“That is not the center”, Wanda stated bluntly, voice hushed so no one but Bucky would hear. “More to the right.”
With a groan – because it was the sixth time adjusting it – Bucky moved the stocking an inch to the side, freezing when he heard Wanda clapping her hands. Was that a good or a bad sign? He turned his head to see that she was beaming happily, because he had FINALLY found the right spot for Ella's stocking. “Perfect!” Bucky relaxed and fixed the stocking to the mantle piece, before taking a step back and admiring his work. Wanda had thought of everything, naturally, and turned into a proper Christmas monster this year, wanting everything to be absolutely perfect for Ella's first holiday season with them. She had bought their stocking before Ellie had even been born and Bucky didn't even start to question that she had bought Alpine one as well. Wanda tried very hard to make sure that their 'first child' didn't get jealous, as it seemed.
Taking another step back, he wrapped his arms around his wife and rested his chin on her shoulder. “Is M'lady content now and ready to go to bed? Because I am quite sure that it's going to be you waking up Ella at the crack of dawn, not the other way around”, he joked, knowing that this would probably be the last year of their daughter not truly understanding what was going on. At only a couple of months old now, Ella would be ecstatic to play with her new toys in the morning, but other than that, this holiday was more for them, than her.
And Bucky was incredibly grateful for everything he had right here with him, although he was kind of relieved that Wanda would stop the preparation now, because if he had to hang up one more garland or bauble, he'd scream.
“I am very content and incredibly awake, but we can go to bed, yes”, Wanda replied, turning around in his arms to press a kiss against his cheek. She was radiating happiness and it made Bucky's heart grow even fonder of her. “Thank you for all the help, my love. I know I went a bit over board, but I just wanted it to be special for all of us”, she said softly, reaching up to brush a strand of longer hair out of Bucky's eyes. “Always”, he said with a grin and kissed the top of her nose, before letting go. “I'm gonna go to bed now, though, before you remember something else that needs to be done”, Buck chuckled and headed up the stairs, while Wanda gave Alpine a fond pat and taking one last glance around the living room, before following.
Bucky was already sprawled out in bed, one hand in the bassinet, where Ella was peacefully sleeping, blissfully unaware of what was going to happen in the morning. Wanda went over to her to press a kiss against the rosy cheeks of her daughter, before crawling into bed as well. Whenever Bucky went to bed before her, he brought the bassinet over to his side, because he didn't mind getting up in the middle of the night. So they had a system of 'stealing' the kid from each other in the evenings and Wanda loved it. Ella was their pride and joy and the little girl surely knew that, because she was very attached to both of them. The happiest moment of every day was her waking up in the mornings and reaching up for Wanda or Bucky with a wide smile, that now contained a single tooth.
Curling up against her husband, Wanda smiled to herself as she slipped off into a restless slumber, waking up several times to check her alarm clock, worried she would oversleep. Ella, on the other hand, didn't wake once and was still sound asleep, when Wanda got up at the crack of dawn, leaving her upstairs with Bucky.
There was breakfast to be prepared and Christmas dinner to be set in motion, so she was tinkering about the kitchen for a while, softly humming songs to herself, while she enjoyed the view of a rising sun above snow covered hills outside. She could even spot deer in the distance as she sipped a cup of tea, waiting for the croissants to finish baking. At 8 o'clock, she decided that it was time to wake Ella and Bucky, because there was only so much time, until the guests arrived. Sneaking upstairs, she almost fell over Alpine, who had chosen the stairs as the perfect place for a nap. When she pushed the bedroom door open, Ella was sitting in her bed, beaming at her mother and extending her little arms with a happy babble that woke Bucky up as well. He grinned, even before he opened his eyes, knowing all too well how adorable his daughter currently looked, with her tousled hair and sleepy face. If anything, Ella had taught him to appreciate the small things in life a lot more than before. The little girl was genuinely excited about everything and found joy in every day occurrences that grown ups didn't even recognize. He hopes she would never lose that innocence.
Picking Ella up, Wanda sat on the edge of the bed and got her early morning snuggles, before deciding that his was a family business, and crawling in next to Bucky again, so that Ella could cuddle with them both. The baby had never once woken up in a bad mood and was always happy in the mornings, but needed her time to fully wake up and Wanda adored that. She could always just sit down with her in a chair and soak in the feeling of Ella's weight in her arms, knowing that one day, she'd be too big for that. It was already devastating how fast babies grew up and although she was proud of every milestone, Wanda sometimes wished to have a little more time.
