Honey Belden cooed at six month old Bernadette as she dressed her in a red and white Santa sleeper.
“What a cutie pie you are, baby dear. I’m so sorry you have a code in your node. Mommy get you some eggnog and it’ll be gone
in a jiffy. Let’s you and me go into the
media room and watch Miracle on Thirty Fourth Street while Daddy is off at
work.”
Honey shouldered the baby onto a burp cloth. As she strolled from the nursery to the other
room where a big screen tv blankly stared back at them she bumped against a plastic
Rudolph wearing a candy cane to replace a lost antler. Rudolph toppled over into the Santa
Claus who promptly began to sing “Santa comes but once a year.” Honey purposefully kicked both the reindeer
and the Santa out of the way. She hated
these tacky decorations more than she loved her baby girl and promised herself
to send Rudolph and Santa back to the North Pole soon.
Honey set Bernadette into her swing set, turned it on so the
motion would settle down the baby’s fussiness.
Honey, then, settled back into the comfy, overstuffed chair, putting her feet up on the matching ottoman.
She loved this chair upholstered in taupe chenille and the beige and
taupe throw that she snuggled into for warmth.
The home theater housed the Compact Disc player that sweetly played Take
Me Out to the Ball Game.
What in the world?
Honey thought as she thrashed around for the remote to turn it off in
favor of the movie.
She eyed the remote on a small oak stand on the other side
of the room next to the Christmas tree.
Honey hated having to get up to retrieve the control but she reluctantly
shed the throw and arose from her comfortable nest. In a corner of the room of
dark mahogany wood stood a beautiful Douglas Fir tree trimmed in original
elementary as she and Brian termed the style of decoration. While each room in the huge house hosted a
Christmas tree decorated in a theme, the tree in this room wore ornaments that both
Honey and Brian had each made in elementary school. They laughed the entire time they had
decorated the tree, chortling over whose invention sported the homeliest
design. Brian held Bernadette and Honey
placed each bauble on the baby’s tiny fingers before Brian slid it off onto the
most perfectly perfect branch on the fir.
The family enjoyed decorating this tree more than anything else so far
that season.
Honey noticed Bernadette beginning to nod off in her swing
set and smiled to herself as she immersed herself back into her own cozy
nest. The room smelled so good,
too. A pumpkin scented candle flickered
in the upstairs window and cast a gentle shadow on the wainscoted wall.
Pushing the appropriate button Honey tuned into the movie
she and Bernadette decided to watch. The
warmth of the room together with the endearing aroma of the spicy candle lulled
them into their afternoon nap.
Soon the house phone went ‘choo-choo’ because it happened to
be a train and Brian loved the authenticity of the sound. Honey heard it through her dreams and chose
not to answer. Let the answering
machine pick up any message the caller chose to leave. Her eyes opened to the monkey call Santa
encouraged a young Natalie Wood to imitate.
Then Honey’s eyes drooped back into slumber land.
Next the front door bell pealed a Joy to the World chord
Brian had programmed for the holiday season.
Again, Honey chose to remain nestled and hoped Bernadette would not
awaken either. This time when she peeked
through one slit eye she found a stack of mail on the judge’s bench hiding him
from view of the courtroom. Through the
other half-opened eye Bernadette stayed sleeping, too, appearing as content as
Honey felt.
Far away yet only in the downstairs entryway, the
grandfather clock chimed the hour and Honey counted them in her reverie – one,
two, three, four. Hmmm, she hummed to
herself. Seemed like she needed to do
something at four o-clock. Change
Bernadette? Feed her? Bathe her? Brian would be home soon.
Make dinner?
They decided when they set up housekeeping that they would
hire no help but do all the chores themselves.
Honey did hire a cleaning crew to come in every two weeks but yesterday,
Monday, they had scrubbed the house from top to bottom. While Honey had no one to cook she thoroughly
enjoyed her time off from the Frayne/Belden Detective Agency and devoted some
time to meal planning and cooking those meals.
Honey yawned and stretched, luxuriating in the splendor of
an afternoon spent doing absolutely nothing.
Not a thing but being with Bernadette and doing just what the two of
them wanted to do. This is heaven, Honey
whispered to the baby. Bernadette also
yawned and pushed her baby fist upward, too, causing Honey to smile.
In the back of her mind she knew what dinner would be –
homemade soup she had made over the weekend.
The delicious soup, meant to be served with taco chips on top, wouldn’t
take long to heat up. She would change
Bernadette, take her downstairs and together they would have dinner ready for
Brian as soon as he came through the door at 6 p.m.
The credits from the movie scrolled and Honey turned off the
screen.
“Hi Baby,” Honey sung to her daughter. “Ready to get up?”
Bernadette gave her mommy a toothy grin. Honey’s heart melted.
“Upsy, daisy, baby.”
Honey picked her up and took her to the nursery to change her poopy
diaper.
“Good girl,” Honey said and wrapped Cinderella into the
container designed for easy disposal.
“And away we go, Baby Bernie.” Bernadette’s mommy scooped her up and
together they went downstairs and into the cheery kitchen. Into her highchair Honey placed the
child. She took all the ingredients out
of the fridge and began getting dinner ready.
“Honey, I’m home,” crowed Brian a moment later. Upon entering the aromatic room, he swung
Honey around in a bear hug and lifted Bernadette from her seat and repeated the
dance with his baby daughter.
“We’re so glad you’re home, Daddy.” Honey joined her husband
and daughter and she and Brian’s lips met in a three way kiss on Bernadette’s sweet
mouth.
