WINTER VACATION

The week after Christmas was officially vacation time, families all over Broad meadows were packing their cars and driving up to the mountains for a week or so in a lodge spending their days skiing and drinking absurd amounts of hot cocoa.

Except a few families, like Barry’s and Tracy’s, both of whom families were going on a cruise. Barry had tried and tried to get his parents to let him go with Terrence up to the ski lodge they were staying in but they said no and he was stuck in the middle of the ocean soaking up some sun.

Tracy didn’t care, she didn’t care for sun and she didn’t care for snow but she did care that she was stuck on a boat with her dad and Patty, right after all that marriage proposal stuff. But at least she had a reason to go out and spend a ton of money on bathing suits.

The Brown family were going up to their cabin for some skiing and hot chocolate drinking, and along with them were Fedora’s family and Bryan’s family. Bryan’s family had their own lodge, it was next to the Browns’, but Fedora and her family were staying with the Browns.

Heather’s family was also going to the ski lodge, the same place where the other families owned them, but her family didn't own one they just stayed at the lodge. The whole place was full of A.L. High students, it kind of felt like school but in a vacation setting. Heather just wished that Tracy could come like she usually did.

And just about everyone else was going to that lodge, Lexi and Honey’s, Layla’s family, Ella and Mariah’s Family, etc etc.....

Arrival day to the lodge was busy busy, everyone of those A.L. High families were trying to get checked in at the same time, except, of course, the one’s who owned cabins. They didn’t have to check in, they could just go in.

“I love this place,” Fedora said, spinning around in the snow. Harriette, Collin and Tamarai were staring at her with disbelief as they stood shivering in their heavy jackets and scarves and gloves while Fedora were a jean jacket and a pair of fingerless gloves with a light scarf.

“Remember when I used to love this place too?” Harriette laughed, leaning into Collin for some warmth. “I’m freezing.”

“Let’s get inside,” Collin said, putting his arm around Harriette’s shoulder and guiding her into the cabin. Tamarai stayed behind watching Fedora.

“Hey, wait up,” Fedora said, stopping her spinning abruptly and causing herself to lose balance and almost fall face first into the snow.

“Does it snow a lot in New york?” Tamarai asked, kneeling down and running her hands through the snow. Tamaria was still amazed with snow, even after almost ten years of going to the ski lodge.

Fedora laughed, “You bet it does!”

Tamarai smiled, “Maybe I’ll move there too, after I graduate.”

“Everyone should,” Fedora said, “Now come on, I don’t want to be left out.”

“Okay,” Tamarai said, following Fedora into the wonderfully warm cabin. Collin and Harriette were sitting by the fireplace, out of their jackets now and under a blanket.

“Hey, babes,” Fedora said, “you disappeared. Where’s the hot chocolate?”

“Water’s on the stove,” Harriette said, opening up her side of the blanket and gesturing for Fedora to join them.

“Great, I need some,” Fedora said, taking a seat next to Harriette, “Hey, Tamarai, over here.”

Tamarai smiled and joined them next to Fedora.

The whistle on the kettle blew and Tamarai jumped a little, shocked, making the rest of them laugh.

“I got it,” Mrs. Brown said, heading into the kitchen.

“This is ridiculously cozy,” Fedora laughed, “Can you believe we’re sitting here under a blanket in front of a fireplace, and your mom is about to get us some hot chocolate?”

“Actually, yes, because we do it every year,” Collin said.

“Oh, shut up,” Fedora said, pushing Harriette so Harriette would push Collin for her.”Hey,” Harriette said, “I don’t want to push Collin!.”

“You baby him,” Fedora playfully scoffed.

Harriette just stuck out her tongue at Fedora.

“Hot chocolate is coming!” Mrs. Brown sang as came from the kitchen carrying a tray of mugs.

“Yums,” Fedora said, grabbing her mug quickly as soon as Mrs. Brown set down the tray in front of them.

“And I put some cinnabuns in the oven,” Mrs. brown said.

Fedora grinned, “this day cannot get better. It just cannot.”

Mrs. brown smiled at all of them, then slipped back into the kitchen.

