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Christmas can be a stressful time of year; Jane Seymour knew that all too well.
This year would be the queens’ first Christmas in their new world. Their first Christmas as a family. Jane knew that meant that everything had to be absolutely perfect.
The first disaster had come when their freezer decided to stop working during the night, leaving Jane a panicked mess as she sobbed over the rotten turkey crown. Then, of course, the car decided it didn’t want to start, leaving her with no way to get to the store to replace the meat.
Before Jane could even begin to break down, a crash sounded from the living room, instilling fear in the woman.
On the ground in the living room, Jane found their once wonderful Christmas tree laying on the ground, decorations strewn around the room. Of course. What next? Would Santa’s slay come crashing through their roof? Perhaps the Christmas lights would cause a house fire? Gosh, that would be just Jane’s luck.
Kneeling beside the tree, Jane couldn’t help the tears that flowed as she collected broken ornaments from the ground.
“Jane, calm down, dear. This will all be okay,” Aragon had attempted to console the woman, only resulting in her crying even harder.
“How can you say that? Christmas is going to be a disaster, Catherine! This was supposed to be perfect but now it’s Christmas Eve and we have no tree and no turkey. I haven’t even made the Christmas cookies I promised Kitty yet,” Jane sobbed, holding Kit’s handmade tree topper close to her chest. She’d failed. Let down her whole family.
“There isn’t even snow. How can it be Christmas without a single snowflake?”
As suddenly as the day had erupted into disaster, Jane felt her head begin to pound. The Christmas lights were too bright, the jolly music far too loud. Everything felt wrong - like the world was spinning.
“Okay, mi vida. Let’s get you to bed. You’re going to give yourself another stress migraine,” Aragon sighed, helping the woman to her feet. It wasn’t until then that Jane noticed Kit and Anne watching them curiously from the top of the stairs.
God, she really had let down her poor, sweet girls.
At 6pm, Jane finally awoke to her pitch-black bedroom, thankful that the pulsing in her head seemed to have majorly subsided. When the memories of the day suddenly came rushing back to her, Jane gave a frown and buried her face in her hands. For a moment, she considered going back to sleep, until she heard a gentle knock at the door.
“Jane?”
Of course, Kit had come to check on her. Should she pretend to still be sleeping? Was that cruel?
“Mum… I made you a cup of tea if you feel up to coming down,” Kit said, her voice barely a whisper. Did she just say mum? There was no way Jane could deny the teenager after hearing that.
Pulling her dressing gown around herself, Jane quickly put on her slippers before popping a paracetamol and taking a sip of water. She was going to make sure this Christmas went perfectly, no matter what. There was no way she could hide away in her room and hibernate. No, she was going to sort this. Just like she always did.
Reaching the stairs, Jane quickly noticed a sweet smell in the air and the familiar buzz of the television.
The queen just froze as she reached the bottom step, taking in her surroundings. Intricate paper snowflakes hung from the ceiling, blue and white snowflake shaped fairy lights ran along the tops of the walls, creating a cold, blue glow around the room. The windows even had snow spray in the corners, creating a frosty looking effect.
Turning to the TV, Jane felt tears fill her eyes as she noticed the black and white movie.
“It’s your favourite, right? It’s A Wonderful Life?” Kit asked quietly, earning a sniffle and a nod from the woman as she handed her a cup of tea.
“We uh… we made those Christmas cookies. They won’t be as good as yours but we tried our best,” Anne added, gesturing to a plate filled with poorly decorated cookies shaped like all sorts of Christmas themed things: snowflakes, snowmen, stockings, reefs, Santa hats, etc.
Wiping her eyes, Jane pressed a gentle kiss to each girl’s forehead before giving a small smile. “Did you two do all of this?”
That made the girls give a giggle as they shook their heads. God, it was nice to hear their laughter after such a stressful morning. They explained how Cleves had walked all the way to the garden centre to get snow spray, and how Parr had spent hours researching the best way to make paper snowflakes. Aragon had helped them to make the cookies but, evidently, left them to decorate.
“We all helped,” Parr nodded with a smile, pulling Kit into a hug from behind. “You deserve a wonderful Christmas, Jane. We may have to order a takeaway for dinner tomorrow, but at least you got your snow,” Aragon teased.
All at once, Jane felt her emotions grow far too overwhelming. Tears ran down her cheeks as she beamed happily at the group, pulling them all into a tight hug.
“Having you five in my life is the best gift I could ever wish for.”
Maybe their Christmas wouldn’t go to plan but really, what had ever gone to plan in their lives?
The tree, the turkey, the snow; suddenly none of that mattered. Christmas is about creating memories, after all, not creating picturesque decorations and dinners. It’s about giving back to the people who give so much for you and spending time with the people you love. It’s about family.
Looking around at the queens, all dressed in the matching Christmas pyjamas she’d bought them, Jane couldn’t imagine a better group of people to spend her Christmas with. To spend her life with.