Christmas Love

      "But we always read that story!" piped up the young Zafara, Lysander also leaving the bed and running towards the searching Uni.

      "It's tradition!" exclaimed the small Lupe, Sage jumping up and down on the squishy bed along with his twin brother Chase.

      Lysander readily agreed with the twin boys and to prove their point he swiftly grabbed the thin book from the hooves of Leandra. "If you won't read it, I will. There's nothing like a traditional story the night before Christmas."

      "But it's so old! We've heard it so many times and we know exactly what is going to happen in the story." Replied Leandra wearily following the retreating Zafara who was clutching the small book protectively to his chest.

      Lysander nimbly jumped atop the bed and gently nudged the two twin Lupes towards him so they would be near him to see the pictures in the book. The twins eagerly jumped into each of his arms and snuggled close against him, waiting for the familiar story to issue forth from his lips. They loved the story and both thought it just wouldn't be Christmas without it. Lysander flicked to the first page and began where Leandra left off using different types of voices and dialects in the story so it would be more enjoyable for the young boys. Leandra sighing in defeat climbed to the foot of the bed, and laid down belly first listening to the story as it took shape in her mind's eye.

      When the story was finished and the twins were fast asleep in Lysander's arms Leandra smiled lopsidedly and softly asked, "You've heard that story your entire life so why wouldn't you want something different for once?"

      "I like familiar things. The story is a tradition and it's not only that, but that story is the twin's favorite and they haven't heard it for their entire life need I remind you. I'm doing it for them. After all what would Christmas, or for this case Christmas Eve be without doing something good for someone else? I love them and I love doing things for them that they love. I don't care if I've heard it over a million times, but every time it's read to the twins I can tell by the twinkle in their eyes and their hushed voices that it's new each and every time for them. That's why I read it." He finished gently kissing the twins atop their red heads.

      Leandra sighed and then very quietly crawled over to Lysander and said with admiration, "I'm so proud of you. You're exactly right. It's hard to believe I didn't see that, but I'm so happy you did. Thank you."

      The Zafara grinned ear to ear and then looked at the clock hanging on the wall beside the bed, "You're welcome and Merry Christmas."

      The Uni looked at the clock in slight puzzlement and found it to be twelve thirteen. She grinned and looking back to Lysander replied, "Merry Christmas to you too."

      When the Zafara awoke, he could smell the enticing aroma of ham cooking and could see out of the corner of his eye that the Christmas tree was filled to the top with presents wrapped in paper of all colors. He grinned and noticing the twins were up, he got up himself to inspect the tree and its contents. He could see dozens of presents for himself and couldn't wait to open them, but most of all he couldn't wait to see the twin's faces when they opened their own presents.

      Lysander hearing a soft pattering looked around until he found the source of the noise; it was snowing. He made his way across the bedroom floor and childishly pressed his face against the frosted window pane. Lysander looked out to find the word transformed over night into a white haven. Ice crystals shimmered on the edge of the house and dangled off of the trees issuing forth a radiance of pure beauty. The snow that was falling from the baby-blue was in the form of large clumps, but they were falling slowly; almost lazily to the ground.

      With a shout of glee Lysander, forgetting the presents underneath the tree went to the nearest closet and grabbed out a parka, a scarf, and a pair of gloves. He put them all on after he had dressed himself in warm clothes so he would not catch cold, "Sage, Chase wanna come outside and have a snowball fight!"

      The answering footsteps coming down the hall from the kitchen told him that they would, very much indeed. He smiled kindly as they greeted him with merry Christmas's and pulled on their coats. "Alright you two. You go on out there, I'll be just a minute."

      They giggled like conspires to themselves and literally hopped to the door in a frenzy. Lysander turned away from the front door and made his way to the kitchen where he found Leandra busily cooking ham, turkey, and all sorts of other tasty foods. "Planning on feeding an army?"

      She smiled at him and wiped her hooves on the apron hanging lopsidedly from her neck, "Maybe, but with you three to feed there won't be enough for an army, let alone for one more person."

      Lysander winked, "You know you're probably right about that. The twins and I are going to have a snowball fight, if you wanna join you can."

      Leandra laughed, but hearing the timer of the stove she quickly turned around and opened the over door to bring out the steaming rolls. "I don't think I'll have time. Be back in one hour so we can open presents and then eat, alright?"

      Lysander nodded and ran out the kitchen to the front door intending to spend every minute of the hour having a blast. Before going outside though he looked through the glass window to see both the twins waiting on both sides of the door with snowballs in hand. He chuckled to himself as he sneakily walked to the back door and looking both ways walked out. He grabbed snow off the white ground and tightly packed it into a snowball and repeated the process until he had two large snowballs ready for launching. Lysander crept to the edge of the front part of the house and with a shout ran towards the twins letting loose the snowballs. They hit both twins smack in the face, but before he could get away they had pelted theirs at him hitting him in the back and his tail.

      An hour later the three traipsed into the house dripping wet, cheeks aglow both with the cold and the exertion they put forth in their war of wits and snow. After they had gotten warm clothes on they made their way to the Christmas tree and sat as close as possible next to the tree. After a couple of minutes Leandra walked in and sat herself down by Lysander, "Well, what are you waiting for? Dig in!"

      "A paint set!"

      "A sail boat!"

      "A green Quiggle plushie!"

      And so on.....

      When all of the presents were open and the wrapping paper strewn everywhere, including on the tree, Leandra brought forth a small thin present wrapped in shiny blue wrapping paper. "I wanted to save this for last. I bought it this morning for all three of you because I know you would love this."

      Sage grabbed the present and eagerly tore open the wrapping paper to find three small thin books all titled The Night Before Christmas. "We already have this book."

      Leandra smiled showing pearly white teeth, "I know. I decided since all of you love the book so much I would buy you each your own copy so you can read it any time you want and keep it in your room. If you guys don't mind, I would like to keep the old one."

      "Alright. Thank you, Leandra!" exclaimed Sage passing out the other two books.

      Lysander knowingly glanced to Leandra to see her watching the twins with love as they flipped excitedly through the pages. Lysander crawled over to Leandra and whispered, "I'm proud of you. See you didn't need me to make them happy. The gift of happiness was there the entire time."

      "I suppose so, but because of you I realized that it's not just good enough giving them something they would probably like. You should give them something you know they would love and would treasure for years. And I think next year I'll read the story, because after all what is Christmas without tradition and, above all, love?"
The End