Behind The Church

LV

Kate

Dinner! Finally!

I find myself really bored sometimes and all I want to do is eat. And because I've been thinking about food for the last... Oh, I don't know, four hours? I had worked up an appetite.

So was it a surprise that I almost fell from my chair after I took one bite of my Lihäpyörykoita? No, it was not. They tatse so good with the gravy and then the cranberry sauce. I'm a sucker for cranberry sauce, though.

Christina was happy with her Paistetut Muikut. They sort of freaked her out a little when she saw them on the menu and she had kindly asked the waitress if the heads could be cut off. She was more than happy to oblige and the vendace came back headless. Even though they don't do tips here, Christina wanted to tip the waitress.

The food was delicious, I even tried some of Christina's, as I let her try mine, and we enjoyed eating the Baltic foods.

For dessert, we shared a big plate of Mansikkakakku, which was absolutely amazing. And we had fun feeding each other.

We walked back to our cabin with happy and full bellies. And I noticed Christina had taken her glasses off to view the sky above us. There was very little light pollution, however, we were far away enough from the cabins for the lights to not affect our eyes. The stars were out, and I have to say, they were breathtaking.

I had never seen so many stars, as LA has lots of light pollution, as did Seattle, when we lived there. My Dad was from Seattle, so we moved from Ireland to Seattle, and then to California for my Dad to work of Joshua.

"There's so many." Christina mumbled.

"I've never seen this many. What's that orange thing across the sky?"

"It's one of the arms of the milky way." Christina answered.

"Wow."

"Wow, indeed. Let's get back so we can cuddle under the stars." Christina said, but I know that she'll only be looking up on our walk back.

We got settled into the cabin, pajamas and fluffy socks and all after a warm shower. Christina read a book while I was just on my phone, scrolling through TikTok. This was a usual thing for us since I didn't have attention span to read. So I stuck an earphone in to be respectful to Christina's reading while I scrolled through social media.

However, just lying next to Christina isn't enough. So I cuddle into her side and prop my arm across her front and use her chest as a pillow. She'll wrap her arm around me and rub my arm, lightly trailing her fingers up and down and she gives my head lots of kisses. It's one of my favourite things to do, cuddle Christina while she reads. You'd think that her full attention is on the book, but no, she'll always spare a bit for me, and I love that.

After a while, my eyes were getting heavy and so were my limbs so I put my phone on charge, took my glasses off and gave Christina a kiss goodnight before cuddling back into her letting myself fall asleep.

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"Kate! Kate! Wake up. Look at this!" I hear Christina whisper hurriedly while she shakes me gently.

"Huh? What time is it?" I mumbled.

"Half past one in the morning, but look!" I lifted my head to her and saw her pointing towards the sky. I allow my body to sink to the bed again before turning onto my back.

The sight that met my eyes was absolutely breathtaking.

A big strip of green and blue light stretched across the sky above us. It flickered and waved back and forth and it was so beautiful.

"That is a sight to wake up to." I sigh.

"It sure is. It's so gorgeous."

"It really is. I'm so glad to be sharing this moment with you." I glance at Christina.

"Oh!" she gasped, "We should take pictures of us kissing under it!"

"Yeah, we could."

"You wanna go do that?" she asked.

"Go on, then." I grin.

We get some hoodies and over jackets on with our boots and hurry outside for the photos. We got quite a few and they were all so cute. Some of them were us kissing, some where just of us looking at the lights and the rest were us hugging, looking up towards the phenomena. They were so adorable and I'll be sending them to family and friends for definite.

"Merry Christmas, Kate." Christina smiled at me once we were snuggled in bed again.

"Merry Christmas, Christina." I smiled back, before giving her a kiss and shutting my eyes. I feel Christina rubbing my side and gently kissing my face every so often before I finally doze off in a warm and comfortable sleep.