Short a/n: I hope everyone had a great holiday season (Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah) and happy New Year! I hope 2018 is going well so far!
Nathan's POV
I'm looking out at my beautiful family on Christmas day, making pancakes for them.
Zola is playing with her toys, Bailey playing with MatchBox cars, Ellis playing and sweet Meredith holding little Lexie watching them all play.
I take my phone out and take a picture and post it to Instagram, tagging Meredith and Cristina with the caption "wishing you all a happy Christmas from my family to yours"
I finish making all the pancakes, I make bacon and some sausage and some toast. I out some fruit into bowls and put it all on the table.
"Right, breakfast is ready!" I call.
"Yay! Thanks daddy! This looks really good!" Zola squeals and jumps onto the bench at the table. Bailey climbs onto the bench after. I lift Ellis onto her wooden chair, and me and Meredith sit at the heads of the tables and Cristina sit next to Ellis.
"Thanks Nathan. This looks incredible." Cristina says.
"Thanks. Anything for this beautiful family." I say.
Meredith smiles back, a twinkle in her eyes. "This is amazing. Thanks honey."
I smile back.
We chow down and bubbly laughter fills the air. The kids are talking loudly about how much they love their gifts from Santa and how they can't wait for more snow to fall so they can go sledding.
"I have an idea. How about we go ice skating?" I ask.
"Yeah! Mommy, please?" Zola asks.
"Sure. Only if Auntie Cristina doesn't mind coming so we can tag team with Lexie." Meredith says.
"Oh of course. Lexie is adorable." Cristina says.
"I'm no adorable?" Ellis asks Cristina with a pout.
"You are all adorable. But if I'm holding Lexie then mommy or daddy can help you skate." Cristina says.
"Oh okay. Yay! Mommy when we go skate!" Ellis yells.
"Today?" I ask and look across the table.
"Sounds good to me. Let's finish breakfast, get dressed and go downtown to the rink I went to as a kid. It's the best in the city." Meredith says.
"Yay!" Zola and Bailey say.
We all get dressed in warm clothes and I looked in the basement for skates since Meredith said she had some.
Meredith's POV
"What are you looking for?" I ask Nathan.
"You said you had skates?" He asks.
"Yeah, I have some for me, and I have ones from when I was a kid that ought to fit Zola or Bailey. We'll have to rent them for everyone else." I say. I grab all the kids winter gear, my own jacket and gloves, and I grab stuff for Cristina because knowing her, she didn't bring any.
We all pile into the car and drive downtown to the best skating rink.
"Mommy! Can you help me!" Bailey says when we sit down. It turns out the skates no longer fit Zola, but are a pretty good fit for Bailey.
Cristina helps Zola and Ellis find skates that fit and Nathan grabs a pair of skates from the rental.
"Mom! Help!" Zola says as she steps onto the ice and promptly falls on her butt.
"Here Zo." Cristina says, handing Zola a milk crate to balance with. We end up stacking two for Zola, and just one for Bailey and us adults take turns helping Ellis skate, and eventually sitting with Ellis and Lexie while the other four skate around the rink.
"Mommy, I'm cold. My hands feel like icicles!" Zola complains when we all get off for the Zamboni to resurface the ice.
"Let's grab some hot chocolate and some snacks while they do this to warm up a bit." I say.
The kids all sit together, with Nathan holding Lexie and Ellis sitting on my lap. Cristina goes and gets the food and hot chocolate.
When it's ready she brings it all over on a tray the gave her, and the kids immediately dig into the fries.
"What do you say kids?" I ask.
"Thank you auntie Cristina!" They chorus.
"You're very welcome. Anything for my favorite kids." She says.
We spend the rest of the day at the rink, skating, falling and laughing until we go home around 4pm.
"Mom, can we make s'mores and have hot chocolate?" Zola asks Meredith.
"Of course honey. But just one cup of cocoa because you already had some today." She says.
Cristina holding Lexie in my arms as Lexie begins to whimper.
"I'm coming baby. Cristina, can you make the chocolate? I'll take Lexie upstairs. She probably needs to be changed or fed." I say and take my little girl upstairs.
"Hi sweetie. Oh look how adorable you are. Let's see, nope, you don't need to be changed! Your little diaper is still clean! You're hungry aren't you?" I say to my baby.
I sit in the rocking chair and feed her whole I hear laughter downstairs from my other kids.
Sitting here and feeding a kid, it gives you a few minutes of alone time to think. Four kids is a lot. I never thought I would end up with four kids. I mean, it's no Family Von Trapp but it's still a lot. Crap, college is going to be expensive. It was pricy when I went, I can't even imaging what it's going to be 18 years from now when Lexie is all set to go, let alone in just over 10 years when Zola is ready to go.
