Leave a Trace: Book Three

Chapter Nine: Early Christmas Present

Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays everyone! I hope you all had excellent days!

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Chapter Nine: Early Christmas Present

"Belle!" Mom yells from the kitchen. "I need help!"

Christmas Eve is my day with my Mom. I'm her only daughter and the only one that's she calls to help, which means I'm running around trying to take care of the kids and help my Mom.

I walk into the kitchen.

What else could she possibly need? Dinner is done and so is dessert. The cookies have been passed out and all of the kids are running around like chickens with their heads cut off. I love Christmas and crazily, I love it even more now that I have kids of my own.

I see Mom coming out of the garage with a garbage bag.

"What's wrong?" I ask.

"I'm starting a new tradition." She says. I raise my eyebrows. "I'm going to get all the grandkids new pajamas to sleep in on Christmas Eve." She smiles. "See?" She opens the trash bag to show me a ton of presents.

"Only the grandkids?" I ask worriedly. "What about Alice? And Ryan?"

Ryan is Colton and Emma's son.

"Well I got them too. Alice isn't my grandchild but she can be my niece or something. And Ryan might as well buy grandkid. He sees me more than his real grandparents and he spends every holiday with us."

That's true. Emma doesn't talk to her Dad, her Mom is dead, and Colton's parents live in Spokane."

"So they get them now?" I ask.

I love watching the kids open gifts.

"Yeah." She says. "What size are the girls? I got nine to twelve months, but they were morn early and they're small."

"They're just nine to twelve." I say.

They're eight months now but they were premature so they're small.

"Okay. Let's go."

I walk into the living room and Mom follows me.

"What's that Nana?" Liam asks. All of the kids except for Reagan and Lauren's one year old walk up to my Mom, surrounding her with wide hopeful eyes.

"You guys go sit down on the floor." I point to the tree and they all run to the tree and sit down, looking at my Mom.

"Did Santa come?" Ben asks.

"Not yet, this is from me and Papa. It's a new tradition."

She opens the trash bag and hands it to me. I read the tag.

"Amanda." I hand it to Lauren. "Callie." I hand it to Callie who is Tanner and Evelyn's two year old. "Ryan." I hand it to Colton and Emma's two year old. "Valentina." I turn to Zane who's holding both of the girls. He put it next to him.

"Here's Viv's." Mom hands me Vivienne's and I hand it to Zane.

"Where's mine?" Brandon whines.

"Be patient." I say, taking the next one from Mom. "Rylee." I hand it to Rylee who is Finn and Vanessa's oldest being five. "Rowan." I hand it to Finn and Vanessa's youngest who is four, and she starts ripping at the paper.

"Rowan, wait until everyone has theirs." Vanessa chuckles.

"Brandon." I hand it to my son. "Nicholas." I hand it to my other son. Noah. Benjamin. Logan, and then Liam. "Last but not least, Cameron." I hand the last give to my only nephew, Cameron, who is Tanner and Eve's son.