Kristin Westphalen sat on the porch of the beach house watching the waning evening light reflect off the water of the bay when she heard steady footsteps coming up the stairs.  She took a quick sip of her egg nog before the man making the sounds came around the corner of the porch.

"So, did you get him on his airplane?"

Nathan nodded as he sat in the other chair.  "Yeah, and he's one happy young man.  He's really looking forward to Christmas with his dad."  He leaned forward and took the glass of egg nog that Kristin handed to him looking at the glass suspiciously.  "Are you sure this stuff is safe?"

Kristin nodded patiently.  "To everything but your cholesterol count," she said dryly and then changed the subject.  "We hadn't really talked while Lucas was around but are we doing anything special for Christmas?"

"I don't know," Nathan said leaning his head back against the top of his chair and closing his eyes.  "Whatever you want to do.  We can go somewhere, we can stay here.  Whatever you like."

"How long can you get leave for the holidays?"

"Christmas is on Monday so I can probably manage to be off from Thursday or Friday through Tuesday at least."  He shrugged.  "I can probably get an extra day or so if you want but that would be pushing it."

Kristin frowned at him disapprovingly.  "You know you should just shut down work for a couple of weeks so your crew can spend the holidays with their families."

"No can do," Nathan said firmly.  "A couple of weeks would put us too far behind."

"But you can let Lucas go for two weeks?"

Nathan was being infuriatingly calm about this discussion.  "Yup.  He's ahead on his projects."

"And you're not," Kristin stated shortly.

"Nope," he answered sedately.  "Seems like people and things keep getting in my way."   After a moment of silence he opened his eyes and looked over at her.  In the dim light he saw her staring and pouting at the water.

Eventually she sighed heavily.  "And if we go anywhere it'll just cut into the time we can spend on holiday."

"Makes sense to me."

Kristin finally looked over at Nathan.  "I guess we spend Christmas here."

"Is that alright?" he asked solicitously. "Because if it isn't we can probably get somewhere else pretty quickly."

"It's just that it's so damned warm here.  Without snow it just doesn't seem like Christmas," she groused.

"You want to go somewhere cold?" Nathan asked hesitantly.

Kristin nodded.  "I like the cold."

"I hate the cold."

"How can you hate the cold?" Kristin asked disapprovingly.  "You grew up in Massachusetts."

"I also left Massachusetts. I left because I hate the cold."

Kristin stretched in her chair.  "And I always thought that you left because you joined the Navy.  I grew up in the snow," she said placidly.

"But you like the snow," Nathan insisted.  "I don't like the snow."  Then he smiled a little giving into her wishes.  "But… if you want to go somewhere that there's snow I can manage.  We can go somewhere cold if you want to."

"I don't want to go anywhere, Nathan," she said looking right at him.  "If we go anywhere it will just cut into our holiday."

"Then why are we having this ridiculous discussion?"

"Because you started it," Kristin said with a grin.

"How did I start it?" he asked petulantly.

"You asked if I wanted to go anywhere."  The grin was bigger now.

Nathan sighed and shook his head.  She was doing this intentionally.  "Well, I *do* want you to go somewhere."

"Where?"

Nathan leaned forward and took her hand pulling her up from her chair.  "Right here," he said as his other arm snaked around her waist and pulled her into his lap.

Kristin snuggled down against his chest and looked up at him.  "Just testing out how comfortable your lap is or did you have something particular in mind?" she asked coyly.

"Nope," he said as his fingers traced the curve of her chin.  "Nothing particular.  I figure we can wing it."

She watched as his lips slowly came down until they gently touched her own.  She sighed as they shared a gentle kiss and then he pulled away, his eyes wandering across her face.

"It's quiet without Lucas around," Kristin said softly.

"Yeah.  How about that?" he said as his lips again joined hers.

The necking session on the porch hadn't lasted too long and now they lay in the large bed in their bedroom relaxing after a couple of hours of intense and pleasurable lovemaking.  Kristin brushed her fingers through the dusting of hair on Nathan's chest.  "If we stay here for Christmas can we get a real Christmas tree?"

Nathan was lying on his back with his eyes closed.  "Uh huh," he answered sleepily.

"Can we get it tomorrow?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Good," Kristin said settling her head on his shoulder and slipping into a restful slumber.

