COME a’CAROLING

by Nancy

“Please have snow and mistletoe,” he offered.

“And presents on the tree,” she came back, adding, “from ‘I’ll Be Home for Christmas.’” 

“You are very well versed in your Christmas songs, Catherine.”

“Told you so.  Try me again.”

The Park was bright with cold, lit by a heavy snow falling from cloud-whitened late night skies.  Forecasts named it a  blizzard of extraordinary proportions, but the wind had dropped enough to make walking possible if ‘drafty’, as she’d joked when they met at the drainage tunnel.

“The stars in the sky looking down where he lay.”

“The little Lord Jesus asleep in the hay.”  She laughed.  “And that’s from the hymn ‘Away in a Manger‘.You can’t get the better of me, Vincent.”

“I haven’t given up.  But are you cold?  We can turn back if you wish.”

“When you’ve given us our own winter wonderland?”

He stopped, smiling at the way she could appreciate the littlest things.  He pulled her into his arms.

She sang sweetly against his chest, “But as long as you love me so, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.”

They stood in a tight embrace until he heard her suggest, “Let’s build a snowman, Vincent.”

He gave her a final hug, then drew back to look into the green eyes that said, ‘I love you’ so many ways.

“You are becoming a snowwoman, Catherine.”  He dusted the flakes from her hat and shoulders.  “Come, I know a place.” 

Sparkling ice crystals twinkled on her lashes and her eyes were bright with excitement as she looked up at him.  So happy with the little they could share in her world.  So joyful because of him.  He marveled at it.  At her.  His Catherine.

“We need to go into the woods here.  Be careful.”

He took her arm and said, “Holy Infant so tender and mild.”

“Oh, Vincent, that’s the easiest one yet.  Sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace from ‘Silent Night.’”

He huffed as if impatient with his failure to baffle her, but he was having fun letting her show off a little.

“Troll the ancient yuletide carol,” came his next challenge. 

She was right in thinking there was magic in a snowy night.  Magic and miracles.  Life was so good, so very good because of her.

No reply.  Had he at last stumped her?  With a teasing grin he asked, “Give up?”

“Give me a minute.  I’ve almost got it.” More thinking, then “Fa, la, la,la, la, la, la, la, la,” the lyrics rang out, “and it’s from ‘Deck the Halls!’”

Triumphant, she took two quick steps and stood facing him.  “Ready to surrender?”

His large hands neatly encircled her waist as he picked her up and placed her back alongside him.  “Not quite yet.  But we’re here. Isn’t this a perfect spot?”

There was enough snow to roll out two fairly large orbs for the body and a smaller one for the head and space to center their creation in the small clearing.

“Perfect,” she agreed, adding, In the meadow we can build a snowman.”

“’Walking in A Winter Wonderland,’” he whispered at her ear, announcing, “I know my Christmas carols, too.”

They got busy, laughing, tossing snow at one another, admiring their own artistry as the snowman took shape.  Vincent lifted the middle onto the base and Catherine added the head.  She broke some twigs off a bare bush and stuck them in for arms.  Vincent reached up into a pine tree and snapped off three small pinecones to serve as eyes and nose.

“We need a smile,” she said.

Vincent went back to the pine tree and brought her a flexible end from a low hanging branch.

“If we strip off the pine needles we can form a reasonable smile.”

He bent the short piece, fitting it where the snowman’s mouth should be.

They stood back, his arm across her shoulders.

“He looks like,” she hesitated, then said, “And pretend that he is Parson Brown.”

Vincent surprised her with the next line in the carol.

“He’ll say are you married ,we’ll say no, man.”

Before she could contribute Vincent added, “But you can do the job while you’re in town.”

Turning to her, he removed his gloves and cradled her beloved face in his strong hands.

“Catherine, if I asked, would you say yes?”

Suddenly she was breathing very fast but managed, “Yes.”

“You would?  Are you sure?”

“Let’s find out.  Ask me.”

He leaned in to kiss her and her heart thrilled at the depth of his love.

“I want to marry you.  Could you, will you consider, maybe, marrying me? I mean someday.  You don’t have to answer right now.  Or here.”

He was mumbling. Stumbling over words until she set him aglow with her smile.

“Vincent.  Here.  Now.  No maybe.  No considering, I want nothing as much as I want to be your wife and have you as my husband.  Yes, my Love, my all, I will marry you.”

“Do you mean that?  But what about,” he was stopped by her gloved finger at his lips.

“Now. Here. And we will renew our vows before everyone Below.  On Christmas Eve, I think.  Okay?”

He took her hands in his and spoke this lyric:

I ask thee to stay close to me forever

And love me, I pray

Smiling at him she swallowed happy tears before saying:

The hopes and fears of all the years

He finished for her:

Are met in thee tonight.

“Vincent, Husband, I will love you as best I can for all our lives, and when we know Heaven’s joy, you will teach me how to love you better.  I am wholly yours.”

“Catherine, I give myself to you.  All I once held back.  All I was afraid to share.  Everything I am.  Everything I will be because you love me.  Kiss me and show me Paradise, Beloved of my heart.”

In the snowy meadow Vincent and Catherine sealed their covenant with a first kiss as husband and wife.

The snowman’s smile widened.

Didn’t it?

for Hank