Love in Theory and Practice: Chapters 1-13

Helsinki, Finland

When I wake up, Ville is still sleeping. His chest is rising and falling with his breath. His eye lashes fringe along the tops of his cheeks and his face is entirely peaceful. I am excited for Christmas morning but now I am more enchanted with my sleeping husband than with the presents downstairs.

I gently glide my finger along the ridge of his brow line, down the bridge of his nose and along the curve of his lips. As I trace his bottom lip, his mouth forms a small smile. Without saying anything or opening his eyes, he wraps an arm around my back and pulls me close into him.

“Good morning.” He says into my hair.

“Good morning.” I say into the crook of his neck.

“Can we just lay here for awhile?” he asks quietly.

“You bet.” I say and tighten my arm around his waist.

A while later, we both start to move again and pull ourselves out of bed. I pull on my slippers and my sweater before following Ville downstairs.

In the kitchen, Ville is making coffee and tea. For the first little while after finding out about the baby, Ville had a hard time remembering that we weren’t both drinking coffee.

While he hums to himself while making some breakfast so I move into the living room to plug in the Christmas tree lights and light the fire.

The dog snuggles happily into his bed just like he always does when Ville and I are in the living room. While he’s nowhere close to Baudy, he’s been a good dog. Ville and I have talked and we’re nervous bout how he’ll react to having babies in the house. After discussing, we’ve decided, along with his parents, that they’ll take him to live at their house when the babies come. There’s no way I’ll be able to take care of infant twins and a puppy.

I rub his ears and he rolls over on to his back so I can rub his belly.

Ville comes in a few moments later and sets his things down on the table. He’s made a few things for breakfast along with our morning drinks.

“Merry Christmas, Mrs. Valo.” He says happily.

“Merry Christmas, Mr. Valo.” I say with a loving smile. He sits down on the sofa and props his feet up on the coffee table. I chuckle at him but my heart swells with love at the sight of his mismatched socks. “How, despite the fact that I’m doing the laundry, are you still wearing mismatched socks?”

He looks down at his socks and shrugs. “I think I picked them up off the floor.” I just shake my head.

“Should we open presents?” I ask. He smiles and winks. He gets up off the couch and moves to sit with me on the floor.

We slowly go through the gifts. Picking one for the other and opening them together. I got him some clothes, records, books, new converse shoes, notebooks, guitar/instrument supplies and accessories and a few other little things. He got me some clothes, some books, a few pretty things for the house, and a new ring.

We had promised each other that we would not buy things for the babies until after Christmas. So we focused on each other for probably the only time ever. We both know what once we have kids, there will be less time for us to just be us so we’ve vowed to make the time leading up to having the babies about just us.

After we’ve opened everything, we just sit together, leaning on the coffee table near the fireplace. He puts an arm around my shoulders and rests his cheek on my head. We both sit there with our hands resting on my belly.

“We should probably start getting ready.” I say around 11:30am. He nods against my head.

I head upstairs to take a shower while Ville puts the dishes in the dishwasher. It would probably surprise a lot of people to know just how domestic he really is. He loves to cook and he always cleans up. Even if I make the meal, he usually does the dishes.

After a few moments in the hot water, Ville gets in the shower as well.

I’d be completely unprepared for the amount of time you spend with your husband doing simple daily tasks and just how loving and intimate generic tasks can become. Before married Ville, my shower/bathroom time used to be my own but now it’s become time I share with Ville.

I rinse my hair and pass the shampoo to him.

Even though my body is changing and going through the process of pregnancy, he still likes me. Whether it has to do with how much he loves me or if it’s due to his pure curiosity about the changes, I don’t know, nor do I care.

We arrive at his parents’ house around 1:00pm and are immediately ushered into the house. Jesse and his new girlfriend, Mali are already there. We’re introduced to her and she immediately begins to talk about babies and how all of Ville’s fans will be excited to know how happy Ville is.

“Ville hasn’t even let them know we’re married yet.” I say and her jaw almost hits the floor.

