Note from the author: Total Words: 29,300. Words to go: 700.
Finally December 25th has arrived. My first Christmas in a long time on Earth and I’m spending it with the people I love. Christmas is the one day out of the year when I am a morning person. I wake up and run to my window. I throw open the curtains to reveal a light snow coat covering the ground. Perfect. I’ve always wanted a white Christmas. I run into Matty’s room and bounce on his bed until he wakes up.
“Good Morning, Charles. Merry Christmas,” he says, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.
“Morning, Sleepyhead. Ready to go downstairs?” I ask eagerly, barely containing my excitement.
“Sure,” he replies. We run hand-in-hand down the stairs and into the family room. Lo and behold, presents under the tree. Stockings bursting with surprises. I feel like a little kid taking in the magic of Christmas. I start towards the tee when I see Amy curled up on the couch.
“Merry Christmas Matty! Merry Christmas Charlie! I don’t suppose you were about to open presents, were you? Breakfast first,” she orders.
“Of course I wasn’t about to open presents,” I agree, obviously lying.
“Good. Let’s go to the kitchen then,” Amy says standing up and stretching. I take one last look at the overflowing presents before turning to leave. We follow our noses to the kitchen where hot chocolate and cinnamon roll French toast awaits.
“Merry Christmas, Gus!” I say, running up and giving him a giant hug.
“Merry Christmas, sweetie,” he responds, patting my head. “Let’s eat, Charlie.”
We all sit at the table together and eat. It’s torturous knowing that the presents are waiting for us, but the yummy-ness of the food eases the burden. Soon enough we finish eating. We all pitch in with the dishes to make the work go faster.
By the time we return to the family room, I’m bouncing in place. I can’t wait one more minute.
“Who wants to start?” Amy asks once we’re all seated.
“Ooh me!” I say standing up. I grab three presents from under the tree and give one to each person. “I hope you guys like them!”
Matt opens his first. It’s some collectors baseball. Doesn’t mean much to me, but his face lights up when he opens it. “Do you like it? Took me ages to find it,” I say.
“Oh, Charlie! I love it. Thank you so much,” he says coming over to give me a hug.
Gus opens his second. “A golden spatula!” He examines it in wonder. “It’s just what I wanted. How did you know?” he asks.
“A little bird told me,” I answer, winking at Amy.
Amy opens hers next. It’s a bracelet that I had made at Pike’s Place a few weeks ago. One of the charms has half of a heart and another charm has “Aunt Amy” engraved on it. I got myself a matching bracelet that has the other part of the heart. Amy teared up a little when she opened it.
“Okay, me next, me next,” Amy says. She hands each of us another present. Matt got a book on Baseball, Gus got a cookbook, and I got a book called “100 Places to Visit Before You Die”.
Gus gave out his presents next. I received a five-pound chocolate bar with a note attached: “ A chocolate for my Chocolate.”
We continued on like this until we had to break for lunch time. By then I’d acquired a couple movies, a few books, a hilarious bumper sticker for my car, a gorgeous Pike’s Place necklace from Matty, and the cutest dog bed for Buttons.