“Are you guys actually gonna help us unpack?” Bentley asked, setting down someone’s bags right beside them.

Fedora glared at him, “can’t you see we’re having a moment?”

Bentley laughed and shook his head before saying sarcastically, “I’m soo sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

“Shut up,” Fedora said.

“I’m sorry,” Collin said, standing up, “I’ll help.”

Bentley grinned, “And that was the right answer.”

Fedora just shook her head and looked at Harriette, who was looking at Collin.

“Do you want me to help?” harriette asked.

“No, you stay and be warm,” Collin said.

Harriette smiled and looked at Fedora as if to say “isn’t he perfect?”

“I’ll save you a cinnabun,” Harriette said.

“I’m sure it won’t take that long,” Collins aid, “but thanks.”

“I’ll help too,” Tamarai said, standing just as Bryan came through the door carrying two bags.

“That’s all,” he said, setting the bags on floor.

“Oh,” Tamarai said, “Guess we weren’t needed after all.”

“Cinnabuns are done!” Mrs. brown announced as she stepped into the living room with a tray of food.

“Ah, is everything inside?” she asked as she took in the scene.

“Yep,” Bryan said, “I gotta go help my mom unpack, see you guys later!”

“Want a cinnabun for the road?” Mrs. brown asked, holding out the platter.

“Oh, sure, thanks!” Bryan said, quickly taking one before heading out the door.

“Alright, kids,” Mrs. brown said, “take your bags into your rooms and then you can come back and have some food.”

Fedora frowned, she wanted a Cinnabun now, but you didn’t say no to Mrs. Brown so she found her bags and brought it to the room that she, Collin and Harriette were sharing. They always had the same room, year after year. It’s gotten a little harder for them to all stay in one room as the year passed, when they were little kids it felt huge but now it was kind of cramped. But there was room for three beds, so they stuck to it. It was one of the charms of staying at the lodge.

But now that the family has grown, so they all had to share rooms. Bobby, Fisher, and Bentley shared a room, Tamarai and the Twins shared a room, Fedora’s parent’s shared a room, of course, and Mrs. Brown and Grayson shared a room.

After they loosely unpacked they gathered back into the living room and ate Cinnabuns and finished their hot chocolate as Mrs. brown made dinner.  Dinner was a quick beef stir fry and buns that were made beforehands and just need to be heated up. After dinner Bryan’s family came over to the Browns’ cabin and they played charades in the now incredibly crowded living room.

After that they split up and went into their room and “went to sleep”. Fedora, Collin, and Harriette stayed up talking, Fisher and Bobby stayed up chatting on their phones, Bentley stayed up because he just couldn’t sleep, but everyone else, they went to sleep.

And the day one of the ski trip was over and done with.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

MERRY CHRISTMAS TRACY

So Tracy was right about her bad feeling about her dad asking Patty to move in, because here was Patty acting all excited on Christmas morning. Yes, her dad had asked her to move in and she had said yes of course. So here she was having Christmas with the rest of them, with the previously two person family that was Tracy and her dad.

Her feelings for Patty didn’t change, she was still a space geek who could talk forever about the stars, but Tracys topped fighting it. She didn’t have time for it, she had to focus on school and graduating and getting into a good school. Preferably Berkley.

And she was definitely not gonna let her ruin her Christmas, nope not at all. So she ignored her that morning and continued along with acting as if she didn't even exist.

But that didn’t last long as after all the gifts were unwrapped and Tracy had gotten everything she asked for, as usual, and her dad said that there was still one more gift for Patty and Tracy knew.

She knew exactly what was gonna happen.

She wasn’t surprised when her dad got out a little wrapped box and gave it to Patty, watching her face intently. She wasn’t surprised when the gift turned out to be a little black jewelry box. And she wasn’t surprised when her dad got down on one knee. She wasn’t surprised when he said those four dreaded words.She wasn’t surprised when Patty broke out into a big grin and said yes, giving her dad a big hug.

She wasn’t surprised, but she did feel a little sick.

CHRISTMAS WITH THE BAEKS

Christmas at the Baek family house started when the last person dragged themselves from their bedroom. None of them were early risers, even on Christmas, so it always started around eleven o’clock.

