Stelena: Eternal Love (2)

22- Christmas

The day after

Elena's POV

My eyes fluttered open to allow the bright sunlight to fill my view. Although, I wasn't cuddled up with Stefan like I expected, instead he's sat up already.
"Hey," I mumbled with half of my face still buried in the pillow. I sat up to realise he was holding Bethany in his arms, gently rocking her to comfort her; I smiled at the sight. Stefan's gaze met mine and we both smiled intently at each other, knowing that it was the best thing to wake up to on Christmas Day. Although, I started to question where Isabella was, since she slept in my old bed with us last night.
"Where's Isabella?" I asked as I started to get up, along with Stefan.
"She went to see your parents," he stated. We both got up and started to walk towards the door before I stopped Stefan and turned him around to face me.
"Hey," I whispered before bringing our lips in for a passionate kiss.
"Merry Christmas," I whispered with a smile on my face.
"Merry Christmas to you too baby," he replied before kissing me this time. A smile was plastered on our faces as we drew out of the kiss, enjoying the moment we were having.
"Mummy! Daddy! Santa!" Isabella cried as she ran into the room, a smile also on her face.
"Did Santa come for you?" Stefan asked as she enthusiastically pointed towards the staircase.
"Did you wake nanny and granddad up, Isabella?" I asked as she gave me a cheeky smile that answered my question.
"She most certainly did!" My mum said as she grabbed Isabella from behind and lifted her up. Isabella giggled as my mum tickled her and soon after my dad came into our sight.
"Right, should we go downstairs?" My dad asked us all but aimed the question mainly at Isabella, who's nodding her head. I laughed at our excited daughter and followed them downstairs with Stefan, who was also smiling at our daughter's excitement.
We sat on the sofas as Isabella sat on the floor admiring the presents we bought her. I was feeding Bethany with her blanket over my shoulder whilst Stefan filmed Isabella opening her presents. We bought ones for Bethany but since she couldn't open them we decided to wrap them and let Isabella open them and show her. Watching Isabella unwrap each of her presents actually made me a little emotional. This was the first Christmas where she's been engaged in all the presents and what was happening and it just made me realise how big our baby girl was getting. My mum made eye contact with me and saw the tears on my cheeks so she was quick in moving round so that she could give me a hug.
"Christmas is always an emotional time for a mum," my mum said in a hushed tone.
"What's wrong, honey?" Stefan asked as he brushed his hand up and down my back. I smiled at his touch.
"Nothing's wrong, everything's perfect." He smiled and kissed my temple as we all went back to watching Isabella.
We all smiled as we heard the crumpling of paper, the gasps of Isabella, the laughing and the beautiful 'thank you's' she produced with every present. We bought a few different things which include: dolls, a dollhouse, princess and unicorn toys and teddies. Bethany received similar toys except we bought toys for her age range and some for a couple months time. We bought mum a beauty and jewellery set, she loved them both. And for dad we bought him a few vouchers for some new cooking utensils that he's been wanting. My parents have bought each other something but were going to give it to each other later tonight like Stefan and I were planning on doing.
After all the presents had been opened, my mum and I decided that it was time to start on the food.
"Elena, do you want to start on the food?" My mum asked as she started to make her way into the kitchen.
"Yeah, sure," I got up from our comforting embrace on the sofa and walked towards her.
"Me help?" Her voice was so innocent and sweet.
"How about you decorate some Christmas cookies with your daddy?" My mum responded to her question before I could. She enthusiastically smiled and nodded before taking Stefan's hand and bringing him along with us. My mum and I started on the turkey and vegetables, preparing them before placing them in the oven. Isabella sat on Stefan's lap as he guided her hand and helped her draw faces and patterns in the cookies, he's always been such a perfectionist.
"How's everything going honey?" I walked over to them both, kissed the top of Isabella's head before resting my hand on the back of Stefan's neck, my fingers playing with the back of his hair. He loved it when I touched his neck and I honestly loved doing it, sometimes I did it without even realising. Isabella raised one of the cookies she decorated and showed me.
"Oh wow Isabella! Did you make that?" Stefan's arm wrapped around my lower waist as the other firmly held Isabella on his lap. She nodded her head before placing the cookie back down.
"You like them?" She asked, looking between Stefan and I. We both smiled.
"I think they're beautiful, just like you." I said as I lightly tapped her nose, smiling as I heard her giggle. She got up from Stefan's lap, crawled onto another chair and reached over to get another colour of icing. I loved how smart she was, she knew she couldn't reach it where she was so she used another chair to get it.
"Are you helping daddy decorate these? He's not very good at these sorts of things," I jokes to Isabella and watched a playful look appear on Stefan's face.
"Hey!" He said holding me closer as he started to tickle me. I attempted to put up a fight by not laughing but I was quick to fail. He knew how ticklish I was so I quickly surrendered.
"Okay, I'm sorry! You're the best decorator of cookies in the entire world!" My surrender was very sarcastic and overly exaggerated but I couldn't keep a straight face. He gave me a quick kiss that we were both still laughing through, meaning that it was a very messy but perfect kiss.
"That's better," he joked. Moments like these with Stefan just made me love him so much more.
"Mummy's so rude to me Isabella," he pouted jokingly.
"Don't be a baby," I shot back and watched as he produced a sarcastically shocked face. I laughed and lightly kissed his cheek.
"Mumma love you," she stated, causing me to smile like crazy at her words.
"Mummy does love daddy, and mummy loves you and mummy loves Bethany," I said, retaining my grip around Stefan. His grip tightened in response, holding me securely close to him.
We simply watched Isabella decorate her cookies before the timer went off and my mum came hurrying back in. I got up to resume cooking and thankfully there wasn't much left to do, the dessert and main was done, we just had the starter left.
We managed to make and cook it within an hour and the whole time Isabella was sat on the chair talking to us. Stefan was in and out since Bethany started crying on multiple occasions and I had to help at one point since she wanted me to feed her.
Sitting down and eating a Christmas dinner with the family was just incredible. Isabella sat on Stefan's lap as they ate and I held Bethany as I had my dinner. The meal was full of laughter, jokes and lots of smiles. It made me more and more thankful that I had the best family in the world.