Baby, It's Cold Outside

The Twelve Days of Christmas

The second it got quiet in the living room, is the second I knew the kids were up to no good. I looked at Derek just as he looked at me, and we both booked it out of the kitchen, dropping the grapes we were getting for us and the kids. When we got to the living room, we found it empty, and then we heard giggles up the stairs. We carefully ran to them, and just as they were about to open the door to peek at Christmas presents, we grabbed them.

"Oh no, you don't, you sneaky butts!" Derek grabbed Daniel and I grabbed Haley, both giggling even more that they got caught. Derek and I laughed when they tried to squirm their way out of our arms.

We took them back downstairs and I put Derek in charge of watching them while I quickly ran to remind gran, grandpa, Grace and Ben to lock their doors because of sneaky ninjas. After we made sure they had, I went back downstairs to find Derek tickling them. So I, of course, had to join in!

After a little while, we all ran out of breath from laughing so hard. I put in a Christmas movie for them and asked Derek to keep an eye on them while I went and cleaned our mess from earlier. After agreeing, I went into the kitchen and started picking up the grapes we had dropped and threw them away before getting new ones for us and putting some fruit dip to the side. After finishing, I went back out to the living room to join them in watching the movie, while Derek and I waited for everyone else to finish wrapping presents so that we could wrap the ones I bought.

Everyone woke up around 10 this morning, so after we had breakfast, Derek and I volunteered to watch the kids while the others went to wrap. It's now 5 in the evening and they're almost done, which means I'll probably be up most of the night wrapping.

Since we were all busy either wrapping presents or watching the kids, we decided to just cook a pizza for dinner so that it's quick and easy.

When it was closer to dinner time, I went to cook the pizza real quick, and thankfully, by the time it was done, they were done wrapping presents.

We all ate with some conversation and jokes, and after we finished, we switched places and Derek and I went to my room to wrap presents. Derek has offered to help me since everyone was pretty much partnered up and I accepted. Completely thankful for the help.

We went into my room and I locked the door after I told him where everything was so he could get part of it out.

We sat on the floor and started cutting paper and wrapping, trying to make perfect bows on top and we talked while busy.

After a while though, it got a little more personal than I thought it would.

"So.. Not to be rude or anything, but where are your parents? I haven't seen or heard anything about them?" He asked, cautiously.

"Uhm.. They actually passed away a few years ago. So, I live with my grandparents." I pursed my lips, nodding.

He guiltily shook his head, "I am so sorry.. I had no idea."

I smiled, "It's alright, Derek. You had no way of knowing. We don't talk about them much, because it hurt us so bad. It was a really rough time."

"Would you mind if I asked what happened?" He asked, glancing up at me for a second.

"I guess I don't mind. Well.. It happened on New Year's a few years back. We had been to a friend of my father's house for an annual party they threw. My parents didn't drink, but because it was New Year's, someone did. So, as we were on our way home, this drunk driver swerved onto our side of the road and my father, he tried to move over, but there wasn't much room to move over. So, the other driver hit us straight on. My father died right then and there, but my mother, she lasted until we got to the hospital. Gran told me that she held on for me.. That as soon as she found out I was okay, that she smiled and passed away. I had a concussion, a broken leg and cuts and bruises but other than that, I was fine. Physically anyways. So yeah.." By the time I finished explaining, I had started to cry without noticing.