The mom was the first person awake around 10:30, she started the coffee and breakfast. Next up was DaeRi about fifteen minutes later, she started getting ready for the day. And last up was AeGuk, who went to the Brown family’s Christmas Eve Extravaganza last night and stayed pretty late. Daeri had went to, but left a little early because she got tired of all the family fun after a while. DaeRi didn’t understand how Aeguk could just hang out with his ex girlfriend so casually.

At 11:00 they all gathered around the table and ate breakfast, all of them still a little asleep. They didn’t talk, but their mom asked them if they were excited. They just murmured some kind of excited nonsense in reply.

After breakfast they were all generally more awake and gathered around their small tree. They weren’t big Christmas people but celebrated it because everyone else did, so why not?

Presents were never very exciting, especially as they grew up and saw that other people got iPod and new computers for Christmas and they got socks. When they were younger they were excited for stuff like that, but it wasn’t the same really.

But they put on their excited faces and unwrapped  the gifts as their mom watched looking mildly proud. They got chocolate, socks, hats, and clothes. AeGuk loved DaeRi’s gift of the store bought mittens with little reindeer on them, saying he need them since the winters in New York were definitely something, and DaeRi admired the snowman shaped mug that AeGuk got her.

Their mom was ecstatic to get their gifts, a nice scarf from AeGuk and the maybe mittens that DaeRi had kind of finished. Thankfully they fit her.

After gifts they split up to get ready for the day and met up again before they split up to go out. They’re mom had a job to get to and AeGuk and DaeRi were going over to the Browns’ house to exchange gifts and just hang out.

And that was Christmas with the Baeks.

A BIG FAMILY CHRISTMAS

Christmas was Becky’s favorite holiday for many reasons; everyone was always happy during the holidays, you got to eat a lot of cookies, giving gifts, getting gifts, and best of all her whole family got together. And when she says her whole family she means her whole family. Her mom’s side and her dad’s side.

Everyone goes to her aunt on her dad’s side’s house and they give gifts and eat great food. There was nothing better in Becky’s mind.

And this year was no different, Christmas morning they all got up and got ready for the day. They ate a quick breakfast, nothing too big because there was always a lot of food on Christmas, then get into the car for the drive to the city where the aunt lives.

They spend the drive singing loudly to Christmas songs, Becky’s sister showing everyone up because she was a professionally trained singer and sounded amazing. The christmas spirit was thick enough to cut in the car.

Then they arrived. Their aunt had a big house which was why her house was the chosen place of gathering for Christmas. The second they walk through the door the crowd covers them and soon the parents split from the children naturally and all of the teens are sitting in the sunroom and all of the adults are sitting in the livingroom where the kids were playing around and surreptitiously trying to peek at the gifts. Everyone opens their gifts there, there is no opening them back at their house in the morning. The gift opening process takes hours with lunch in between.

Becky goes to sit with all of her cousin and other teens in the family, her sister was now considered an adult and went with them. It was weird to have an adult sister, time seems to fly so fast.

Once everyone is there they crowd into the livingroom and the gifts are opened. It was a free for all, everyone opened their gifts at the same time and it was a mad house. Wrapping paper was everywhere, the kids were screaming about their gifts and trying to get their parents attention. Becky got the usual stuff of a teenage girl, clothes, gift cards, makeup, phone cases, a purse, some games for her 3DS, and the big gift of the night a new phone. She didn’t know how they were gonna fit everyone’s gifts in the car, plus them.

They eat a big lunch of roast ham and the usual fixings then get back to the gifts, Becky’s sister got her a personalised phone case which becky was obsessed with. She got more gift cards, more clothes, and more makeup. More than she even needed, and she knew she’d have to go home and decided which ones she actually wanted to keep and get rid of some old stuff.

Then after all of the gifts have been opened and all of the wrapping paper have been put into a big trash bag they all split up again and hang out, playing with their new stuff or just talking about what they’re gonna buy with all the gift cards they got.

And then they eat a dinner of leftovers from lunch before everyone slowly plt up and headed back home. It’s a bit of a trouble getting the stuff in the car, but they do and Becky falls asleep on the ride home. She was awoken by her sister gently nudging her and telling her she need to help get the stuff inside.

