Bridget Pandigaeshik (pandabridge) wrote in morningstar_mnr, @ 2009-12-25 00:57:00 |
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Entry tags: | bridget, phin |
Late Christmas Eve; Pandapartment; Bridget and Phin
After everything else that had happened in 2009, it was difficult for Bridget to believe that she and Phin were together on Christmas Eve, wrapping presents while the kids at least attempted to sleep in their own rooms. There had been so many reasons to think this little scene would never happen again, but there they were, awash in a sea of gifts--way more than last year as they had so many things to overcompensate for. And despite Phin's request the year previous, hardly any of them had come pre-wrapped. Their work was operated out of the master bedroom this year in order to prevent any sneaky toddler peeking. Once they were all done (and they were about halfway at this point) the presents would be carried out to the tree in the living room. And then, of course, they could eat some of the cookies Penny and Jeth laid out. The cookies were gingerbread that the kids had helped decorate earlier in the evening. They had predictably gone overboard with the frosting, so Bridget was looking forward to taking a bite just as much as Phin was.
But first: the wrapping. Bridget heaved a sigh as she finished wrapping a little baseball glove. She put the package on top of the Penny pile and glanced at her wine glass. She was in need of a refill if she was going to keep going.
Phin was having much more trouble with the present wrapping this year than he'd had last year. For one, he couldn't stay in the same position as long without his back and legs locking up. So after every couple of presents, he had to shift around again. On top of that, there were even more gifts than last year. He was seriously going to have to talk to Bridget about their budget. After all the medical bills and such, this was going to add to their debt for sure. The kids did deserve it though, and things were going better, so he didn't want to start a stupid fight for no reason over a holiday. He poked his tongue out of the corner of his mouth slightly as he folded and held the last part of the hockey helmet he was working on. They'd enrolled Jeth into a pee-wee hockey league recently and while Penny, it seemed, would be sticking with baseball, Jeth just loved sliding around on the ice in the little training sleds.
Once he finally finished wrapping the oddly shaped item, he set it on Jeth's pile and then pulled himself to his feet with a grunt and then put his hands on his back before he leaned back. There were a few clicks and pops as he did it and he grimaced a little before he finished stretching. "I think I need to take a walk to the kitchen," He said. "Want something?"
"Yeah, can you just bring the bottle in here?" There wasn't a lot left in it anyhow, so she'd likely be able to finish it off tonight.
Phin nodded. He leaned over, with effort, to hazard kissing the side of her head, on his way by. He moved slower than he had last year and he'd grabbed his cane on his way out because his back and his leg were bothering him. After shutting the bedroom door behind him, he double checked that the kids were still asleep before he went to the kitchen. He poured himself a glass of orange juice and grabbed a couple of left over biscuits from dinner. Once he had everything so that he could carry it properly, he headed back to the Panda bedroom, unaware that Jeth was plotting an escape from his bedroom to hideout and meet Santa this year!
Bridget looked up from the puzzle she was wrapping when Phin returned. She felt bad making him sit around messing with these presents when he was still recovering, and she'd already tried giving him a few outs. She figured she could try again.
"I can finish these up on my own, you know. You can sit on guard duty or something." She gave him a little smile.
Phin pressed his lips together into a small line but turned the ends of his mouth up a tiny bit. "I'm okay, really," He really hated feeling useless still. He shrugged as he set the bottle and his cane down and then held out the biscuits to see if she wanted one. "I checked on the kids. It looks like they're both still out, anyhow," He assured. "Besides, wasn't it you who said wrapping them by ourselves was like some kind of tradition thing and also the fun part?" Or something like that. He couldn't remember, which wasn't all that shocking given his memory issues. Watching the kids unwrap the Christmas presents, that was definitely the best part. Okay, and maybe watching them that first year play with the paper, boxes and bows while they more or less squealed with delight, now that was immensely entertaining.
"I might have been exaggerating slightly about the fun part," Bridget said with a slight cringe as she reached for one of the biscuits. "Thanks."
Phin smiled. He washed a bite of his biscuit down with a sip of his orange juice and then put his glass on the nightstand as he chuckled. "Just a little." he smirked.
He stopped, halfway in the process of sitting down and turned his eyes toward the door. Was that the creaky floorboard in the hallway. "Did you hear that?" he asked.
