I feel bouncing from the middle of my bed, I try to ignore it though and go back to sleep but to no avail it kept going, and eventually shook me awake.
"Mama." I here come from my side where my awake child places her hand gently on my cheek.
"Mama." She repeats.
"Yes?" I ask still with my eyes closed.
"Presents?" She mumbles.
"That's tomorrow baby." I whisper.
"No mama." I smile and open my eyes to see her standing over me, her curly locks draping over her face in a curly mess.
"You have to wait for tomorrow princess."
She pouts and I begin to see tears forming in her eyes, "Oh no, don't do that to me."
"Jaime!" I shout.
In just a few short seconds Jaime walks in fully dressed with a beanie sitting on his head, "What's up?"
"Your daughter wants the p word." I say trying not to say the actual word.
"Yeah she saw me putting one under the tree earlier, I told her to come ask you if she could open one." He laughs getting me to give him an eye roll.
"Well now look at her." I say pointing to Lilah who now has one single tear falling down her cheek.
"You've gotta wait until tomorrow Lilah bear." Jaime says coming over to lay on the bed, wiping his thumb over her tear stained cheek.
She simply nods her head and crawls off the bed and out the door towards her room, "A year and ten months going on fifteen." Jaime mumbles with a shake to his head.
I laugh then peel the covers off my body, going straight to the bathroom to shower and get ready for the day.
Today if you haven't noticed is Christmas Eve, our first Christmas as a family and I'm pretty thrilled, we went all out on the decorating with a big tree and fake snow everywhere, Christmas being my favorite holiday still hasn't changed whatsoever. I LOVE IT.
Though, tonight we'll be spending Christmas Eve at Spencer and Tony's, everyone will be over here tomorrow for Christmas dinner.
Jaime and I did a great job at spoiling Lilah this Christmas because the little nugget has about fifteen or so presents under the tree, and that's not including the big gifts. We had Chris take care of Lilah while we went shopping a few weeks ago and Jaime took the liberty in piling anything he saw in the basket.
She's been in absolute awe since she saw all the gifts that we finally put out the other day, every day asking if she can open one, only to be disappointed that she has to wait.
Update on the little squirt though, twenty-two months and she's finally beginning to talk clearly now instead of the babbling it used to be. She's picked up on words that Jaime and I say or whoever she's with, she'll mimic them until she learns it, she's so smart that it surprises me a bit on how fast she's learning.
The more she grows the more she looks like Jaime though, and it scares me sometimes because I look at her and it's like I'm looking at a miniature Jaime, but he loves it of course.
I get out of the shower and quickly change into something comfortable to do some last minute errands before tonight, seeing as I'm baking some things and going around town to find materials I need to make them.
I slip into a pair of high waist skinny jeans then throw on a white t-shirt and tie some classic white converse on my feet before heading to my vanity to begin my makeup.
And as if on cue Lilah walks in to the room already knowing what I was about to do, she steps onto the stool I bought her and begins to look at all the makeup on my counter.
"Mama." She says pointing to a specific brush, this one was a teal blush brush that she loves to play with.
"Go on, take it." I say nodding my head in approval.
I begin applying powder foundation on to cover up any redness, and at the same time that I'm doing so, Lilah mimics my motions and pats the brush on her face while watching me in the mirror.
"Can you hand mommy that bottle right there?" I say pointing to the eyeliner.
She looks to what I pointing at then picks it up and places it in my hand, "What that mama?"
"Eyeliner." I say opening the liquid eyeliner, tracing out the wing like effect on my top lid.
Lilah gets me to laugh at her attempt to say the word, coming out with something like 'eyewinder'.
"Okay pass me the mascara." I say.
She begins to look around a bit, she knew this one, she always gives it to me when she helps. She grabs the mascara bottle and looks at it for a second before handing it over to me.
"Thank you ma'am."
"Welcome." She mumbles before redirecting her attention to the other things laid out on the counter.
I finish up my makeup and begin telling Lilah what each item that she pointed at was, like the eyeshadows and bronzers, Jaime walking into the room interrupted our discussion as he watched from behind us, leaning his body on the door frame.
"Neither of you need makeup." He says with a smile getting Lilah to snap her head in his direction.
"Dada, look dada." She says showing him her brush.
"I see, is mommy showing you how to do your makeup?"
She simply nods her head in response then caresses her cheeks with the brush again, a smile forming across her face showing off her infamous dimples.
"Well I should go to the store before it gets too late." I say getting up from my seat.
Jaime looks at his watch then to me, "Yeah you've got a lot of baking to do young lady."
I walk to him and place a kiss on his lips before turning back to Lilah to do the same but on her chunky cheek that I love so much.
"I'll be back shortly." I say before walking out of the room.
I grab my keys and purse from the key hook by the door then my black leather jacket from the coat closet then head out to the car, the chilly San Diego air hitting me quickly.
I race my way to the nearby food store and raid the aisles for ingredients to make my peppermint brownies that everyone seems to love so much, as well as the cookies Vic practically threatened me over.