After all of their stuff is piled into their respective rooms Becky is too exhausted to stay awake much longer so she wished her family and goodnight and then tucks herself into bed, falling asleep in less than ten minutes.

ITS CHRISTMAS AT THE BROWNS'

I’m sure you know by now all about the Brown Family’s Christmas Eve Extravaganza, and this year wasn’t much different. Everyone came over to the Browns’ house and I mean everyone, even Fisher, who disappeared, managed to get back for this party.

They ate good food, exchanged the Christmas Eve present, pajamas for everyone staying the night and slipper for the ones who were going back home, drank a lot of hot chocolate, and just had a good jolly ol time. Then they all went to bed. Collin, Fedora and Harriette all slept in Collin’s room together, they couldn’t fit on the bed so they slept on the floor in sleeping bags.

They talked excitedly about the next day until late, when Fedora was still talking and hadn’t realised that both Collin and Harriette had stopped replying. When she realised they were both fast asleep she laughed at herself and shut up, trying to get some sleep herself.

One thing on her mind was how unbelievably easy it was to hang out with AeGuk again, they just slipped back into the way they were before they started dating. Fedora had to admit though that she had been hoping it wouldn’t be that easy, that hanging out again would remind AeGuk that he did like Fedora much more than that Allie girl, but that didn’t happen. Fedora really needed to just move on.

All that floated out of her mind as she slipped into sleep and it felt like only seconds later when there were the sounds of high pitched little kid voices waking her up. Finn and Willow were running around them and yelling excitedly about how it was Christmas.

Fedora laughed, “gosh, remember when we were like that?”

Harriette and Collin sleepily laughed then they all sat up and stretched.

“Come on!” the twins cried.

“Alright, alright,” Fedora said, then turned to Collin and Harriette with a wild grin, “come on guys, it’s Christmas!”

She jumped up, acting all excited and pulling Collin and Harriette up while yelling “come on come on!”

Harriette and Collin laughed and followed Fedora down to the living, Fedora skipped the way there, almost falling down the stairs, making the twins, who were right behind them, laugh hysterically and copy her as they went down the stairs.

“Be careful,“ Collin warned.

The twins just laughed harder.

In the living room sat the rest of the adults and Tamarai waiting for them, apparently they had been sleeping late. On the coffee table was a spread of various breakfast good and Fedora over to it and picked up to cinnabuns, eating them quickly.

“Don’t eat too much,” Fedora’s mom warned her, but Fedora just shot her a glare and picked up another cinnabun before sitting down on the floor right in front of the tree.

Harriette and Collin got some food and their mom handing each of them a mug of hot chocolate.

“Alright kids, go get your stockings!” she said after they all settled down.

The twins jumped up and ran over to the fireplaces, grabbing the stockings and handing them out to everyone. It was the usual bounty waiting for them in their stockings, lots of yummy treats, chocolate, the lollipops that Harriette bought, and other little stuff that they might enjoy. Fedora acted super about everything she got and started singing a song about a chocolate bar she got, making everyone laugh.

After the stockings it was time for the gifts and the twins went crazy, jumping up and down in excitement and Fedora jumped up and joined them which the twins found amusing. Fedora was actually kind of good with kids, even though if you ask her she’ll say she hates them.

Everyone got fives gifts from Mrs. Brown, that was her rule. One expensive gift and then four smaller ones. And then there were the gifts from everyone else, who didn’t have any rules so they could be anything.

Fedora’s big gift from Mrs. Brown was a keurig coffee maker and her smaller ones were hot chocolate and coffee for it, plus two cute mugs. From her mom she got a healthy eating recipe book for college student, which earned her a glare from Fedora,  and some money. and along with those she got a bunch of small fun gifts from everyone else, Harriette got her an assortment of chocolates and the Bean boozled Jelly Belly games, which Fedora specifically asked for.

Harriette’s big gift from her mom was a BJD doll that looked like her and her smaller gifts were a mug, a gift card to the Candy Store, some tights, and some clothes for the dolls. Harriette was over the moon about the doll, as she had been wanting one since she found out about them. Fedora gave her a little cloth doll she found in a vintage store, and Harriette loved it.

