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“The dumbass missed his flight,” Red Forman informed his wife from the pay phone’s booth.
Over in the Forman kitchen, with the yellow receiver against her ear, Kitty’s face fell, “Oh no! Did he get on another flight?”
“Don’t know,” came Red’s reply.
Kitty’s disappointed expression soon turned into a slightly puzzled frown. “Well are you waiting there to see if he comes in from another flight?”
“Nope,” he answered before adding, “I left the airport about half an hour ago.”
“Red! What if he got on a later flight? If you’re not there, how is he going to get here?”
“Let him figure it out,” grumbled Red.
“Red, he’s your brother,” Kitty said as if he needed reminding.
“Kitty, he’s a dumbass,” argued Red, because Kitty obviously did need reminding.
“It doesn’t matter,” she fought back just as determined as her husband. “He’s family and it’s Christmas. Christmas is a time to spend with your family…even if they are dumbasses.”
An audible sigh was heard from Red’s end of the line before he spoke again, “Kitty, Marty’s not coming on a later flight. Hell, he probably decided not to come at all and just forgot to call to tell us.”
Hearing Red’s theory Kitty felt both her anger towards her husband her worry for her brother-in-law begin to diminish.
“That...that actually does sound like Marty,” she admitted with a nod of her head, but soon she was filled with another somber kind of emotion—this time directed at Red. “I'm sorry your brother won’t be spending Christmas with us after all.”
“Don’t be. It’s actually the only bright side of having to drive through this damn snow storm.”
Kitty couldn’t help but giggle a little at his comment before adding another sincere apology, “Well, I'm sorry that you’re having to drive through all that snow.”
As she spoke about the snow, Red was reminded of why he’d called home in the first place. “Yeah, Kitty, that’s actually something I need to talk to you about.”
She heard her husband clear his throat and could imagine his gaze shifting downwards as it often did when he needed to tell her something he knew she wouldn’t like hearing. Quickly concern filled Kitty and she wasn’t even quite sure what she had to be concerned with yet; it was a horrible feeling.
“Red, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong, Kitty,” Red tried to clear up before his wife started to panic. “It’s just the snow’s coming down pretty fast here and the roads are icy…”
Red’s words settled Kitty’s nerves for only a moment or two before she began thinking about her husband driving all those miles home from Kenosha’s airport on those slippery wet roads.
“Oh Red, be careful out there,” she told him, her worry evident in her tone of voice.
He nodded, “I know.”
“Make sure you watch out for other cars,” she added knowing that Red knew this, but it couldn’t help to give a reminder, “And don’t drive fast, the slower the better.”
For the most part, Red didn’t seem to mind Kitty’s friendly reminders of driving in the snow; he knew they were more for her own benefit than his. “I know, Kitty. And I'm driving slower than slow. There was a good chunk of the time I wasn’t moving at all.”
That last comment confused Kitty, “What?”
“The Toyota gave out on me…”
“Red!” Kitty exclaimed once again sounding close to a panic, before Red could continue.
Luckily Red was just as swift in his turn to interrupt her, “It’s alright, I got it up and running again. I stopped here at gas station to give it a rest and make sure everything’s working before I get out on the road again.” He could hear her sigh in relief and it made him hate what he had to next even more, “Kitty, even if it doesn’t crap out on me again…with the storm the way it is out here…it’ll be awhile before I get home.”
“How long is awhile?” Kitty questioned, her voice becoming higher than usual.
“I don’t know,” he replied honestly but was already looking at the worse case scenario and thought he should prepare Kitty for it too, “Maybe close to midnight…”
Kitty’s eyes widened as she felt her heart break, “Close to midnight? Red, it’s Christmas!”
“I know.”
“If you get here close to midnight, you’ll miss Christmas, Red!” he could just about hear the tears in her voice.
“I know.”
Suddenly Kitty’s heartbroken tone switched to one filled with rage, “This is all your dumbass brother’s fault!”
Red couldn’t help but smirk as he heard and agreed with this statement, “I know.”
“Everyone’s here, Red,” Kitty shared, her voice once again sounding small and sad. “All the kids and grandkids. If you get here after midnight, you won’t get to see them at all this Christmas.”
“Thanks for trying to cheer me up,” Red joked with a smirk, he almost got a smile out of his wife.
“They miss you,” she said and just before Red could protest, she continued and added, “I miss you.”
This made Red’s features soften along with his tone of voice, “I know, Kitty. I miss you. And the whole midnight thing is really just the worst case scenario,” he explained to her. “I’ll be home for Christmas.”
Finally, a smile broke out onto Kitty’s face, “Why, Red Forman, did you just quote a Christmas song?”
“You tell anyone and I’ll only deny it,” he remarked causing Kitty’s smile to grin even more. “Now look, sweetheart, I don’t want you spending the evening waiting and worrying about me the whole time. Spend some time with the kids, eat, drink, open the presents. And most importantly, get those people out of my house.”
Kitty’s smile became a tight one, “Only if you promise to drive carefully.”
“I promise.”
That phone conversation had taken place over several hours ago and Kitty hadn’t heard from Red since. She figured it must have meant that the car was still running and he was on the road home, but part of her couldn’t help but worry.
Kitty was in her kitchen staring out the glass sliding doors, expecting to see the orange colored vehicle pull up in the nearly full driveway. It never came and so she looked down at her watch once again. A routine she must have done over a hundred times tonight. When a sudden loud buzz filled the air, she was almost thankful for the interruption, and she quickly went on to taking the fresh batch of Christmas sugar cookies out of the oven. She hummed along to the Bing Crosby song playing the background as she tried to keep her mind off the whereabouts of her husband and the fact that it had been nearly three hours since his last phone call home.
“Hey Mom, shouldn’t Red be here by now?”