Bridget frowned mid-bite and followed Phin's line of sight. "You have got to be kidding me," she mumbled, though it was likely difficult to understand since she still had the biscuit in her mouth.
Phin snickered and stepped toward the door. He watched the doorknob as he leaned his ear closer to the door.
Out in the hall, Jeth was tip-toeing out of his room and toward the living room. He contemplated hiding and waiting for Santa in his normal spot under the table, but their Christmas tree was big this year! He could hide under- oh no! The Christmas lights were off! Santa wouldn't see it and leave them presents!!
Naturally, Jeth's very smart decision to figure out how to plug the lights in came next.
Bridget moved to her feet as she chewed. "Is one up?" she whispered as she walked toward the door. "I'll go run interference."
Phin shrugged. He turned the doorknob quietly and opened the door to peek into the hall but saw no sign of either twin. He heard a gasp from down the hall though. "I think one of them is in the living room..." he whispered, stepping out of the way do he could go to the bureau and grab his camera. They needed to document this stuff more often.
"Probably Jeth," Bridget shook her head. "Good thing we're wrapping in here this year." She stepped quietly into the hall and hugged the wall as she walked toward the living room.
Phin followed the same path to avoid the creaky floorboard - he hadn't fixed or called to have that fixed for a reason! He set their camera to video and trained it on Bridget as they went.
There were rustling sounds in the living room as Jeth crawled under the tree toward the socket, lying on his stomach. Only the ends of his footie clad feet were visible below the branches.
Bridget heard the sound and furrowed her brow as she spotted his feet under the tree. What was he up to? She moved closer to the tree and bent down to reach for his feet.
Phin turned the corner and furrowed his brow, but bit his lip to keep quiet as he held the camera up to record.
Jeth was startled by the hand on his foot. He gasped and jumped to stand up, nearly knocking the tree over as he sent it wobbling in its stand while getting tangled a bit in the branches, lights and ornaments. "Santa?!" he shouted, startled and wide eyed.
Bridget gasped loudly when Jeth jumped. She had hoped to pull him out from under the tree before he had a chance to do so. "Jeth!"
Jeth's shoulders sunk sadly and he frowned. It was just mommy. Ooh! Mommy could turn on the lights so Santa could see the tree. "Mommy the lights is out!" he told her as he started to free himself. Phin bit into his lip again to stifle his snickers.
Bridget reached out for the trunk of the tree to keep it steady as she pulled Jeth away from it. "Yes they are," she said, her shoulders relaxing now that she knew he was okay.
Jeth frowned. Now he was in trouble! Would Santa skip his presents now? The cookies and milk were still in tact! He hadn't been here yet! Jeth stuck his bottom lip out right away and gave Bridget the most adorable puppy eyes he could.
"How he will know we's here?" he asked. It was ridiculously adorable and totally sneaky. Phin's jaw slacked at Jeth's expert skills at the tender age of three.
Bridget smirked a little and narrowed her eyes at him. "We can put on the lights for him, but how's he going to be able to come when you're awake and walking around?"
Shoot! He had no answer for that.... "I has go potty!" he said even thought he didn't. Even the look on his face screamed 'Eureka! I'm a genius!' with his eyes all wide and his eyebrows hiked wayyyyyy up, big dumb grin on his face. He'd figured out how to use the potty training to his advantage!
Phin barely managed to choke on a snort of laughter that caught in his throat when he tried to stop it. He was terrified of what Jeth would be like as a teenager. Truly.
Bridget put her hands on her hips and arched her eyebrows as she looked down at him. "Oh yeah? Then what were you doing in here? The bathroom is in the other direction."
Jeth looked toward the hallway and then leaned his head way back to look at her. "...Daddy say pee-pee on trees s'okay." he stated matter of factly.
Phin's eyes widened. "Traitor." he said quietly.
Jeth imitated the shrug Phin had given him when he'd given Jeth this pearl of wisdom. "You gotsa go 'en you gotsa go." he gave a firm nod.
Phin looked at Bridget. "I did not tell him to pee on the Christmas tree." he defended himself.