Collin got a Pen tablet for his expensive gift,since he’s been wanting to try out digital art, and his smaller gifts were a gift card to his favorite art store, some new drawing pads, a set of watercolors, and an art book. Fedora gave him a picture she painted of her roommate, she wasn’t sure if would like it that much since it was kind of a silly picture since she didn’t really have any artistic abilities but he loved it.

After all the gifts were unwrapped everyone was just sitting around casually talking about their presents, Harriette was posing her new doll, Fedora was setting up the Bean Boozled games, Collin was watching Fedora set up the game, and the twins were running around shooting everyone with their new Nerf guns.

Then the guests came with more presents, all the people who didn’t stay the night last night. It was like a continuation of the party, everyone opened up more gifts and more wrapping paper was flung everywhere by an overexcited Fedora. Then everyone gathered for some lunch/dinner and they ate and had good conversation. After lunch/dinner everyone kind of split up into little groups.

It didn’t feel like long until the sky started to darken and people started heading home and the twins were getting tired and had stopped shooting people. It was time for bed already. christmas was basically over.

“Aw,” Fedora said, looking out the dark window, “I don’t want Christmas to be over.”

“Well it’s gotta end someday,” Harriette said, looking tired already.

Collin nodded, “sadly, that’s true.:

“Merry Christmas guys!” Fedora said, jumping up suddenly, “let’s stretch this day to the limit! It’s not over yet, let’s go caroling.”

“Caroling?” Collin said, “are you serious?”

If anyone else had said that they were awesome they were joking, but not Fedora. Fedora was just that weird, weird enough to actually want to go caroling at nine o’clock at night on christmas day.

Fedora grinned and nodded. “Let’s go, babes!”

Harriette laughed, “now way, it’s too late.”

”It’s never too late for Christmas Carols!” Fedora said, “come on!”

Collin and Harriette looked at each other, wondering if they were really gonna go along with this. Harriette laughed and shrugged, as if to say “why not”. Collin nodded and they got up and Followed Fedora to the door.

“Bundle up, kids,” Fedora said in a faux motherly voice, “don’t wanna catch a cold!”

Collin and Harriette laughed, but put on their jackets and shoes then followed Fedora out the door. Once they reached the street Fedora stopped and broke out into Joy to the World. Collin and Harriette shared another glance then shrugged and sung along.

Fedora started walking down the street still singing and Collin and Harriette followed her. They went down until they passed the first house, by then they had sang Joy to the World, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, Have a Holly Jolly Christmas, All I want for Christmas is You, I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus, and White Christmas and they hadn’t stopped at a single house. Fedora stopped, and Harriette and Collin wondered if she was really gonna go caroling at this house.

Fedora laughed, “you should see your faces, you look so worried!”

Harriette and Collin laughed nervously.

“Lighten up, kiddles,” Fedora said, “We’re not going caroling at any houses, let’s head home, babes!”

Somewhere in the time since she’s been gone she had started getting into the habit of calling people the weirdest stuff, like “kiddles”, “babes”, and just “kids”.

On the way home they continued to sing a variety of Christmas songs, some of them they didn’t even know the lyrics and just sang some random beats. Once they got home they were exhausted and slowly went up to Collin’s room and climbed into their sleeping bags, after saying goodnight to everyone of course and explaining where they disappeared to.

“Goodnight, kiddles,” Fedora yawned, “Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas,” Collin and Harriette said at the same time.

And they slipped off to sleep with dreams sugarplums dancing in their heads...

MULTICOLORED CHRISTMAS TREE GLORY

Mrs. Brown believed in real trees for Christmas, she believed in going out as a family and picking out that perfect tree and cutting it down. After cutting it down they’ll put it atop the car and drive to a nearby diner and eat burgers.

It was another one of her favorite holiday traditions.

But every year it seemed that her children just were not into it like they once were, and they couldn't cut it down themselves because no one really wanted to so they had to get someone else to do it and that ruined the whole family thing and... well it just wasn’t the same.

