The Great Yearly Debate

Ellie woke up after her husband left for work. She looked out the window and saw that it was snowing! The neighbours across the street still had their Christmas lights on; she had to admit it just felt like Christmas.

          So Ellie played Christmas music while she cleaned the house. She giggled, knowing how John would roll his eyes at her antics. It wasn’t that John disliked Christmas; he just simply believed that Christmas should be celebrated in December. On the other hand, Ellie believed it should start on November 1st.

          Cleaning didn't take as long as she planned, and she and John had brought all the decorations inside earlier in the week…

          So she was just gonna sort through the decorations so that when they were ready to decorate everything was organised.

          She stared at the tree box… She could just put it up now… Would John complain? It's Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas started to play, and she gave in to the urge.

          It took her longer than it would have taken John, but Ellie got the tree up and had it all fluffed. It looked so nice. It just made her smile. She knew John would probably be slightly annoyed. But surely when he saw how pretty the lights were, he wouldn't be too mad.

          She packed away the rest of the Christmas stuff. She could wait until she and John both had a day off to decorate the house.

          She made a list of all the Christmas things she needed or wanted to accomplish - oh, there was so much to do and she couldn't wait! Maybe she and John could check out the craft show next week - that was always so inspiring.

          Ellie shook herself back to reality. She daydreamed long enough; it was her turn to make supper, so she had better get started.

***

          John walked into the house and heard the music… "Ellie…"

          "Yes, My Love?" She met him in the entryway.

          "You're playing Christmas music already…it's not even December first yet… " He kissed her and then turned to walk into the kitchen.

          "I waited till after Remembrance Day this year…" she teased as she went back to working on supper.

          "I don't know if I'll ever get used to how early you celebrate Christmas," he teased.

          "You know you love it." She giggled. John simply smiled and said nothing. He started doing the dishes to help with supper prep. "How was work today?"

          He sighed. "Well, you know - the usual. Oh, but there was a debate over when we should decorate the office for the holidays."

          Ellie paused. "Oh…how did that go?"

          "The Christmas crazies won, so we are having a decorating party on Monday." He walked behind her and wrapped his arms around her. "Maybe you should go to work for me on Monday, you'd have more fun than I would."

          "Yeah…I probably would," she said nervously.

          "And what did you do with your day off?" He held her a moment longer.

          "Oh, you know…" She stopped stirring. He raised an eyebrow at her, and she sighed. "Don't go into the living room."

          "Well, now I have to." He quickly dashed away before Ellie could stop him. "Ellie… You put up the tree?"

          She sheepishly walked into the living room. "The music was playing, it was snowing, and I didn't decorate the tree yet. I just wanted the twinkling lights. And we had the outdoors lights up already…"

          He pinched the bridge of his nose, then busted out laughing. "I was going to surprise you by putting up the tree tomorrow while you were out with your friends…"

          She turned bright red. "Oh." Then she laughed. "I didn't mean to spoil your surprise."

          "Beating you at your own game is harder than it should be." He wrapped her in a hug.

          "I feel bad now…" she whispered into his chest.

          "Don't. I'll find a new way to surprise you!" Just then their supper timer dinged. They sat down to enjoy their supper and talk about other decoration plans.

          Once they had cleaned everything up, John made hot chocolate, put it in their Christmas mugs and joined his wife on the couch. She giggled and grasped at her mug. "I don't think you are as much of a scrooge as you act.”

          "I'll never admit it out loud." He put his arm around her and together they enjoyed the twinkling lights of their tree.