But, yeah, at some point, the lack of solid sleep had started to weigh on me.
That said, I always woke up in apanicif it was in the middle of the night and our baby hadn’t woken me up.
There was no reason to worry, though.
He was always with his father.
Did Venezio have a habit of speaking to his baby like an adult? Sure. But, God, he was a great father.
The same care that he’d always shown to me, he offered the baby.
I knew he’d been worried that because he had such a bad upbringing, because his own father hadn’t had a paternal bone in his body, he would fail at the task.
I’d never had a moment of doubt that he would be the best father possible.
Every day just proved me more and more right.
I made my way over to the couch, sliding in at his other side.
“Kinda defeats the purpose of taking care of him so you can sleep if you get up too.”
“I just want to sit and watch the lights twinkle with my boys,” I said, stroking my son’s cheek as I rested my face on Venezio’s chest and stared at the tree.
“He’s too young to really care,” I said, “but I’m so excited for his first Christmas.”
“Gonna be fun to play Santa,” Venezio agreed.
More traditions to create.
I couldn’t wait.
Venezio - 16 Years
“Go ahead. Ask your father,” Steph invited as soon as I walked through the door.
Uh oh.
What was I being roped into now?
“Ask me what?” I asked, glancing around the apartment.
Over the years, Christmas had only spread across our home. More stockings. Years’ worth of new decor.
Except now, we lived in a duplex with Andy, Sammy, and their family on the other side instead of that same small apartment.
“Mom still says that Santa is real,” our youngest, and our only girl, said. “I know he’s not. But she won’t say it.”
I glanced over at our sons, all of whom looked like fucking carbon copies of me, same smirks and all.
“What?” I asked, screwing up my face. “What do you mean Santa isn’t real?”
Admittedly, she was officially too old for Santa.
But that didn’t matter.
In our house, we never admitted Santa wasn’t real.
Steph still asked our boys, who were in their teens, what they wanted Santa to bring them for Christmas. She’d probably still be doing it when they were full-grown adults.
