***
Sunday rolled around faster than I’d expected. Samantha picked up Jackson and Jenna on her way to the house and the four of us started preparing a feast of a breakfast for everyone. Matthew was riding up to my house with Niki and the six of us were going to get to planning this Christmas party.
“Samantha says that the new party planner is as pretty as a model. Is that true?” Jenna asked as we cooked breakfast.
“Yes, she’s very beautiful. Not as pretty as you are though,” I added and gave her a hug.
“Dad!” she moaned and pulled away.
Both of the kids were getting too big for hugs, or at least they thought they were. I didn’t care how old they got, I planned on giving them hugs until I was too old to physically lift my arms and hug them.
It had been months since we had a big breakfast together. Jenna and Jackson were always wanting to sleep in and Samantha hadn’t come over in the morning since her daughter was born. It was fun to have them all there and it would really give Niki a feeling for what our family was like. We weren’t a normal family, we were a little unique and that was okay.
I sent a text to Niki with the code again, just in case she didn’t remember it from the day before. I heard the alarm sound which notified me that the front gate was opening. By the time Niki and Matthew walked into the kitchen Jenna and I had finished making a large stack of French toast and were bringing the platter to the table. Niki seemed especially happy to have us all in one room for the planning. She and Matthew looked much less frazzled than they had the day before.
“This all smells so good,” Matthew said and went over to sit by Jackson.
“Jackson and Jenna, this is Niki. She’s going to help us throw our Christmas party.”
“Hi guys,” Niki waved at the two of them. “I’m pretty excited to be working with you guys. Maybe after breakfast, you two can tell me what sort of things you’d like to see at the party.”
“I can tell you right now,” Jackson said without waiting. “I want soldiers. Dressed up nutcracker type solders. I think those are really cool. Oh, and tinsel. I think that’s what it’s called. The shiny stuff that people used to put on trees all the time, but I don’t see it much anymore. Oh, and…”
“Okay, that’s enough for now,” I interrupted. “Let’s give her a chance to eat.”
“It’s okay. I’m happy he’s excited and has some ideas of what he wants to see. It really does help me to hear them.”
“Was my Dad mean to you yesterday? He’s not always that nice to people when he first meets them. If he was mean, just ignore it. I promise he’s not always like that,” Jenna said. She looked at me for a moment and then quickly looked away.
Niki couldn’t hold back her laugh. I hadn’t been the nicest and I intended to apologize to her when I got the chance. She was there to help me out and I should have been more able to deal with her touching Rose’s pictures. It had caught me off guard to see her in the library standing near Rose’s chair and holding one of her pictures. I reacted before I had time to think through any of it.
“So that’s a yes,” Samantha assessed as from Niki’s laughter. “Really, his bark is worse than his bite.”
“I don’t know. I wouldn’t want to have him bite me,” Matthew joked. “His bark is scary enough.”
“Is this pick on me day?” I teased. “I didn’t get the memo. Are you all going to pick on me all morning? I can take it. I’m not saying you shouldn’t do it. I just want to mentally prepare myself for the beat down.”
“See, he’s really just a big baby,” Samantha added.
Niki looked like she was really enjoying everyone picking on me. Our eyes locked and I mouthed “I’m sorry,” to her. She just shook her head up and down in acceptance and then went back to eating her meal. If only all relationships with women were so easily rectified.
Breakfast was one of those meals that I didn’t often have time for. Typically I was sipping my coffee on my drive into town and not eating much of anything until well after noon. I’d gotten into the craze of intermittent fasting, but it was just as likely that I would have skipped breakfast before I knew of the fasting. Mornings weren’t my thing. I got up early because I had to in order to manage my busy days but I didn’t like it at all.
Matthew caught my eye because he was continually on his phone. The Japan deal was hitting some bumps and he was fielding my emails to see when I needed to step in. My CFO was handling the situation, but he was cc’ing me on all the emails.
“Looking good?” I asked Matthew.
“Yeah, for now. I think they are going to want to do a conference call later today though. I’ll let you know.”
“Thank you.”
“Yeah, I like this new Thomas. I think Niki put some sort of Christmas spell on him. What do you kids think?” Matthew turned to them.
Matthew was great with Jenna and Jackson. When the kids came to the office Matthew was always right there to keep them occupied and entertained. He didn’t get his work done during that time, but at least the kids weren’t bothering me if they were busy with him.
“Do you throw parties for celebrities?” Jenna asked Niki.
“I have thrown parties for some. Most of my parties are for regular people though. Sometimes it’s a birthday party or a baby shower. Other times it’s a wedding reception or a big office party. I’ve done a little bit of everything.”
“It seems like a fun job but I bet people aren’t always nice to you,” Jenna said looking right at me.
I just rolled my eyes at her. Jenna was so good at calling me out when I was behaving badly. She was a lot like her mother in that way and I loved that about her so much. Someday she was going to be a fantastic boss because she didn’t take crap from anyone and she knew how to treat people.
