The Matthews Family

🎄Riley's POV🎄

"How many more sleeps till Christmas Mommy?" Leilani asked me as we set up our Christmas tree.

"Twenty-four sleep baby girl," I said with a smile.

Jordan and I have been married for a good nine years. Not a day goes by when I don't wake up thankful I'm next to her in bed. I love waking up to her every day, her hand around my waist and my face nuzzled into my spot on her neck. The second best decision I ever made was marrying her.

The best decision I ever made was to have kids with Jordan. Leilani is six now, it's felt like she was just three years of yesterday and complaining about wearing her red boots to school, now she's six and loves hot chocolate and watching Barbie and a Christmas carol.

Nala is nine now, she's bright and kind with everyone, she doesn't care who you are and has no problem showing you that she cares about even the smallest thing. She's growing up way too fast because she's beginning to think holding our hand while crossing the street isn't cool anymore and she loves spending time at her best friend Kinsley's house.

They are both just growing up way too fast.

Jordi and I are beyond proud of them for everything.

The last nine years with my wife have been nothing short of amazing, filled with love and care. She still holds onto me every night like she used to when we were teenagers and sometimes it feels like we still have that teenage kind of love.

Even if we're both in our mid-thirties now.

"Is that a long time?" Leilani asked as we decorated the tree together.

"No, not at all because each day you go to sleep it's one day less," I explained.

"If I go to sleep now and wake up tomorrow will it be Christmas then?" She tilted her head in question.

"If you do that twenty-four times then yes." I smiled at her.

"Ohh," she smiled and giggled to herself just as my wife and daughter walked through the door. "Mama!" Leilani ran to Jordi.

"Hi baby girl," Jordi picked her up in a hugs

"Hi Nala bear," I said and hugged her.

"Hi Mom, are you decorating the tree already?" Nala asked as she pulled away from the hug.

"We are." I smiled.

"Can I help?" She asked with a wide smile.

"Take creative liberties, you and Lei can decorate it but don't fight over things," I said.

"We won't," Nala said with a wide smile and walked past me with her sister to finish putting the tree together.

I walked up to my wife who was in the kitchen putting mugs together for some hot chocolate later.

I snuck behind her and wrapped my hands around her waist. "Hi butterfly," I said softly and placed a kiss on her cheek.

"Hi my love," she turned around and kissed me.

"How was your last day at work?" I asked her.

"Good, we finished off the last project we have for the month and wrapped up until February," she smiled. "A while two months with you, uninterrupted," she smirked and pressed a kiss to my neck. "Slow," and another on the other side. "Just us, for a whole two months." She said and continuously placed soft kisses on my neck.

I giggled a little and let my cheeks heat up. You'd think that even if we've been married for so long the effect she has on me washes away but you'd be wrong, if anything she makes me even more giddy and just as nervous.

"I guess we're busy then," I said and pressed a kiss to her lips.

"So incredibly busy." She smiled.

"Ow!" We heard one of our daughter's voices from the living room.

Jordi and I moved quickly to see what was happening. "I'm okay!" Leilani smiled at us and she stood up.

"What happened?" Jordi asked.

"She wanted to put the baubles up there but I told her to just wait and you'll come to help us but like always she doesn't listen." Nala shook her head and rolled her eyes.

"I do listen, I just fell one time." Leilani retorted.

"Okay, let's not fight," Jordi said. "Nala why don't you put the baubles at the top and Leilani does the bottom and we'll come help with the lights and star?" She suggested.

"Okay," both the girls smiled and carried on.

That's one of the things I love most about Jordan, she's the peacemaker between our kids. It's kind of her specialty, I don't know how she does it. I try but they don't listen sometimes.

"How do you feel about a pre-holiday date?" Jordi asked me.

"A what?" I chuckled and asked a little confused.

"Tonight is a date for the two of us before all the proper holiday celebrations start, the Christmas tree goes up tonight at the strip which means the lights are up." She smiled. "We can go out to dinner, and spend some time together. Before the girls close school for break and we become Christmas central." She explained and I couldn't hold back the smile on my face.

"That sounds nice," I said "but what about the girls?" I questioned. While a date with just the two of them sounded amazing, who was going to look after the girls?

"We could ask Colton if he's okay to watch them." She suggested. "And Nala's always up for a sleepover with Kinsley."

I smiled cheekily. "So we'd have the house to just us tonight?"

"I don't see why not, I think we're way overdue for a slow night." My wife replied.

"Okay," I said with blush coating my cheeks. "Where do you have in mind for us to go?"

"Dinner at the Mediterranean restaurant and then cookies for dessert," she said.

"Can we get milkshakes for dessert instead?" I asked her with a smile knowing that for dessert I'd definitely want a particular combination of food.

"I'll get my white chocolate matcha cookie and you can get fries and a milkshake." She said with a raised eyebrow.

"You know me so well," I smiled and placed a kiss on her lips.

"It's why I married you," she smiled, wiggled her eyebrows, and kissed me one last time. "I'll phone and ask Colton if he's free tonight before we tell the girls anything."

I agreed and let her go and make a call while I went back to attending to our daughters who'd done a better job on the tree than I'd expected.

However, the longer I watched over them I realized that was the case because Nala was telling Leilani where each ornament was meant to go.

"Lei, remember it's gold, red, green not gold, green, red," Nala said.

"Right," Leilani smiled and fixed her order. "Mommy, are Odi and Milo getting ears this year?" Leilani asked.

"Baby girl they already have ears," I said referring to our two Dalmatian dogs who were outside playing in the small amount of snow that had fallen in our backyard.

"I know but I meant the reindeer ears. The green and red ones." She asked and placed the last ornament on the tree.

"I don't see why not, they can definitely have their ears," I said and she came to sit in my lap. "I think the tree looks good this year, good job girls," I said.

"Thank you," Nala said as she took a step back and admired their work. "But we're still missing the star." She added.

"Mhmm," I nodded. "We'll just wait for Mama to come back in then we can put the star up."

We sat around for a bit while Leilani talked about all the things she was hoping Santa would bring her this year and Nala talked about all the things she was hoping we'd do this year like make our own gingerbread houses and decorated cookies.

And after a while, Jordi came back in.

"How do you guys feel about spending the night at Colton's house?" Jordi asked them.

"Yes! Sleepover with Kinny?" Nala wasted no time in asking.

"Yeah," Jordi answered. "Lei?"

"Can we make cupcakes?" She asked.

"I'm sure you guys can," I answered.

"Okay," she smiled brightly and danced a little in excitement over my lap.

"Okay that's settled," my wife took a step back and looked at the tree. "The tree looks really nice." She said. "Let's get the star up there." She said and Leilani jumped off my lap in excitement.

Leilani grabbed the star we have and Nala stood ready with the remote for the lights in her hands. Jordan picked up Leilani and helped her get the star up as she giggled and laughed relentlessly as the lights came on.

"We did it!" Nala said in excitement.

"Yes!" Leilani said with a bright smile.

We all took a step back and looked at the first thing we'd gotten decorated for Christmas. It was everything. Jordi stood next to me. Wrapped her arms around my waist and placed a kiss on my cheek.

"This is a good start to our Christmas baby," she whispered in my ear.

"It is butterfly, it is," I replied.