both there hands and started pulling them towards to the door, “Let’s go then.”
“Not at this minute buddy. Where not done talking with grandma yet, okay? After where finish will go” Sam told him.
He stopped pulling them towards the door and turned to face them, “Okay. I’ll wait then” he said in a soft like sad voice. He let go of there hands and went over to the door to wait.
Going back to the grown ups conversation, Lily spoke up, “Is there anything you guys want me to bring for the Christmas dinner?”
“Well, were going to be having ham, mashed potatoes with gray, stuffing, carrots, and maybe a can of whole cranberries. That all I can think of right now” Chester replied. He was trying to remember what Sam and he made when they were able to have Christmas dinners.
Lily nodded, “I still like to bring something.”
Sam shook her head in disagreement, “You don’t have to do that mom. You’ve done enough for us already.”
Lily smiled lightly, “Yes I have, but I still would like to bring something. How about I just bring one dish over?”
Chester and Sam looked at each other wanting to see what they both thought. Sam shrugged her shoulders and nodded her head. Chester then looked back at Lily, “Sure. Just don’t go over board.”
“Oh. I wont” Lily stated.
Sam raised her eyebrows up at her mother.
“I won’t!” Lily repeated seeing Sam's expression, “Actually I’ll just bring over your favorite Christmas dish, Sam.”
Chester turned his head to look at Sam to see her expression, “You’re going to make homemade Tamales?”
Lily laughed to herself before responded, “No. It’ll be too much for me to make them now. I’ll just go and buy store brought ones.”
“I don’t care where you get them from. I haven’t have Tamales in a long time. Now all this talk about food is making me hungry” Sam said.
Lily laughed, “Alright. I’ll bring them over on Christmas. But before I go, I need to give you the gifts you wanted me to get for you know who” Lily replied turning her head to look at Draven who was still standing near the front door.
“Oh, yes. Thanks for being able to do this for me since I couldn’t, mom” Sam told her, “Draven, can you go to your room for just a little bit and go play one of your games” Sam told him.
“But I don’t want to. You said we were going to get a Christmas tree” Draven responded back to his mom.
“Draven, please do what your mother asked you to do. If you don’t behave you won’t be getting the gifts from Santa” Chester told Draven. Draven let out a sigh and walked to his room.
Once Draven closed the door, Chester and Sam helped Lily get his Christmas gifts from her car. Since Lily took her time and wrapped the gifts up already, all Sam and Chester had to do was put them under the tree after they got one. So in the mean time, Sam took the bags to the master bedroom and put them in the closet. Sam then went and got Draven and when he was ready, Chester, Sam and Draven all piled up into the family car and left to pick out a Christmas tree.
Christmas Tree Lot
Pulling into the dirt patch for the Christmas tree lot customers, Chester parked the car and shut off the engine. “Okay. Were here” he stated to the other two people in the car with him.
“Is there a pacific tree that we are going to look at?” Sam asked looking at Chester.
He shrugged his shoulders, “Not really. But I know I don’t want to pick out a scrawny looking one.”
Sam turned around in her seat to face Chester, “I don’t want a bushy one.”
“And I don’t want a short one.”
“Then I don’t want a real tall one.”
“I don’t want one that cost too much.”
Draven was still sitting in the back seat listen to his mom and dad going back and fourth with each other, “Mom. Dad” Draven spoke out.
Chester and Sam stopped talking and Sam turned around to look at Draven, “Yes Draven?”
“Can we go and pick a tree now?” he asked.
“Sure” she told him. She turned to look back at Chester, raising her eyebrow, “Why don’t we just look around for one until we find one that we both like?” she questioned.
“Alright.” Chester agreed. The three of them got out of the car. As they walked into the lot, Draven ran off in front of them going to find a tree. Chester took a hold of Sam's hand as they made there way pass the gate of the tree lot.
About a couple minutes of walking around, Draven stopped in front of a three. He turned to look back at his parents, “What about this one mom and dad?” Draven asked standing in front of the tree. Chester looked at Sam.
She let go of Chester's hand since she had been holding it the hold time they’ve walked the tree lot. After letting go, she walked around the tree Draven picked out shaking her head, liking the tree, “What do you think Chester?” she asked him.
“Let’s see how much it is first” he replied. He walked up closer to the tree and took a hold of the price tag that was on the tree, “Not a bad price” he said out loud to himself.
“How much is it?” Sam asked him in question.
“120.00” responded Chester.
Sam nodded in agreement with Chester, “Well, what do you think?” Sam asked.
“I want it!” Draven cried out.
“It’s not a bad tree” Chester said taking a good look at the tree.
“So, is this the tree?” Sam questioned.
“Yeah” Both Draven and Chester said at the same time.
After making the decision to buy that tree, Chester walked away to get a worker to clean and trim the tree a bit. When the workers of the tree lot came a picked the tree up, Sam and Draven followed Chester as he went and paid for the tree. The tree was then finished being trimmed up by the time Chester had finished paying for it. It was then tied to the roof of their car. As soon as the workers finished tied it down safely, Chester, Sam and Draven climbed back into the car and started the drive back home.