Kitty looked up from the cookies and gave a smile, “Oh I’m sure he’ll be here any minute now. He was just having some trouble getting his car up and running. Don’t you worry about him.”
She really didn’t want to ruin the kids’ Christmas by making them worry about Red; she was doing enough worrying for all of them.
“Nah, I wasn’t worrying about him.” Hyde said looking down at his glass of eggnog for a few seconds, “I’m worried about Donna and Forman. I don’t know how much longer they can hold back the kids.”
Kitty laughed, “They really wanna open those presents, don’t they?”
“Open presents! I heard it!” Kelso exclaimed as he and Fez lead the group of small children out of the basement, past Hyde and Kitty, and into the living room.
Kitty watched wide eyed while Hyde smirked, he just won ten bucks from Laurie. Seconds later Jackie and Donna ran into the kitchen following the path of the tiny group of three. An out of breath, disheveled looking Eric entered the kitchen.
“Sorry…Mom…they…just….and then…” he flopped into a sitting position on the titled floor and his mother frowned slightly.
“Steven, be a dear and help Eric.” Kitty instructed before disappearing behind the swinging door.
Hyde looked at his defeated looking adopted brother and held out an outstretched hand in front of him. Eric just stared at the offering, feeling to defeated to even reach out for the help. After waiting for a few more seconds and getting little to response from the man seated on the floor, Hyde gave up and followed Kitty into the kitchen, missing the exasperated look on Eric’s face as he made his exit.
By the time Kitty had entered the room, everyone was surrounding the tree, diving in for a present with their name on it. She watched with amazement, but not exactly the happy kind.
“I call the big one!” Fez exclaimed.
“Fez, that one’s got my name on it!” whined Michael.
“I don’t care you sonofab….”
“Everybody freeze!” Kitty ordered, and everyone did just that. A gift in their hands.
“Would you look at yourselves, opening presents before everyone is here? You should be ashamed of yourselves.” Kitty began, “I guess Eric and Steven are the only two I can…”
She ended her sentence there as she caught a glimpse of Hyde trying to quietly take the wrapping paper off one of his gifts.
Feeling eyes upon him, Hyde looked up and met Kitty’s eyes.
“Uh…I took this out of Kelso’s hands.”
“Wow dude,” Kelso said in awe, “you’re pretty fast. I didn’t even notice! We could use you on the force.”
Kitty sighed she was clearly disappointed with them all, except for Eric who was still somewhere in the kitchen.
“You know, Red and I…well I put a lot of time and thought into your gifts. And I would like for him to be able to see your faces light up when you open them.”
“What if our faces don’t light up?” Laurie asked her mother, not convinced that she was getting a great gift from her parents.
Kitty rolled her eyes and sighed as Jackie made a suggestion.
“But Mrs. Forman, if we open them now we’ll save time. And Mr. Forman will be able to see our lit up faces a lot sooner.”
“Yeah.”
“That’s true.”
“I’ll go with that.”
And other similar responses came from the others in the room; but Kitty just shook her head.
“No, no. Now you all know Red loves you. He may not show it very much but he does. He’s there when you need advice, he helps you with your cars, he…”
“Threatens to put his foot up our asses.” Eric, who had sometime earlier entered the room, interrupted his mother.
Kitty looked over at her son with a ‘Now is not the time’ expression causing him to look around the room as if trying to figure out where those words had come from.
“Jackie, have Kathy open a present.” Kelso whispered, Kathy, short for Katherine, was Jackie and Hyde three year old daughter. “She can’t get mad at her namesake.”
Kitty turned her attention back to the group. Kelso’s whispering obviously wasn’t as soft as he thought.
“That’s it.” she mumbled to herself before walking over and grabbing the parents from each of her children. “Now, listen to me, no one is opening any presents until jolly ol’ Red comes through that door!”
Everyone froze, not saying a word, as they watched the small blonde woman point to the front door. Suddenly they heard the Christmas bells, which hung on the door, ring. They all turned to see Red Forman, his hat and coat covered with snow, looking as grumpy as ever.
“Damn it! Are you people still here?!”
“Close enough!” Kelso exclaimed before he and the rest of the gang jumped to the pile of gifts, as Kitty ran to her husband’s side.
“Oh Red, I'm so glad you’re home,” Kitty told her husband interrupting him from removing his coat so that she could give him a kiss that told him how happy she was to see him; Red was a little more than surprised by it but welcome it just the same. As she pulled out of the kiss, she smiled up a him, “And you made it home before Christmas was over.”
“I told you I would,” he said with a smirk that soon flattened as he heard the sounds of ripping gift wrap; looking in the direction of the sound only caused his scowl to deepen. “I thought you were getting rid of these people.”
Kitty smiled at his griping and scolded him lightly, “Oh Red. You know, Christmas wouldn’t be the same without all of them here.”
Just when Red was about to argue when he felt Kitty wrap her arms around his upper right one. He looked down at her just in time to see her lean her head near his shoulder as she watched the scene before them. Following his wife’s gaze, Red watched as his kids—biological and those that had wormed their way into their home and hearts—tore open up their gifts with an excitement that only grew as they showed each other what they had gotten.
It was loud and it was a mess of paper and boxes… it was Christmas.
Slowly Red’s grin reappeared, and he removed his arm from Kitty’s hold so that he could move it around her waist and pull her closer to him, “Yeah, I guess that’s true.”
“Merry Christmas, Red,” Kitty said as she looked up at him with a smile.
Red placed a kiss on the top of her head, “Merry Christmas, Kitty.”
The couple then shared a smile before going back to watching Christmas unravel in the living room as their kids unwrapped their gifts. They’d join them soon enough, but for now were taking the time to enjoy and appreciate the one of the greatest gift they could receive—being able to spend the holiday together and with their family.