#then they crack the bottle of expensive alcohol andrew bought andrew once kevin is in bed

[badacts]

kid kevin’s first christmas 🎄

Neil is falling asleep beside Andrew on the couch when he suddenly sits bolt upright and says, “Christmas!”

Andrew doesn’t look up from his book. “I know you said you would swear less now, but I presume that isn’t your idea of an alternative.”

“No,” Neil splutters, pointing at the television that is only on for murmuring background noise. The screen is a mess of coloured lights, fake snow and festive music. “It’s nearly Christmas.”

“Your point?” Andrew enquires. It’s the twentieth of December, so Neil isn’t wrong, but he doesn’t know what that has to do with them.

“Kevin,” Neil says. “We should do something.”

“Kevin is ten months old. What would you suggest we do, exactly?” Andrew points out. Kevin may be pretty advanced for his age, according to the internet – he’s taken his first wobbly steps after a very brief period of crawling, and he has a couple of words, notably ‘Da’ and ‘no’ – but he has no concept of Christmas. 

And frankly, Andrew and Neil only have slightly more of a concept. Andrew doesn’t have many good holiday memories from growing up, and Neil never observed a single one until he went to college. These days, they technically celebrate some kind of bastardised winter holiday, though mostly it’s family, friends, and dubiously festive food.

Last year, Nicky made cupcakes that looked like snowmen and Andrew and Aaron didn’t fight, which is the best they’ve done collectively so far.

“We should get a tree,” Neil says, with a kind of fervour he usually reserves for Exy and, well, things related to Kevin. 

“Fine,” Andrew says, because he knows a lost cause when he sees one.

Neil nearly cries when he goes to the mall on December 23rd. At least half of that is because Kevin takes one look at the crowds of people everywhere and shrieks like a tiny demon.

Neil is thankful that he did up the straps holding Kevin in his stroller nice and tight. It means he can pretend to be deaf without worrying about Kevin squirming out onto the floor.

He’s pushing the stroller in front of him and dragging a shopping cart behind him with a fake Christmas tree in it when a woman in her fifties stops him to tell him, “You’re doing great, Dad.”

She doesn’t even look concerned when Neil turns a wild-eyed look on her – apparently that’s normal with parents. She just gives him an encouraging and somewhat pitying smile. He can’t believe he’s at a point in his life where random middle-aged people feel sorry for him instead of crossing the street to stay away from him.

As soon as she goes and takes her shopping cart with her, Neil pulls out his phone and dials Andrew’s number.

“Here,” he tells both of them when Andrew answers, shoving the phone in Kevin’s grasping hands. Kevin pulls the phone closer and squawks into it, and Neil hears Andrew’s calm voice murmur, “Hello, Kevin.”

After that the noise from the stroller is limited to Kevin’s usual babbling and fractured syllables. Neil doesn’t take the phone back until he’s paid for the things in his cart and got out to the parking lot.

“I’m done,” he tells Andrew, tucking the phone between his ear and his shoulder so he can get Kevin free of the stroller and into his carseat. Kevin is tired now, protesting being moved by clinging to Neil while he fiddles with too many straps.

“Congrats,” Andrew says boredly. Neil hangs up on him.

Kevin sleeps the whole way home, and wakes up exceptionally grumpy when they pull in. The only advantage is that Neil can pass him off to Andrew to deal with while he unloads the rest of the car.

He puts the tree up while Kevin is napping. It’s only four feet tall but a pretty dark green, and the tinsel and decorations look surprisingly good. It’s not a bad first attempt.

Also, the quiet amazement on Kevin’s face when he sees the lights go on after he wakes up is worth it.

Usually they rotate the place they meet for the winter holidays, but this year everyone is coming to them even though it’s technically Aaron and Katelyn’s turn to host. This is good, mostly because Neil can’t think of anything much worse than air travel with a baby and Andrew at the same time.

Nicky sweeps in wearing a Christmas sweater that even Neil can recognise as ugly, a more soberly dressed Erik in his wake. “Hello, hello! Kevin! Oh my god, he’s even cuter in real life, Neil!”

Kevin, who is used to Andrew and Neil’s moderate presences, looks shell-shocked by this level of enthusiasm. He promptly shuffles behind Andrew’s legs, hand stuffed in his mouth.

Nicky immediately softens, his face helplessly charmed. “Oh, a shy one. I see how it is.”

“He’ll warm up,” Neil reassures as he shakes Erik’s hand in welcome. Predictably as soon as Nicky sits down Kevin is all over him, investigating Nicky’s sweater with quiet curiosity. 

Aaron and Katelyn arrive not long after. They’ve met Kevin before, and he loves Aaron. Neil would like to think it’s a predisposed soft spot towards short blond men who don’t talk much, but he knows that Aaron is good with Kevin in his own right. He tries to not be annoyed by that, because he’s an adult.

