***

Lois Lane watched as Jimmy and his girlfriend, Brenda, left the Christmas Eve party. She felt a smile creep across her face as she turned her attention to the kitchen where Martha was helping put up the last of the dishes. Clark and Jonathan were folding up the serving table and most of the furniture in the living room had been put back in its place.

The stress building up to the dinner and party seemed silly now, looking back on the evening and seeing how easily everything came together once they had taken care of Mazel Tov and his attempt to ruin her and Clark’s first Christmas together. The memories of the many times they had gone through the time loop and the despair she’d been hit with made everything pale in comparison. Seeing everyone around her find happiness and joy in the holiday season—even her parents—was something she never thought she’d ever been able to do. For the longest time, Christmas came with memories of sadness and loneliness.

That of course, was before Clark.

Everything in her life that once seemed broken or impossible found its way back together the closer she and Clark became. Now here they were celebrating their first Christmas together as a married couple, hosting a Christmas Eve party of all things. Her parents seemed to be finding their way back to one another and she of all people actually found herself looking forward to the holiday season.

A glimmer from beneath the small tree in the corner of the room caught her attention. Unlike the bright red and green gift wrap used on the other presents there seemed to be more light shining off of one of the gifts. Curious she went to investigate and found herself even more confused when she found a large box covered in what appeared to be tinfoil.

“It’s lead foil.” Jonathan’s voice interrupted her thoughts and she turned to look at her father-in-law with a questioning gaze. He seemed to sense her question and chuckled, “Martha insisted on making sure Christmas gifts were a surprise each year so when Clark’s x-ray vision started we began wrapping his gifts in lead foil so he couldn’t peek.”

Lois chuckled at the image of her husband trying to keep from peeking at his gifts as a young pre-teen. Before she could comment on the story her father-in-law just shared her husband interrupted with his own comment. “You mean Santa wrapped them.”

“Of course,” Jonathan nodded with a twinkle in his eye.

Lois looked back at Clark with a laugh, “Santa?”

THE END