The plan was everyone would come over around nine. I'm pretty sure the dress code was pajamas, but I knew no one would follow it, so when I woke up, I changed into a sweater and pair of sweatpants. I didn't bother to do anything with my hair, Ally had braided it last night and it only looked slightly slept in, and make up was a definite no. The first thing I saw was presents under the tree. It might not have been my normal tree in my normal living room, heck this tree was blue, but it was still comforting.
Grandma was already up and dressed. She was busy cooking. "Good, you're up, will you get out the Christmas plates, the small ones?" She pointed towards the china cabinet. I went over and found the ones she was talking about. We had used them for years. There were nine little ones, each with a reindeer and the name on it and one large platter with Santa and the sleigh. My mom had given them as a present to Grandma when I was little. It was so long ago, I was probably the only one that remembered. I took them out and set them on the counter. Grandma quickly began washing the dust off them and giving them to me to dry. Once each plate was dry, Grandma gave me the pan filled with miniature cinnamon rolls to put on the platter.
"When you're done, will you go wake up your brother and Ally?" She asked me pulling a coffee cake out of the oven.
"Sure," I placed the last roll of the plate and went back to my room. Ally was still passed out on the trundle bed. "Ally," I said quietly. "Wake up, it's Christmas. Santa came. He said that if you don't get up right now, you get nothing!"
"Santa called and said you get nothing for waking me up," she rolled over and I smiled.
"Vince will be here soon, you really want him to see you like that?"
"Like I really care?"
"Fine," I pulled out my phone and took a picture. She heard the noise. I quickly got out of her reach. "Up in ten or this goes online."
Ally sat up. "Blackmailing? On Christmas?"
I smiled and skipped out of the room. Downstairs, all I did was knock and say "presents, bacon, potatoes," I could already hear Alex move around the room.
By the time I got upstairs, the Petersons were there and Ally was dressed and sitting beside Justin. Justin got up to hug me. I hugged him back and said Merry Christmas. When we parted, I tossed Ally my phone and went to join the others in the kitchen. I was quickly shooed, but not before I could grab a couple mugs of hot chocolate. I gave one to Justin and took a spot on the floor in front of him. I leaned back against his legs and enjoyed the sound of people. It had been a long time since I was around so many happy people, people that I cared about. It was only another ten minutes before the Carsons showed up with a bag of presents.
The presents were scattered under the tree and the Carsons, along with everyone else, found a mug and a place to sit. I had never seen a tree with so many gifts before. Charlotte picked up a gift and found a tag. "One for Alex," she tossed it to him and I just hoped it wasn't breakable. "One for Ally," she tossed that gift too. "A giant one for the King family," she didn't bother moving it. Charlotte was a trooper. I would have quit probably five gifts in, but she sorted every single one under that tree. She even had to deal with the ones meant for my aunts and uncles and cousins. Those were left under the tree, but the rest were scattered around the room in piles beside the people they were meant for. We let Charlotte open the first gift, it was a new phone which she freaked out about. My first present was one of the books I had wanted. It was from Alex. I said a quick thanks before Ally opened one of her gifts. We went around and around for probably an hour. Justin had opened the gift I got for him, a sweatshirt for his favorite team and Nana got the paper weight my dad made in his high school shop class. She started tearing up, but Kate was there to give her a hug. Alex had even opened the wireless speakers I got him. It was weird to have enough money to buy everything that people wanted. I even got a grill set for Jeff and a bath set for Kate.
I was down to my last present. I was one of the few that still had presents left. It was a small box wrapped in a different paper than the rest. "Who's this one from?"
"Me," Justin said sitting up straighter.
I smiled at him and tore the paper off to reveal a white box. I slid the cover off and found a silver locket. It had an E on the front amidst swirls. It looked exactly like one my mother had. I popped it open. Inside, written on the left side was "with all my love," just like my mother's.
"But," I stuttered. "Wha-how?"
Justin chuckled.
"What is it?" Charlotte asked.
"M-my mother's locket," I said stunned.
"I might've gotten a little help from Alex," Justin explained.
I got up and hugged Alex, "thanks"
"Well I got it from Riley," he explained.
"How many guys does it take to give a girl a gift?" I joked.
