A Snowy Christmas

 

 The time of year is upon us where people become whirlwinds in a frenzied attempt to find that perfect gift for someone special.

 

Anakin Skywalker was no different.

 

 

The snow had come to Naboo, falling in large snowflakes all over the region. As it accumulated, children raced out to play in the powdery white drifts. Luke and Leia were not any different as they gleefully ran outside to play with Padmé close on their heels.

 

“Get your jackets on – it’s cold!” she chastised.

 

Luke turned around and ran back to his mother. “Look, Mommy!” he pointed to the sky.

 

“Yes, honey, I see the snowflakes.”

 

“They’re beautiful!” Leia commented joyfully as she bounded up to her mother.

 

“Here,” Padmé helped the twins with their jackets, “I don’t need either of you getting sick.”

 

“We won’t, Mommy.” Leia squirmed as her mother closed the jacket on the little girl.

 

After Luke was bundled up, the twins took off at a run, picking up handfuls of snow along the way and throwing it at one another.

 

Padmé shook her head as she chuckled and then turned to walk back into the house.

 

 

“Looks like they’re having a great time out there,” Anakin commented, his hands cupping a mug of steaming hot chocolate, as he watched from the frosty window.

 

Padmé giggled as she came up behind her husband and enveloped him in her embrace. “Yes, they are. Will you be joining them?” she inquired, barely managing to keep a straight face.

 

“Oh, you’re funny, aren’t you!” he sarcastically retorted.

 

“Oh, beloved, we all know how you loveeeee the chilly outdoors this time of the year,” she teased.

 

“Warm enough, Anakin or do we need to get you some more blankets?” Sola winked at her brother-in-law.

 

Just then Ryoo and Pooja bounced into the room. “Uncle Anakin is going to have a snowball fight with us!”

 

“I AM?” Anakin’s eyes widened.

 

“Of course,” Pooja explained, “you have to, it’s tradition.”

 

“Um, it…is?”

 

Anakin spied his niece wink at her mother, Sola. “Yes, it is,” she replied

 

“I think this is a ruse to get me out there just so I can freeze to death.” Anakin glanced over at his father-in-law, his eyes pleading for some kind of assistance against this conspiracy. “Isn’t that right, Ruwee?”

 

Padmé’s father sat back in his comfortable chair and put his feet up. “Hmm, did you say something, my boy?”

 

Anakin rolled his eyes and knew defeat was mere moments away. “Ok, on one condition…”

 

__________________________________________*****__________________________________________

 

A short time later, Pooja and Ryoo literally rolled their uncle out of the house and out into the awaiting snow.

 

“Think you’re bundled up enough, Uncle Anakin?” Ryoo commented with a laugh.

 

“Uh, think one of you can help me stand up?” Anakin shyly asked.

 

Bursting out laughing, Ryoo and Pooja glanced at each other, their eyes displaying their mischievousness, and suddenly Anakin was rolling through the snow.

 

“Heyyyyyyyy!” Anakin shouted to the delighted giggles of the girls.

 

 

Padmé and Sola watched from the window and were laughing so hard at the antics outside they had tears streaming down their cheeks.

 

“It’s about time he got used to the cold weather,” Sola said between her bouts of laughter.

 

“Ahem,” came a voice from behind the two women. “Please tell me that my son-in-law isn’t being abused –” Jobal’s voice was cut short as she looked out the window only to see Anakin rolling down the nearby hill with four children in tow. She covered her mouth with her hand, but not before an, “Oh, my,” escaped.

 

“May the Force be with him,” Jobal exclaimed with a shake of her head.

 

Padmé and Sola laughed even harder.

 

“Come on, you two,” Jobal lovingly grabbed a hand from each of her daughter’s. “We have some baking to do.”

 

Rolling in the snow, Anakin realized he had never had so much fun before. As his own children pounced on him at the end of the small hill, his nieces weren’t about to be left out and soon converged on the Jedi as well.

 

Using the Force, Anakin lifted all of them into the sky and winked when he said, “Turn about is fair play.”

 

Suddenly the children were bouncing and spinning through the air and their laughter warmed Anakin’s heart. Gently, he set each of them back on the ground [much to their dismay] and watched them wobble from dizziness as they tried to move.

 

“That was great – do it again!” Ryoo insisted.

 

“Oooo, Daddy, watch me!” Luke lifted himself back up into the air a few feet then came crashing back down into the snow.

 

“Show off,” Leia sniffled.

 

“Mmm, this tastes good.” And then Luke was scooping up handfuls of the white powder and stuffing it into his mouth.

 

Leia shook her head and rolled her eyes. “What a nut, right, Daddy?”

 

Anakin had to laugh at his children and did so merrily. He looked over at the two older children and called out to them, “Pooja, Ryoo!”

 

They immediately bounded over. “Yes, Uncle Anakin?”

 

“I have to get Auntie Padmé a gift. Can you watch the twins while I do that?”

 

“Sure. But don’t be long, dinner will be in a little while,” Pooja explained.

 

“I won’t, I promise,” he said with a wink and sped back to the house to grab the speeder.

 

 

“Nothing like waiting until the last minute,” Ryoo stated with a chuckle.

 

Pooja joined in. “That’s our Uncle. Waiting until the night we open gifts to get one for his wife.”

 

__________________________________________*****__________________________________________

 

An hour passed and then another as Anakin wandered from one shop to another. But he still couldn’t find that special gift that just reached out to him for Padmé.

 

“She deserves nothing but the best,” he told himself as he ambled through yet another shop.

 

“Trying to find something for your lady?” the clerk asked, approaching the deep in thought Jedi.

 

“…Yes,” Anakin mumbled.

 

“Is there anything she needs or has asked for?” the clerk inquired further.

 

“Well…she has everything – clothes, jewels,” Anakin began, “but I’d like to find her something she doesn’t have.”

 

The clerk rubbed her jaw with her thumb and forefinger. “Well, hmm, I see your dilemma… In that case, I have a suggestion for you, one that will surely bring a smile to her face, if not a tear to her eye.”

 

“I’m listening…”

 

Even as the clerk explained her idea, a broad smile stretched across Anakin’s face.

 

__________________________________________*****__________________________________________

 

Anakin took the clerk’s advice and bought a piece of parchment paper, and a quill then sat in the speeder and composed the special gift for his beloved wife.

 

 

One day your angel eyes captured me and took hold of my heart

From that day forward, in my mind, we were never apart

You accepted my token of love and admiration

And turned it into the grandest sensation

Twin children you bore

Whose love will never want for more

The greatest of gifts, you have given me

My heart and soul you hold in your hand, like a little grain of sand

You could toss it away, but I know that you won’t

For our love is unending

Through time and space

And I am humbled by your grace

My pledge to you is no display of fanfare

No bells, no whistles, nor crowds or cheers

I only give you my soul, my adoration – my unyielding devotion

 

My Angel, I am but your loving husband

Take my hand and together we will stand the test of time.

 

Merry Christmas, my dearest beloved.

 

 

 

My eternal love,