Traditions

"Can I help you Dad?"

"Sure! Can you untangle the end there?" I was standing on the ladder, only beginning to put the Christmas lights on the tree, just as I had for the last twenty-two years.

Oh!

I thought to myself;

make that the last twenty-one years.

Rick hadn't been born yet that first Christmas, and that first Christmas we didn't have any lights. Back "BM" (Before Money) we almost didn't even have a tree.

"Oh look! Remember this?" Andrea, my 18 year old daughter said, holding an ornament out for her mother to see. Glancing down at her I saw her unwrapping a favorite ornament from Christmas's past, a ceramic elf with a Candy Cane that was used to hang it on the tree. She turned and explained the significance to Donny, her boyfriend who had been asked to join us for our annual tree trimming party. It was one of the few times anymore where our family all got together, and at least for Andrea, she had a "significant other" that she asked to join us, so tonight we were 5.

Andrea definitely took after her mother. I'd seen her and Mary wearing almost matching bikinis during the summer, and they could wear each other's clothes without a problem. Thinking of your kids as being sexually active isn't normally in a father's thoughts as a good thing, but with the significance of the tree, and that she was exactly as old as Mary had been that night so many years ago when we got that star, the thought passed through my mind. Was she fucking Donny? Was she wearing naughty lingerie for him just as her mother had for me? I heard her giggle and glanced over at Andrea. She was sitting on his lap, and had whispered something in his ear. Donny's hand had started to move on her body, but his eyes rose to me as I pretended not to be looking right at them, and his hand froze. Andrea hopped up from his lap and turned back to the ornaments, leaving Donny with a bulge in his pants. I'd never thought about it before, but I knew without a doubt that he'd be boning my daughter before the night was out.

I smiled to myself, wondering if Rick and Andrea had ever contemplated the idea that, since their birthdays were a day apart and, if gestation periods were perfect, they were probably conceived on the same day of the year, just three years apart. The coincidence was only slightly obscured by Andrea having been born in a leap year. By the calendar they were a day apart, by the exact day count, they were both born on, and conceived on, the same days.

Rick really was a help. After years of being a child, he'd rapidly begun to act and respond recently as an adult. Unraveling and feeding the lights to me as I clipped them to the branches, it took us perhaps half the amount of time that it had taken me some years. As soon as the lights were hung, everyone began to hang ornaments, completing the dressing of the tree in our assortment of ornaments agglomerated over the years.

"Here's the Angel," my wife Mary said, holding it out to me. Unmentioned was the star in her other hand. Rick grabbed the Angel and handed it to me after I repositioned the ladder to be able to put her on the top of the tree. Climbing the ladder once again, I positioned the Angel, and then watched her flop over. Pulling her off of the tree top again, I trimmed the top spire and "shoved the tree top up her ass" as we had so often laughed in the past. With a wire tie and clippers, she was soon locked in place. I stepped down one step on the ladder and turned to get the star which I knew was now next.

"Why do you insist on keeping this Star, Mom?" Andrea said, taking the simple yellow star from her mother.

"Oh, tradition. It's just a good memory. It always reminds us of our first Christmas together." My eyes found hers and I smiled, knowing that identical thoughts were going through our minds about what true significance it had.

It was a simple five pointed yellow star made of construction paper that looked like it had been made by a kindergartener. In reality the young lady had probably been a teen, but her mental faculties had been that of a five year old. Glue had been traced along the outline of the edges, green glitter affixed to the glue, and a smiley face with red glitter placed in the center. A simple loop of yellow paper had been glued to the back which allowed it to be slipped over a small branch.

Truth be told, we had no idea exactly who, or even if it was multiple "who's" that had created the star.

Truth be told, whoever "she" was, she had no idea that her Christmas decoration from so long ago had become a permanent fixture in our family.

22 years prior, we had our first Christmas as a family of two. I was about to graduate from College, and Mary, my high school sweetheart, and I had gotten married on her 18th Birthday, just a few months before. With Mary's job at the grocery store, and my part time work, being able to eat and pay rent took virtually all our money. When it came time to get a tree, we knew that that it wasn't going to happen -- we didn't have any money to spare. No tree and no lights to decorate it, no ornaments to adorn it, we just put the thought aside for later years when we would have a family to share it with.

