Hockey boy

Family and Alex

*Katie P.O.V.*

   "Hi", everyone said as we walked through the door. Everyone was sitting in the living room waiting for us, so while they were all together I went around the room and introduced everyone. Starting with grandpa, then mom, then aunts, uncles and cousins, it's a good thing I don't have a large family. We prayed, then went into the dinning room/ area to get food. It is a good thing he has an open concept living area so the grandkids, and the parents can sit at different tables but still be all together. I'm the second oldest of the grandkids, the oldest in Michael he is 2 years older than me. When we sat down in the only two seats that were left of course in the middle of the table. Everyone started asking questions as soon as we sat down like, "where'd you meet", "how long have you dated", after he answered that then the question was "why hasn't he been here before". I love my family but they need to learn how to keep their mouths shut.

    When it was time to open presents I was kind of upset I didn't bring anything for him to open. He was happy though, he got along really well with Michael. Michael used to play hockey and he is a huge blues fan too, he was probably in heaven. We went from youngest to oldest with grandchildren, so of corse I was 2nd to last but I have gotten use to it. There were 3 presents on my stack I know 2 were from grandpa because everyone had the same wrapping paper. I went ahead and opened grandpa's first, I got a pair of adidas sweatpants, and a sweatshirt that is covered in stuff from the loop, my favorite place. The third one was a big box, it said "to the Johnson family, from ???". I didn't see anyone when we first walked in but I didn't see Alex carry it either. I opened it, it wad tapped very well, I pulled out the tissue paper slowly not sure what to expect. There was a note at the very bottom of the box and that was all that was in it. I opened the envelope and read it out loud,

   Dear Johnson family,

     I want to thank you for inviting me and treating me like I am an actual part of your family. I am very thankful for the way you taught Katie to be the wonderful lady she is today. She means so much to me and there is nothing that I can do to show you that I am truly thankful. But I am hoping that this can help, inside, are 20 tickets for a penthouse suite, to the last game of the season. I know it can't cover all of you but it is the most I could get, and to me it is just something small to say thank you, I hope you all can become my st. Louis family since my family is on the west coast.                                                                     Thank you,

                                                                        Alex

   The room was silent that has never happened before, grandpa broke the silence he said, "well, Alex that is very kind of you", Alex smiled, then grandpa looked at me and said "you better keep him, if he is nice enough to spend his money to get us a suite for a game, I guess he's good enough to have you". I looked over at Alex, he was doing his goofy smile at the ground, I hugged him and said "thank you". Now it was Michael's turn to open his presents, but before he opened it he said "it better be better than that present or I'm throwing a fit". We all laughed including Alex and the night went on like normal.

  I sat next to him during rob your neighbor. I explained the rules, role doubles grab a present, then once all the presents are gone you can steal from anyone in the room. I couldn't get doubles for the life of me, but Alex kept getting doubles. At one point I looked over and he had five presents, including the one he brought. So when ever anyone got doubles they targeted Alex. My family said things like "stop cheating", and he should be out of the game". My uncle Steve ended up with Alex's present, I still don't know what it is. We opened the presents one by one, I got a tumbler cup, and Alex got a box of mac and cheese and a McDonalds gift card. Uncle Steve wad the last one to open his present and everyone wanted to know what he had. He opened it very slowly and once the box was opened he refused to show us what he had. He slowly picked it up and pulled it out of the box and acted like a little girl and said "omg it's a signed Alex Johnson tee". We all laughed and

Michael said "why couldn't I have gotten that present". Alex smiled like an idiot and put his arm around my shoulder.

  We hung out and talked with my family until 8:30. We drove back to our apartments with a huge container of moscocholi, and a bag of cookies. When we walked into his apartment, I realized he had a small Christmas tree set up in the corner. It was 9:30, and he looked at me and said "well, you should go to sleep early so Santa will come". I smiled and said "will do", he gave me a kiss, and said "do you want to meet over here tomorrow morning". "Sure", I said "at 9". He smiled and said "goodnight beautiful". I gave him another kiss and said "no need to walk me home?". He laughed and said " I can", so he walked me to my apartment, and made sure I didn't need anything before he left, probably to go to sleep. I laid out bacon for breakfast, then went to wrap his presents. "I can't believe this", I thought "tomorrow is my first Christmas with him". The third of January will be our one year anniversary, I'm so excited I really like this guy.