Bridget's eyebrows arched higher and she looked back and forth between both of them. It was very hard not to laugh, but she totally pulled it together. "I don't know, Phin. That seems like a pretty good imitation of you he just did."
Phin hung his jaw open a bit. For a split second, Jeth had a smug little smile on his face. The little monster was way too smart for his own good! "I may have let him pee on a tree in the park because the clubhouse was closed," Phin said with a smirk. "But I did not say it was okay to pee on the Christmas tree, dude," He made a show of jokingly narrowing his eyes at Jeth and shaking his head. He widened his eyes and shook his head in a you're supposed to be covering for me dude! expression that was more for Bridget's benefit since Jeth had no clue.
Jeth nodded. "I gotsa go mommy!" he pretended to do the all too familiar pee-pee dance too! That was important! He decided then that he really did have to potty and that daddy was right, when ya gotsa go ya gotsa go, so he turned back toward the tree and started tugging at the waist of band of his footie pajamas.
"Jeth, no!" Phin said, taking a step closer even though Bridget was within arms' reach of the dude, and letting the camera - still recording - fall to hang from his wrist.
Bridget let out a similar exclamation as she reached for Jeth's arms to pull them away from his waist. "Santa would not approve!"
Jeth's eyes widened as he looked up at mommy while she held his arms. "...I's a good boy mommy," He said, very seriously, which made his expression that much more comical.
"...Daddy?" A very sleepy, and not so happy, Penny said in a tired voice through a yawn from her spot where she'd trudged, next to the edge of the couch and was now rubbing at her eyes grumpily. All Jeth's noise had woken her up. She'd followed it to the living room since she heard mommy and daddy, instead of trying to go to their bedroom.
Phin turned around, finally turning the camera off and setting it on the end table as he headed over to hoist her up and by her underarms. "Hey, sleepy," He said with a smile as he kissed her cheek, resting her at his side and starting to sway. "Did we wake you up, honey?" He asked. Penny nodded and then put her head down and murmured out a question about whether Santa was here or not.
Jeth reached a hand free and tugged on Bridget's sleeve. "Mommy, I go potty." He reminded her, attempting to head for the tree again. It was way more fun to pee on a tree than in the boring potty! And their tree had lights that was even cooler!
Bridget shut her eyes with a sigh when she heard Penny, but as soon as Jeth tugged on her shirt, she snapped them open again. She pulled him back, shaking her head. "Jeth, no. Daddy only let you pee on the tree--" she turned to Phin and gave him a brief narrow-eyed look "--because there were no other bathrooms for you to use. But there's a perfectly good bathroom in this apartment. Also if you pee on the tree and the cords on it, you could electrocute yourself." She took his hand to lead him back to the hallway.
Phin turned his face down toward Penny's shoulder and snickered briefly. He cleared his throat. "Yeah dude. That was only for emergencies, remember?" he arched his eyebrows at Jeth.
Jeth blinked at his mommy. "echo-shootered?" He tried to repeat her last word but it didn't work out so well. He practically started dancing. "Gotsa gooooo..." he added as well.
"Shocked," Bridget explained, picking Jeth up so she could carry him faster. "Like getting struck by lightning. It would hurt you a lot and you don't want that to happen, do you?"
Jeth's eyes widened comically as she carried him. "Really?" He asked, sounding, oh yes, excited about something that sounded that awesome! Once they were in the
Phin shook his head as he swayed with Penny and started to head toward her bedroom. "Your brother's crazy," he said with a sigh. "Let's get you back to sleep so Santa can come and bring you presents, huh?" He asked as they went and he rubbed Penny's back. She was already almost asleep already, so he started singing her favorite Christmas song (Sleigh Ride) to her as they went.
Oh, great. "Yes, really, and it is not something that is cool. It's very painful." She flipped on the bathroom light and set Jeth down on the floor. She crouched down to get to eye level with him. It was time for some parental lying. "Remember how badly daddy got hurt? And how he's still hurt? Getting electrocuted is even worse than that. You could die, and we would all be very, very sad."
Jeth was about to start getting to work on pulling his pjs and pull-up down when mommy started explaining. His dancing stopped though he still had to potty and instead his eyes welled up and he frowned. "Noooo mommy, noooo," He shook his head back and forth a bunch of times. He didn't like that at all!
