Chapter 10

Winter

Don and Lanh considered Christmas Day their anniversary. Even though their first dance was weeks before Christmas, and their first skate date was before Christmas, and their first kiss was also before Christmas, all three events had a Christmas theme. It was Christmas when they were snowed in together and it was the first time they slept together. Ok, they napped on the living room couch together, but it was still a Christmas first. It was what they whispered to each other as they cuddled on the couch and kept in their hearts as their favorite Christmas gifts. It is what makes it their anniversary:

“Lanh à, em yêu chi.” (Lanh, I love you)

“Donovan à, chi yêu em.” (Donovan, I love you)

The decorations in the Campbell home were beautiful. This year, Lanh had time to plan and dig up more decorations. Her family, being Roman Catholic, had a multitude of decorations that they weren’t planning to use because even though it was Mai, Duong, Bao, Kim-ly and Lanh in the house, they were all so busy that they were rarely there. Most nights, they ate in the restaurant’s kitchen.

Lanh brought yards of tinsel, garland, and fake evergreen boughs, and beautiful glass ornaments for the tree that Don and Huy would cut down. As far as she was concerned, she was still the lady of the house at the Campbell farm, she was assigned that task to bring Christmas back to a couple of grinches and she was going to do just that, and if turning their house into Santa’s workshop every year is what it would take, it’s what she would do.

It was not unusual to see Lanh wearing her elf ears, the tips of her faux ears peeking out of her long, silky hair, and her elf hat with a small bell that jingled merrily as she walked about the house arranging the decorations, which were lush and plentiful. Don and Ralph could always figure out where Lanh was in the house by the sound of the bell.

A week before Christmas, Huy came out to the farm and went with Don to get a tree. Instead of chopping down a seventy-foot spruce for the top seven feet (and the sixty-three feet of firewood), Don led Huy to an area with young trees that he discovered which were full of branches. “That’s it?” asked Huy as Don pointed out a nice eight foot tall tree. This tree was nice and full of branches, a good straight central trunk, and it wasn’t covered in pinecones.

“What’s wrong with this one?” asked Don as Huy walked around it, inspecting it from all sides.

“I was hoping to cut down a TREE,” said Huy.

“You want to do the whole Paul Bunyon thing,” said Don.

“Yeah, that.”

“You know it took us well over two hours to buck that tree to stove length, and we spent most of Christmas day splitting and stacking that thing. Then come spring I had to get a dozen saplings from state forestry and plant them back by the pond.”

Huy thought long and hard and in the end, they brought back a tree that was nearly as full as a store-bought tree. “Wise choice counselor,” said Don.

Soft light, falling snow, Christmas music on the stereo. It was a perfect late afternoon, early evening to trim the tree. Bao, Huy, Kim-ly, and Mai showed up to help, and as Sandy and Mai worked on dinner, Lanh supervised the tree trimming. Ralph found several strings of old fashion Noma lights that Don and Huy worked into the lighting plan and the combination of tiny lamps and big, softly glowing C5 lamps was incredible. Lanh stood in the middle of the living room; her elf persona now enhanced with a green vest that Sandy made her.

“A little higher ... now to the left ... no, MY left, right there, that branch there,” called Lanh as Huy hung an ornament on the tree. “Don, honey, that one is too big to go that high, bring it down, perfect.”

“Is she always like this?” asked Huy in a whisper.

“Yeah, she loves Christmas,” said Don as he pulled a glass snowman ornament from a box.

“What did you do to my shy little sister?” gasped Huy as Lanh bawled him out for putting two red ornaments close together.

“Wait until we do the tinsel,” groaned Kim-ly from behind the tree.

Soon the garland and tinsel were complete, and the tree was beautiful. “Wow,” said Huy. “You guys can really do a Charlie Brown tree up right!” The natural branches stuck straight out, which let the tinsel hang perfectly, and it really looked like the tree was covered with real icicles.

“Now the best part,” said Don as he opened his box. As he did last year, he softly whispered “Thank you mom,” as he opened the heavy cardboard box marked Lionel.

“What is that about,” Huy asked Bao.

“Ralph says it’s the last Christmas present from his mother,” the younger brother whispered.

Lanh and Don started piecing together the train track and connecting the animations. There’s now a pair of flashing crossing arms that drop when the train comes, a little shack that has a guy pop out and wave a lantern, and new for this year, an animated newsstand next to the train station. When the train came by, the guy inside the news stand moved about, the paperboy outside turned around to sell papers, and a small dog circled the fire hydrant. Kim-ly had the all-important task of building the mountain with a white sheet and empty boxes for the train to go through, and setting up the train was now a ritual that signified that the decorating of the tree was complete.

After dinner, everyone retired to the living room to relax and enjoy the ambiance. “You did a wonderful job, little one,” said Mai, looking at all the wonderful decorations in the old farmhouse. But Mai didn’t get a response from Lanh. She looked over and saw that her daughter was curled up on Don’s lap in the wingback chair, fast asleep.

Kim-ly sighed. “I’ll stay the night so she can sleep upstairs.”

The next weekend Lanh was still decorating and had just finished rearranging decorations on the mantelpiece and was now standing on a stool hanging up a gay sprig of mistletoe encased in a lacy bell in the doorway between the dining room and the living room when her parents and Don walked in the front door. Don had been tasked with picking them up for a Christmas Eve dinner at the Campbell farm, and Lanh finished touching up the decorations in the house while they were out.

Suddenly, the stool Lanh was standing on wobbled. “Let me help you,” said Don as he hurried over to Lanh, as the stool wobbled even more. But when he got near her, as practiced, the stool slipped, and she fell backwards ... right into Don’s arms.

“My hero!” she sighed with a grin, wrapping her arms around his neck, ignoring the cackling admonishments in rapid fire Vietnamese from her shocked parents.

He didn’t know why he said it. It was the corniest thing that any male has ever said, especially when he and his absolute best friend had been practicing their faux-fall for hours to shock their complacent parents. “I’ll always be here for you.”

It wasn’t the line they practiced; it wasn’t close, but it was what came from his heart. In return, Lanh whispered, “I’ll always be here for you too.” He slowly lowered her feet to the ground. Their eyes remained locked, their arms remained around each other, and then unconsciously their lips met. It was a brief peck like they’ve done dozens of times before, but then their lips met again and opened. The little closed lip pecks and smooches of the past were gone. Their tongues gently explored each other and suddenly, like a silent explosion, their friendship blossomed into a passionate, all-consuming love. They broke for a breath, and she gasped, “Tighter, hold me tighter. I won’t break.”