"Well to be fair it was all my idea," a new voice said from the kitchen.
"Riley!" I jumped over Charlotte's legs and a pile of wrapping paper to hug my godfather.
"Hiya, kiddo," he hugged me back with one hand.
"Thank you," I looked at the necklace in my hand. "It's perfect."
"You haven't even seen my gift for you yet." He jostled the one tucked under his arm.
"Another gift?" I couldn't believe how many I was getting.
"Kinda," he handed the gift to me and I brought it back to the living room.
"Hey Riley, I think the gift is moving." I called slightly unsure if I wanted to open it.
"Well that's odd?" He replied. "You better open it and make sure nothing climbed in there."
"I don't think I want to." I carefully pulled the lid off. Knowing Riley, something would jump out at me. "Oh my God!" I reached in and pulled out a puppy. "You got me a dog?" Charlotte and Ally ascended on me. I handed the dog over and went back to hug Riley again. "Thank you"
"Of course, Em, I thought you might need more family, but boy was I wrong, look at all these people that love you."
I looked into the living room where Alex was opening the large gift sent to our family and Ally held the dog. He was right. I had all the family I needed right here. My eyes caught Justin's. I smiled at him and he smiled back.
"Everything you need for the dog is in my car. We'll get it later. I think the puppy is more than happy in that girl's arms."
"Yeah," I chuckled. I watched as Alex pulled the paper off the box.
"A projector?" He asked.
"I guess Santa thought we could make the basement a real home theater." Grandma replied.
"That's awesome!" Charlotte exclaimed.
"Yeah, it is," I said.
Everyone began moving from the living room into the kitchen. I squeezed by back into the living room and sat beside Justin. "Thank you," I said picking up the locket again.
"I thought you forgot about me." He spoke quietly.
"I could never forget about you," I laid my head on his shoulder. "Will you help me put it on?" I turned and handed the necklace to him. I could feel his hands brush against the back of my neck and then I felt his warm breath. I smiled and opened the locket again. This time I looked at the right side where there was a picture of my parents and me from when I was little. Each held one of my hands and lifted me off the ground. Justin pressed his lips against my neck and then rested his chin on my shoulder. "It's perfect," I turned to look at him. "You're perfect."
He reached up to push a stray lock of hair behind my ear and then pressed a kiss on my lips.
It was barely a second later when we were interrupted. "There's not even a mistletoe!" Charlotte exclaimed.
I looked up to see all three of our friends watching. "Sorry," Ally covered the younger girl's mouth. I just laughed and buried my face in Justin's shirt. It was starting to become a habit.
We sent the guys downstairs after breakfast to set up our new home theater while we cleared the dishes and then ended up on the living room floor with the puppy. "What are you going to name her?" Kate asked.
"I don't know." The dog chewed on my thumb.
"Doesn't that hurt?" Charlotte asked. I hadn't really even noticed it.
"Nah," I shook my head. "Do you guys have any suggestions?" No one really had one. Ally suggested Rover as a joke. "I'll just wait and see if the girls have a suggestion on Saturday." I shrugged knowing my cousins were going to love the puppy.
I think it took the guys three hours to put up the projector. When they were finally done, we had started playing cards again. The puppy was fast asleep in my lap when Justin and Riley replaced Kate and Grandma in our game of five hundred. "Fair warning, Riley and I are a force to be reckoned with!" My words rang true. We beat Justin and Charlotte four times before they gave up and that was only because Grandma said dinner was ready.
We ate a literal feast of ham and potatoes and corn and my favorite: potato salad in the middle of the afternoon and then sat around for the rest of it complaining we ate too much. Eventually we made it downstairs to watch a movie and then we only came back up to get more food. I'd say it was a pretty good day. I was sad to see everyone leave, but at least Riley and Ally were staying. Riley took the guest bedroom and the dog got to sleep in the kennel Riley got for her in the basement. Everyone, even the dog, slept well that night.
Author's Note:
Happy Wednesday!!!!
BTW this whole story is going to need a lot of editing once it's done. There's more plot holes in it than Swiss cheese.
Thanks for reading!
Devin4862
Full copyright 2015
Edited 8/13/15