The Nettle Tea Chronicles

Kieran

Kieran had been fully expecting the sudden jolt in the morning from his daughters jumping on them to wake them up. Aoife and Kaitlyn had both been told to wait until at least 7a.m. before they came to get him and Natalie out of bed, but that didn't mean he was awake when Aoife landed squarely on his stomach, knocking the air out of him at 7a.m. on the dot. Kaitlyn had at least slid into the bed next to her mother and snuggled against Nat to wake her up.

"Come on!" Aoife whined, sat squarely on Kieran's stomach, shoving him. Kieran covered his eyes with his arm and yawned.

"I'm up, I'm up." He said, trying to gently move the girl off him. She wasn't heavy by any stretch, but the weight was still enough to make it difficult to breathe with her on his stomach. The still half-asleep groan from his wife as she rolled over and snuggled against Kat made him jealous. Kat even giggled as she snuggled into her mother.

The adorable scene lasted only about five seconds longer before Kat's fingers jabbed into Nat's sides in a rather brutal attempt to tickle her mother. Keiran knew from experience that while the attack kind of tickled, it was more vicious than the light grazes that they used to tickle the girls.

Nat's arms flailed as she was similarly shocked awake and she shouted the same "I'm up!" that Kieran had moments before. Kat laughed for a moment before Nat's eyes blinked the last bit of sleep away and they narrowed on her daughter for revenge. Kieran chuckled as Kat scrambled quickly off the bed and away from her mother, clearly fearing retribution.

"It's seven." Aoife said with barely contained excitement.

"Can we go down now?" Kat asked, her hands clasped behind her back, the cartoon image of innocence.

Kieran and Nat shared a quick look and rolled their eyes in unison. "Alright. But no opening anything until we make coffee. Did you two want any?"

Aoife made a face at the idea, but Kat asked if she could have it with a bunch of milk and sugar, the way her mother made it on the rare occasion she drank any.

"Sure. Let's go." Nat said, as she and Kieran climbed out of bed. They didn't both usually sleep fully clothed in pajamas, but fully expecting the rude awakening they had gotten, they were both ready to immediately head down the stairs.

As was their tradition, the stockings hung in the living room off hooks on the wall were filled with stocking stuffers and there was a big pile of gifts under the tree as well. The girls were clearly dying to go unwrap things, but Kieran and Nat got their revenge by taking their time making the coffee. Three cups were eventually made, two light brown with milk and sugar and one a little darker, before the family finally entered the living room for Christmas morning.

Things went as expected. After everyone went through their stockings to unwrap smaller gifts like candy, inexpensive jewelry, and new dice, Nat took up position on the ground by the tree while Kieran, Kat, and Aoife found spots on or near the couch. This year was Nat's turn to dole out the presents, and that's exactly what she did, handing them out one at a time so everyone took turns. It also helped ensure that the girls didn't rip through everything too quickly, leaving one or both of them finished while others were still opening things.

Kieran and Nat watched with utter joy as the girls opened their gifts with massive smiles on their faces. Kieran may not have gotten anything too exciting himself - mostly clothes and a few electronic peripherals that he has been eyeing - but the joy of opening presents for himself had long since been overtaken by watching others open gifts he had chosen. He suspected that was just something that happened as people grew up.

In a similar vein, he had gotten a few fun gifts for Nat that he knew she wanted, but it wasn't anything she wouldn't have gotten for herself eventually. The biggest one was a new smart watch because the one she had been using for a while now was starting to have battery issues, and she was very excited to see what new toys the new one came with.

But the looks on his daughters' faces when they opened up things from their Christmas lists was easily the highlight. Even Kat, who was definitely old enough now to realize that she usually got all the toys she asked for, was still just as excited to see them in person. But he also knew from experience that Aoife, who was four years old now, was probably at the height of her excitement for it all. She was old enough to really get excited for the toys she wanted, but also young enough that she still fully believed in Santa.

The pleasant smile didn't leave Kieran's face a single moment over the course of the morning as he watched his family light up with joy over the gifts.

Things got a little more interesting once they were done with the normal Christmas morning proceedings and Kieran had to start doing the adult things for the day.

Their family had ended up with him making corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes as the standard Christmas dinner with all sorts of side dishes at some point, and the prep work and cooking for it all could take quite a while. So, once the living room was cleaned up and all the gifts were in neat piles on the couch, he got to work in the kitchen.

Altogether, the day went by pleasantly and normally. The TV in the living room got turned on while Nat was helping the girls open new toys to play with. Kieran was happy to watch the proceedings from the kitchen while he worked, and was excited when Kat eventually came over to help him cook instead of playing with toys. Aoife followed not long after.

They didn't have plans to visit any family this year or anything special, planning instead to spend a lazy but family-focused day at home. Kieran eventually got out a big bowl of potatoes, and got the entire family to help him peel them all by hand.

He was the expert peeler in the family, so he got Aoife in his lap, and held her smaller hands to guide her in gently peeling the potatoes with a safety peeler, depositing the finished ones into a bowl of water with a little lemon juice to stop them from oxidizing too much. Nat was doing the same thing with Kaitlyn in her lap, helping the older girl peel, too.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, mom, the peeler is fine." Kat said, eyeing the paring knife carefully. She didn't say it, but she was clearly afraid of cutting herself with the knife, despite Nat's offer to show her how to peel with it. Keiran thought it was adorable - and really, he had no issues with the girl wanting to avoid potentially sharp knives for another couple years. He was sure it was just a matter of time until she started complaining about how she wasn't a baby anymore, and she should be able to use a knife instead of a peeler.

Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

The lack of any plans or places to be gave the entire day a beautifully relaxed feeling. The family drifted between the couch, the kitchen, and here and there around the house just hanging out. They watched a few of the old classic stop-motion Christmas movies. Nat knew all the words to the songs in several of them, with the Miser songs being her favorites, and she loved to tease the girls while singing along. Kieran knew a few of the songs - mostly just the main ones - and sang along when he wasn't working on the food.

The family ate their dinner a little early, around 4p.m., and had planned to spend the rest of the day either watching TV and movies together or playing a video game on the big TV in the living room as a family. Aoife may not have been old enough to actually play herself, but she still liked being involved. And Kieran had gotten Kat to stop teasing Aoife about being handed a controller that wasn't on, so the old not-plugged-controller trick still worked.

However, the plans went out the window when it began to snow. There was still some already on the ground from the previous snow and what was coming down was only a light flurry, but it looked absolutely gorgeous in the setting sun. Kieran always liked the white and gray colors of the winter, despite the grayscale often looking somewhat boring. There was something to the washed-out feeling that added to the crisp, cold weather that he loved.

"Dad, can we go outside?"

"Please?"

He chuckled as they stared out the back door to their medium sized yard, which still had all sorts of tracks in the snow from previous playing excursions.

"What do you think, mom?" Kieran asked Nat, fully expecting her to say it was fine.

"I don't see why not? It's cold, though, so you'll need to get your coats."

"Do we have to wear our snow pants?" Kat was not a fan of the waterproof and insulated, but puffy and unwieldy pants. She had complained about them a fair bit when they had gone sledding, too. And, of course, her sister had immediately gotten on board with the hate as well.

"I guess not, as long as you don't go rolling around in the snow too much," Nat said, "and you change your clothes when we come back inside."

As his family went back and forth on what to wear and do, Kieran's eyes drifted over to the fire pit they had in the yard, and the snow dusted chairs around it. The temperature was cold, yes, but the falling snow was quite lax and soft.

"How about you two go play for a bit, and I'll get a fire started? We can have s'mores in the snow."

"Really?" Kat jumped up and down in excitement for a moment before grabbing Aoife's hand and dashing off to their rooms to get dressed for the snow.

Nat slid up beside Kieran and snuck an arm around his, cuddling up to his side to rest her head on his shoulder. She stood there quietly for a moment then gave his arm a squeeze. "Good luck getting the fire started. Because I'm not going out there until it's burning and warm." She snickered, kissed Kieran's cheek, and hustled down the hall toward the girls' rooms before he could even really react.

With a content smile on his face, Kieran headed to the laundry room to grab some sweatpants to wear out into the snow. The most recent load of laundry was folded on top of the washer and dryer, having never made it back to the bedrooms. Once he was in the thicker pants instead of a pair of sport shorts, Kieran swung on a jacket and walked into the snow.

It didn't actually take him very long to get things going. They had a small hutch in the yard with logs and firestarters which he used to get things rolling quickly. The light snowfall wasn't nearly enough to interfere with the fire, and he had a respectable bit of flame going before the girls ran outside. True to her word, Nat was dressed to join them, but watched from inside the door until Kieran had poked and prodded the fire into a strong blaze.

Kieran brushed off all of the chairs before his family joined him around the fire, and Nat brought out the s'mores ingredients for them all, including the long forks for roasting the marshmallows.

Similarly to how they had peeled potatoes, Aoife had settled into Kieran's lap so they could work together on assembling their s'mores while Kat had squeezed into the chair with her mother. Aoife liked the crispy, burnt marshmallows, which left Kieran regularly setting his on fire, while Kat preferred slower roasted ones. It didn't bother Kieran much, because while he fed Aoife the charred outer shells after blowing the fire out, it always left a gooey center to squeeze into the s'mores. Honestly, it worked out quite well. And he secretly liked lighting his marshmallows on fire, too.

They made a huge mess. S'mores were messy at the best of times, but after the initial five or six attempts to assemble the treats, the girls were getting up and down and running around the fire every which way. They knocked over a bag of marshmallows into the snow, and even neared food fight territory when Aoife crumbled up a graham cracker and threw it at Kaitlyn. They only narrowly avoided it because Nat stopped everything to get the pieces out of the girl's hair. It took just enough time to calm them both down.

When things settled again, the girls were warming their hands by the fire while Nat was toasting marshmallows for herself. Kieran took the chance to pull his phone from his pocket now that the snow had stopped and check the time. He saw the notifications of chatter in the clan server, and checked in to see what was going on.

He immediately burst into laughter upon seeing Evie's picture with the bucket of fired chicken. She had really been true to her word.

"What?" Nat seemed curious about the sudden laughter, so Kieran got up and squeezed into the seat with his wife. There was just barely enough room for the two of them if they didn't actually sit back on it. He showed her the image then scrolled through the conversation.

"That looks nice…" She said, eyeing the picture of Evie, then the one of Marissa.

"Hey, no one is making you stay out here." Kieran said defensively.

Nat laughed. "I actually meant the chicken. The fire is nice, but the s'mores are very sweet. A good, savory fried chicken sounds perfect right about now."

"You know, I could get behind that." Kieran eyed the fire, and the picture perfect array of snacks. "Actually…her girls, come here!" He shouted back at Kat and Aoife, who were back to chasing each other in the snow.

He had managed to get everyone in frame for what looked like an absolutely perfect shot. His whole family was arranged in a tight little semi-circle, with the fire and s'mores ingredients sitting by the fire behind them in a selfie-style picture. He sent that off to the chat.

"Too bad we took that literally on Christmas." Nat laughed, seeing the picture. "I'll be damned if that's not the most picture perfect Christmas card picture we've ever taken."

Kat gasped loudly, pointing at her mother and covering her mouth. "Mom! Mom said a bad word!"

Kieran sighed as Aoife, in her infinite 4 year old wisdom immediately took off running shouting, "Damn! Damn! Damn!"