"Lee?"

"Yeah?"

"Where are you?" Amanda's voice rose up through the opening to the attic where Lee sat on a small stool.

"Look up."

Amanda looked up, hands on her hips. "What're you doing up there?"

"Just looking through some things, am I late?"

Amanda started climbing up the attic ladder carefully. "Well you weren't until you got all dusty!"

Lee rolled his eyes. The attic might not have been immaculate, but Amanda certainly did not neglect it. With the children grown and moved away, she had set to organizing the entire house with a vengeance.

"I'm hardly covered with muck and cobwebs, Amanda." He smirked at her as she moved to his side.

"Close enough." She scrunched up her nose and ruffled his gray hair. She put her hand on his shoulder, kneeling down beside him. "Feeling nostalgic?"

Lee put his hand over hers and shrugged. "Maybe a little." He held a little wooden ornament made to look like an angel. It had been sitting on the top of the stool where Lee had almost sat on it. "Remember our first Christmas together?" he asked, holding the angel out to her.

"Of course," Amanda replied, smiling. She took the angel from Lee, momentarily losing herself in the memory. "But I can't say I miss the vodka!"

"And I still don't like beans"

"I've still got time to convert you!" Grinning, Amanda turned from him to put the ornament away. She had an appropriately labeled box ready for it in the gutted Christmas section of the attic.

Lee grinned, his eyes flashing mischievously. "I dare you."

"When you least expect it, Stetson," Amanda retorted as she inhaled deeply, glancing around at the mess Lee had created. "Were you looking for something specific?"

"I was looking for the pictures of Jenny's first steps." Lee glanced around him, raising his hands helplessly. There were columns of acid free plastic boxes three rows high. Each box was labeled carefully with Amanda's hand. "Your handwriting's too small."

"Grumble, grumble grandpa," Amanda teased as she leaned forward on her hands, reading the inscriptions. "One of these days I am going to get all of these in albums. But I'm stuck at our wedding. Its difficult- ah, here it is!" Amanda took a small box from the pile, flipped off its lid and quickly sifted through the pictures. "It's difficult to capture an elopement in an album." She pulled four pictures out from the neatly filed pictures and handed them to Lee. "It's especially difficult when you only have one picture to work with!"

Lee sat with the pictures in his hands, staring at them. Lee's favorite image showed Amanda, her arms open wide, encouraging the little blond girl to leave Lee and walk to her. But the little blond girl was looking up at Lee, unsure, not wanting to leave her daddy's supportive arms.

The next few chronicled the little girl's first steps, stumbling, tilting towards Amanda, Lee in the background with hands together and a silly, huge grin on his face.

Amanda fondly watched the emotions across Lee's face. "Come on, sweetheart, I'll get that one framed for you- it can be a late Christmas present."

Lee touched his wife's face softly. "All right, I'll be down in a minute."

Amanda kissed him on the forehead and made her way down the ladder again. "Don't be too long," she advised, concentrating on finding the next rung, "or else I'll tell the grandbabies Santa will be making an appearance."

Lee laughed and stretched in contentment as the warmth of his memories and the love of his family surrounded him.