Crazy In Love (Anthony Rizzo)

Our Happily Ever After

Melissa

Christmas has always had a special place in my heart. No matter how hard life was for me, it gave me a break for Christmas to be able to see what I have instead of what I don't have for once. And I always found it as a time to be thankful, to cherish the little things and love unconditionally.

But this is the first Christmas I've ever had without Timothy and it really sucked, he would have loved to be here with Anthony's family. He would have been so excited to hear that he has another niece or nephew on the way. He probably would have been the first person I told again. But he's not here, and it sucks, but that just means I need to have more fun just for him. Tell all the good Christmas stories as he would have and make sure Mallory gets to open all her presents in front of everyone because she's a princess and deserves to be treated like so.

Christmas morning we gather around the Christmas tree at Anthony's parents house. His brother and his wife was in town for the holidays too. They were expecting their first baby in a few weeks so they were pretty excited to find out we're right there with them, although I have a little longer to go.

We all pass out the presents and Laurie hands us our hot chocolate as we get settled in. Unfortunately mine didn't have any liquor in it but I can pass on a few months of drinking for the baby, that I have now problem with. We let Mallory open her presents first since she was the youngest one and defiantly had the most presents. I watch her go to town with the biggest smile on her face as she tears into them. She got a lot of cute clothes and toys that I'm sure will be on the floor of the apartment sooner rather than later. But she'll play with them all, not a toy at her disposal goes unplayed with, even if she makes them the bad guys because she doesn't like it.

"Okay, one last present. But you have to close your eyes first" Anthony says.

"Oh! Is it a surprise" she asks.

"Yup. So close them" he tells her and she closes her eyes. Anthony goes into the spare bedroom and grabs the little puppy we got from a animal shelter last night. It was a little Siberian husky puppy that had blue eyes like hers and a pink bow on it. She had a name but we wanted Mallory to name it so it felt special to her.

Anthony places the dog in her little lap and before she even opens her eyes she starts to freak out.

"Is it a puppy" she squeals as she rips her hands from her face.

"It is. It's a Christmas present from your mother and I" Anthony explains and she gasps loudly.

"Thanks mommy and daddy. I love her so much" she claims as she softly hugs the dog. The puppy starts to lick her face and I just know they're going to be best friends.

"What do you want to name her" I ask and she looks at the dog. She holds the puppy in front of her face as they stare at each other. She smiles big before turning to me.

"I'm gonna name her Addison" she claims and I smile.

"That's beautiful. Where did you get that from" I wonder.

"It's the name I see outside the baseball stadium" she explains and I see Anthony smirk from the corner of my eye.

"Well I love it" I admit.

After she runs off to play with her new friend us adults crack into the gifts. I watch Anthony open my gift to him and even laugh a little because I thought it was pretty clever. There was a few parenting books including "Parenting for Dummies" and a Chicago Cubs baby bag filled with dad things. At the bottom of the bag was a picture I took on the beach in Hawaii in a frame. Mallory was on his shoulders as I took the picture of us at sunset. It was my most favorite picture ever and he loved it too. I had the date we got married on there and "the Rizzo family" on the frame.

"Oh, Mel" he gasps and I smile. "This is beautiful" he says as he turns to me.

"There's one more part to this. Open up the picture frame" I tell him and he does what I say. Inside was a piece of paper, it said that Mallory's last name was officially Rizzo she she was a part of this family too.

"Holy shit... you didn't" he gasps.

"She pointed out to me the other day that my last name is Rizzo and the babies name would be Rizzo too, so I figured she is a part of the family and we should make it official" I explain.

"This is great, thank you so much for giving me a beautiful family" he says pulling me into a hug. I knew that meant a lot to him. Mallory has been his daughter from the start and now it's for real.

Anthony hands me my gift from him and one from Mallory and I open the one from my daughter first because she told me to so she can run off and play with her new puppy. I couldn't keep the smile off my face when I see the exact same locket she had around her neck and never took off. I open it up and see the same two pictures and my heart starts to beat faster.

"Mal, this is perfect" I whisper as she crawls into my lap.

"Look! It's just like mine" she says as she opens up hers too and places it next to mine.

"I love it so much, thank you" I say before kissing her cheek. She wipes at where I kissed her and I laugh at her humility. What a kid?

Finally Anthony sets a bag in my lap and I look up at him.

"If I would have known that what you got me would have been one of the most precious moments of my life I would have done a little more. But I think this is pretty good too" he admits as he nods his head to the bag.

I open it up and find a few maternity dresses and other motherly things. There was also a bunch of Cubs stuff for the baby because it's going to be growing up around this stuff, I'm sure it's going to love it. On top of that there was a brand new camera I have been talking about and I almost had a heart attack. I know it was expensive but he never listens when I tell him not to spend a lot of money on me.

The last thing at the bottom of the bag was a huge light grey sweatshirt. It one had words on it that looked like it was Anthony's handwriting transferred onto the sweatshirt, I can always tell his handwriting. I start to read it and the tears come up in my eyes.

"You never know when that one person comes into your life and is about to change everything. But from the moment I laid eyes on you I knew that you were going to be more than anything I could ever dream up in my wildest dreams. And I was right, you were that person who was going to change me, who was going to make me better than I was before. Now I'm a husband and a father and I couldn't be happier than I am with you. Thank you for letting me in and loving me in ways I couldn't even imagine. And thank you for helping us find our happily ever after."

I wipe away a tear as I turn to him. Anthony smiles down at me as Mallory tries to wipe away my tears too.

"What's wrong mommy" she asks as I chuckle at her.

"Nothing, absolutely nothing" I insist.

I pull Anthony down into a hug and wrap my free arm around him. Mallory sat in my other arm as I squeezed them tight.

"I love you guys" I whisper.

"We love you too" Mallory says.

"So much" Anthony assures me.