While I was making my way back to the car I was startled to see Sean walking from his car towards the store, he seems startled as well but smiles and waves nonetheless.
"Hey Arianna, how are you?" He says as he gets closer.
"Pretty good and yourself?" I ask giving him a quick side hug.
"Couldn't be better, just got here from Ohio to spend Christmas with Mason." He smiles widely.
"That's great, I'm happy you get to spend time with him now." I say giving back a genuine smile.
"Me too, and I'm glad everything worked out for you and Jaime, right?"
I nod my head in response, "Yeah, Jaime." I smile.
"Looks like we both got a good ending. Jessica and I have been seeing each other lately since she and him broke up, we're really getting serious."
"Well I'm happy for you two, everyone deserves a happy ending."
"Yeah, well I'll let you go, I've gotta go buy drinks for our Christmas party, you have a merry Christmas Ari."
He leans in for a hug and I gladly return the gesture, "Same to you Sean, it was good to see you again."
With that I head to my car and pile the bags into my backseat, then get into the front and begin my way back home where I had a lot of baking to do.
"Hand mommy the egg." I say to Lilah, who decided to be my helper, as she grabs an egg and gently places it in my head.
Christmas music rang through the house while we baked, Jaime in the living room wrapping last minute gifts to our friends.
I placed the cookies in the oven then began work on my brownies that I had to rush through seeing as I only had an hour left before I had to get ready for tonight.
"I'm gonna go take a shower, call me if you need me." Jaime says going up the stairs.
I nod in agreement and use this time to quickly pour the brownie mix into a pan and throw it into the oven to bake, I piled all the dirty dishes into the dish washer and turned it on just as Jaime was walking down the stairs from his shower.
"I just put the brownies in the oven and the cookies are cooling down, I'm going to go upstairs and give Lilah a bath so I can get ready." I say grabbing Lilah from the counter where she's eating cake batter from the bowl.
"No, I'll give her a bath, you just go get dolled up." Jaime says taking her from my hands.
I smile and thank him then skip up the stairs and towards our room, I strip from my day clothes then put on one of Jaime's long t-shirts to do my hair and makeup in.
I begin with my hair, knowing it'd probably take me a while, I turned on my curling wand and let that heat while I brushed out my hair and separated it in parts.
I wrapped pieces of my hair around the rod and let it sit there for a few seconds, once I let it go it sprung into a tight curl. I did that all around my head then once I was finished I made a waterfall braid effect around the crown of my head.
I smiled at the outcome then sprayed it down with some hairspray to lock in the curls.
I wipe off the makeup on my face to give myself a clean canvas, I began my eyes, going for a sparkly center that smoked out to black on the corners, thin eyeliner but big eyelashes that fanned out beautifully thanks to my favorite mascara.
I brush over some powder around my face then paint my lips a dark shade of red, which brought together my entire look perfectly. Once that was done I sprayed some setting spray on to make sure it lasted me the entire night.
I quickly go to the closet to retrieve my outfit for tonight, I had it hung nicely in a dress bag, even though it wasn't even a dress, I had to make sure it stayed un wrinkled.
I stepped into the black maxi skirt, this one had to be my absolute favorite, it went all the way down to my ankles and had two slits on either side of my legs that ended mid-thigh. But my love for the skirt did not compare to the love I had for my top.
It was a silver lace crop top that landed just below my boobs, it was a V-neck that showed just the right amount of cleavage but not too much that it's inappropriate. The straps were spaghetti and made a criss cross design in the back.
I matched the entire outfit together with a pair of glittery silver open toed ankle strap heels, they were so cute I had to buy them.
I placed on random pieces of black and white diamond jewelry, including my favorite black velvet choker that also came with a dainty silver chain choker which I placed directly underneath it.
Just as I was spraying on my perfume Jaime walked into the room with Lilah fully dressed in her Christmas Eve outfit, it was a glittery silver lace skirt and a white long sleeve top that had a reindeer on it, Jaime brushed out all her curls and placed a silver headband on her head that had a small bow on the side.
"We're the cutest." I say with a smile, taking in Jaime's appearance.
He of course had a pair of black skinny jeans and a silver button up to match my outfit, a black suit coat with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and some black Vans.
I grabbed my clutch and followed Jaime downstairs where he had put all the deserts into containers for me, to which I thanked him for with a kiss.
"We better get going, we're running behind." He says grabbing Lilah's small back pack while I took the trays of goodies and bag of gifts.
I follow him out to the car and get into the passenger seat while he buckles Lilah into her car seat, getting in shortly after to start the car and take us to our destination.
"Dada." Lilah speaks up from the backseat.
"Yes Lilah?"
"Where go?"
"Aunt Spencer and Uncle Tony's." He says, his eyes still focused on the road.
"Tony?" She says with a squeak at the end.
"Yeah, so you can go play with Joyce."
"Joysh." She says still trying to say his name correctly.
From next to me Jaime reaches over and takes ahold of my hand, intertwining our fingers then giving it a gentle squeeze.