When a co-worker asked Mary if we had a tree yet, she just told her we couldn't afford one this year and weren't going to get one. The following evening her co-worker called and asked if she could stop by for a few minutes, but was vague on the reason why. She arrived a few minutes later with her Mom, and one very dry tree. This tree had never been watered, and showed it. It had been used in a classroom for Special Needs kids. That day had been a Friday, the last day of school before the Christmas break, and since we weren't going to be able to have a tree, they brought it and gave it to us.

All it took was bumping a branch and the almost brown needles would fall off, what few there were left. The base was just two flat pieces of crossed wood nailed together into the stump of the tree. I probably would have been afraid to have any electric lights on it anyway, as dry as it was a single spark would have set it off like a roman candle.

But, we were ecstatic to have the mangiest looking tree that ever passed as a Christmas tree. It was our first Christmas together and we had our very own tree. There were a few forgettable handmade ornaments on different branches, but the one item that stood out was the bright yellow star on the top. We cleaned off the dilapidated pieces of paper that had made the decorations, all except for the star. We popped a bowl of popcorn, took a needle and a spool of thread, and proceeded to make a stringer of popcorn. When the first bowl was gone, we popped a second, and then a third. When we ran out of thread we draped our popcorn string decorations on the tree, and transformed our bedraggled, dried out, fire trap of a tree into the best Christmas tree ever.

I know we said we didn't have any money for gifts and we said we weren't going to give each other gifts, but I also knew I never really intended for

me

not to give Mary anything. And besides, being newlyweds, and fornicating morning noon and night -- or any other time the urge struck us, anything sexual was a present to both of us. I knew exactly what I was going to get Mary; in fact it had been wrapped for a couple of weeks by that time.

Although we were newlyweds and Mary enjoyed sex, she hadn't ever really had any experience. I wasn't her first, but I was her first love. She'd been a freshman when I was a senior, and although we dated a few times when we were in high school together, we'd never had sex. When I graduated and went to college, I had my share of sexual experiences with willing and knowledgeable partners who did for me not only what I wanted, but taught me how to pleasure them also. When I was home on Christmas break of my junior year, I looked up Mary and this time we knew immediately we wanted each other. We were married at the end of summer, on her birthday, just before I went back to school. When I went back, I brought Mary with me.

When we began dating again, although Mary wasn't a virgin any longer, it didn't bother me, and that I had experience didn't bother her. But not being a virgin and knowing what you want, and what your partner wants, are two different things. Mary had never given a blow job before, but had given hand jobs to several boyfriends. She'd never been totally naked with anyone before me. No one had ever gone down on her before, and she wasn't sure she wanted me to. She'd had her boobs played with, she liked that a lot, and at least one boyfriend had attempted to finger her off, but she'd never had an orgasm before me. When I'd asked if she'd ever been able to get herself off with a vibrator, she said she'd never had one, and so, my Christmas present for that first year for Mary was bought well over a month early, long before we had our tree.

The year when we finally hooked up for good, a friend of mine and his family had gone away for Christmas and I'd been asked to house-sit for them. We dated once, and I took her home where we parked outside of her parent's house. A goodnight kiss kept getting hotter and hotter, and although I hadn't planned on it, she had no problem letting me slide my hands inside her blouse and play with her breasts. She stopped me before we went any further saying she needed to go inside for now, but maybe we could go back to my place the next time.

Whether it was that I wasn't trying to fuck Mary in the backseat of a car, or that we were able to actually use a bed, from the very beginning I was able to give her an orgasm. Like most women, once she had one, she couldn't wait for another, and we fucked like rabbits for the entire Christmas break. When I went back to college while she finished her senior year of high school, I came back every weekend that I could, and asked her to marry me at the beginning of the summer.

Once decorated with our popcorn strings and a star, it didn't matter that we didn't have much to give each other -- we had each other. Christmas Eve we visited with our families and exchanged gifts with them, getting home about midnight. Our present to our families had been all we could afford, having taken a picture of the two of us, and having multiple copies made had just about depleted all the money we had.

When we'd gone to get in the car to leave, I realized I'd "forgotten" my wallet, and so managed to sneak my gift under the tree before we left. Returning home later that night, Mary was surprised to see a gift for her waiting under the tree.

