"I can't believe that it's the twins' first Christmas," Hortense said. "I know," Quackmore said. They were each holding a twin and Blaire was in front of them. They were standing in front of the decorated Christmas tree in the living room. They had just decorated the Christmas tree. Blaire went over to the tree to pull an ornament off a low lying branch but was caught by Quackmore. "We should get baby gates around the tree because Blaire is still so young and with the twins starting to crawl," Quackmore said, worried. "I think so too. Do we have the baby gates from last year for the Christmas tree?" Hortense said. "I think we do. I'll go get them," he said.
He put the baby gates up around the Christmas tree. Blaire was starting to yawn until she finally fell asleep on the couch clutching her favorite stuffed teddy bear. She was always carrying her teddy bear with her. It was the only toy she refused to share with anyone else. Hortense and Quackmore just left her where she was on the couch. They tucked her in under a little pink blanket. They each gave her a kiss and left her alone to sleep on the couch. They smiled at her.
"Where's Blaire?" Quackmore said. "Oh Quackmore, look at her, she fell asleep on the couch," Hortense said. "Awe, she's so sweet when she's asleep," he said. "I know," she said. He went upstairs and came back downstairs with Blaire's favorite pink blanket that she likes and put it over their daughter. They each gave her a kiss. She snuggled up to her stuffed bear under the blanket. It just made her seem much sweeter and cuter than she really was. She didn't wake up. The dog that they had gotten and kept for Blaire's birthday, curled up by Blaire's feet. They decided to keep the dog for their little girl. Blaire loved the dog. She even named the dog Chip.
They had been under a lot of stress trying to take care of three kids under the age of five and a puppy. The two parents seemed to be doing well with the dog and the three kids. Chip slept on a dog bed between the nursery and Blaire's room at night or when the three children were taking naps. Hortense trained the dog to lay in a dog bed at night. No one in the house seemed to be allergic to the dog, luckily. Blaire loved to play with Chip all day. She didn't really have time for herself because she worked, had three kids, and had a dog to take care of. She needed a nap but she knew if she took a ten minute nap, she wouldn't be able to go to sleep at night.
Blaire soon woke up from her nap. She saw Quackmore sitting in his chair in the living room. She got up from the couch and went over to him. "Daddy," Blaire said. "Oh hey princess, I see you're finally awake," he said, lifting her up onto the chair with him. She cuddled with him. Hortense came downstairs with the twins in her arms. She smiled at the sight of her husband with their oldest daughter. She loved that he was an involved father with their children. She handed the twins over to Quackmore. He placed the twins on his lap while Blaire sat next to him.
Christmas morning came around and Quackmore and Hortense woke up early. They were going to go to the farm for the day. Hortense woke the twins up and took care of them. They didn't really have any issues getting the kids up and ready to go to the farm. Quackmore got Blaire ready to go after feeding the three kids breakfast. Hortense, Quackmore and Matilda had to also get ready to go. They didn't have much time to get ready to go before they had to leave.
"Matilda, Hortense and I are almost ready to go. Can you start up the car and load the kids into their seats?" Quackmore said. "Sure," Matilda said. Quackmore handed the keys to the minivan over to his sister-in-law and she went downstairs to start up the car and put the children into their seats. She started up the car and got the children ready to leave and into the car.
They were soon at the farm. They had even taken the dog with them. "Grandma!" Blaire shrieked upon getting out of the car. "Blaire!" Elvira said, kneeling down to catch Blaire in her arms. Blaire ran over to her grandmother. "I missed you," Blaire said. "I missed you too," Elvira said. Fethry and Gladstone came running over calling to their grandmother. They hugged both of her older grandsons. Matilda, Hortense, and Quackmore came over with the other adults.
During the day, everyone opened presents and the kids ran around playing with toys that they just got that day. The kids all had fun until Blaire fell asleep on her father's lap after dinner. She was full of food and she was sleepy. The twins were asleep by the time that Blaire had fallen asleep. Everyone soon decided to leave as their kids started to fall asleep for the night.
They got home and Quackmore got Blaire to go to bed. It wasn't that hard to put her to bed. It was a long day and she was up earlier than she normally was and she didn't have a nap that day while the twins did have a nap that day. Hortemse mostly fed them from her breasts now before they fell asleep. Donald was always the first twin to fall asleep. They always fell asleep on her breasts. The twins had a strong bond with one another. Hortense could tell even though they were five months old. The twins always wanted to be together. Even at night, they wanted to be together. Hortense and Quackmore didn't know what to do for the twins. Hortense was happy that the twins always wanted to be together but also frustrated that they wanted to be in the same crib together at night or at naptime. Hortense mostly worked from home to spend more time with the kids since they were so young and they all needed attention. She still worked for her brother organizing out his business. Matilda worked for Scrooge as well but Matilda actually went into the office more than Hortense did. It was understood that Hortense wanted to be home more often with her kids. Hortense loved her little ducklings that she had. All three of them.
