Just Breathe - Adopted by Mandy Gonzalez - COMPLETED

16 - Christmas Morning

"Becky, Becky Becky..."

"What." I moaned sitting up with my little sister jumping on me.

"It's Christmas." She tackled me back onto my bed. I opened my eyes and it was still pitch black.

"What time is it Mari?"

"It's already 5:30."

"What!" I screamed. "Go back to sleep, that's too early. At least sleep until 7:30. Mandy said we are not doing you're stockings until 8 anyway. I know you're excited, I am too, but still, go back to sleep."

"I'm too excited to sleep. I need to see if Santa's been."

"Fine. Come with me." She jumped off me and I lifted her onto my back once I was off the bed. I walked out the room and to our stockings. "Look Santa's been." I then turned around and headed back to my bed.

"Becky I can't get back to sleep, I'm too excited." She complained once I was back in my room and I set her down.

"We can cuddle in my bed together then. I'm going to sleep, but you can stay here with me."

"Yay sleepover. I'll try to be quiet for you. Night Sissy. I love you."

"I love you too Mari."

~~~~~~

"Becky, Maribelle. It's time to get up." I open my eyes to see Mandy looking over us. I smiled and checked my phone, 7:45.

"Merry Christmas Mandy." I sat up, my sister still asleep beside me. I was slightly surprised to see her still there.

"Merry Christmas Becky." She sat down beside me and gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek. "I love you Becky. I hope today is everything you imagine Christmas with a family would be."

"I'm sure it will be. I'll get the monkey up, she came in here at 5:30 too excited to go back to sleep." I turned to her, laid down and wrapped my arms around her. "Merry Christmas Maribelle. You can wake up now."

"Merry Christmas Becky. Merry Christmas Mama." She gave me a hug then sat up and hugged our mom.

"Merry Christmas sweetie. Let's go do your stockings girlies." Maribelle grabbed my hand and dragged me into the living room. We both had our stockings laid out and we opened them together. We both got very similar things. We each got a bar of chocolate, a packet of sweets, a book, I got the new Dear Evan Hansen book and she had a small collection of biff, chip and kipper books. She got some toys and I was given new art supplies. Mandy then made us Christmasy pancakes for breakfast and we ate those before gathering in the living room with Mandy's siblings and their families, Mandy's parents and Doug's parents. My younger cousin was so sweet. She was so similar to Maribelle, and I knew we'd get on well.

"Okay, the first present is for my girls and it's actually on the wall outside you're bedrooms." Doug told us. We looked at each other then stood. We held hands and headed to our rooms.

"Oh my gosh, Doug this is so cool. Thank you." I said looking at the painting of the two of us holding hands and smiling at one another. It was based off a photo of us from the park just after they had adopted me.

"Dad. This is so good. It's so different from you're usual paintings, but looks amazing. Thanks." The two of us hugged and then ran out and gave our father a group hug as well. For Douglas, I'd taken my favourite painting of his and replicated it in both of my styles. The first was a digital version I had then printed and put in frame, the other was using watercolour and a little acrylic on a canvas.

"Sweetie, these are so good. Thank you. I'm going to put one in my studio and one by my desk here. I love them so much." He walked over to me and gave me a tight hug as I was in the midst of opening a gift from Abuela Robin and Abuela Paul.

"I'm glad you like them." I smiled at him. I finished opening the gift from Mandy's parents and found it was the In The Heights Vocal score. "Thank you Robin and Paul. At least I'll be on the right note now." I stopped unwrapping as I saw Mandy open the large envelope I'd got her. She pulled out the images and smiled.

"Guys, I think I just found the perfect album cover design and the artist." She looked at me with tears in her eyes. I smiled at her, my eyes watering too.

"Who?" Robin asked.

"My wonderfully talented daughter, Becky. It's perfect." She put the paintings down and stood up and came over to me. She sat down beside me and wrapped both arms around my waist hugging me. "Thank you Becky. It's exactly what I want. I'm going to submit this and I want you to come with me to the shoot."

"Really?" I said excitedly.

"Yeah, we can grab a few photos together with the design. Anyway here's your main gift from Doug and I."

"Thanks." I opened the envelope to find passes to 6 shows. "Wow this is amazing Mandy. Thank you so much." I had tickets to see Wicked, Dear Evan Hansen, Mamma Mia, Aladdin, Phantom and Waitress.

"These also allow you to go backstage and meet the cast."

"Oh my gosh. That's amazing. Thank you so much Mandy. Thank you Doug." She gave me a kiss on the forehead and headed back to her area. I got the Hamilton vocal score from Doug's parents and some nice makeup from Monica's family. Anthony and his wife gave me a playbill binder knowing that I would be seeing a lot more shows now. Overall we all got lots of amazing presents and we were set for the best Christmas ever.