A Christmas Accident

A Festive Frost

Christmas day turned out to be a wild, and fun affair.

After a delicious breakfast, Sang and the guys had gotten to peeling all the vegetables and preparing the side-dishes. At first she had been overwhelmed with the sheer amount of food in front of them – but with ten of them working together – they had made quick work of it all whilst the others pottered around the kitchen – quickly cleaning all the breakfast food away.

Unfortunately due to the state of her hand – she wasn't much help, but the guys found other ways to include her. Even though most would have found the task of preparing Christmas food tedious – she had enjoyed every moment.

After everything had been prepared, ready to be cooked later, they had all retired to the living room, and with a house full of some of the guys families and all those presents to open, they had more fun than Sang could have ever imagined.

Even with the brief moment of her guilt over not being able to give anyone gifts of her own, the guys had been quick to cheer her up, and reassure her that she could get them gifts next year. It didn't complete assuage her guilt, but it made her determined to make it up to them next Christmas.

But it was the idea that they would still be friends, and together next year that really lifted her spirit, and allowed her to move on with the day, excitement filling her.

One of her favourite parts of morning wasn't the presents themselves – though she loved what everyone had gotten her – but the stories that came afterwards as Max rolled around in the wrapping paper.

It was fun listening to Erica and Uncle's stories about the boys shenanigan's growing up and Sang didn't think she had ever laughed so hard as she did when Uncle told her the story about Luke getting stuck in a tree.

Apparently he had an obsession with climbing trees around the back of Sunnyvale Court when he was younger, but one day a skunk had managed to chase him up into a tree after spraying him. Hours later the guys had found him clinging to a branch whilst the skunk circled below. Luke took over the story at that point, swearing the skunk had been giving him eyes, and Gabriel had agreed with his friend, but only because he had ended up stuck beside him when he had tried to scare the skunk away.

In the end, Owen had managed to use his jacket to catch it– giving the other two time to get away before he let it go.

Sang kind of wished she had been there to watch the events unfold, but she enjoyed listening to them just as much, and when Erica started to share the next embarrassing tale, Sang leaned forward in her seat to listen – captivated by how much fun the guys managed to have in their early to late teens.

She managed to learn so much about the guys in a short amount of time, and she loved every moment of it. Each new story revealed just another interesting fact about the guys who had opened their homes to a stranger, all because she was alone at Christmas.

It was here she was starting to learn just how amazing they were.

Like the work they did for the community. Even with all their separate jobs, they always managed to give back to those less fortunate – from something as simple as helping out at a local soup kitchen, to bigger tasks such as helping build homes with habitat for humanity.

Then Sang had been shocked silent when Pam had shared her history with drugs and alcohol, and how she had been a terrible stepmother to Gabriel growing up after he lost his father. Gabriel had quietly admitted his mother and baby brother died in an accident when he was younger, and later his alcoholic father had married Pam, before he too passed.

She had cried for Gabriel's loss – but she was amazed by the story of Pam's recovery, something her partner Barry had helped with. All because they had accidently met one Christmas at a local shelter, when she had gotten lost wandering around.