Kristin leaned over the back of the sofa and rested her chin on Nathan's shoulder.  "Can we go get the tree now?"

Turning his head and staring impassively at her Nathan paused.  "Can I finish reading my paper first?"

"No."

"You're worse than Lucas, you know," Nathan sighed.  He folded up the paper he was reading and put it on the table.  "At least let me get the stuff for the tree out before we go."

Kristin nudged his head with her forehead.  "What stuff?"

Nathan sighed again. "Tree stand, ornaments, lights, tinsel, you know… all that good stuff."

"How long will that take you?" Kristin asked pensively.

A soft chuckle escaped Nathan.  "Oh about a half hour."  Then he looked back at her with a grin.  "Do you think you can contain yourself?"

"I'll survive… but don't be long at it," she said heading into the kitchen.

A couple of hours later they stood in the middle of a large collection of freshly-cut evergreen trees.  The sound of Christmas carols and the pleasantly familiar scent of the trees accented the feeling that the Christmas season was truly in full swing.  Amidst the trees stood a frustrated Nathan Bridger.

"How about this one, Kris?" he asked standing next to a six-foot tall Douglas fir.

"No, not enough fullness."

Nathan sighed and moved further into the crowd of trees.  "Any thought on what kind of tree you want?" he asked exasperated.

Kristin was following just behind him.  "No, I'm not picky."

"Uh huh…." Nathan responded doubtfully.  He stopped next to a tall, full tree.  "How about this tree?"

"Hmmm," Kristin said glancing up and down the tree.  "Better, but the trunk isn't straight."

"Looks straight to me."

She frowned his direction.  "The trunk isn't straight," she said positively.

"Not straight… right."  He plowed further into the forest of Christmas trees.  "Ya know, I've seen you spend less time buying a pair of shoes."  He turned to look at her only to be fixed with `that' glare and he smiled feebly.  "How's this one?"

Kristin said nothing but walked around the tree several times thoughtfully stroking her chin.  Then she stopped next to him and stood there silently for a moment before she nodded.  "That's it."

"You're kidding?" Nathan said in disbelief.  "That one's alright?"

She looked over at him.  "Is there something wrong with it?"

"No," he said hastily.  "Nope, nothing wrong with it at all."  He quickly went to find a clerk before she changed her mind.

"Are you sure you can get it into the house?" Kristin asked as Nathan cut the twine that fixed the tree to the top of his car.

He rolled the tree off the car and onto his shoulder.  "You get the doors and I'll get the tree in," he assured her.

She stood on the porch at the top of the stairs watching concerned as Nathan slowly mounted the steps with the tree slung over his shoulder.  By the time he made it to the top step his face was red and he was gasping for air.

"Are you alright?"

"This is easier when Lucas is around to help," he gasped.  "That was the hard part."

Kristin nodded and followed him into the house.  A half hour later he was crouched on the floor under the tree with sweat pouring down his face.

"A little to the right," Kristin said from across the room.

"Your right or my right," Nathan said exasperated.

"My right, towards the porch."

Nathan pushed up with his shoulder and the tree tilted a little towards the porch.  "Now?"

Kristin walked around the tree and stood staring at it for a moment.  Then she walked to the other side of the room and stood again regarding the tree.  Meanwhile, Nathan's back and shoulder were beginning to cramp as he squatted beneath the evergreen.  He almost held his breath until he finally heard the words he was longing to hear.

"It's straight."

"Thank God."  He tightened down the screws and slid out from under the tree.  "I think it would have been easier to go to Colorado."

"Very funny," she said disapprovingly tossing the tree skirt his direction.  "While you're down there put this around the base."

"I need to water the tree first."

Kristin handed him a watering can full of water.  "Way ahead of you and it's even mixed with that `keep the tree green' stuff."

"Thanks," Nathan said filling the base and then arranging the tree skirt before he stood up and looked at the tree.  "Not bad."

"Almost perfect," Kristin said reaching into a bag.

"What's that stuff?" Nathan asked frowning at the container she took out.

"Flocking."

"Aw, you're not putting that crap on the tree are you?" Nathan asked realizing as the words left his mouth that was just the wrong thing to say.

Kristin glared at him.  "It's not Christmas without snow and since I can't have the real stuff we're going to put some of this on the tree so it at least looks like a proper Christmas tree."