I remember when we found out we got to keep Zo. I had ordered pizza and I thought it was the delivery guy dropping it off, but it was the adoption agency dropping off Zola. During the time we were fostering her, Derek and I were having a long, drawn out fight. It ended up getting resolved by then but it was a rocky time.
I hear footsteps by the door and look over to see Nathan there.
"Hey babe." He says walking over.
"Hey." I say.
"You must be so tired from skating today. Ellis and Bailey are asleep on the couch, I'm going to carry them up in a few minutes. Do you need anything?" He asks.
"You're amazing. I'd love a glass of wine." I say. I stop the feeding since Lexie is asleep. I miss her head and lay her gently in the crib.
We go downstairs, Cristina is sitting at the bar counter taking shots of tequila.
I go over and sit with her.
"You knowbthis isn't Joe's, right?" I ask, throwing one back.
"Yeah, it's better. I don't have to drive anywhere, it's free, and it's a comfy chair and a clean bathroom to throw up in in the morning." Cristina says.
"True." I say.
By the time we are actually tired, we each have had a significant amount of alcohol and Nathan basically has to carry us both up the stairs.
"Night Cris." I say.
"Night Mer." She says. Her door closes and soon I hear muffled snores.
"You're drunk." Nathan says walking over.
"Yep and you're super hot." I say.
"Not right now. Go brush your teeth, I have some water for you." He says.
"Thanks babe. You're the best." I say. I sloppily brush my teeth, and drink three glasses of water before falling heavily asleep in my nice, cozy and warm bed.
"Mommy! Can we watch your old copy of this thing called Kipper? It's on an old box." Zola says holding it up.
"Yeah sure. Nathan, show Zola how to set up a vhs. Mommy needs coffee." I say.
Ugh my head freaking kills. Why did I take so many tequila shots last night. Why. I regret everything. All I wanted was a glass of wine to unwind from the day and suddenly college Meredith is back.
I smell coffee coming near me and reach my hand out.
"Here Mer." Cristina says.
"My head." I whisper.
"I know. Me too." She says and holds her hand out. She drops Advil into my hand and the mug of warm coffee. "This ought to help." She says.
"Thanks." I say. "Is Nathan helping Zola with the vhs?"
"You still have a vhs player?" Cristina asks.
"Yeah, you don't?" I ask.
"No, I stream movies and tv shows now." She says.
"Fancy. I'm old school. I still have A Bugs Life on vhs, Kipper, some Barbie movies, some Disney movies. They're all from my childhood and movies I wanted to see as an adult but were for kids." I say. I sit up and the alcohol has a different idea. I run and throw up and feel a smidge better.
"College Meredith made an appearance last night." Cristina says.
"I know. I didn't do anything embarrassing, did I?" I ask.
"Nope, unless you call almost calling Finn embarrassing." Cristina says.
"Finn?" I say slowly.
"Finn Dandridge, the vet." Cristina says slowly.
"Crap. Finn. I didn't call him, did I? That would be humiliating." I sat covering my face with my hands.
"No but I have no idea why you have his contact info now. You guys were a thing in what, 2005? It's 2018 now. It's been 13 years." Cristina says.
"Shit. We're old. I didn't think that much time had already passed but I guess it did. I mean unknown time was passing but it felt so much slower. Until Derek died, or fake died, then thibgs suddenly went 100 miles a minute." I say.
"Mommy! The dog gas a British accent!" Zola shouts from the bottom of the stairs.
"I guess it's time to rejoin society." I say. I pull my hair into a messy bun, pull comfy leggings on and a tee shirt and go downstairs to see my kids sitting watching my old childhood favorite, Kipper. The old British dog, who had friend who were a terrier, and 2 pigs, one of whom never talked.
We spend the rest if the day watching my old VHS tapes, avoiding the surgical ones from my mother, laughing and eating popcorn.
"Momma it's snowing!" Bailey says as we pause the films to make dinner.
"Look at that! If it doesn't melt by tomorrow we can go play it in when you wake up!" I say.
I make pasta, put it on plates for me, Nathan, Cristina, Zola and Bailey. I put together a plate of fruits for Ellis and I hear up a bottle of milk for Lexie.
Overall, I'd say Christmas was a success, with happy kids and days filled with snow.
A/N: happy holidays! Sorry this is going up so late after the holidays but I was wicked busy! Hope y'all enjoyed! Xoxo Kallie Grey