the twenty-first century ellinghams

chapter ten: presents

it seems like stevie had just shut her eyes when she is being woken up by two toddlers by her. or, more specifically, on her.
     "good morning!" she says, trying to sound cheerful and failing. "merry christmas." she rubs at her eyes then opens them. she sits up, and dana and henry sit down on her lap. david begins
to wake up too. he sits up, and henry shuffles to sit in his lap. stevie brushes a curl out of dana's face. "let me guess," she says. "you guys want to go and open some presents." the kids agree much too loudly for how early it is.
"okay, guys. how about you go wake up aunt allison with that same exact energy, and we will all meet downstairs. okay?" david says. the kids climb off of the bed, and dana takes henry's hand and guides them out of the room. stevie puts her head on david's lap.
"what time is it?" she asks. david grabs his phone off of the nightstand.
"little after eight," he replies. "so, not bad considering. also your parents texted us, they're about thirty minutes away." stevie groans.
"lovely." she closes her eyes for a moment. "i don't particularly want to do christmas events right now, could you move it to tomorrow?"
"i wish i could, but i can't. it's already out of my hands." reluctantly, she opens her eyes and rotates to look up at him.
"merry christmas, david," she says. he brushes one of her hairs back, out of her face.
"merry christmas, stevie," he replies.

once she had gathered all of the stocking off of the mantle in the living room, she went to the sitting room, where the christmas tree was. becky had taken the chair, allison and jack were on the floor along with the kids, and david was sitting on the couch. stevie passes out the stockings, then joins him. he passes her his coffee cup.
"bless you," she says, taking a sip.
"so, the kids should open up their gifts, but the adults in the room should wait until stevie's parents are here," becky says.
"what?" allison replies, her hands already on a package.
"fine, kids and allison," becky says.
"same difference," david mutters, and stevie elbows him in the ribs. the kids open their gifts, amazed equally by each. some were from santa, but some were from grandma or mom and dad. allison and jack open their gifts too.
"oh. my. god," allison says, once the wrapping had been torn enough to reveal their gift to her. "a mini keurig! this is just what we needed for our apartment! thank you, thank you, thank you!" she says. she gets up from her place on the floor and ensnares stevie and david in a hug.
"you're welcome," david says, ruffling her hair a bit as she gets back on the ground. jack opens his gift from them as well. he laughs when he opens it.
"these are perfect, thank you," he says.
"what are they?" allison asks. he flips the box around for her to see the set of mugs they had gotten him. they were both all white, except each had half a heart that lined up with the other.
"it's a bit of a combo gift," stevie explains.
"i love it even more now," allison says, laughing. she gets up from her place on the ground and walks to the couch, pulling out a package from behind it. she hands it to dana and henry.
"oh, allison, you didn't have to do that! we know how expensive law school is and-" stevie begins, but allison raises a hand to shush her.
"i actually didn't buy it," she explains. "i found it last night, in my old room. it seemed a fitting gift, so i wrapped it up." stevie and david, now very curious, watch as mostly dana, but partially henry, unwrap the gift. once the wrapping is partly torn away, it reveals the words "candy land".
"is that..." david begins.
"it is," allison replies. stevie looks between the two of them. "it's our old candy land board," she explains. "i used to beg david to play it with me when we were younger. if i wasn't bothering him too much, he would usually agree."
"you loved candy land," david adds. "seemed you wanted to play it everyday." he looks away from the kids to allison. "this is a really thoughtful gift, thank you, allison."
"of course," she says. "mom you should open your gifts, too." becky opens her gifts. allison and jack had gotten her a pair of nice slippers. they couldn't really afford much else. david and stevie had gotten her a necklace with a gemstone for david, allison, henry, and dana that corresponded with their birth month gem. becky loved the gift, but she would have been pleased if they had gotten her a bag of mulch. she was just happy to be having the holidays together. the doorbell rings, and stevie gets up to get it.
"hi mom and dad! you're... both wearing the pajamas," she says.
"surprise!" her mom says. "she sent them to us a few weeks ago. isn't this so great?"
"amazing," stevie replies.

there was a temporary break in gift opening to take pictures. was it horrible? no. but it wasn't exactly delightful, either. david was right, this was a bit cultish. but, it would make a nice enough christmas card, so what did she care. finally, they got back to gift opening. her parents opened theirs first, then the kids opened theirs from grandma and grandpa, then becky opened hers from them, it was a whole cycle. finally, stevie and david were able to open theirs.
"you go first," stevie says, placing a box in his lap. he unwraps it carefully, revealing a cardboard box. once that's removed, a wooden box is revealed. he lifts open the top, revealing a watch. it had a black leather strap, with a crystal face. "that old one of yours was falling apart, and i know you liked wearing one. i thought about fixing the other one, but i thought..." that he would never be able to look at that watch and not think of his father. "... maybe a new one would be better." he takes it out of the box and puts it on his wrist.
"it's perfect," he says. "i love it, thank you so much." he pulls her into a hug.
"you're welcome," she replies. when they pull apart, he grabs two flat, rectangular presents from under the tree. he puts them in her lap, and she pulls back the paper of one, revealing the back of a picture frame. she flips it around to reveal a navy blue print with a large circle in the middle. inside of the circle were various constellations. in the bottom-middle of the print are the words "stevie and david".
"it's the sky the night we got married," david explains. "the constellations, i mean. there's this too." he places the second gift in her lap. she unwraps it to reveal another navy blue print, with "stevie and david" printed in the same place as the other. but, this one shows the moon instead of the constellations. "and that's the moon the night we were married," he adds. her eyes get a bit watery, they were perfect. she loved this kind of astrology stuff, and he knew it.
"i love it, thank you," she says. she places the framed prints down carefully on the coffee table, then hugs him again.
"i think now's the time for our gift to you guys," her mom says, getting up and handing them an envelope. "it's from the three of us." david takes it from her mom, then hands it to stevie, gesturing for her to open it. she does so, and pulls out two plane tickets and a folded piece of paper. she examines one of the plane tickets carefully. it's dated for the upcoming valentine's day weekend, it's destination: chicago. "you guys work so hard at that school we wanted to do something special, something you'd really enjoy. you both deserve a break, so we, or i, called david to make it perfect."
"and i told her that you were in desperate need of some time with your best friend in chicago," david adds. the pieces begin to fall into place, the look between david and janelle, the phone call after the holiday party.
"sneaky," stevie says, grinning at him and the tickets.
"we're both able to babysit that weekend," her mom says. "so is becky. the flight leaves vermont on that friday morning and gets back late sunday night." stevie unfolds the piece of paper that had been in the envelope.
"oh my god, this is... the drake?" she says. stevie knew very little about chicago luxury hotels, but she knew this one. "this is too nice, i- we can't accept this."
"yes, you can, and you will," becky says. "you both work so hard, you deserve it." stevie looks at the tickets and the reservation confirmation paper.
"thank you," she says, after a moment. then, the door bell rings. they all look at each other.
"were you expecting someone?" stevie's dad asks becky.
"no," she replies, confused. david gets up from the couch and goes to the door. stevie looks back to the kids, who were playing with their gifts. she doesn't need to be looking at the door to know who it is.
"dad?" david says.