Chapter 37

The highlight of this time was the Christmas shopping. At first Andi’s list was short, trying to stay in budget, when Paul asked her what she was doing. “Planning my Christmas budget and shopping list.”

“Oh, here.” He handed her a credit card that was pure black and made out of metal. “Don’t forget a gown for New Years Eve, we’ll be at a nice place, John and I will be in tux. Also – swimwear for you and the girls and see if Macy needs any.”

“Swimwear?” she asked as the sound of the neighbor’s son shoveling snow off their driveway filled the house. Andi pictured a hotel with a pool. That’s what the folks do in North Dakota in the winter, go to a hotel with a pool. “What’s the limit on this?” Andi asked as she inspected the black card.

“It’s not anything you can hit,” said Paul as he gave her a kiss and then headed upstairs to his home office.

She sat at the table and stared at the card for a long time. Occasionally she considered calling out to Paul, but in the end she sighed and stared at the card again. Slowly, she bundled up the girls as she pondered what Paul had said, then she grinned and picked up her phone. “Macy? I’ll be by in 10 minutes, we’re going shopping!”

The wedding details were keeping them busy; Andi was constantly on the phone with Mary Kraft the church treasurer and church matron about using the church, she was constantly reassuring her maid of honor Lucy that what she picked out for Lucy to wear will be beautiful but not girly, there was the tuxes for Paul, Gus, and John, the dresses for the twins, and most importantly how to keep them in line during the ceremony. Macy and Lucy both volunteered to do that most important task by babysitting the twins in the church’s nursery, but Andi would hear nothing of it. Macy and Lucy and the twins were all in the ceremony and none of them could escape. Then Paul came up with an idea which everyone laughed at, then thought about, then tried, and it worked, so it was left in the ceremony. Music was left up to the church pianist, Melissa Kraft, and the church worship leader Peter Runyon. It shouldn’t be much because they were getting married immediately after the church’s Christmas Eve service, so they want to keep the ceremony short and they want to keep the Christmas spirit alive in their wedding...

Paul caught Andi in a thoughtful mood in the breakfast nook one morning. She had her reading glasses on and was holding a clipboard and pondering something thoughtfully. Paul topped off her coffee and asked, “What are you working on now?” as he sat down with her.

“Christening our house,” she said like it was general news, “I think I have a preliminary plan.” Paul understood that Andi, like many wives, want to make love in the house to christen it. “To christen a house this beautiful, we’re going to have to christen every room. Should we start in the attic and work our way down, or should we start in the basement and work our way up?”

“Are you counting closets?”

“Only ones that we can stretch out in, why?”

“You’re putting a lot of work into this; most couples just do it in like the kitchen and the living room.”

Andi looked over the top of her reading glasses at Paul. “I’ve waited my entire life for a house this beautiful and a man with a big dick to love. We are going to do it right.” She got up, scooped up her clipboard and her impossibly big coffee cup and headed off to do whatever she had planned next and she elbowed him on the way past. “Rest up, you have a lot of christening ahead of you.”

Paul sipped his coffee and wondered how he got so blessed.

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