Life Around The World

Christmas Day

After we came in from our annual Christmas Eve walk, I had passed out on the couch as soon as my head hit the pillow. The next morning, I woke to find myself in my sweatpants and Alex's hoodie and I was still on the couch. I must have never made it upstairs to bed after we got home last night. When I looked up to check the time, I saw Sam was sitting at the end of the couch and then I looked over to the other couch where Alex was sitting with my mom and dad. "Morning sweetie." My mom said as I sat up on the edge of the couch. "Morning guys, Merry Christmas." I said followed by a long yawn.

After I grabbed a glass of water, I made my way back to the living room and mom got her camera out. "Okay kids, get in front of the tree, were going to take pictures before gifts." She said as Alex, Sam and I got up and stood in front of the tree, because I was the youngest and the only girl, I stood between my brothers. "Ready, 1...2...3" She said as she took the picture. After we took more pictures and one family photo, we all sat down and dad started handing out the gifts.

After I gave my parents their gifts, I gave Sam and Alex theirs. "This one's for you and this one Sam, is yours." As I handed them both their gifts, the opened them and ran over and buried me in a hug. "Thanks Mads! You're the best little sister ever!" The said in unison as I tried to get them to loosen their grip on me so I could breathe. "Okay guys... Glad you love your gifts but could you not hug me so tightly.... I can't breathe." I said as they loosened their grip and let go giving me a kiss on each cheek. After we finished opening presents, we put our coats on and took Easton for a walk in the woods in our backyard. Our property expands for a good ength so we own quite a bit of forest with a pond in the back.

After a while of walking, we stopped at the pond and dropped our hockey sticks and gloves down on the bench. Then, we each put our skates on and laced them up, grabbed our gloves and stick then went out onto the pond surface that we shoveled off last night before our Christmas Eve skate. "Bro turn up them tunes!" Sam yelled as Alex turned the speakers and music started filling the air as we skated around passing the puck until dad came out to join us. "How about a little 2 on 2?" He asked as the boys and I looked at each other and smiled.

"Alright dad, you've got yourself a challenge!" I said. "Alex and I vs you and Sam." I added as Sam skated over to join dad. Once we had the face off, Alex passed the puck back to me and I skated towards the net as Sam got in my way "Don't think I'll make it easy for you to get passed me Mad Dog!" He said as he got his stick in position to take the puck from me. As the blade was about to touch the puck I came up with a small plan to get by him. "Oh yeah Sammy boy, watch me!" I said as I shot the puck through his legs and back onto the blade of my stick stopping right in front of the net and scoring. "Okay, you got lucky there kid." He replied skating over and taking the puck out of the net. After spending hours out on the pond, the game was over and Alex and I had won. Once we took off our skates, we made our way back into the house and made some hot cocoa and helped mom prepare Christmas dinner for our guests that would soon be over.

Once we finished getting most of the food ready, the doorbell rang and Easton ran to the door barking. "Easton come" Mom said as I went to answer the door. When I opened it, I saw my grandparents standing there with their hands full of stuff. "Grandma, grandpa, merry Christmas, how are you?" I asked helping them with their stuff and taking it down to the basement where we had our second Christmas tree with presents underneath. Once we came back upstairs, Hunter and his family were walking through the door followed by my parent's siblings. "Merry Christmas beautiful." Hunter said as I wrapped my arms around him and he placed a kiss on my forehead. "Merry Christmas Hastings."