And now she made the kid cry on Christmas Eve. Bridget frowned and pulled Jeth closer to give him a hug. "And that's why you shouldn't pee on the Christmas tree," she said, swaying with him a little bit. "But you didn't and you're just fine and you still have to go to the bathroom, so you should do that."
Jeth, as a toddler with a rather short attention span most the time, felt very much reassured by the hug and her comments. He nodded, "Okay," He said before he got all set up on his little stool in front of the toilet. He let out a relieved sigh as he let loose, though he still had to get that whole aim thing down. It didn't help that he had little game going that involved circles above the water line.
The thing that stunk about playing games when you went potty was they always ended abruptly, which always ended with Jeth muttering a, "Nuts!" before he pulled his pull-up and pj pants back on. He leaned over the toilet and rather thoughtfully put both the toilet seat and the toilet lid down before he looked up at his mom. He was about to say he was all done but then he remembered he had to flush, but darn he'd already put the lid down so he couldn't watch the whirlpool! He climbed onto the lid of the toilet on his knees and called, "Fiber inna hole!" and gave a salute to no one before he made an explosion noise and pushed down the handle of the toilet.
Wow, if only Phin had been taping that. Bridget chuckled and gave Jeth a pat on the back. "Good job. Now wash your hands and what do you think I'm going to tell you to do after that?"
Jeth climbed down from the potty and picked up his stool with both hands before carrying it to the sink. He climbed up and took his good old time turning the water on and washing his hands so that he could stay up longer. "Eat pizza." He answered hopefully.
Bridget let out a sudden laugh and shook her head. "No, silly. Try again."
Nuts! Jeth was hoping that'd work after she'd laughed. He put more soap on his hands after rinsing them off, and made a show of trying to make as many bubbles as possible. "Build forts!" He answered. Surely she couldn't turn that down.
Bridget narrowed her eyes at him. "Nooooooooo. Go to sleep," she said slowly.
Jeth pressed his lips together in a frown. "Wanna see Santa, mommy," he said as he went to rinse his hands finally for the second time, keeping his hands running under the water even after there were no more soap bubbles on them.
"If you see Santa on Christmas Eve, then you don't get any presents," Bridget pointed out as she reached over to turn off the faucet.
Jeth poked out his bottom lip and looked up at her sadly. "No fair." Talk about having your dreams crushed!
"I know, but that's just the way it goes, kid. Anyway, you met him at the mall a few weeks ago, remember?" She picked up the hand towel and held it out for him.
Jeth reluctantly took the towel and started sloppily drying his hands. He nodded a few times. "Gotsa candy cane," He nodded again. Mmmm, a candy cane would be mighty tasty right now.
"Yeah, you did. And you'll get even more tomorrow, so let's get you to bed. The sooner you go to sleep, the sooner it'll be morning." She took his hand and started leading him out.
"M'not sleepy," Jeth insisted as he held onto her hand and followed her up the hall. Phin was in Penny's room, finishing up tucking her in and giving her a kiss goodnight. He yawned as they turned into his room.
"Yes, you are," Bridget insisted as they walked into his bedroom. "You just don't think you are because you're excited about tomorrow."
Jeth staggered as he walked through another big yawn. "Nu-uh," he insisted as he shook his head. When they stopped next to his bed, instead of climbing in he wrapped his arms around her legs at Jeth height and leaned his head against the side of her leg a little lower than her hip level.
Bridget put her hand on Jeth's back. "Well, it doesn't matter. Either way you've got to go to sleep."
And she had to finish wrapping the presents, so he had better do it soon.
Jeth closed his eyes a moment but a second later he popped the open. "C'we play trucks?"
"Noooooo," Bridget shook her head. "We go to sleep."
Jeth frowned. "We play blocks?" he tried again, leaning more of his weight against her side as he closed his eyes after rubbing them.
"No playing. Sleeping. Tomorrow you can play." She leaned down and picked Jeth up to set him in the bed.
"Not sleepy mommy..." Jeth insisted as he wiggled his head back into his pillow to make a nice Jeth approved dent in it, a sure sign he was ready for sleep after all that excitement.
"Yes, you are," Bridget said quietly as she reached down to pull his covers up.
