“Yeah, I see ‘em,” Cash said.
“There’s one for you too,” Momma said. “Right here.” Faith picked up the square of neatly folded fabric on the end of the counter. “I figured you were due for a new one.”
“He is,” Lark said. “I’ve seen his, and it’s pretty ragged.”
Cash took the apron from her and unfolded it. Momma had made it out of blue and green fabric, some with whales and some with tropical leaves. He grinned. “Trying to make me feel bad about living in Wyoming in the winter, aren’t you?”
Momma laughed. “It was on clearance,” she said. “I guess no one wanted the tropical fabric.”
“It’s great.” Cash stepped into her and gave her a hug. “Thank you so much, Momma.”
“Can we do ornaments now?” Celeste asked.
“Yes,” Daddy said. “Let’s do ornaments, and then we’ll eat, and we can do the rest of our gifts after dinner.”
“Daddy, I don’t want to wait until after dinner,” Grace complained.
“Well, then you won’t get any gifts at all,” Daddy said, without missing a beat.
Lark had carried in Cash’s bag of gifts, and he took it from her and moved into the living room, where a great big Christmas tree waited. It was clear the kids had opened most of their gifts already, as toys and books, family games, and movies sat in the windowsill and on the coffee table.
“We just got a few silly things,” he said to Celeste.
“My gift to you is awesome,” she said, and Cash wished he had the confidence of an eight-year-old.
“Grandma Carrie’s not here,” he said.
His father met his eyes. “No, she couldn’t make it.” But he was not telling the truth. Cash looked over to Faith, and she wore a nervous look in her eye too.
“That’s too bad,” Cash said, though he didn’t actually think so. “I’ll have to take Lark to meet her another time.”
Daddy nodded, and Cash reached into the bag to get out the Christmas ornament he’d made for Faith and Daddy that year. They always simply wrapped them in a paper towel, and he got it out and rolled it around in his palm.
Faith said, “Get your ornaments, girls,” and they ran off down the hall to their bedrooms to do that.
Cash handed the ornament to Lark and went to put the other presents under the tree. When he turned around, he found Tyrone standing there with two ornaments wrapped in paper towels, one in each hand.
“Have you got your ornament, bud?” he asked.
Tyrone up both hands and said, “Mine for Momma, Daddy,” and a bunch of other words that Cash couldn’t quite make out.
“That’s right, bud. We’re going to give them to Momma and Daddy.”
Celeste and Grace returned to the living room, and they all sat down on the couch.
“All right, hand them all to me,” Cash said, taking charge. He took the paper towel-wrapped ornaments from everyone, and with all four of them in his possession, he extended them out to Daddy and Momma. “Maybe you could do two each,” he said.
His got handed to his father, and once they’d left his hands, he couldn’t do anything else about it. Momma unwrapped one of the ornaments and grinned at the paddle board.
“I made that one,” Grace said. “Because we got those new paddle boards this year, and it was so fun to go out onto the lake with them.”
“Yeah, that’s awesome,” Daddy said, taking in the pink and yellow paint on the paddle board that could only be four or five inches long. “This is perfect, buggy.”
He stood up and put it on the tree while Momma unwrapped the next ornament. She held it up for everyone to see, and Cash smiled at the very lifelike rendition of his family’s Irish setter.
“That one’s mine,” Celeste said. “Because Hollis had to have that surgery this year, and I thought we could remember her on our tree every year.”
“Oh, that’s very nice,” Momma said, and she handed the ornament to Daddy to hang.