No one outside this group would ever think the cousins could be any good with children, so Neil kind of cherishes their private truth. Watching Kevin squash himself between Aaron and Nicky on the couch and accidentally poke Aaron in the jaw with the corner of the book he wants them to read to him – together – is actually pretty great.

Kevin still doesn’t get Christmas, but he wakes when Nicky does at six AM, burbling quietly through the monitor. Neil is awake long enough to feel the mattress move as Andrew gets up for him and then is out again.

The next thing he knows, there’s an insistent patting at his face with a small, sticky hand. This is familiar enough by now that Neil doesn’t startle, muttering a greeting to Kevin without opening his eyes.

“Fuck that’s cute,” Nicky says from the doorway, which does get Neil the rest of the awake pretty quickly.

“Language,” Katelyn says as she passes down the hall, voice stern.

Nicky winces. “Whoops. Hey, we’re going to do presents and then Andrew’s going to make food, he says you need to get your ass up.”

“Uh huh,” Neil replies, hoisting Kevin onto the mattress before he falls trying to climb up himself. It’s a bad habit – he and Andrew both agreed it was better that Kevin didn’t try to get into bed with them in the middle of the night, for obvious reasons – but it’s kind of hard not to sometimes. “I’ll be out in a minute.”

“There’s coffee,” Nicky says, and then leaves them to it. 

Kevin is content to huddle into Neil’s side now he’s awake, sucking on his fingers again. Neil wraps him in blankets while he gets up and pulls on a t-shirt and sweatpants, and then hoists him onto his hip to take him out to the living room.

The number of presents has multiplied significantly since yesterday. They always get gifts for one another at the winter holidays, and it’s not even the first time they’ve done the whole ‘Christmas Morning’ thing, but usually that’s Andrew and Neil going along with the others, not them instigating it in their own home.

It’s weird, but nice. Neil sits on the couch by Andrew and takes the coffee offered to him, watching as Nicky introduces Kevin to the concept of unwrapping gifts.

It’s objectively pretty funny. Kevin is far more enamoured with the wrapping paper than he is with the gifts themselves, making a complete mess of the carpet as he basically rolls around in it. He opens all of them, meaning the adults have to do a confused handing over of gifts with no labels to their intended recipients once he discards them. Neil catches Katelyn taking pictures and fixes it in his mind to get them from her later.

Neil gets a small cactus from Katelyn and Aaron, and a large flat pot from Nicky and Erik, both of which are meant for his collection of pot plants and terrariums about the house. Andrew gives him a bunch of photos of Kevin from the last four months in defiance of their usual practice of not getting each other anything, which is fine because Neil got him a framed picture of Kevin crying on Santa’s lap from their ill-fated shopping trip and a new sweater. It’s a very dark green, and soft to the touch.

Eventually Kevin tires of wreaking havoc, bringing his two new toy cars to the couch and attempting to crawl up between them. Andrew hoists him up and wedges him in, taking the cars to examine them when Kevin passes them to him. He looks relaxed like this in a way most people wouldn’t assume possible, surrounded by his family and wearing a sweater that looks black but isn’t.

Katelyn takes a few more pictures. Neil is definitely going to need those, too.

[foxsoulcourt]

#christmas in the minyard josten household #blood and water family #a decorated tree through eyes of a 10 month old

kid kevin’s first christmas 🎄

Neil is falling asleep beside Andrew on the couch when he suddenly sits bolt upright and says, “Christmas!”

Andrew doesn’t look up from his book. “I know you said you would swear less now, but I presume that isn’t your idea of an alternative.”

“No,” Neil splutters, pointing at the television that is only on for murmuring background noise. The screen is a mess of coloured lights, fake snow and festive music. “It’s nearly Christmas.”

“Your point?” Andrew enquires. It’s the twentieth of December, so Neil isn’t wrong, but he doesn’t know what that has to do with them.

“Kevin,” Neil says. “We should do something.”

“Kevin is ten months old. What would you suggest we do, exactly?” Andrew points out. Kevin may be pretty advanced for his age, according to the internet – he’s taken his first wobbly steps after a very brief period of crawling, and he has a couple of words, notably ‘Da’ and ‘no’ – but he has no concept of Christmas. 

And frankly, Andrew and Neil only have slightly more of a concept. Andrew doesn’t have many good holiday memories from growing up, and Neil never observed a single one until he went to college. These days, they technically celebrate some kind of bastardised winter holiday, though mostly it’s family, friends, and dubiously festive food.

Last year, Nicky made cupcakes that looked like snowmen and Andrew and Aaron didn’t fight, which is the best they’ve done collectively so far.

“We should get a tree,” Neil says, with a kind of fervour he usually reserves for Exy and, well, things related to Kevin. 

“Fine,” Andrew says, because he knows a lost cause when he sees one.

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