STP

Christmas With Family

    "Brian Thomas Littrell! Get back here!"
    The little three-year-old with bright blue eyes and unruly curly brown hair let out a giggle as he ran away from his mother and crashed into someone's legs.
    "Whoa there, little man, where do you think you're going?"
    Brian looked up and smiled. "We're gonna see Gramma!" He exclaimed.
    Sarah shook her head and exhaustedly took Brian out of Kevin's arms. "I swear, they act just alike," she said to him, walking back with him to where her husband was waiting with the carry-on bags and the baby carrier.
    "What did you just say? That my son and I act just alike?" Brian asked, smiling. He stood up and took his son out of Sarah's arms, hanging him upside down and tickling him. "He's my son, that's why he acts like me!"
    Sarah sighed and shook her head, looking up at Kevin. "He never really grew up, did he?" She asked him.
    Kevin shook his head. "Nope, he may be old physically, but he's still three at heart."
    "Hey, stop dissing my age, its just a number, it means nothing," Brian said, finally sitting his son down in one of the waiting chairs with a coloring book and a few crayons. "Besides, when I've got this beautiful goddess, I feel like I'm ten again," he said, grabbing Sarah's hand and dipping her.
    Sarah laughed. "Brian, let me up, we're in the middle of an airport!" She exclaimed. Brian helped her stand and she leaned her head tiredly on his shoulder. "Between you and your son, I'm totally exhausted."
    "Just wait until we get to Kentucky. Harold will be there and so will his kids, and the whole Littrell clan act alike, so you'll be more than tired by the end of this trip," Kevin warned, picking up his carry-on as their flight was called over the loud speaker.
    Sarah groaned and closed her eyes as she heard her son run over to her and tug on the edge of her skirt.
    "Mommy, w-was dat our f-fight? Daddy said to listen for f-fight number one-six-twho-fo, w-was dat it?" Little Brian asked, talking fast and stuttering.
    "Yes, honey, come on, get your crayons and grab your backpack, we have to get on the plane," Sarah said, opening her eyes.
    "Look at it this way, Sarah, you can sleep the entire flight if you want to," Elaina, Kevin's wife, said.
    Sarah shook her head and watched as Brian lifted his son and put him on his shoulders, singing on the way to the gate. "No, I can't, I have to watch Brian and make sure he doesn't make a mess, and I have to watch Katie, she's going to be waking up in the middle of the flight, I know it," she said. She picked up the baby carrier and taking a look at her not quite a year-old daughter whom was fast asleep.
    "Honey, sleep, I'll watch Katie and Brian," Brian said as they boarded the plane and everyone got settled in their seats.
    "But..."
    "No buts. Sleep, baby, I know you're tired," Brian said, sitting next to her and taking her hand in his.
    Sarah nodded and leaned her head back, closing her eyes. Brian saw that she was finally asleep a few moments later and looked at his son. He was a spitting image of him, everyone said so, and even Brian could see it. His son was just like the way he acted when he was little.
    'Except he's fortunate, he doesn't have the defect,' Brian thought. He helped his son buckle his seatbelt and checked on his daughter as the flight attendant started on the safety procedures at the front of the plane. Brian
thought back to when he was little, as far back as he could remember, when he first went into the hospital when he was five-years-old.
    'They said I wasn't going to live, but I surprised them all and did. Now look at me, thirty-three, alive, healthy, with a beautiful wife, a son who looks just like me, and a daughter who couldn't look more like her mother in any way. I am truly lucky, things couldn't be better in my life,' he thought. He listened as his son started talking a mile a minute about nothing and the plane started to taxi down the runway. He felt the plane lift off and, not giving the height a thought, held Sarah's hand and watched her sleep.