Jenna and Niki turned toward each other and continued talking about the life of a party planner. Matthew moved over to sit next to me so we could go over everything that was going on with the big deal and how he could help me throughout the day.
“Is it alright if Jenna shows me around the house since I didn’t get to finish my tour yesterday?” Niki asked.
“Yes, but let’s finish breakfast first. I think I’m going to be stuck in my office for a while with this deal. Do you have any other questions you’d like for me to answer about the party? I don’t feel like I was able to answer everything very well yesterday.”
“Because he was grumpy,” Jenna shot in quietly.
“Did you get a chance to look through my book again? Were there any other items that caught your eye?”
Samantha jumped up and grabbed the design book from the coffee table in the other room. She and I had sat and put sticky notes throughout the book of items I liked and items I thought the kids would like. The book was dripping with yellow sticky notes when Samantha handed it to Niki.
“We had some fun with it.” Samantha chuckled.
“Wow, I can see who I need to call when I’m looking for help with ideas,” Niki and Samantha sat down and went through some of the pages together.
Niki looked up and smiled at me for just a moment before going back to the book. I’d done something good, at least as far as the Christmas party was concerned. It was fun watching how Samantha, Matthew, and the kids all took to Niki as if they’d known her for years. She conversed seamlessly with them and they all laughed and joked about some of the items I’d chosen from the book.
Outsiders didn’t normally fit in with our little group. Matthew hadn’t started to fit in until long after he started working for me. In fact, up until about a month before I wasn’t sure he would ever loosen up when we were out of the office.
Samantha really liked Niki and that was amazing. Samantha didn’t get along with many women. She often talked about how Rose was the love of her life. Not in a sexual way but in that they were such close friends and Samantha didn’t think she would ever find another woman who could put up with her as a friend.
Whether they end
ed up being friends or not I was pretty sure Samantha and Niki would get along well enough to help throw this party. As we all finished our breakfast I let the kids and Samantha take Niki on the grand tour of the grounds.
“Show her everything. The basketball court, the pool, even your fort out in the back.”
“What about the storage boxes in the garage?” Samantha asked with concern in her eyes. “Can she look in those? I think it will help with the Christmas tree of the past and she can use some of those ornaments.”
Niki gave me a knowing smile at the disclosure. Of course, we had Christmas decorations. I wasn’t some sort of monster who didn’t celebrate it ever. The problem was that all our decorations were ten years old and reminded us so much of Rose that we didn’t bring them out. We kept them hidden away for years and only brought them out for Christmas Eve when the kids and I would look through them before packing everything back into the box for another year.
“Yes, she can look through it. I’m not sure I want to use that stuff though. Maybe it can give you ideas for new items we could purchase that might not have as painful of memories attached to them?”
“I’m willing to do that,” Niki replied and then gently set her hand on top of mine. “Perhaps each of the kids could pick one item from the box that they would like to put on the tree? Would that be acceptable?”
I looked to Jenna and Jackson to see what they thought. Both of them eagerly shook their head in agreement. It was in that moment that I realized it might have just been me who wanted those boxes of things locked away in storage. Jackson and Jenna looked happy to have the opportunity to bring out one of the ornaments for this Christmas party.
“Yes, I think they would like that.”
“We should get on this call,” Matthew said pointing at a call that was coming in on my cell phone.
“Okay, you all have fun on your tour. I’ll catch up with you when I’m done. And thank you again, Niki. I appreciate you being here with us today and taking the time to get to know us enough to make this party amazing.”
Chapter 6
Niki
“So I’m surprised you came back again,” Samantha said as we started on our tour.
Jackson and Jenna were walking far ahead of the two of us and didn’t seem all that interested in giving me a tour. It looked like they might have just wanted to get away from the business talk that had been going on in the kitchen.
“I’m tougher than I look,” I offered with a smile.
It was true. I looked like a sweet and soft girl that couldn’t handle any pressure. Sometimes I couldn’t handle it but most of the time I was able to push through the difficult things that clients would do. Although Thomas had been a bit of a jerk with me it wasn’t anything too crazy. One time I’d had a client actually yell at me in front of the entire party. I’d made a mistake and it was totally my fault, but the yelling was very embarrassing for me.
“His bark is much worse than his bite. And believe it or not, he’s better than he was before. I know he can be difficult though and thank you for sticking it out. Jackson and Jenna deserve to have an amazing Christmas.”
“We were fine going to Grandma and Grandpa Steermen’s,” Jenna chimed in. “Dad always thinks we need things like this but then doesn’t finish it up. Maybe you can make it happen. It might be nice,” she added as if to soften up her picture of her father.
Jenna was a spitting image of her mother or at least the woman that I believed to be her mother from the pictures downstairs. Jackson looked a lot like Thomas but definitely had his mother in him too.
“So you are Thomas’ girlfriend?” I asked trying to be polite and figure out what the relationship was between the two of them.
“No, his late wife was my best friend. I just come and check on everyone and try to help out the best I can. It’s been much harder for me lately since I have my own child now but luckily my husband helps out a lot around the house.”