This year they almost didn’t do it. It was getting close to christmas, only nine more days, and the whole house was decorated head to toe except for a tree. The place where the tree usually stood in the livingroom was sadly empty. Mrs. Brown had tried to arrange a day to get the tree but one of the children were always busy.

But on this monday, nine days before Christmas, Grayson insisted that everyone had to go get a tree. It wasn’t a choice.

“It would be Christmas without a tree,” he insisted.

And he was right, they did have to go get a tree. Harriette had been thinking about it too, everyday when she sat in the living room doing her homework she would look up and notice the absence of the tree. It didn’t quite feel like Christmas yet, even with the bannister covered in garland and wreaths hanging from each of the doors.

Collin didn’t understand why they didn’t just get a fake tree. They didn’t need to go out and cut down a real tree, sure they had a certain charm to them but nothing so important that they couldn’t just skip over it and get a fake one. If they got a fake one they would never have to worry about getting the whole family together and out to the door to the somehow always muddy tree farm. Maybe they watered their trees a bit too much.

But still when Collin came home from school that monday and Grayson told everyone to get ready for some tree cutting he went up to his room and got ready for some tree cutting.

The twins on the other hand were excited as always, along with Tamarai who never seemed to get over the excitement of getting a Christmas tree. They all had their “woodsy” clothes on and were ready by the door in fifteen minutes.

And with that the family piled themselves into the car and drove forty five minutes away to the “BETTER TREE FARM”. What they were better than, who knew?

And after another forty five minutes they were putting a six feet tall tree onto the top of their blue SUV. This was Collin’s least favorite part, because since he was one of the tallest people in this family, the tallest ones were Bobby and Fisher both of whom were not there, he had the “pleasure” of helping Grayson get that tree on their car. They could have gotten help from one of the employees at the farm, but no, their sweet mother wanted them to do it themselves.

“We’ve never needed help before,” she always said.

Thirty minutes later Harriette was helping Collin pick the needles out of him hair as their mom chatted it up with one of the employees.

“I’m never doing this again,” Collin said, “I don’t care if mom wants a real tree next year, I’m not helping pick it out.”

Harriette frowned, “But it’s a tradition.”

“Well some traditions get old,” Collin said.

Harriette shrugged.

She had actually had fun up until then, seeing Collin upset kind of made her upset too. But walking through the acres of trees and inputting her opinion on each one was fun, plus her mom just seemed so happy on these days.

Finally they got back into the car and drove to that nearby diner to eat some burgers, something they all wanted to do. Well not Grayson, who was a vegan and didn’t exactly like being around other people eating meat but he was okay with it for today and ordered himself a veggie burger.

It’s hard to please everyone.

Once they got home they had to get the tree inside, and this time Tamarai helped get the tree off the car because Collin disappeared as soon as the car was parked.

He reappeared again later when they actually decorated the tree, that was really something everyone wanted to do. And they all had fun as they put all of the mismatched ornaments onto the huge tree. And when they were done and it was all lit up in it’s Christmas tree glory they turned off the lights and drank hot cocoa by the bright multicolored lights of the tree.

And Maybe next year they might not all go to cut the tree down, but they will all sit by the light of the tree and drink their hot chocolate. Nobody had a problem with that.

GINGERBREAD HOUSES

Harriette awoke to a house full of the spicy smell of gingerbread and smiled sleepily to herself. She got up and slipped on her adorable bear slippers and slipped over to Collins room where he was, of course, already almost ready for the days, just running a straightener through his hair.

“Do you smell what I smell?” Harriette sung as she skipped into the room and sat on his bed.

“If you mean the gingerbread, then I’m guessing yes,” Collin said as he ran the straightener through his hair one more time before turning it off.

“I hope we’re making gingerbread houses,” Harriette said

“Already?” Collin asked, “It’s only the twelfth.”

Harriette shrugged, “why not?”

“I guess you’re right,” Collin said, “I was kind of hoping we could do it when Fedora came over.”

Harriette frowned, “yeah I guess. But we can’t do everything with Fedora.”

“We used to,” Collin pointed out.

Harriette laughed, “Collin, Fedora is in college, we have to do stuff without her sometimes.”

Collin laughed, “you’re right.”

Harriette smiled, “of course. Now I have to get ready, I’ll see you later!”