"It's Christmas," I told her, looking at my watch, "I guess we better open it, hadn't we?"

"I got you something too," she said, "but you'll have to wait here while I wrap it."

"You weren't supposed to get me anything," I said, taking her in my arms and kissing her. Her kiss was hot and wet, and although it was just another day in the life of a newlywed, my cock began growing in my pants knowing I was going to be getting laid in just a few minutes.

"And you weren't supposed to get me anything either."

"But I had to, because I love you."

"Me too." She pushed away and said "Stay here, I'll be right back." She went into the bedroom of our apartment and shut the door.

I knew what I wanted to do, and the floor was cold and hard, but my sleeping bag was in the front closet. I went and got it out so it would be at hand later when we were getting frisky, but I didn't want to put it out on the floor just yet. Instead I went into the kitchen and opened a bottle of wine and got out two glasses, and returning I plopped down on the small sofa we had and pulled my shoes off. It was mere minutes later that Mary called from the bedroom, "Are you ready to unwrap your present?"

"I am if you are," I said. Looking up when she pushed the bedroom door open, my mouth fell open. I found Mary to normally be hot and sexy, but this was something new. The "Santa's Elf" lingerie set was definitely meant for the bedroom. The red lace bra cups had open nipples; hers were perky and hard filling the holes. A see-through red lace panty with a split crotch showed her pussy lips, which were swollen enough I almost wondered if she'd played with herself while getting dressed. Women didn't shave back then, but her blond pubic hair was so light and thin it made for a beautiful display. Green stockings covered her legs, held up by garters, and some pointy toed shoes with a bell dangling on the end of each finished them off. On her head was a cocky green elf hat, completing the pixie outfit.

"Oh My," I said, rising from the sofa to pull her into my arms. Our lips met, my hands began roaming her body -- her hands slid onto my crotch and my rapidly expanding erection.

"I take it you like your present?" She asked, squeezing my cock through my pants.

"Oh my yes.... But I thought I had to unwrap it?"

"You can unwrap it, or you can use it just like it is." My fingers on her breast squeezed her nipple, causing her to shudder.

"And which way do you think is better?"

"Maybe we should try both."

"Mmmm, I like that idea. What do you think, should I play with my present first or do you want to unwrap yours first?"

"Let's play with yours first." I bent my mouth to her naked nipple in response, her hands fumbling with my belt. It didn't take long and I was undressed, my sexy wife climbing on and sliding my cock into the split in her panties and into her pussy.

I left my present wrapped for the first time.

"I think you need to open your present now," I said later, hugging my wife against me. She was lying on top of me, sated for the moment, although it was a bit cramped on the small sofa. I had to lay my legs over the side, but she comfortably stayed on top. I urged her to get up, and reached beyond the sofa to grab my sleeping bag.

"What's that for?" she asked. I flipped the tie and immediately rolled the bag out in front of the tree.

"The sofa's too small to play with my present properly," I answered with a grin. "Sit, and I'll be right back." Stepping into the small kitchen, I poured us two glasses of wine and returned to the sleeping bag. I handed her one glass, "Ok, you can open your present now."

Her eyes got big when she saw the vibrator. I'd included a small note card, which she missed initially when she opened it. When I handed it to her, she read it aloud, "For Christmas, we should Eat, Drink, and Make Mary under the tree." She read it, and I held out her glass of wine to her.

We never did get to bed that night. We did try her present, and unwrapped my present, only to later rewrap it and unwrap it yet again. We made love multiple times in multiple positions, and Mary found out about the pleasures of a vibrator.

It was just a few weeks later that we found out Mary was pregnant. Although it could have been any of multiple nights, the timing always such that we knew although we'd started "Making Mary," that evening; we also ended up "Making Rick" that Christmas morning under the tree.

Making love on Christmas Eve under the tree with the yellow star on it became our tradition. Three years later when once again we "Made Mary" under the tree, we also "Made Andrea." She joined us nine months later, completing our family. Whenever anyone says that Christmas is a time to "Eat, Drink and Make Merry," it never fails to put a smile on my face, or the face of my lovely wife. Every year on Christmas Eve, Mary puts on her Santa's Elf lingerie and we "Make Mary" under the tree.