eternity// 5SOS

30

Michael

"Secret santa and shoe box time!" Crystal called, shaking two hats full of strips of paper, "Come and line up,"

The little kids had been attached to our hips while we filled the hats, so they all queued up, then Bailey came running down too. Nath and Elijah came from Elijah's room, and Jasper came down with Poppy on his back.

After tea, the pair of them had spent some time together and all we had heard was giggling. Jasper acted so old and mature, but the reality was that he was only 19, and I loved it when he relaxed.

"So, you need to pick paper from both hats and check you don't have your own name. If you do, put it back in,"

"What's the other hat?" Jasper asked.

"Thats your age and sex for filling a shoe box for someone else's Christmas,"

"Can we start?" Lauren asked.

One by one, the kids all picked out of the hats, surprisingly not getting their own names at all.

I wrote down who had who, and what box they got, then Crystal passed them Christmas lists as a surprise task. We had already bought a bit because we thought it was nice to get gifts you didn't ask for; it showed we listened and cared because we really did.

"Tomorrow we are going to take you all shopping for the bits, I will organise you tomorrow into groups," Crystal said, "How's that list going Lauren?"

"Barbie!"

"Your handwriting is getting so good!"

"It is better than Poppy's,"

"It's not a competition, both of you are learning,"

"I can't read hers,"

"You can't read anything," Bailey shot back, "Her handwriting is very good, and she broke lots of fingers a bit ago. Leave her alone,"

"Back to the Christmas lists please," Crystal said, "If you keep being mean to each other then Christmas gets cancelled,"

"No!" Poppy shouted, "Please. Please, please, please,"

"It's not getting cancelled," I said, "Show me your list,"

She passed it to me and I sat beside her; we got them to choose a book or a creative things, write down anything they need, and then things they wanted. Usually there was a solid divide between the elder and younger kids but Poppy's was definitely an exception.

She had put lots of books on, and had asked for things like makeup and nail polish. However she had also asked for her own doll and princess dress. She often tagged along with the kids still, so it made sense I supposed. Plus she had missed out on all of that.

"This looks like a perfect list,"

"I will be good,"

"Mum was kidding, promise. Christmas can't be cancelled, it's our favourite!"

"Dad is right, I shouldn't have made that joke. I am sorry,"

"It's okay. May I leave?"

"We're gonna watch a movie, go and get first dibs on the sofa,"

Gradually, all the kids handed in their lists and went to the living room if they wanted to watch a movie, which they all did. We got the beanbags out and some big cushions, then Lauren sat on my lap and we all managed to fit infront of the tv.

It was kind of late, so she ended up falling asleep on me, and Nathan headed to bed because he still felt pretty crap.

Gradually, more and more kids fell asleep too- our friends must have kept them busy.