This story begins on a snowy December evening. Hawk and I were hosting Puka and Cobrastarshine for a sleepover. We've had Cobrastarshine overnight a few times, but never the two of them. Now that Cobrastarshine is four, he occasionally gets ... willful. However, he was so pleased to be hanging out with us that he didn't throw a tantrum that night, despite not wanting to put on his jammas.
He and Hawk built a zoo out of Duplo blocks while Puka and I looked at our Christmas tree.
When I was done failing to take photos of Puka in low light (because she is very fast), we tried to play in the zoo with the boys, but they were very absorbed in their game.
Hawk in a decent reproduction of the original Seahag* photo.
Bed time was not as difficult as I thought it was going to be. I'd hoped the kids would be a little scared or sad and would want cuddles in the big bed, but nope. Puka was perfectly happy in a playpen-cum-crib Hawk Sr. had brought for us. So happy, in fact, that as she sang herself to sleep, one of the words she cooed was "happy, happy, happy" along with other Puka classics like "onomatopoeia," "antidisestablishmentarianism," and "micropachycephalosaurus."
Cobrastarshine came for cuddles for approximately 2.5 microseconds before he decided to decamp to the living room couch where he would then bother Puka. It took both me and Hawk using our stern voices to wrangle him back into the office onto the pullout couch with its gorgeous dinosaur sheets. To prevent relapses, I had to stay up on the couch playing crossword puzzles until they both fell asleep, lit by the glow of our Christmas garland and tree, serenaded by Cobrastarshine's wee voice talking to his hippo and elephant toys, and Puka's sweet singing.
The next morning, Nana and Papa joined us for brunch at the Blue Plate Diner, then came over to hang out. Puka was in a dancing mood so she and I danced to Christmas music. While I held her in my arms, singing along to She and Him's rendition of "Blue Christmas," Cobrastarshine in the background demanding that I turn off that song because he doesn't like that song, stop that song!--it hit me very hard.
This would be my first Christmas without my sister. Since she was born, I mean.
She and I have been moping about it for weeks. Her inlaws now reside on Vancouver Island, so they're going there for Christmas. She and I are so miserable. She'll have a good time or whatever but that's not important. We're besties. We're the bestest besties that ever bestied, and it's just TOO MUCH.
Twenty-nine Christmases we've had together. Twenty nine.
And I'm not saying that Hawk's family, with our five nieces and newphews on that side, aren't awesome. But they're not MAGPIE and they're not PUKA and they're not COBRASTARSHINE!
Magpie and I like to get into trouble at Christmas. One year, with our cousin Palomino, we used dental floss to hang all the villagers from Nana's Christmas village by the neck until dead (us not them, we were dead meat) in Nana's Christmas tree.
Sometimes we do each other's makeup.
We make fun of EVERYTHING and EVERYONE.
Sometimes we watch stupid TV about deadly animals or Nostradamus.
One time ... ew ... we cuddled. Super gay in a sister way.
So yeah. It's gonna be a blue, blue Christmas.
At least I'll be able to cuddle Cora.
*The Seahag is a legend, but that's a story for another time.