“Oh, I see,” I said feeling totally stupid for not piecing together that the kid's mother had passed away.
The idea that she had died certainly crossed my mind but for some reason, I just kept thinking that he was divorced and had custody of the children. I thought perhaps she had left them or something like that. Knowing that their mother had passed away put this whole party into a new light for me. It also made me feel much more empathetic to Thomas and the anger he had toward me when I was in the library with the pictures.
“Dad can be a real jerk. He’s not always like that though. Give him a chance,” Jackson said. “I think a Christmas party might be pretty cool.”
“What sort of things do you like at Christmas?” I asked.
“You know all the normal stuff, music, presents, and candy,” he laughed and walked ahead of us to what I believed to be his room.
“That’s Jackson’s room,” Samantha said.
“Ah yes, and this is Jenna’s amazing closet,” I pointed to it in admiration. “You do have beautiful organization skills.”
“Thanks. I like to take pictures in there for my Instagram; I wouldn’t keep it nearly as nice if that wasn’t the case.”
I wasn’t normally around teenagers. Actually, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d just talked with one that wasn’t a client. Many of my clients were throwing parties for their teenagers. It was often the first big party of their life but sometimes they had many big parties over the years and I was supposed to outdo the last one.
“I bet your Instagram is very beautiful.”
Jenna just smiled and walked into her closet leaving Samantha and me to finish the tour of the upstairs. She already knew I’d seen some of it and I wondered if she might have really thought that Thomas and I had been messing around up in his bedroom yesterday.
“This place is too big for them. Thomas always talks about wanting to move into the city, but the kids remember their mother here so it would be hard for them. Her name was Rose. She was one of the best people I have ever known.”
“I’m so sorry for your loss and for everyone. That has to be so hard.”
“It was. It still is. You would think after ten years that we would all settle in and move forward but it’s not that easy.”
I wanted to say something like I understood what they were going through or some other statement to show I was supportive, unfortunately, I just couldn’t come up with anything. Dealing with loss was such a hard thing for people and I wasn’t the best person to help anyone through it. I didn’t even like taking jobs to plan wakes or funerals, it was so far out of my comfort zone.
“Do you think the kids would want to incorporate more memories of their mother or more new items? I could ask them too if that’s better?” I said looked down the hall toward the kid's bedrooms before Samantha and I made our way back down the stairs.
“Why don’t you ask Thomas about that? I think he is pretty much wanting new items,” Samantha paused. “But I will show you the boxes in the storage area so you know where they are and can use them if needed.”
“Of course, I’ll work up a plan and let Thomas make the final decision. I don’t want to overwhelm him though. Is there anything you could tell me about his late wife that might be helpful for me?”
This was hard. I didn’t want to throw a party that would remind Thomas and his children too much about Rose. I also didn’t want to throw a party that was all about the future and not at all about their past. This woman was part of all of them. Even though she had passed away she was so important to them all that I really had to find a way to bring her presence into the party in an uplifting way.
My job was never easy. Even planning parties for three-year-olds could get out of hand and a little crazy. This party was going to be difficult in a different way though. Navigating all the emotions going on in this family would be something new for me. I was afraid of doing things wrong. I was nervous that I’d say or do something that would upset everyone.
“One of Rose’s favorite things to do was to ma
ke the kids laugh. Even when they were very little she used to always try to make them laugh. I think if you can incorporate that into this party then you will be way ahead of the game.”
“Laughter, okay. I’ll remember that.”
“Yes, one time she had a Jack in the Box. She played with the kids over and over with it and they laughed. Then one day she put a picture of herself on the Jack and when he jumped out of the box it was Rose’s face with a funny expression on it. The kids laughed and laughed about that. Still today, they talk about that Jack in the Box as if it had just happened.”
“Do they still have it?” I asked.
“No, I think it was a toddler toy and thrown away long before Rose passed away.”
I already had an idea. Perhaps I could find a Christmas version of a Jack in the Box and put their mother’s face on it. Then instantly I started to worry that this might be a bad idea. What if I did this and instead of laughing it made the kids cry? It was entirely possible that the memory combined with the actual toy would bring up memories that were so sad for them and would ruin their whole evening. I second-guessed the idea. Every idea was going to be like this I just knew it.
Of course, I didn’t want to have to run everything past Thomas. The whole idea of having a party planner was so he didn’t have to worry about all the little details. I’d have to ask him more about his limits for the past Christmas tree.
“What would you say is Jenna’s favorite thing about Christmas? I’ll ask her too, but you know them so well, I’d love to hear your opinion.”
“Presents. She loves opening presents. I don’t mean that in a greedy way although I’m sure she loves the gifts that she opens but she just loves the process of opening presents, the excitement of it all really lights up her face. And I would add that Jackson really does love the food at Christmas. He’s all about the snack-sized food and will laugh about any new snack-size foods that he hasn’t seen before.”
Mine on Christmas Page 6