When we pull up to the new home they had just bought to see there were already many cars parked outside, we got down and made our way to the door, a sign stuck on the door knocker that read 'Come on in, too busy partying to answer the door. – The Perry's'
"That's so cute." I smile pointing at the signature underneath the note.
I push the door open and am quickly met with the sound of Christmas music playing throughout the house, when we rounded the corner there were a bunch of people gathered around Tony's pool table, drinks in hand and smiles on their faces.
"Party's here!" Jaime shouts with his arms spread out.
We made our way around the house hugging our friends, Lilah quickly taken away from me by everyone trying to see her, she loved the attention though.
I walked back to the kitchen to find the girls standing by the table talking with wine glasses in hand, "Rae!" Alysha shouts with a smile.
"Get a glass so I can pour you some of mama's punch." She says with a laugh.
I grab a wine glass and watch as she pours me a generous amount of red wine, my favorite, "I love how you decorated." I say to Spencer.
"It took me all day, but I love it too."
She had a huge tree in the living room next to the TV, and Christmas lights hung on the walls which made it look more festive, I had asked if she wanted my help but she said that she wanted to this all on her own.
"So when are we going shopping for the dress?" Danielle asks wiggling her eyebrows with a smirk.
"I think sometime right after New Year." I smile.
"It'd be so cute to see you in a wedding dress, I'm excited." Spencer says with a wide smile.
Throughout the night we played drinking games, Jaime limiting himself for obvious reasons, Lilah was in the arms of everyone who took the privilege of grabbing her. I knew I didn't have to worry about her because she was in safe hands with anyone here.
"Your daughter is quite the talker." Mark the guys' tour manager laughs out.
"Does that remind you of someone?" I laugh, my eyes still watching Jaime play pool with Austin.
"Her father one hundred and ten percent Preciado."
"All over, there's never a dull moment with those two." I say as a matter of fact.
As if on cue Mike walks into the room with Lilah in his arms a Barbie doll in her hands, smiles on both their faces as she talks and he listens intently.
Mike walks over to me where Lilah notices and smiles, "Mama."
"Lilah!" I say with a smile.
"She was telling me about all her presents." Mike laughs.
"She's been dying to get into them." I shake my head.
"I told her she can open the one we got her, looks like she loves it." He smiles.
"She loves dolls."
"How about a rematch of rock band!?" Jack Barakat yells, a beer clutched in his right hand and the other holding a play guitar.
"Oh no."
"Come on Vespillo we're doing this!" He shouts leading the way to the living room where Tony was setting up the game.
"I haven't had the right amount of alcohol in my system yet." I say with a shake to my head.
"Get this girl a shot of Fireball ASAP!" Jack says to Mike who hands Lilah to Jaime before going to pour this liquid hell.
"Oh no, I hate that shit."
"Too late, you're doing it."
From behind me I hear Jaime laugh, "Are you encouraging this?"
"Actually I think I am." He says through laughs.
"Here you go." Mike grins handing me the large shot glass of Fireball.
"Do it, do it, do it." Everyone begins to chant lead by Jack, my now enemy.
"Fine." I close my eyes and drop the liquid into my mouth and let it slither down my throat like burning fire.
I wince at the taste then get handed a beer to chase it down, "Now come on let's play a few songs to loosen you up." Jack says grabbing my wrist.
Throughout the time we 'loosened up' I was being handed beer after beer, definitely succeeding in the liquid courage department that I was lacking moments ago.
"Put on our song!" I shout to Austin who obliges with no question.
In an instant All the Small Things plays through the surround sound speakers, Jack pretending he's on stage, hopping around the living room totally missing all the notes while Austin beats his sticks on the drums and I belch out the words into the microphone.
All the memories from our first Christmas together flooding through my mind,
"Late night, come home
Work sucks, I know
She left me roses by the stairs,
Surprises, let me know she cares
Say it ain't so,
I will not go,
Turn the lights off,
Carry me home
Na, na...
Say it ain't so,
I will not go,
Turn the lights off,
Carry me home
Keep your head still,
I'll be your thrill,
The night will go on,
The night will go on,
My little windmill"
We finished out the song, everyone clapping at our drunken mess, but it was fun nonetheless.
"Well I think it's time we go home, gotta put this one to bed." Jaime says to Tony who nods his head in agreement.
"Yeah Spencer is upstairs putting Joyce down; we'll be over tomorrow for dinner."
We all agree and give each other hugs then see our way out, I pile all of the gifts Lilah received in the trunk.
When we get home I place all of her gifts under the three then head up the stairs where Jaime just finished changing Lilah and put her in her crib to fall asleep.
"She's spoiled." He laughs.
"What made you think that?"
"The pile of gifts under the tree made me realize it."
I get into bed next to him and feel him pull me into his chest, "The best present I could ask for." He mumbles.
"What?"
"You and Lilah, you guys are the best gift in my life."
I smile and place a kiss on his lips, "And you're ours."
Jaime's phone alarm goes off notifying us that it's already midnight, Christmas morning, he shuts it off and turn back around to me, "Merry Christmas babe."
"Merry Christmas Hime."