"We read stories?" Jeth sure was trying to keep his eyes open, forcing them open every few seconds only to have them droop closed right away.
Bridget suppressed a quiet sigh. "Sure." She walked over to the book shelf to pick one out.
Jeth waited for her to come back before rolling over and flinging and arm across her middle as he burrowed into her side. He murmured out a muffled, "Love you mommy." into her side.
Bridget smiled and moved her arm around him to give him a squeeze. "I love you too, honey."
Jeth asked, one more time, in a tone he only used right before he fell asleep, "C'we watch pandas?" It was an already-asleep last ditch effort.
"Sssh," Bridget said quietly, not even bothering to open the book at this point.
Jeth nodded and fell asleep after that, letting out a slight hum with each breath.
Phin had watched them from the doorway for awhile before he'd gone back to the master bedroom to do some more wrapping.
Bridget stayed with Jeth for a few more minutes after he fell asleep before she finally left. After finding Penny in her own bedroom, Bridget headed back for hers.
Phin looked up when the door opened and then nodded to the camera he'd brought back from the living room and was now on the bureau. "That child is both hilarious and terrifying." he said quietly.
"No kidding," Bridget sighed, going for the bottle Phin had brought into the bedroom earlier. "How much of that did you get on tape?"
"Everything until Penny woke up," he smirked. "But I dropped the camera when he went to pee on the tree, so some of its just audio." he smirked and then let out a sigh as he finished wrapping a present and stuck it in the Penny pile. "He's going to be scary as a teenager..." he shook his head.
Bridget laughed and walked over to the camera. She put the bottle down and picked it up to check out the video.
Phin grinned. He moved to open up the first bike box. He really wished they hadn't bought these for Christmas but they had and now they had to assemble them before putting bows on them so they wouldn't have to in the morning. So Phin got to work on putting Jeth's bike together as quietly as possible
Bridget put the camera back after watching the video, and then poured herself a new drink. Once she had that, she settled back on to the floor and pulled over some more boxes to wrap them.
She glanced up at Phin occasionally as she worked.
Phin was in deep concentration as he worked. He checked the directions as he worked and made sure to properly tighten all the nuts and bolts. A couple of times he stopped to stretch his limbs and wound up cracking some stiff joints in the process. Having kids was hard work.
Bridget got through a bunch of the presents and another glass of wine by the time Phin finished the first bike. She poured herself some more and leaned back against the dresser with a yawn.
"Can you push some of those over here?" she asked, nodding toward the presents nearest Phin.
Phin used his foot, with effort, to push some of them over to Bridget. Then he stood up so he could moved the first bike out of the way. He caught the yawn bug and then sighed. "Next year," he said as he finished off his now warm orange juice, "We have Neil and Layla babysit and do this over more than one night..."
"Yeah," Bridget nodded, feeling too lazy to bend over and pick up the boxes. She stayed where she was. "Yeah, I don't think I'll object to that anymore. I'm tempted to say we leave some of these in the closet and save them for their birthdays." Very, very tempted.
Phin let out a snort of laughter as he sat down and started pulling the pieces for Penny's bike out of their box. "I wouldn't object to that." he said. Either way, he still had to assemble Penny's bike since Jeth's was done.
Bridget grinned and bit and arched her eyebrows. "Should we, then?" A few glasses of wine ago, she probably wouldn't have suggested it.
Phin thought about that as he looked at the piles. He chewed on his bottom lip a moment and then tilted his head and looked at her. "Is everything you really want to give them for Christmas already wrapped?" he didn't want her to wake up and be upset that they forgot something important.
Bridget looked over the pile left over, trying to figure out what needed to be done now. "I don't think so...we did all the presents that went together, well, together." She moved her eyes to the bike. "I can help you put together the other one, and then...that could be it."
Phin arched an eyebrow at her. He smiled some and said. "I'm okay with that, so long as it won't upset you in the morning that we left some things out?" he asked. "If you're tired, I can finish so you can sleep. At least one of us would be rested." he smirked.
"Phin, I'm so tired, I don't care anymore about what we left out. They have plenty of stuff now anyway. Let's just get this next bike done and go to bed." After they put all the presents in the proper place, of course.