“Merry Christmas”, she said softly, leaning over to rest her head against Bucky's shoulder, who smiled and kissed the top of it. “Merry Christmas. How long have you been up?”
“A couple of hours. Breakfast is ready and I've started the roast. You know I love being up early.” Wanda cherished her alone time when the rest of the house was still sound asleep. Watching he sun rise, a cup of tea in hand and Alpine on her lap – that was her idea of serenity. Ella wasn't a super early riser, so she peacefully slept on, until Bucky woke up most days.
“Breakfast! I'm awake”, he joked, stretching slightly and pulling Ellie into his arms, to pepper her with kisses. “Come on, papa's gonna change you and then we're gonna eat, okay?” He tickled her belly and evoked a giggle, getting out of bed with a swift movement, while Wanda stayed for a moment longer, watching the two of them.
Finally, she rose as well to head downstairs and start the coffee machine for Bucky, bringing the warm croissants out and the eggs she had made as well. The two sleepy heads joined her a short while later and they ate peacefully, enjoying the time together and the fact that Ella threw scrambled egg across the whole kitchen with youthful joy. Once they finished, I was in Wanda's hair, on the window, the floor and stuck on Bucky's metal arm, but at least the child was happy and fed. Her beautiful Christmas jammies weren't exactly clean anymore at this point, but Wanda had learned to just roll with whatever happened. If you had a baby, nothing was ever going to be perfect.
The next part of the day had been anticipated by her for months: the opening of the presents. They had tried to limit themselves, knowing fully well that there was only so much a little one could do and use at the age, but it had been hard. There was just so much out there that was adorable and Wanda had spent hours looking through online stores for the perfect gifts. Bucky and her had decided to skips gifts this year, because their biggest blessing was right there with them and that was much more important.
“Ellie, do you wanna open some presents with mama”, Wanda cooed, giving Bucky a signal to please film the whole thing, so they'd have memories of Ella's first Christmas. The little one clapped her hands and helped Wanda tear off a piece of wrapping paper, but then quickly got distracted by the glittering baubles on the tree and the funny socks hanging on the mantle. Babbling happily, she pointed at all of them, absolutely not interested in unwrapping gifts.
Wanda did it for her and presented a stuffed cat to Ella, which looked almost like Alpine, and the little girl took it excitedly, one ear of the plushie immediately wandering into her mouth. She was teething. While she slobbered all over the cat, both Bucky and Wanda ended up unwrapping her presents and although she happily examined all of them, the purest bliss was found when she sat in a pile of wrapping paper, slapping her hands against it and hearing the funny noise it made. She belly laughed and had to do it over and over again, absolutely delighted. Wanda couldn't help being slightly disappointed that Ella wasn't really interested in her presents, but at least the little one was happy and content. “Well, that didn't work out as planned”, Bucky laughed, hoping that Wanda wasn't too sad, given she had planned each gift carefully and had been looking forward to this day for a whole month, but she smiled over at him and chuckled. “Nope. But ultimately, I got what I wanted: she's utterly happy in her pile of paper.” Alpine had joined in on the fun, because the noise made him playful and he got the zoomies, shooting through the paper like a lightning bolt, making Ella laugh again.
“Next year, we'll just get her paper! So much cheaper”, Buck joked, sitting down next to his little girl and showing her how to tear the paper, which she also much appreciated and imitated happily, while Wanda took a picture of them both. “We need to get dressed, the others will be here soon”, she finally pointed out, after a look at the clock, knowing it would take some time to get everyone ready and the mess in the living room cleaned up. “Wanda hon, it's not even 10. 'Soon' is a bit far fetched”, her husband laughed, after following her gaze to the clock on the wall. “Why don't you go get a shower and I'll clean up down here?”
“That'll end in tears, I hope you know that”, Wanda chuckled, looking down at the happy baby stuck in a pile of paper, knowing fully well it would upset her to lose her current favorite toy. Bucky grimaced and nodded quietly, bending down to sneakily steal one shred away from her. “I'll just do it one by one, maybe she won't notice. Go now, before I reconsider. We both know I can't handle when I make her cry.”
That wasn't even a lie. Bucky, the mountain of a man, always got terribly upset himself, when he accidentally made Ella cry, or had to tell her 'no'. Wanda desperately hoped he would learn to handle that before Ella hit puberty, because otherwise they'd have a very spoiled, entitled teeny at home.