“Well why not?” she asks, shocked.

“Why would he?” I reply. Ville wraps an arm around my shoulder.

“It’s between Elin and I. I’ll let all my fans know when I feel it’s right. Right now I just want to spend time with Elin.” Ville answers, diplomatically. Mali stares at us for a moment before shrugging.

We sit down for dinner around 3:30 and we all talk together. Jesse and Mali met when Jesse was injured in a fight and Mali attended him in the ER. They tell us about the adventures they’ve had together and how much they’re looking forward to moving in together.

Anita talks happily about how excited she is for the babies to come and she laughs about how clueless Ville is going to be when we’re suddenly parents. There aren’t very many small children in the Valo family and Ville isn’t used to children.

Truth be told, I’m not used to little children either but being a girl makes it a bit different.

Dinner is delicious and everyone is happy and chatty. After dinner, Mali and I help Anita with dishes in the kitchen.

“Oh Elin, I’m so glad to have you with us this holiday.” Anita says and wraps me in a hug.

“I’m glad to be here.” I say with a smile.

“Ville is just so happy lately it’s refreshing. As a mother, it’s so nice to see your son happy.” I smile at her and keep helping with dishes.

“Is Jesse happy too?” Mali asks, half joking.

“Of course he is.” Anita says. “But he always tended to be a bit more light-hearted than Ville. Ville is always so…”

“Doomy-gloomy?” I finish for her. She begins to laugh.

“Who’s doomy-gloomy?” Ville asks, walking into the kitchen.

“You are, my lovely.” I say and he kisses my cheek.

“And you are lovely, my doomy-gloomy.” He jokes with a wink. He grabs a few rolls and leaves the kitchen again to be with his dad and brother.

“Have you thought of any baby names yet?” Mali asks.

“We’ve talked briefly but we haven’t really been serious about it yet. We’ve still got a time.” I say and set a clean dish in the drying rack.

When the dishes from dinner are clean, we bring out dessert and coffee out into the living room. The guys are talking animatedly about a few new movies that are out in theaters. They all want to see Tron and True Grit.

“Alright,” Anita says excitedly. “Let’s open presents.” She begins to pass out the presents and she makes us all wait until all the gifts have been given out before opening anything. Ville whispers to me that it’s Anita’s way and all their Christmases were this way.

“Who is that pile for?” I ask, pointing to a large stack between Ville and I that had no name tags.

“The babies.” Anita answers simply. “I told myself I wouldn’t buy anything but I just couldn’t resist.”

“Neither could Mali.” Jesse says with a laugh.

“You guys shouldn’t have!” I cry out.

“Let them, let them.” Ville says with a chuckle.

After Ville and I open the presents addressed to us, Anita shoves the pile labeled: “Babies Valo” towards us. While they all had gotten us little things that they’d known we’d like, they’ve pretty much set us up perfectly for the baby.

My family got us cribs, and a few random things to fill the nursery but Ville’s family has completely filled closets and diaper bags. Clothes, blankets, bottles, pacifiers, and the whole nine yards.

After gifts, it’s game and music time. As a family, they sing songs, play instruments and play games together on holidays. Naturally, Ville plays guitar. His mother plays piano and his father also plays guitar. I had no idea that Jesse could sing, but apparently he can. Mali and I just chime in wherever we can; literally, we were given a triangle and a tambourine.

When the music is over, we play charades.

By the time say our goodbyes, load all of our stuff into the car and get home, I am exhausted.

We unload what we’d just loaded into the car and dump everything into the nursery. Within 30 minutes of arriving home, I am changed, my teeth are brushed and I am tucked in bed.

“Well, Mrs. Valo, how was Christmas with the family?” Ville chuckles as he slips in beside me.

“It was fun but they bought way too much for us.” I say and snuggle closely in beside him.

“They bought practically nothing for us,” he laughs. “They stocked up for the babies though.”

“That they did.” I say through a yawn.

“That they did.” He repeats before taking my face in his hands and kissing me goodnight.