Phin grinned. He leaned over to kiss her shoulder since it was closest to him once she was close enough. He was still pretty jumpy about making the first move of any kind. "Okay then," he said before he looked down at the directions and read the next one off. Putting this one together was much faster.
The two of them made a pretty good team when they actually worked together. They put the bows on the bikes and then began the careful, quiet mission of carrying the boxes out to the tree. Mostly it consisted of Phin standing guard by the kids' doors while Bridget did the legwork. The mission thankfully went off without incident. And it was time to get ready for bed.
"We can just stuff the other ones back into our closet," Bridget said once they were in the bathroom.
Phin nodded as he set his toothbrush up with a glance into the hall, just in case. "Sounds like the perfect plan to me." He nodded. "What time are we supposed to be at your brother's tomorrow?" He asked before he started brushing.
"Around noon," Bridget said after she spit out her own toothpaste. After putting her brush away she turned toward Phin and kissed his arm a few times.
Phin leaned over to return those kisses after putting his toothbrush away. He ventured to reach out and pull her closer by her waist too. "Your pjs look," He said between kisses. "Like wrapping paper...y'know." He grinned.
Bridget pulled back and twisted her mouth a little to stifle some laughter. "Do they now?" she asked with a bounce of her eyebrows.
Phin gave her a very serious nod, "They even have a bow," He grinned before he pulled the end of one of the drawstrings to untie the loops in it.
Bridget looked down and feigned a surprised look. "Well, look at that. The easiest present I wrapped tonight."
"And the most fun one to unwrap to boot." He smiled and kissed her a few times before he turned with her to started leading the way back toward the bedroom.
Bridget grinned a little in between the kisses as she walked along with him. She hit the light on the way out of the bathroom and shut the door behind them. "Funny how you were too tired to wrap presents but now not to tired to unwrap 'em."
"Welll," He said he walked them toward the bed. He leaned closer but not enough to kiss her just yet, and replied, "Unwrappin' is wayyyy easier than wrapping..." then he kissed her.
"Buuuut," Bridget said as she pulled back, "is it less tiring?"
"Easier implies less tiring, but I don't believe the hype," He said as he sat down on the bed and pull her down into his lap so he could start helping her out of her shirt. "And anyway, we need to tire ourselves out plenty, so Santa can come leave use presents once we're asleep." He smirked.
Bridget chuckled as her shirt went over her head. She was in the middle of pulling her arms out when she said, "That reminds me, we still have to eat the cookies."
Phin let out a groan and a chuckle as he closed his eyes and grimaced. "I forgot about that.." He sighed and leaned forward to kiss her once more. He shifted his hips and leaned back on his hands, nodding to the side. "You stay here, I'll go do that." He suggested.
Bridget closed her eyes and drew in a sharp breath. She opened then again with a smirk. "Well, we should actually put the unwrapped presents away in case the kids..."
Phin's shoulders sunk, a little on the defeated side. "Okay. You go eat cookies. I'll put those away in the closet?" He suggested, arching his eyebrows a little.
Bridget chuckled quietly. "Don't look so sad," she said, lifting her hand to his cheek. Having kids decreased the chances for spontaneity, after all. She moved her thumb back and forth as she continued, "I'll bring the cookies in here. Since we'll be working up an appetite and all."
Phin chuckled. "That's a bad idea. I have a bad memory...I'll forget to bring some of the half eaten ones back out to the living room." He joked as he leaned a little into her hand.
Bridget pursed her lips and shook her head as she moved her thumb over his bottom lip. "That's where you're lucky you have me around. I'll remember."
Phin turned his head to kiss her palm before he turned it back to look at her again. "Then bring on the cookies!" He said, though he did keep his voice quiet to avoid waking the kids (namely Jeth) again.
Bridget nodded, but didn't get up right away. First she leaned over to give him quite the drawn out kiss, but before he could hold onto her too tightly, she slid off his lap and headed for the door.
Phin let out a sigh when she just slid off his lap like that. He pulled himself up and muttered, "Putting you on the naughty list..." Before she got all the way through the door as he started to pick up packages to hide them again.
"I thought that was a good thing," Bridget called back quietly before she headed outside. She quickly made her way into the living room (as she was still shirtless) and grabbed the plate of yummy-looking gingerbread cookies. When she came back, Phin was almost done hiding the presents.