"How many times do you have real snow on the Christmas tree in your house?" Nathan asked sotto voice.

She put the container down and turned to him with her hands on her hips.  "Do you intend to help or are you just going to continue to be a pain in the butt?"

Nathan smiled wanly.  "I'll help."  He took the container of fake snow she testily pushed his direction.  "Flock the tree… gotcha," he said heading for the opposite side that she was working on and starting to sing `Let it Snow."

"Asshole," she mumbled as they met in the middle of the tree.  Kristin stood back and inspected the tree.  "Almost perfect," she said handing him a string of lights.  "If I were you… I'd shut up while I put the lights on.  You're treading on pretty thin ice."

"Yes, ma'am," Nathan said quietly stringing the lights in silence.  After a half-hour he'd managed to get the last string of lights around the very top of the tree and turned them on for inspection.  "How's that?"

Kristin sat on the sofa carefully unwrapping ornaments and putting them in a line on the coffee table.  "Almost perfect," she said appreciatively.  "Now for the ornaments."  She glanced fondly at a delicately decorated glass ball in her hand.  "I'm so glad that I left my ornaments here after putting them on your tree last year," she said sadly.

Nathan came to sit next to her on the sofa and put his arm around her shoulders.  Sometimes little things came up that reminded Kristin of the home that she'd lost to the hurricane that summer.  He kissed her on the cheek.  "I'm glad that it's safe and that you're safe," he said softly.

She smiled slightly up at him.  "Alright, let's get down to the important part," she said standing and starting to decorate the tree.

Almost two hours later the ornaments including the tree-topper were in place and Kristin stood back again munching on a Christmas cookie as she looked over the tree.  "Alright, turn on the lights."  Nathan reached over and thumbed the switch.  He looked over at her and saw the smile that crept across her face as he stepped back to look at the tree with her.

"Perfect," Kristin said.

Nathan nodded a little and then looked over at her.  "Almost perfect."

"What do you mean, `almost perfect'?  It's perfect, Nathan."

"Not just yet," he said placidly.  "Almost."  Then he smiled over at her.  "But I need you to go into the den for just a little while."

"What are you going to do to my tree?" she asked suspiciously.

"I won't touch your tree," he said reassuringly.  "Trust me," he grinned again.

"Alright, but you better not mess up my tree," Kristin warned as she headed to the den at the back of the house.

It was only about fifteen minutes later when Nathan showed up at the door to the den with the grin still on his face.  "All ready."  She walked to the doorway to meet him.  "Close your eyes," he said.

"Nathan….."

"Trust me."

Kristin sighed and shut her eyes.  She allowed him to lead her out to the end of the hallway at the entrance of the living room.

"Alright, you can open your eyes now."

She opened her eyes and gasped.  Nathan had turned out all the lights in the front of the house, turned on the Christmas tree and built a roaring fire in the fireplace.  The twinkling of the lights on the tree vied with the soft flickering of the fire as they both reflected off the shiny ornaments on the tree and caused a glitter to dance around the room.  She smiled and leaned over kissing him on the cheek.

"Yes, this is perfect," she said serenely.

"It gets better," he said leading her over to where he had spread a blanket on the floor in front of the fire and piled up some throw pillows.  As she sat on the blanket he handed her a glass of egg nog and joined her.

Kristin cuddled next to Nathan, sighing softly as his hand traced little patterns across her stomach and hips.  "Have you ever made love in front of a Christmas tree and a roaring fire?" she asked softly.

"Almost," Nathan smiled, "but Robert came out of his bedroom because he thought that he'd heard Santa Claus."

Kristin chuckled gently as she put her glass down and their lips met in the first kiss of many that night.

The fire in the fireplace had died down but not the fire that they kept burning between the two of them.  A couple of hours later they lay again in the big bed in their bedroom.  Kristin gasped and threw her head back when Nathan's lips found her breast in a gentle caress.  Then he heard her begin to chuckle.

"When in God's name did you get time to do that?" she asked in amazement.

Nathan lifted his head and grinned.  Then he looked back over his shoulder where he could see the mistletoe ball hanging from the ceiling above their bed.  "Kinda seems like overkill, doesn't it?"

"I like it," she said pulling his head back down against her again.