Christmas At Home

Chapter Five

A/N: Yes, I know, I know, it's not Christmas anymore, but this story has not finished so I will keep posting till it is, hehee. I hope you don't mind.

There are two chapters left.

Thank you so much for reading and any comments, questions or reviews will be really welcomed!

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"Well, well, well," his father said opening the bag.

Chris glanced at Jonny nervously; his dad had been the hardest to shop for.

After a few failed attempts through the years, where he had bought wrong-sized clothes or books they already owned, Chris was now confident both his sisters would love the handbags they had bought for them, with some help from the ladies at the office of course. His brothers-in-law and brother would surely appreciate the black label Scotch and the carry-on they had respectively purchased for them as well. The adults' presents also included gift-vouchers for everyone to their favourite restaurants in London. The children had really enjoyed the books and were really excited about the Legoland vouchers they had also received. It had taken them a lot of thought and time to get things right but Chris and Jonny thought they had done quite a decent job, despite how terrible they considered themselves to be at this. Everyone had been relatively easy to shop for. However, his dad...he had really been a challenge.

The man could certainly buy whatever he needed and he could not think of any item his dad might want or need to carry out his hobbies, he already had the necessary equipment. Also, much as Jonny was, Chris knew his own dad would appreciate it more if the gift was something useful rather than a decorative flower pot or art he did not care much about. That trait contributed even more to make it extremely hard when the time came to pick up a present for him.

Much as Jon and him were for everyone else, he supposed.

"Oh, boys, a tea maker!" the senior man smiled with a pleased twinkle on his face.

"It also works as a water kettle," Chris was quick to add, biting his bottom lip and locking his eyes with Jon for a few seconds.

"I see, I see," his dad inspected the box, "I take you've heard me complain of how bland tea from the supermarket was," he laughed in amusement.

"Yeah, actually it was her," Chris pointed to his sister, "who told me you missed 'real tea like in the old days'," he finished winking at the woman sitting on the sofa across from them.

"Thank you very much, lads."

"You're welcome," Jonny replied.

"There's a selection of tea leaves inside the bag so you can start using it right away," the singer explained, "Oh, and the voucher!!"

"Oh, that's lovely," the man said, taking out four boxes of different flavoured tea leaves and finally the voucher, " The View from The Shard with a Three Course Meal for two," he read.

"Oh, that's great dad!" one of his sisters uttered.

"Thank you, boys," he told them, looking more pleased than Chris had expected him to. "I'm chuffed about the tea maker! And of course, the meal at the Shard will be an extraordinary experience, I am sure."

Chris beamed, turned to Jonny and did a little congratulatory shoulder bump with his soon-to-be husband. It had been him who had come up with the idea of adding the selection of teas and the one who looked through the voucher options that he saw fit for his dad. Chris had just picked the one he thought his father would appreciate the most. He had never been to the Shard that he knew of.