And with Harriette skipped out of the room and to her own room where she picked out a “casual gingerbread house making” outfit, which was brown leggings and an oversized pink sweater that said “LET IT SNOW” on it.

After throwing that on she carefully brushed out her hair and did some curling so if looked neat before heading downstairs where she could hear Finn and Willow loudly chattering about something.

“Hey kiddles,” Harriette said to the twins as she entered the kitchen where they were sitting at the table with Collin and Grayson.

“Harry!” they said in unison.

Harriette wrinkled her nose, “you know I hate that name.”

The twins laughed and continued telling Grayson about the tree they decorated in school and Harriette went over to say hello to her mom who was mixing some frosting.

“Morning, mommy,” Harriette said, giving her mom a quick peck on the cheek.

“Good morning, darling,” her mom said, “did you sleep well?”

“Like a baby,” Harriette said.

Her mom smiled at her then asked if she could help with the candies, “I just need you to get them all out and set them on the table, but away from the twins please.”

“Alright mom,” Harriette said. she went to the cupboard and got all of the candy and chocolates they would need for decorating the houses. And, just as her mom warned, the second Harriette set them on the table the twins reached out to grab them but she she pulled them away and far away from them.

“Aww,” they said together, with exaggerated pouts.

Harriette then took a seat next to Collin as her mom thanked her.

“Hey,” she said to Collin, “you excited?”

Collin nodded, “I guess.”

“You don’t sound too excited,” Harriette said, frowning, “You better not still be caught up on doing this without Fedora.”

“No Fedora, no fun!” The twins suddenly burst out together.

Harriette laughed, shocked a little.

Collin just shrugged, “they have a point.”

“Hey, I can be fun too!” Harriette said.

“Of course, it’s just a joke,” Collin reassured her.

Harriette laughed and just then their mom put the tray of gingerbread and the piping bags full of frosting.

“Alright, have at it!” their mom said before taking a seat herself. As she watched the kids start to assemble their houses she reminisced on how old they were getting now. Harriette and Collin only had one and a half more years before going off to college and the twins were already ten years old, old enough to do anything really. And there was Grayson, her special little sweetheart, if she was mean enough to choose favorite he would probably be hers. He’s so sweet and so caring, and so perfect. And now he was all grown up, but she still saw him as a little kid. It didn’t help that he was still shorter than her.

And then her other two kids, Fisher and Bobby, not even here for this tradition. Bobby was in Idaho with his girlfriend’s family and Fisher, well to be honest she didn’t really know where Fisher was. For a short while he was living with them, but he moved out during the summer and moved into the city. Sadly she hadn’t heard from him in a while.

Now the everyone had standing houses, the twins’ were a bit lopsided, but they were standing. It wasn’t a surprised to see Collin’s already was looking like a piece of art, and Harriette’s was sweet in it’s own way. Grayson, who asked her to make vegan gluten-free gingerbread, was decorating the door. He looked so sweet.

“Oh my god,” Harriette said after a while, staring at Collin’s house, “I shouldn’t be surprised, but your’s looks amazing!”

Collin blushed slightly, as he always did if someone complimented him, then said quietly “thanks.”

Harriette smiled and went back to her house.

“Look!” Willow exclaimed a few minutes later. She was pointing to one of the little gingerbread people she decorated with bright red pants and a green shirt, the face was two small eyes and she had squirted brown icing all over it.

“It’s Fedora!” Willow said, grinning with pride.

Harriette laughed, “that is so cute.”

“Thank,” Willow said, putting the gingerbread Fedora up next to her house.

Then they were back in actions, silently putting nonpareil on the roofs of their houses, gumdrops lining the bottom, and candy canes just about everywhere. And by the times they were done the twins probably ate more candy then they actually put on their house.

They all proudly showed off their houses, the twins going on and on about their little people in the yard. Collin’s was a classic beauty, Harriette’s was cute, Grayson’s was basic and sweet, and the twins’ were just kind of out of controls.

And after they were done they set them in the living room to show off to their visitors and Harriette and Collin helped clean up the mess and Grayson helped the twins clean up themselves since they kind of got frosting everywhere.