While she headed for the stairs, Wanda could hear Christmas music being turned on in the living room and smiled to herself, because she could picture Bucky humming to himself as he cleaned. Once upstairs, she took the liberty to close the bedroom door to drown out the potential baby meltdown and just enjoy some time to herself. It was rare that she had a reason to dress up, so she was quite excited for the Christmas party, although it was only a bunch of their friends coming over and no one who hadn't already known her for years. Nonetheless, as a new mom, it made her feel good about herself to put on a dress and be more than just a mother in sweatpants for an evening, so she soaked up the relaxation of the hot shower and took her time putting on make up and slipping into her dress. When she went back into the bedroom, it was surprisingly quiet downstairs, which either meant Bucky had caved and everything was still a mess, because he was unable to take the paper away, or that Ella had found something else she liked.
When she returned to the living room, it was absolutely clean, so was the kitchen and Bucky sat in one of their vintage armchairs with a sleeping Ella in his arms, who was still clutching a shred of wrapping paper. Wanda smiled softly at both of them and her heart melted a little at the sight. No matter how much Ella seemed to grow, she always looked tiny in Bucky's arms. “I sadly can't move now”, he whispered and brushed his nose over Ella's dark curls, definitely not sad to be stuck. “Pity”, Wanda replied with a grin, before heading to the kitchen to check on the roast she was making for dinner. She had prepared a lot in advance and the others would bring food as well, so she knew there'd be more than enough to feed an army in the end.
She bustled around for an hour, making sure she hadn't forgotten anything, before she went to check on her loves in the living room. At that point, both of them were asleep and Wanda chuckled to herself, before sitting down on the couch as well. She had learned to use every chance she could get for some rest ever since becoming a mother, so now that Ella was asleep and Bucky preoccupied with his own nap, Wanda picked up a book and snuggled with her fur baby, who had jumped on her lap, purring happily. Finally someone who paid attention to him, after the ugly, hairless kitten had made so much noise earlier. He had adapted to having a human sister, but wasn't entirely excited about her. Tolerance was all he could muster and Wanda was already grateful for that. Maybe once Ella was older and could interact with him, he'd come around. To an animal, a baby had to be a very strange thing.
For almost half an hour, the silence of the room was soothing, until she realized that Ella was waking up. Bucky, not so much. The little girl rubbed a fist across her bright blue eyes, before blinking around, then spotting her mama. A beaming smile immediately appeared on her face and she reached out, before she re-discovered the paper in her hand and babbled contently, waving it a little and accidentally slapping Bucky across the face with it. He woke with a start and seemed disoriented for a brief moment, before he realized what had woken him up. “Good morning to you, too, child of mine. Was that the revenge for throwing the rest of your paper away”, he asked, leaning down to press a kiss against her hair.
“Nice of you both to join me again. You need to get changed as well and little Miss Ella needs to change out of her jammies as well.” They quickly changed places and while Bucky headed to the bathroom, Wanda forced Ella into the adorable Christmas dress she had bought her, which only happened under a lot of protest, because the little girl didn't like to be changed very much. Her displeasure was over, however, when the doorbell rang and her favorite person aside from her parents was in front of the door: Uncle Steve. He immediately took over and settled on the couch with the girl, while Wanda started setting up the buffet in the kitchen, so that everyone could get right into the snacks, if they were hungry. Sam and the Bartons arrived a short while later, much to Ella's delight, because Lila always loved to play with her. Soon, the house was filled with animated chatter, laughter and a lot of squealing from the kids, which was exactly how Wanda had envisioned it. So much had changed in their lives these past two years, but their friendships hadn't, which was very good to know. Last time they had all been together like this, had been on their summer vacation to the beach and it was lovely to just sit, catch up and enjoy good food.
A couple of hours and many presents later, the majority of the guests had left after their opulent dinner and only Steve had remained to stay the night. He had insisted on taking Ella to bed, because she had fallen asleep on his chest and while the men were upstairs, settling down the little girl, Wanda extinguished the candles in the living room. The Christmas tree lights bathed the whole place in a warm glow and paired with the snow outside, everything seemed to be magical, just like their evening had been and she knew she'd go to bed with a full heart, just like she had done the previous two years. As she turned to leave the room, her gaze fixed on a farmed, old picture on the mantle piece and she reached out to brush her fingertips over it, a bittersweet feeling in the pit of her stomach. It was the old family picture Pietro and her had kept through the hardest years of their lives, holding on to everything they had lost. There wasn't a day when she didn't long for them to be here, to share this happiness with her and see Ella grow up, but all she could do, was keep them alive in her memory and one day tell Ella enough stories about them, so that the little girl would know her roots, too.
“Merry Christmas”, she whispered to the photo, before turning the tree lights off and heading upstairs to bed.