Christmas with the Calvins

Chapter Two

The next morning, Scott was asleep in his bedroom when Charlie came racing in.

"Dad! Dad! Wake up Sleepy!" Charlie jumped on the bed and tried shaking his father awake. "Come on get up! Dad! DAD! Come on Dad!" The little boy sighed. "You should see all the neat toys!" Scott gained consciousness to find his son violently shaking him.

"Stop shakin' me Charlie!" He begged.

"Okay!" Charlie agreed before jumping off his dad's chest. "Come on, It's Christmas morning!"

"Great, go make same coffee." his dad mumbled before rolling over.

"Come on Dad!" Charlie insisted.

"Okay, okay." Scott grudgingly climbed out of bed. He was still waking up as Charlie dragged him down the stairs. Scott had the weirdest dream the previous night about a mall Santa falling off his roof and then he himself accidentally became the Santa Claus. There was a grumpy elf named Barnaby and sweet Elf named Judy who made him some hot chocolate. The whole bizarre event was most likely induced by some bad food at the Denny's he'd taken Charlie too.

Scott scratched his stomach and felt an unfamiliar smooth fabric beneath his fingers. Silk? He glanced down at his pajama shirt and was greeted by its bright red appearance. The letters 's' and 'c' were monogrammed on the shirt's pocket. These where the same pajamas one of the elves had given him in his fever dream the night before. Charlie, raced down stairs and started tearing open his gifts. His dad, who was now breathing heavily, flung himself into the closest chair.

"Are you okay dad?" His son asked him, noticing Scott's odd behavior for the first time.

" Yeah." Scott panted. "Just fine."

"Are you having a heart attack?" Charlie jumped to his feet. "I know CPR."

"No...I was just...SC..." his dad mumbled.

"Yeah, Santa Claus." Charlie shrugged. He assumed his dad would remember their adventure to the North Pole last night. "Hey, same initials as your name dad. Scott Calvin." The boy pointed to each letter in turn with sudden recognition.

"What?" Scott didn't understand how Charlie could've known about his dream. His attention was drawn away from the subject when the front doorbell rang. Assuming it was his mother, Charlie ran to answer the door. He was incredibly surprised when he swung the door open and found his sister standing there.

"Jess!"

"Hey Charlie! Oh I missed you so much!" Jess bent down and wrapped her arms around her little brother.

"What are you doing here?" Charlie smiled. "Dad told mom you wouldn't be home for Christmas."

"I wasn't supposed to be. Brian couldn't drive with all the ice last night, but the streets cleared up enough this morning. He just dropped me off."His sister explained.

"Charlie?" Scott called from the living room. "Charlie, who are you talking to? Is your mother here already?" Jess threw her bags on the floor of the entry way and closed the front door behind her.

"Dad it's me," She hollered back to the living room. "I'm home!"

"Jessie?" Scott stepped out into the hall to welcome his daughter home. "I thought you said you couldn't make it back for Christmas."

"The roads thawed out enough for Brian to drive back." She explained again. "I'm sorry I couldn't be here for Christmas Eve."

"Oh don't worry about it." Scott wrapped his arms around his daughter. "We didn't do much, did we Sport?" He looked down at Charlie.