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Morgen has gifts under the tree from family members, which have been arriving in parcels over the past few weeks. She opens gift after gift as I excuse myself to prepare a breakfast of fruit salad and the overnight blueberry French toast that I started last night. Morgen runs over to show me each new thing she unwraps.
“Wow!” I exclaim over each book, piece of clothing, doll, and stuffed animal. She giggles and runs back to the tree. She selects another gift for herself, opens it with Scott, and then runs back to show me.
Morgen also hands out gifts for me and Scott from our family, most of which we won’t be able to keep because we simply don’t have the room. We’re excited about a portable DVD player, though, with a rechargeable battery, which I’ll be able to plug in and recharge at work.
Scott gives me a journal, like always. I flip through the blank pages and wonder what I’ll write in here. What will the upcoming year hold for us?
At last, Morgen’s opening her last gift: a kid’s gardening set.
“Wow!” I say, genuinely pleased. “Now you can garden with us!”
After brunch, we get into the jeep and drive out to Mrs. McKinley’s house to bring her the last pound of fudge. She’s alone, I explain to Morgen, and Christmas is about spreading happiness.
“We’ll only stay an hour,” I tell them. But that turns into two because Mrs. McKinley is so happy to see us and so loves the company that we decide to sing her some of the Christmas songs Morgen knows, filling her place with music.
When we get home, we all go for a walk in the woods, taking the little trail that winds into the forest behind the cabin. Evergreens surround us, their boughs heavy with snow. Scott points to a large circle, pressed down in the snow under a balsam.
“That’s a deer bed,” he says. “See Morgen? See the outline? A deer slept there.”
“Wow!” She spots another one a few feet past the first.
“Deer herd together in the winter,” he explains. He points out low-lying branches that have been stripped bare of bark by the hungry animals. Their tracks are all over back in here.
I lift Morgen over a fallen tree that crosses the path and place her back on the ground, where she sinks down to her calves. She’s a trouper, though, lifting her feet in the deep snow and trudging through.
“Look!” Scott says. “Rabbit tracks.” They cross the path and disappear into the woods.
“Where do they go?” I ask.
He steps under a branch to peer off through the woods, thinking I want him to show Morgen where the tracks lead. I put my finger up to my lips, signaling for Morgen to keep quiet, and I come up behind him and shake the branch. Snow drops on him and fills the air with a burst of white.
“Hey!”
Morgen and I burst out laughing. In a flash, I pick her up and take off as quickly as I can through the deep snow, retracing our footprints back to the cabin. A moment later I’m hit by a snowball in the back, so I put Morgen down and ball one up myself to throw back. Before I can act, Morgen’s hit lightly in the leg. She laughs and bends down, gathering snow in her mittens. We throw snow at Scott, squealing and laughing and dodging his throws. Finally, we emerge from the woods and collapse together in a heap in the yard.
“Who wants hot cocoa?” I ask, when I’ve caught my breath.
“Me!” Morgen exclaims.
We shake the snow from our coats and hats before heading into the cabin. Scott re-starts the fire, I get the cocoa and start dinner, and Morgen explores her piles of new things. Then we all sit down to a meal of roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, carrots, corn, and, of course, bread. As we eat, we go around and each name three things we’re grateful for. Morgen says the cabin, her family, and her Christmas presents. Scott and I both say the same things: this wonderful food, our cabin, and each other.
Gardening
Winter is long. Far past the calendar’s declaration that spring has arrived, blizzards and freezing rain and driving winds keep us inside our cabin, dreaming and planning for summer. Each night after Morgen’s asleep, we sit on the couch with a single light and a bottle of wine between us. We each have a stack of cooking and gardening books that we borrowed from the library. We flip through the pages and narrate the important passages.
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