Pulling up to the driveway, everyone got out of the car. Chester and Sam decided to leave the tree on top of the car for now since they weren’t sure where they where going to put it at. Getting inside the house, Sam and Chester made there way into the living room to figure out a spot.
“Why don’t we put the tree right there” Chester stated pointing to where the sliding glass door were located at.
Sam thought about it for a minute before speaking up, “Or we could put it right next to the second couch were the speaker is at” was Sam’s replied.
Chester shook his head in disagreement, “It’ll block the T.V. if we put it there.”
“But then wouldn’t the tree block us from going out on to the patio?” she remarked back.
“We’ll just go out the front door to get outside.”
“Okay. The tree can go there. But the trees pretty wide so will have to move the speaker in front of the CD rack. As your doing that I’ll go get the Christmas tree decorations and find that tree stand” Sam let out as she ran out of the room to go and find the decorations.
“Thanks Sam!” Chester called out.
“Your welcome!” she yelled back from where she was.
While Sam was getting the Christmas tree decorations, Chester moved the speaker so that it was now in front of the CD rack.
When Sam came back into the room she had a box with her. She set it down on the couch; “If I remember correctly the stand should be in this box” she said out loud taking some stuff out of the box and setting it down on the couch. “Here it is!” excitedly she turned around holding a small box that had the stand in it. She moved towards Chester and handed it to him.
“Draven come out here and help us!” Sam yelled out as Chester opened the box and took all the parts out. He set the box down on the coffee table and started putting the stand together so that he could bring in the tree.
Draven walked into the room. Chester just finished putting the stand together and set in on the floor where the tree would be going. After he did that, he walked back outside and went over to the car. Untying the string the held the tree down to the roof of the car, Chester groan and moaned as he lifted the heavy and huge tree into the house. With a little bit of Draven’s help, Chester managed to put the tree in the stand. Once it was tightened down in the stand, he looked back at Sam and saw that she had brought out more boxes.
Sam was going through the boxes and pulled out a string of light, “You and Draven can put this strand around the tree” she stated handing the string to Chester.
Chester looked at Sam then at the string of lights in his hand. Without question, Chester took the lights and strung them around the tree. As Sam was taking out the garland from the boxes she brought into the room, she looked at the tree. Frowning a little she noticed that the three was leaning a little, “It's leaning to the left. The tree is leaning to the left” she let out.
Turning his head, Chester looked back at her, raising his eyebrows up.
“Really. It is!” she stated.
Chester leaned down to Draven who was looking through a box on the coffee table. He whispered something into his ear. Draven just shook his head to whatever he said. Standing up with his dad the both of them leaned there heads to the left, “Nope. It looks straight to me” Chester replied.
“Very funny guys” was Sam’s response. She moved closer to them carrying the garland with her, “Come on guys. Look, the lights are all bunched up at the top Chester. It needs to be fixed.”
“Well Draven, you want to fix the lights?” Chester asked him.
Draven shook his head in agreement.
“Well then and fix them for your mom” he stated to him.
“I get to climb the latter?” he asked looking back at his mom.
She shook her head, “Yes. You get to climb the latter. Just be careful not to fall.”
“Don’t hold onto the top, okay? You’ll knock the tree over if you do” Chester told Draven as he carefully climbed the latter.
Draven took a hold of the lights at the top and straighten them out as Chester helped him out to, “Okay. How does it look?” Draven asked his mom when he stopped after it was straightened out.
“Perfect” Sam told them.
Carefully getting down the latter, Draven walked over to his mom, “Alright, the tree ready for ornaments. Chester, you can start with the box on the coffee table” Sam told him. Draven followed his dad as Sam went back to the box on the couch. She picked up the first ornament her hand got on. Bringing up to her face, she laugh, “Draven, come look at this” she called out to him.
Draven walked over to her. She handed him the ornament to look at.
“You remember making this for me?”
The ornament was of a hardened coffee filter painted with red, green, and white paint. A hand print was in the middle of the coffee filter, “Wow! This ornament is lame” Draven stated.
“Hey! It’s not lame. But this one is my favorite” She said handing him another ornament. That one was a frame glued with glitter and beads. A picture of a young Draven was in the middle, “You made that in preschool.”
Draven laughed and shook his head, “I can’t believe you found these.” Draven turned around and walked back to the tree. Sam laughed lightly and turned to face the tree.
Chester walked over to her, “You all right? You’re usually never this cheerful about Christmas” he told her and wrapped his arms around her.
She smiled in response, “I’m just glad that I got better to celebrate Christmas this year. I just want to make sure it’s perfect and a Christmas not to forget.”
“It’s not” he replied. He then kissed her cheeked softly. They both watched Draven as he finished putting his ornaments on the tree.
