******* 

"All I'm saying is it's the middle of January," Stephen called to her from the den, where he was reading a well-worn copy of 'Infinite Jest'.

Larissa rolled her eyes, even though he couldn't see her from her spot in her glider rocker, where she was knitting herself a scarf from some funky furry yarn she'd gotten on clearance at the craft store earlier in the week.  "There's nothing wrong with leaving Christmas stuff up later than the twenty-seventh of December," she hollered back good-naturedly.  The truth was, she was surprised he'd allowed it to stay up this long.  When the kids had been small, it was literally the day after the festivities that he would start hauling boxes of ornaments back to the garage.

There was something about their Christmas tree that just made Larissa Halpert grin every time she looked at it.  A high- quality fake variety of blue spruce, it held years of memories.  Handmade ornaments that Jonathan, Jimmy and Jessie had proudly brought home from school in their elementary years, anniversary ornaments, her special collection of angels, all playing golden instruments;  They all decorated the branches.  Larissa could remember the morning the three kids, all young and bleary-eyed in the early hour, presenting her with the first piece of the set.

"Okay, but Groundhog's Day is only several hours away now, babe."  Her husband chided her from the next room.  She knew he was teasing her, flirting with her.  Knowing he couldn't see her, she allowed her face to break out in a huge grin.

"And you don't want to re-decorate the whole thing for each holiday?  Find some ornaments that look like rodents wearing top hats?"

She was kept from hearing his response by the telephone ringing next to her. 

"Not it!" Stephen called.

Chuckling, she answered it.

"Hello?"

"Hi."  Larissa grinned at the scratchy baritone on the other end.

"James, my boy.  Don't you think it's perfectly acceptable to keep one's Christmas tree up all year long?"

"You guys have this argument every year, and every year I choose to stay out of it.  If you want to be one of those old crazy ladies who hang eggs on it at Easter, be my guest."  Jim answered, chuckling.  "But, really.  What are you going to decorate it with in Arbor Day, mom?"

"You make a good point," Larissa conceded.  Pulling the receiver away from her face, she called to her husband.  "Jim and I have decided that you can take it down, dear."  Instantaneously, Stephen exited the den and walked quickly toward the garage.  "Oh, that made him happy?"

"Yeah, well.  You gotta let him win once and a while."  Jim said.

"What's up, kid?"  She asked, cradling the phone against her shoulder as she continued knitting.

"Not much."  He replied.  Larissa paused.  She knew her son loved her, but he never called her in the middle of the week just to chat with her.

"Yeah?  How's work?"  She questioned, hoping this would trigger something.

"Oh," Jim said, sighing.  "Michael's back from the Caribbean.  Just to paint a picture of how crazy everyone in this company is, he talked Jan into going with him."

Larissa laughed, throwing her head back.  However, she knew her son was deflecting something right now.  She just needed to figured out how to tap into it.  "And how's Karen?" 

Karen had been the topic of exactly no discussions for the last three months.  He had mentioned her in passing maybe half a dozen times since he moved back, but nothing to really cement his relationship status.  Even so, Larissa wasn't an idiot.  She knew this girl had followed Jim to Scranton, possibly even moved here because of him.  She had yet to meet her, but could tell that Karen was making Jim's life happier, however marginally.  For that, his mother was happy he was dating her.

"She's good."  He said it in a clipped tone, cutting himself off for a moment.  After several seconds, he continued.  "She's uh...moving, actually."  He exhaled a shaky breath. 

"Really."  Larissa was quite surprised but this.  Maybe she'd already decided that Scranton wasn't for her?  "What happened?"

Clearing his throat, Jim answered.  "Oh, she found a place just down the street from me."  He exhaled loudly.  "So..she's..moving."  He punctuated the last sentence with a sort of nervous chuckle. 

She could almost see him turning red over the phone.  Jim had always been cautious when it came to girls.  Despite his best efforts, he'd ended up with a girlfriend his junior year, Missy.  Larissa could remember him coming home from school one day, almost hyper-ventilating because she'd left books in his locker and what was that about?  They'd only gone to the movies a few times and now he felt like he had to take down his Jennifer Love something or other poster. She asked, "Is that bad?" 

"It's just kind of close is all," Jim reasoned, silently begging his mother to agree with him.  Nothing doing.

"She's not living with you, Jim."  She responded.  "I think you're being a little sensitive."

"That's what Pam said, too," he said softly.  And there it was, the reason for the call.

"Pam said that?" Larissa gently prodded.

Dead silence.  Larissa pulled the phone away from her ear to make sure it was still counting minutes.  Noticing it was, she pressed it back up against her ear.  "Yeah,  she.. she thinks I'm being hard on Karen by not wanting her to move so close."  He paused again.  "I mean, we've only been seeing each other like a few weeks, mom.  I just don't know that- I just don't know."

She gave her son three full beats before continuing.  "So, you're talking to Pam about problems with your girlfriend."

"She volunteered," he said flatly.  "She offered to listen to my problem, and then told me she thought it was a good idea for Karen to move into my neighborhood.  So, I guess any chance that she..." he trailed off, list in his own depressing thoughts now. 

"She might just be going for supportive, Jim," explained Larissa.  He didn't' say anything to that.  All of a sudden, there was a crash in the kitchen.  Rising from her seat, she stepped into the adjoining room.  There stood Stephen, struggling through the door with the Christmas tree storage box. 

"Jim, I gotta go.  Your father, in his fervor to de-festifize the house is going to break all of or furniture or kill himself."  She just shook her head incredulously at her husband. 

"Yeah, okay mom."  He sighed.

"She's trying to be your friend," Larissa implored.

"I don't want to be her friend," Jim answered plainly.  "And I'm pretty sure 'de-festifize' isn't  a word.  You used to be an English teacher, mom."  He added, turning on a dime.  That was her son, using humor as a defense mechanism. 

"Love you, Jim."

"Love you too."

She hung up, and started work on her husband's favorite holiday tradition.

*******