Love in Ireland

/28/

-Monday December 25th-

"Time to get up," someone said loudly. "It's Nine o'clock."

I opened my eyes and rubbed the sleep out of them with my fists. I blinked a few times to let my eyesight readjust. Last night I had fallen asleep on Declan. I could feel his arms still around my waist.

"Ugh." Zach groaned. He had his face buried in a pillow on the floor.

"How did you end up on the floor?" Alannah asked, sitting up. She and Bridget must have fallen asleep on the couch.

"No idea." He replied sleepily.

Hudson, Owen, and Isaac were standing up.

"Hey mom." Hudson yawned.

I looked over at the doorway and sure enough, our mom was standing in the doorway in her grey pajamas. She must have offered to come and wake us up. "We'll be down in a minute." I said, yawning as well. She nodded and left the room.

"Alright let's go." I said, getting up.

Everyone slowly got up, and we made our way downstairs. Last night, we all brought our gifts downstairs so we wouldn't have to grab them this morning.

My mom, grandpa, Mr. Finnegan, and Mrs. Finnegan were all already in the sitting room when we got down there. They had taken seats on the two sofas and had mugs in their hands.

The Christmas tree sat in the empty corner of the room by the door, where there was usually a standing lamp. Underneath were all presents everyone brought down yesterday. One of the adults or staff members must have organized them because they were now organized by whose present was whose.

"Come and grab plates of food." Mrs. Finnegan said, taking a sip of her drink. On the elegant glass coffee table were trays full of breakfast food, mugs filled with hot coco, plates, and utensils. We all went over to the table and grabbed plates. I scanned the food. There was a fruit platter, scones, muffins, croissants, and cinnamon rolls. I decided on a blueberry muffin, strawberries, apple slices, and a cinnamon roll with cream cheese frosting. Alannah grabbed a chocolate croissant, apple slices, and a chocolate chip scone.

Once we had our food, we went to go sit by our pile of gifts. While we ate, we would open presents. And how it worked is Mrs. Finnegan put every person's name into a bowl and plucked them out. That way, it was fair, and the adults and children got to take turns.

While Mrs. Finnegan mixed up the names, I started eating my fruit and looked at my gifts. I had one from my mom, my grandpa, Hudson, Isaac, Mr. and Mrs. Finnegan, Owen, and Bridget. I had two gifts from Alannah, Zach, and Declan. Declan's and Alannah's were wrapped together, so technically, it looked like one. Zach said that this year he was getting Alannah, Declan, and me a real gift and a gag gift. I'm kind of excited to see what stupid stuff he got for each of us. Since I've had a stable job since June I could afford to buy everyone gifts this year. But I also wanted to honor my tradition of homemade Christmas gifts, so I tried to do both. For some people, I just made a homemade card with their gift and for others, I gave them something I bought and something I made.

"Alright and first person is Hudson!" Mrs. Finnegan said, reading the slip of paper.

Hudson smiled and grabbed one of his presents. I loved how all the Finnegan's were willing to let my family in. I mean, they've only known me for three years.

Hudson opened all his gifts pretty fast. He got a new soccer ball, cleats, shirts, Legos, and books. I made him an Ireland jersey with our last name on the back and his number. He loved it. And I got him Bluetooth earbuds, which he has been wanting for two years.