"Oh, it is!" he wasn't sure if it was loud enough for her to hear. He tried to make quick work of the toy hiding and when she came back to the room he was in the process of retrieving the last three. He picked them up and shuffled to the closet to load them intheir hiding spot.
After they were secure, he shut the door and pushed up the latch lock at the top of the outside frame of the door - the sole feature that made his closet the perfectXmas toy storage unit.
He brushed his hands off and tugged off his t-shirt as he headed back toward the bed. "The twins have great decorating skills." he grinned.
"That they do," Bridget nodded as she set the plate down on her nightstand. She looked up at Phin and bounced her eyebrows. "Now where were we?"
"We were marking you down as naughty," He said as he climbed back into bed and scooted toward the middle. "And commenting on how that was a good thing." He grinned and gave her a dorky little nod and wink.
"Oooh, right," Bridget nodded. "And here I said I wasn't the forgetful one." She pushed down her pajama pants and stepped out of them before getting onto the bed to meet Phin.
Phin reached out to rest his hand along her cheek as he sat forward to kiss her, a nice long kiss to make up for the one she'd abruptly stopped earlier. It was amazing that he was even here for the holidays - not just alive, but home and making out with Bridget at all. This was not something he thought he was going to ever be able to do again just a few months ago.
Bridget hadn't thought so either. 2009 was a terrible year for them altogether. She was glad it was almost over, even though it would still continue to affect them for the rest of their lives. She put her hands on Phin's waist and started pushing down the sides of his pajama pants as she kissed him back.
Phin had mixed emotions about the badness of the year. He was pretty certain she wouldn't have allowed him to come home if the collapse stuff didn't happen, so he was kind of glad in some ways that it happened. He was just damn happy to be home and with his family and still alive, and he was looking forward to enjoying it, even if they went back to fighting and such. But they weren't fighting now. He shifted around and lifted his hips to help her with the pants removal - unwrapping - and once he was free, he reached out to help her ditch what was left of her pajamas while trying not to break the kisses too often. He did get a quick, "I love you," in during a short air break though.
Bridget breathed back something similar before occupying her mouth with other important things, like a kiss trail along his chest. She was suddenly feeling a lot more awake than she had about ten minutes previous.
That was exactly why they had to tire themselves out. It was difficult to concentrate on much of anything but trying to remember that he had to breathe when she went kissing random areas like that. He smiled stupidly and ran his hand through her hair. He definitely felt more awake now. He let out a stupid sigh to match his stupid grin and then almost chuckled as he said, "Merry Christmas?" It was meant as a joke but the kisses were distracting so it just came out sounding dopey.
Bridget leaned her forehead against his abdomen with a snicker. "Yeah," she said as she worked her way back up, "Merry Christmas."
Phin just gave her a goofy smile as he moved his hand back into her hair and kissed her again. It didn't take too long for things to progress normally, no need to tempt fate on the kids waking up, and soon enough they were back to their exhausted, and now sweaty, states. Phin moved onto his back but not very far away from her as he leaned over to kiss a few spots on her shoulder.
Bridget turned to him with a small but genuine smile. They hadn't had any Christmassy adult time since the kids had been born, and that was three years ago. Maybe, after everything that had happened, they were doing better than they had even before Bridget found out about the cheating. Well, of course they were, since Phin wasn't harboring that particular secret. That thought almost made Bridget frown, but instead she lifted her hand and put it on the side of his face.
Phin did find it easier to relax without the secret hanging over him but he was still pretty skittish over all about their whole situation. He wasn't focusing on that right now. Right now he was focusing on that smile and the hand on his cheek.
He leaned in and kissed her a few quick times as he moved his arm around her and rested his fingertips along the small of her back. "Merry Christmas," he said in the dopey tone again with a stupid little grin back in place. He turned his head to kiss her palm a few times.
"Merry Christmas," she echoed, smiling a little wider as he kissed her hand. She moved her arm around him and moved closer to lean her head against his shoulder. After a few minutes she asked, "Ready for those cookies yet?"
Phin let out a surprised snort of laughter and then chuckled a few times as he reached up to run his hand through her hair. "I don't think I have the strength to lift a cookie at this point." He grinned.