Christmas in the Country (A Pocahontas FanFiction)

Merry Christmas!

John woke up to sunlight spilling into his eyes.  He blinked his eyes a few times and opened them.  Slowly, he sat up and went over to the window.  Instead of the usual snow they went to sleep with, it was like a magical winter wonderland came while they were sleeping.  It reminded John of a story Uncle Ben told them once, how there were fairies that got things ready for each season.  It looked like the winter fairies had given the snow the last finishing touches.  He looked down at the snow below the window, clearly they'd gone sledding, too.  John looked over at Thomas still sleeping, "Thomas," he came over to Thomas' bed and gave him a gentle shake, "Thomas, wake up!"  Thomas blinked his eyes open, "What is it?"  John smiled, "Merry Christmas!" Thomas sat up, "Let's go check the tree."

Quickly, they slipped on their bathrobes and hurried downstairs.  Rather than seeing just the presents they wrapped for everyone, it seemed like there had been a present explosion.  John's eyes widened, "Woah!"  Thomas nodded, "Yea, should we wake everyone up?"

"Nah, let's wait for them to get up."  Thomas thought for a second, then nodded.  When they were little, they would always wake everyone up on Christmas Morning.  Uncle Ben seemed to dread the moment when the boys would come bouncing on everyone's beds shouting, "Wake up, everyone! Santa's been here! Santa's been here!"

The boys sat and wait to see if they would get up themselves.  Finally, they decided to go wake everyone up.  John took Uncle Ben and Thomas took Uncle Lon.  Thomas didn't waste anytime, "Uncle Lon! Wake up, wake up, wake up!"  Uncle Lon groaned and rubbed his eyes, "Ugh, do you boys always have to wake us up this early on Christmas Morning?"  Thomas pointed to the clock, "It's 8:30 now."  Uncle Lon sat up and stretched, "Alright, I'll be right there."

Once everyone was up, it was time to open presents.  Everyone had gotten the majority of what they wanted.  Thomas got the best, the thing he'd always wanted was his own archery bow and pair of skates for when he and John went with Pocahontas and Nakoma.  Uncle Ben was kind enough to remember and got him the best archery bow he could find at the local Cabella's.  Uncle Lon had gotten each of the boy's a pair of skates.  The adults were all suprised that the boys got them everything they'd wanted.  Then again, the boys could do almost about anything.

After everything had been opened,  John sat down with the grownups with a Coke.  Thomas fell asleep in a sea of wrapping paper.  John sighed, "Nice for a Christmas Morning."  Uncle Ben took a sip of coffee, "Yep, we got ready and now we get to enjoy the aftermath."  Everyone laughed.  

A few minutes later found Uncle Ben turning on the radio, Uncle Lon and John starting a game of Scrabble, Mrs. Smith and Grandma working on Christmas Dinner, Mr. Smith checking Fox News on his phone, and Thomas still fast asleep.  Uncle Lon won, so John, as the penalty for loosing, had to go wake Thomas up.  John got up and gave Thomas a gentle shake, "Thomas," Thomas opened one eye, "Come on and wake up." he said gently.  Thomas blinked a few times, but stayed lying down for a few minutes before sitting up.  Uncle Lon challenged Thomas to beat him at Scrabble.  Thomas agreed and ended up winning.

The men played a few more games before dinner.  Mr. Smith turned the TV on and it just happened that Home Alone was playing, so they watched while they played Uno.  They got through half the movie before it was time for dinner.  Everyone ate heartily.  But, the best part came when it was time for dessert.  Then the best desserts known to the family were brought out: their grandma's red velvet cake and their mom's blackberry pie.  Mrs. Smith's blackberry pie was his favorite.  He loved blackberries almost more than any other fruit.  Of course, Grandma's red velvet cake was great, too.  Uncle Ben and Uncle Lon used to joke that Mr. Smith married Mrs. Smith for her cooking.  This always made the boys laugh.  Although, it was believable.  Their mom and grandma were kitchen masters.  John once said they had to get their mom her own show on Food Network.  Of course, Mrs. Smith told him that, while that would be nice, her cooking stayed in the family.

After dinner and clean-up, Thomas suggested they take the horses out for another race.  Everyone agreed and the boys and their uncles went to get them ready.  Grandma and Mr. and Mrs. Smith came out just as the horses had lined up for the race.  It would be three laps around the pasture. Mrs. Smith was allowed to say 'go' that time.  Thomas and Lucky won that time.  Lucky seemed so proud of himself, he whinnied.  Uncle Ben rode up on Jack and gave Thomas a pat on the back, "Good job, kiddo.  You and Lucky are a great team."  Lucky seemed very proud.  Thomas smiled modestly, "Thanks Uncle Ben."  John came up on Victor and Uncle Lon on Snowflake, "I think we earned ourselves another sleigh ride after supper, that is, if we have supper if everyone's hungry then."  The boys cheered and slapped hands.

No one was really in the mood to have supper, everyone had eaten a lot already.  So, they decided to have the sleigh ride, "Thomas, John," Uncle Ben told them, "get the sleigh and hitch Lucky up."  Thomas nodded eagerly, "We're on it!" grabbed John's hand and pulled him along to the stable.  It took both the boys to push out the sleigh and then they went to go get the tack and Lucky.  Thomas brought Lucky out to the sleigh and John took on the task of tacking up.  Sleigh rides were so fun, Thomas could never help laughing the entire time, which made everyone around him laugh, too.

When it got close to dark, Uncle Ben turned them around and they headed back to the stable.  Thomas took Lucky back to the stable and gave him fresh water and eight flakes of alfalfa hay.  Once they'd put everything up, everyone went inside.  Thomas yawned, Mr. Smith put an arm around him, "D'ya have a good time, kiddo?"  Thomas nodded sleepily.  Inside, the boys were sent upstairs for bed.  So, the boys said goodnight to their grandma and parents and went upstairs to get ready for bed.  They took turns using the shower and, while Thomas brushed his teeth afterwards, John gladly combed out Thomas' wet hair.

Once in bed, Thomas never felt cozier.  John gave his tired little brother a kiss before getting into bed.  Uncle Ben and Uncle Lon came to tuck them in and gave them each a goodnight kiss.