literal leigh 05 - joyful leigh Read Free

clichés designed to make you feel obligated to spend your hard earned cash on a pile of shoddy rubbish. Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, and Christmas all rolled up and churned out into an orgiastic season of excess, American style. Then there are all the family get-togethers. The real winners truly are the therapists. I bet they get more new business out of the holidays than any other time.
    Whether all the commercialism is reality or not, I made a decision to not allow any sort of mature thinking to bring me down. I was ready to celebrate all of the holidays starting with Thanksgiving. It would be called Thankshanukkamas. I vowed upon my magic desk and witch’s broom that the holidays would be filled with childlike joy—for me, my family, and my friends—even if it killed us.

 
    Chapter Three
    The Best Laid Plans
    “Hey, Hunter? We only have eleven days until Thanksgiving. I was thinking about having Thanksgiving dinner here for both of our families. You know, a traditional feast with a turkey and all the trimmings. After all, we’re finally all moved in and the house is pretty much ready. It’s time we brought everyone together and made a statement. ‘We are engaged to be married! So maybe we should start getting to know each other a little better!’ What do you think?”
    “Em…Um…sure, baby. Sounds good. Real good. My parents…turkeys…nice.” It felt so good to have his warm naked body against my back. I stroked his muscular arm that was wrapped lovingly around my waist. The little red glowing digits that looked like they were suspended over my nightstand told me I had completely lost track of time. “Is it really three in the morning? Wow! Thank God we don’t work in the morning. Wasn’t it amazing how quickly Kelly’s uncle, Carmine, was able to get that whole crew in here?”
    “Yeah…quick...wise guys.”
    “I’ve been fending off my friends on a daily basis. All they want to do is dive into the insanity of wedding planning. I’ve told them to wait until the holidays are over. I don’t want to add a whole new layer of drama and madness to it. I can only handle so much crazy.” I waited for a response. I waited some more and poked him.
    “Are you still awake?” His breathing was slow and steady. He was snoozing hard.
    Now, I ask you: How can a guy, who was so vigorously wide awake only ten minutes ago, suddenly fall into such a deep sleep? When I say vigorously, I’m talking about making the bed bounce across the floor like it was being carried by four methed up clowns hopping on pogo sticks kind of vigor.
    “I suppose I could cut you some slack for falling asleep on me. You were going for the Olympic gold medal or something tonight. Anyway, I was only going to talk about our wedding, Thanksgiving dinner, the color of the kitchen blinds I picked out, and if you wanted to shop for some new bathroom rugs tomorrow.” I poked him again and after no response I relented to the late night and fell asleep.
    I woke up to a micro massage of my ass cheeks courtesy of Luna’s cold, kneading paws. “It’s freezing in here, Luna.” I blew out a few puffs of air and I was pretty sure I saw my breath. The old window in our room is beautiful and I love the way the morning sun glints off of the old beveled glass, but all it’s good for is looking at. The cold air came in around it with a devilish fury that made our little curtains visibly flutter. “So this is what an ice cave feels like. Great! Except, I’m not a fucking polar bear.”
    It was still early, so I let Hunter sleep while Luna led me down into the freshly painted living room. “Don’t worry, Luna. I’ll just turn up the furnace.” Some things really are easier said than done. Moving into an old house while getting it fixed up at the same time made me lose focus on finding out some of the very basic necessities. For example, the location of the thermostat was a complete mystery to me. I had no idea how the place was even heated and there