Always & Forever

Chapter 8

Third Person POV

Christmas at the Maguire's was one that would never be forgotten.

Early morning shouts of joy because Santa had arrived! The parents sat, watching their kids rip through the neatly wrapped presents. There were a few for the parents, but most, of course were for the children. Many were from Kathleen and Michael (aka grandma and grandpa aka Sean's parent's), some were from Santa and the rest from their parents, cousins, or aunt's and uncles.

It was an exciting thing, although it took the whole morning, starting from the early hours of 6:30. Getting up that early wasn't too bad for Lana or his mother but for nearly everyone else it was because they enjoyed their sleep. But nobody could sleep with shouting kids running through the halls because they couldn't wait to see what Santa had brought but they weren't allowed to go see until everyone was awake. (They ended up just waking everyone up anyways though because they couldn't contain their excitement)

And yes, Sean remembers with ease the little feet jumping on the bed Christmas morning saying "Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!" and then the little jabs of his nephews fingers, poking his cheeks.

Lana had already gotten up, thanks to the baby sitting on her bladder, and found the whole thing quite amusing when she came back out.

His young nephew was sitting on Sean's chest, pushing his little fingers into his uncles cheeks and lifting Sean's eyes open for him saying, "Are you alive?"

He had opened his eyes properly and made a deal with his nephew, "You go wake up Amada and I'll get ready to go see what Santa brought, okay?" Of course his nephew agreed and he counted it a win for him because he didn't have to wake Amada up at 6:30 in the morning.

---

The gifts were just about all finished being unwrapped and Lana went to get the last present to be opened.

She gave it to Amada and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead before sitting back down with Sean.

Amada pulled the ribbon off carefully, the shiny red wrapping paper came off next. Inside was a relatively flat white box, about the size of a shoebox. She lifted the lid slowly and when she saw what was placed inside she stopped and looked up at her parents, "Really?"

They both nodded with a smile, Lana leaning further into him as one of his nieces asked "What is it?" with an exasperated sigh, as if she'd been waiting forever to see what her older cousin had received.

Amada lifted the contents of the box, showing the rest of the family what was placed skillfully (obviously by her mother) inside. There was a white shirt that had a collections of little hearts around 'Big Sister' and a newborn onesie with the same design but said 'Little Sister'. Along side the onesie and t-shirt was a matching pink bow and soft pink bunny for her sister.

Excited cheers came from the family as well as Sean's nieces jumping up and down, because there was another baby girl joining the family! A few disappointed sighs could be heard from his nephews that made him chuckle but for the most part everyone was thrilled.

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It was Christmas evening for the Maguire's but only about 12:00 for Lana's family when they video called.

"Hi mom" Lana greeted, plastering a smile on her face.

"Hi sunshine, how are you doing?"

"I'm okay, how are you?"

"Why only okay? Is something wrong?" her mother asked immediately.

"No, mom, nothing is wrong. I'm good I guess." She replied, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath.