The Busiest Christmastime of the Year

Chapter 10 - December 20

Julietta

At around 4:05 a.m., my family and I got up to prepare ourselves to go pick up Jessica, Madison, my sister, and my brother-in-law. We all changed from our sleepwear to our winter gear, Edison grabbed the car keys, put on our winter footwear, we put our luggage in the car's trunk, and the five of us piled into the car to drive to my sister's house.

The moment we got to my sister's house, Jackie-Anne and I got out of the car and Jackie-Anne pressed the doorbell three times. After 37 seconds of waiting, my sister, Sterling McWackzie, opened the door. Once she woke up, she recognized me and my daughter and was amazed the moment she saw us.

Sterling hugged me, and she was also surprised to see Jackie-Anne, so she tousled her hair, making it look messy. Sterling was curious why I came to her house this early, and I told her that as a surprise, the nine of us were going to four different cities in New York for some exploration and to have some family time.

Sterling seemed excited about going to New York with us, so she went to the side table next to her couch, opened the top drawer, pulled out her whistle, and made a loud tweeting sound that woke up everyone else.

As soon as Jessica, Madison, and Sterling's husband came down the stairs, Madison asked Sterling why she disturbed everyone's beauty sleep. She told everyone that we -- specifically, all nine of us McWackzie family members -- are heading to the airport to travel to New York, explore four of its cities, and be there until the day before Christmas Eve.

Jessica pointed out that she, Madison, Sterling, and Sterling's husband hadn't packed any spare clothes because this early Christmas trip was a surprise.

I told all the members of Sterling's family that there are plenty of malls and marketplaces in the various cities of New York. Depending on what mall or marketplace we go to first will be where we purchase some more winter clothing for Sterling's family.

Sterling, her husband, and her daughters went to change into their winter gear. Once they were all bundled up, Sterling got her car keys and her family went to their car. But before all nine of us were about to go to the airport, Jackson asked if we should buy something for breakfast.

Jackie-Anne told him that there weren't going to be any open cafes at this hour, so she supposed there might be some restaurants in the airport that are open 24 hours per week.

Now, our cars began driving to the airport, but Sterling's car was driving further ahead of us because the luggage in our car was slightly slowing down our car's speed.

After we arrived at the airport, we went through the entire process at the airport, and my family and Sterling's family found ten vacant chairs left in the airport's boarding room. Each of us had to quickly get to them before any other folks did. Luckily, we sat on the chairs just in time with only one open chair left.

Jackson told me he was still feeling hungry because we had skipped breakfast, so I gave him thirty dollars so he could buy a breakfast sandwich or anything for himself and Jacob. The girls, Sterling, her husband, and Edison were feeling hungry, too, so everyone else except me got out of their seats and began to find something to eat.

I began to starve, too, so I called to Edison that I wanted a breakfast burrito and a bottle of iced coffee.

After waiting about four minutes, my eight family members returned with their breakfast foods, and Edison gave me my burrito and iced coffee. We ate our breakfast and continued waiting for our plane number to be announced over the loudspeakers.

Kara

Today, December 20, is my last day of work before Christmas break, and later tonight at my office, my associates and I will have a Christmas party. Livia is also coming to the party at my office this evening, even though she's just a teenage girl. Well, I know days, like Bring Your Son or Daughter to Work Day, are a rare occurrence, but I could not let Livia stay at home hosting a sleepover, hosting a party of her own, or staying up past her bedtime. After all, she is currently on Christmas break, and all the elementary, middle, and high schools would not reopen until at some point in the first seven days of January.

Julietta

The airplane that was taking me, my eight relatives, and hundreds of other passengers to New York was going to take up to two hours for the plane to land at an airport in Queens, New York.

During the flight, I could not watch any videos or movies on my phone due to it currently being in Airplane Mode, so I chose to play a game that involved putting together a digital jigsaw puzzle. Lucky for me, the puzzle app I was playing is available, whether Airplane Mode is on or off.

In the middle of my puzzle, I heard someone snoring loudly. Whoever is snoring that loud must be as sleepy as a bear that immediately went to hibernation for the long, snowy winter days.

I checked the row of seats behind me, and a man in an insulated jacket was peacefully dozing off. He was using his neck pillow and had earmuffs over his ears. Trying to make it through a flight with someone behind me snoring loudly was going to be tough, so I asked Sterling -- who was in the seat in front of me -- if she kept an extra pair of earplugs in the seat in front of her. Unfortunately, Sterling couldn't hear me because she decided to doze off, too. Plus, she gave the extra pair of earplugs to Jessica, who wanted to sleep longer, even though both of them had eaten something for breakfast.

Kara

Several hours later, I was done hosting our final meeting, and as I turned around to clear the whiteboard using the eraser, one associate put a Santa hat on his head and made a loud sound using a noisemaker. I could tell that guy must be a huge fan of any kind of party.

So, all my associates exited the boardroom and went downstairs to the cafeteria. Before I could follow everyone else, I went to pick up Livia, who was in an empty cubicle reading a digitalized comic while listening to calm Christmas music on the computer. By tapping three times on Livia's shoulder, she took her headphones off and came with me to the cafeteria where the party was taking place.

In the cafeteria, all the men and women were doing a gift exchange game as the first activity, so Livia began to join everyone else.

In the hat with all the little scraps of paper with numbers written on them, everyone took one paper scrap, and the order of rotation went from whoever has the smallest number to the largest number.

When I joined the circle, I grabbed a scrap of paper with the number 52, and Livia pulled out a scrap with an 8. Out of everyone else's chosen numbers, 8 was the smallest, so Livia picked up a small gift from the pile with shiny, purple wrapping paper tied with string.

Everyone watched Livia unwrap the present, and what she got was a tin of breath mints. Because Livia was surprised that she got the tin of breath mints, she said that she'd let anyone have it, depending on whose number is next.

One of my associates said their number was 12, so Livia gave him the tin of mints. Then, we continued the gift-exchanging game until there were no more gifts in the pile.