Logan and I darted off to start pushing snow into huge snowballs for our snowwoman, but first he pulled me close to give me a kiss and hug.
“I see that!” Uncle Tad yelled.
“I see it, too!” Dell yelled. “Whoop!”
“Whoop, whoop!” Jaxi yelled.
Then we all got to work. We take our snowwomen contest seriously.
Sort of.
Now and then.
Our snowwoman was complete in an hour, and Logan and I were covered in snow, as we’d stopped to have a snowball fight with the rest of my family. She was crooked, leaning, tipping. I didn’t think she’d make it, but then Logan pushed against her middle section and righted her.
Our theme was Valentine’s. As in, she’s a Valentine Christmas snowwoman.
She was dressed in a huge, fancy red hat, a red sparkly scarf, with red heart eyes made from wrapped chocolate candy. A carrot nose with a red plastic heart at the end of it and tiny shiny plastic red hearts strung all over her body tied everything together. Logan had brought a red heart balloon, which he attached to her stick arm.
We lost. My cousin Teffie won, along with his seven-year-old twins. Their snowwoman had a sword, a black jaunty hat, and a black patch over her eye. She was clearly a lady pirate. She looked evil. Uncle Shoh protested that “evil pirates shouldn’t win Christmas snowwomen contests,” but he was voted down.
Logan and I hugged our Valentine snowwoman, me on one side, him on the other. Madison snapped a photo and sent it to me. We looked so happy.
We had a family potluck and sang funny Christmas carols at Aunt Tessa’s house, the fire roaring, the Christmas lights glowing, and Aunt Tessa’s pig, Zelda, oinking.
Logan has a nice, deep voice. I made him sing me Christmas songs in bed that night.
The T and A show was coming together. I continued to remind people that the T meanttinseland the A was forAllI Want for Christmas Is Santa, but they laughed at me and said, “Sure, Bellini. Sure.”
My mother would be the emcee. We would have a “throne” up front so she could sit the whole time and rest. She was still weak and tired easily, but she refused to miss the show. I bought a huge red velvet chair at a used furniture shop downtown. What a stroke of amazing luck to find a throne when I needed it.
The tickets were sold out. There were only so many people we could stuff into Logan’s offices, though it was a huge space. The potluck, headed up by my cousin Jaxi, had people signed up to bring various dishes. Lady Whiskey’s would provide the hamburgers and alcohol.
“I’m making a few adjustments to your costume, Bellini, and I’ll get it to you soon,” Stacy called out across the bar that afternoon. She was wearing a black leather vest over a deep-V black shirt and a black leather short skirt and red tights with elves. She likes “Christmas fashion that I can turn upside down.”
“I talked to your mother, and we decided what to do,” she said, getting a platter of drinks ready.
“You talked to my mother?”
“Yes. Of course. I had to get her input.”
“Why didn’t you talk to me?” Shoot. Where was this going? What had my mother said?
“About what?”
“About my costume?”
“Why would I do that?” Stacy seemed bewildered. “Your mom and I chose it for you, and so I called her to talk about how the adjustments should look. She knew the answers. You wouldn’t.”
“Well, that’s true.” I thought of my mother. I thought of how Stacy dressed. This was not going well.
“I know.” She sounded slightly irritated. I read her expression. She clearly didn’t understand why I was asking her why she didn’t talk to me about the costume when my mother was in charge of it. “It’ll be ready.”
“Thanks so much, Stacy.”
“I’m excited to see your dance with Logan. He’s a handsome guy.” She winked at me. “Trust me. That handsome guy is going to like your Tits and Ass Christmas burlesque costume.”
“I’m…sure. But it’s going to be…appropriate, right? I want my tits and my ass in the right places.”
