10 years later [Tayvin AU]

Part 16

CHRISTMAS MORNING 2015

TAYLOR POV

For the first time I got to play Santa for a child. I had never had the experience before, and Adam thought I was crazy for getting so excited about it, since it just meant only getting 3 hours sleep. Lottie apparently had developed a habit of waking up at 6am on Christmas morning and waking Adam up too, which would usually be fine, except she was always very excited and he had always been up till 3 am making sure the stockings were filled and cooking bits and pieces for breakfast so he wouldn't have to do it all in the morning.

This year it was going to be a little different, considering he had me around to help with the stockings and to cook breakfast with him in the morning, so he didn't have to do so much preparation. This meant we were in bed by 2 am, ready for Lottie's wake up.

7am rolled around and I was woken up by my alarm, which I had obviously not changed from when we were in New York and had to go to school etc, going off.

"Hey Adam? Wake up babe.... Merry Christmas!" I said, giving him a kiss as soon as he opened his eyes. "Lottie hasn't come in yet and it's 7....should we go check on her?"

"It's 7? Seriously?" Adam exclaimed, sitting up in bed. I think he was worried something was wrong since Lottie had always woken him up at 6am.

"Let's go see...."I replied, rubbing his arm gently and climbing out of the large bed in the guest room. I had felt weird about sleeping in my parent's bed so we were in the guest room, while Lottie was in my room (even though I had never actually lived in the house).

We walked up the hallway and pushed open the door to her room. What we found was a little girl sitting on the end of the bed, with her 3 stuffed animals and a few that had been mine lined up on the floor in front of the bed.

"Hi daddy! Hi Tay! I'm playing Santa!" She exclaimed, clambering off the bed and rushing over to us, wrapping an arm around one of each of our legs.

"Really? Were you having fun?" I asked her, as Adam lifted her up into his arms so she was at our eye level.

"Uh huh! Can we go open presents now?" She asked, bouncing up and down in his arms.

"Let's go see what Santa brought you!" Adam replied, carrying her towards the staircase with me following behind.

I watched as Lottie's eyes widen as she took in the full-to-bursting stockings that we had laid down next to the (completely unnecessary and never used) fireplace in the living room.

"Go find your stocking Lottie...."Adam stage whispered as he set her down and she rushed off to figure out which one was hers. He stood back up and wrapped an arm around my shoulder, guiding me over to the sofa then going to get my stocking. We had decided to each make a stocking for the other, and then do Lottie's stocking together.

"Can I start opening it?" Lottie asked, still bouncing around, although she was now sitting on the floor right next to her stocking.

"Go for it Bug!" I told her, smiling as Adam came and sat next to me.

In my stocking I found: a jewellery set (with a necklace, bracelet and earrings), a purple knitted beanie from my favourite homemade accessories store, a mini watercolour set (having recently told Adam how much I used to enjoy painting landscapes as a teenager), a small packet of cat shaped chocolates, and the obligatory orange in the toe of the stocking.

In Adam's stocking I had included: a new bottle of his (and my) favourite cologne, a scratch-off world map for his office, a packet of his favourite flavour of jelly beans, a snack box shaped like a film canister, and the obligatory orange.

Lottie's stocking was stuffed full of goodies. These included: Frozen Top Trumps, a necklace with little lions along it, an autograph book to take to Disney with us, a packet of white chocolate snowmen, a multi-coloured fleece elf hat with tassels, new slippers(since she had recently outgrown her), a couple of Christmas decorations, a sparkly bath bomb, and the obligatory orange.

"Look at me daddy!" Lottie squealed at us, as she put on her new slippers, hat and necklace whilst dancing around the room.

"Careful Lottie..." Adam warned her, just before she slipped and tumbled to the ground. We both jumped up automatically, but sat back down when Lottie stood back up smiling and laughing.

"So do you two want breakfast before opening the big presents or big presents first?" I asked them.

"Breakfast please Taylor....I'm starving!" Lottie exclaimed, making me smile as we all walked into the kitchen to make breakfast.

We were having pancakes with bacon and sausages, special Christmas bread which Adam had made the afternoon before, scrambled eggs, and Christmas cookies. It didn't take long for it to all be ready and we were soon sitting down to eat while listening to Christmas music on the radio and singing along all together every so often.

ADAM POV

I think that this was turning into the best Christmas in many years for me. I was having such a relaxing and fun morning, and we hadn't even opened our main presents yet. I was very excited about seeing the girls faces when they found out what their presents were from me.

Once we finished breakfast and had loaded the dishwasher, we went back to the living room to open more presents. I went first. Lottie had made me a very glittery card and (with Taylor's help I assume) bought me a really nice blue sweater ("It's the colour of Taylor's eyes....see daddy!" Lottie told me, holding the sweater up to Taylor's face, "My favourite colour!" I replied, giving Lottie a kiss and a hug, while winking at Taylor who was blushing like mad). Taylor had got me a voucher for a day long race car driving experience, obviously having grasped my love of all things related to fast cars.

Next Lottie gave Taylor the present she had half made and half bought, which was a macaroni frame with a picture of the two of them and a set of mini soaps in the shapes of different animals.

Taylor gave Lottie a new lunchbox which was dark purple with a clear pocket at the front to put any photo she wanted. At the moment it had a photo of Lottie in her birthday costume.

Finally it got to the time when I was going to give the girls their presents. I had to make sure it was last as I had sort of gotten them the same thing.

"Here you go, my two lovely ladies!" I said, producing two long and thin boxes.

They both opened them, leading to very different responses. Lottie was very confused, while Taylor had tears in her eyes. In each box was a thin collar and a photo of a cat. I had bought each of them a kitten, but for obvious reasons did not have them here with us.

"Why did you give me a photo and a bracelet?" Lottie asked, coking her head to the side and looking completely puzzled.

"Lottie, your daddy has bought you a kitten." Taylor said, smiling whilst wiping away unshed tears from her eyes.

"REALLY? My own cat?" Lottie screamed and jumped on top of me, making both Taylor and I laugh.

"Sure thing baby girl....and your kitten will have a buddy since I got Taylor one too." I told her.

"Like sisters?" Lottie asked.

"Exactly!" I replied, as she wrapped her whole body around me and Taylor at the same time.

"Well the apartment is sure going to be busy now!" Taylor observed, looking up to me with the brightest smile on the planet.

"Just a little bit.... So what are you going to name them?" I asked the girls.

"Mine is going to be Olivia, because my favourite character on TV is that pig called Olivia." Lottie said.

"Ummm....Ok...on the TV character theme....mine will be Meredith Grey, like on Grey's Anatomy....because she's grey." Taylor reasoned, looking closely at the photo of her kitten.

"So Meredith and Olivia....sounds good to me!" I replied, hugging my special girls tightly as we all just lay on the sofa together.