ᴛʜᴇ sʜᴏʀᴛ ᴀɴsᴡᴇʀ ᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅ ʙᴇ ɴᴏ, ɴᴏ ɪ ᴅɪᴅ ɴᴏᴛ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ᴛᴏ ᴋɴᴏᴡ. However, Matt has had a long history of ultimately getting me to do things I normally would not want to do. Case in point being the Football Conversion. Up until my senior year of high school where the only perceivable thing that work would show on the weekends was football game after football game, I hated sports with a passion the equivalent of Keanu Reeves exclaiming that he was an F-B-I agent.

     Matt had an infectious love of the sport, combined with extreme patience for teaching me the game, we ultimately gained a shared camaraderie in shouting: "HOLY SHIT, THE JETS FINALLY WON!" at the top of our lungs one fateful Sunday. All things considered, they only won by four points—but it still made him smile, which made me smile, which then, in turn, led to an entire debate about joining the Dark or Grey side.

     So, if you have been following, you know how this was about to go.

     It was a cold night and Madeline went inside to make sure Lila and Nico stayed out of all of the adult's way while we were putting up the lights. Sam and I made some troublesome headway that included accidentally tangling up the lights, a few of the older bulbs needing to be replaced, and the two of us tripping over the unnecessarily long extension cord. By the time I had roughly pulled Sam up from the icy ground only to fall on my butt due to some ice, I heard someone trying to temper their laughter. I snapped my head to the left and raised an eyebrow. "What is it, Matt?" I muttered as I tried to stand up once again.

     "Nothing, just flashbacks to when you insisted you were tall enough to stretch and reach something before being proven wrong and hitting your back on the Catalina printer," Matt replied with an annoying boyish grin on his face.

     "Don't just stand there, help me up!" I complained as I struggled to keep my balance. "It's cold!" I bemoaned as the ice and frozen air finally worked its way into my bones.

     Matt, true to form, wore only a zip-up sweat-shirt for a coat. He knew of my natural aversion to anything below fifty-five degrees weather-wise and then held out a hand. I took it gratefully and struggled to stay up on the ice. To hold me steady, Matt laced both arms around my waist. "Are you going to help?" I asked him with a raised eyebrow.

     "I helped you up."

     "With the lights!" I replied with a laugh.

     "Maybe," he said with a smile. We stood there for a bit, in young starlight and dying sunlight, with goofy smiles on our faces.

     Sam cleared her throat and exclaimed, "If you both are done acting like teenagers in love, it's really cold out and we need to get the pretty-pink-lights-that-match-my-glasses up!"

     I rolled my eyes at my friend's childish exclamation. We stayed locked together but nodded as we struggled through icy patches."Remember your prom night?" Matt asked out of the blue. I glanced at him from the corner of my eye before nodding.

     "Yes, how could I not?"

     "Well—"

     "MOM! DAD! LOOK AT WHAT ZIZI JO AND UNCLE DYLAN GOT US!" I heard Lila exclaim happily as she runs out with her coat and hat. Behind her was the unmistakable barking of a dog.

     Oh dear god. She got them a damn dog! Why? Why would my sister do this? All the colour drained from my face and my husband and Sam broke out laughing. Behind Lila, there was a puppy. It was a black-and-brown puppy with large cinnamon eyes and reminded me of an old dog I used to have. "It's such a cute puppy!" Sam yelled joyously.

     "You two are taking care of it," I told Lila and Nico, who slipped out behind his sister.

     "So we can keep him?" Nico asked bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

     "What are we naming him, Nico?" Lila asked with a smile.

     "Oreo!"

     "But he doesn't have any white on him."

     "Then Rocky Road!"

     "Too long." I watched with a fond smile as the two children trekked back into the house with Sam in order to get warm. Matt pulled me closer to him as we watched the twinkling lights that Sam managed to do the most of. We huddled in front of the brightly lit house and laughed as I pretended to hand a checklist over to Matt.

     "Christmas lights?" Matt asked me as we huddled together in order to keep me warm. He was a walking, talking space heater so the cold never bothered him. The two of us stared at the twinkling starlight that became our house on Christmas. A slight tear left my eye as I thought of my grandparents. They would be quite surprised to see their house now. I don't remember if they ever decorated this much.

     "Check," I said with a nod and a watery smile. Matt kissed the top of my head.

     We stepped back inside our house to find the third best person to know embarrassing stories about me in my youth, Madeleine, with the children circled around her. The brunette glanced up at us quickly before winking and going back to her tale. I didn't like the look in her eye. Matt sighed next to me and said, "Your best friend telling our kids embarrassing stories of our youth?"

     "Considering Diana started this tradition?" I volleyed back with a raised eyebrow. "Check."

     I walked towards the living room, my eyes cast downward in order to not step on the newly unnamed Doberman puppy. Someone grabbed my hand and redirected my course to the kitchen. "Ella," Matt said my name. His voice rising an octave at the end.

     "What's up, Detective Evans?" Dylan yelled from the other room. I rolled my eyes and I waved to my brother-in-law.

     "It's Matt, Dylan," Matt told the younger man yet again. "You can call me Matt."

     "Yes, but you are the 'Big Brother' to Nic and me," Jo yelled from the stove as she sauteed some mushrooms.

     "I have that persona?" Matt asked as he looked amongst the three of us.

     I patted his back comfortingly and said, "No. You're a big teddy bear that investigates homicides for the prosecutor's office."

     "Oh, why thank you," he replied with a goofy grin.

     "G, Matt, your parents are drunk on eggnog and Mrs Cher-Impersonator is doing apache on the coffee table," Diana said as she whirled into the small kitchen holding an unbaked apple pie to place in the oven.

     "Oh well, it happens," I said before the words sunk in. "Wait! What did you just say?"

     "Your parents are drunk and dancing on a coffee table?"

     "Mom! Dad! Get down from there before you get hurt! DIANA, WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME SOONER?" I exclaimed as I went to attempt to get the "adults" off the table. I heard everyone sigh and I could envision them shaking their heads.

     "Matt, your wife needs more coffee I think," Sam screamed into the kitchen as I ran into the living room to see my mom dancing to the YMCA on the table. "Like, now!"

     "On it!" I heard Matt yell in return.