A/N: Hey guys! Here is a little something different. All the angst in my other story and the state of Japril on the show is getting my fluff muse going, so I figured another holiday visit to the Avery family in the future was in order. Inspired by a tumblr prompt asking to see Jackson, April, their family and a kind of adorably chaotic Christmas. Aiming to post chapter a day until Christmas. Happy holidays!

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me:

A partridge in a pear tree.

Jackson sighed as he and Alex Karev haphazardly wandered around the booths of Pike's Place Market. Simon held his hand and bounded along side the two men, walking awkwardly as he tried to only step on the green tiles on the floor beneath them, having decided to pretend that all the other tiles were lava.

His older kids were still in school, but Simon's kindergarten only went for a half day. Since Jackson had the shift off from the hospital, he saw no reason why the little boy couldn't have a day off from after school daycare. He'd decided to take the opportunity to do a little Christmas browsing, and Karev was joining them on his lunch break.

"Why are chicks so hard to shop for?" Alex grumbled, picking up a wood carved space needle, eyeing the object suspiciously.

"I don't know," Jackson shrugged, picking up a homemade scented candle. It was the same conversation every year each time the two men tried to shop together. He was pretty sure that Karev really just liked to complain.

"At least you don't shop only for chicks..." Alex moaned, rolling his eyes toward Simon as the boy carefully hopped on the floor tiles.

"Oh yeah, because it is so much easier choosing presents for 5 people instead of just 2," Jackson quipped. He had April and his four kids to shop for, whereas Alex had only Lisa and Megan. It wasn't rocket science.

"I mean," the pediatric surgeon continued, ignoring Jackson's comment and wrinkling his nose at a particularly fuzzy set of slippers in the next booth. "What on earth does a 13 year old girl want anyway? It was so much easier to shop when she was little."

"You could just try asking her what she wants." Logic.

"Oh yeah, Megan's gonna take that as a carte blanche," Alex snorted, moving to a stand filled with postcards and beginning to flip through the selection. "I can hear it now. She'll ask for the latest boy band crap, glitter, or a freaking pony."

Jackson rolled his eyes and shook his head, "She doesn't want a pony."

He knew Megan Karev. Alex knew his daughter, or at least he should.

Megan Karev was not a pony sort of girl.

"Chicks want ponies," Alex frowned, fidgeting with other nick knacks at the booth.

Jackson could understand Alex's fear. He just wanted to make sure he got his family stuff that would make them happy. In all the years, they'd known each other, that was all Alex wanted. He just was nervous that he couldn't do it. And that totally made sense. The whole ' having daughters thing' was still a little terrifying. As a father, disappointing them was just not an option.

He tried to reassure his friend, "No one wants a pony."

"I want a pony!" Simon piped up, suddenly paying attention to the conversation and looking up at the two adults.

Alex cleared his throat, and Jackson shook his head. They both replied, "No. You don't."

"Why?"

"Dudes want horses," Alex explained. "Chicks want ponies."

Simon scowled, "Why?"

"That's just how it is..." Jackson shrugged. Not the best answer, but now was really not the time to get into things. Besides, Alex was probably wrong. Who's to say a man couldn't want a pony? At least...in theory anyway. Still, he didn't really want his son to want one.

"Can I have a horse?"

"Uh...well, we don't really have enough space for a horse..." Jackson fumbled.

"Trust me kiddo," Alex explained. "You don't want a horse. They crap too much."

Jackson didn't have time to reprimand his friend for swearing in front of his child before Simon demanded curiously, "More than puppies?"

"Yep," Alex nodded.

"More than kitties?"

"Oh yeah."

Simon wrinkled his nose, "That's yucky."

The man nodded and smirked at Jackson, "In a word."

Satisfied, Simon returned to hopping from green tile to green tile.

Alex moved on to another display, chuckling, "Dude, he's so-"

"If you call my son weird, I will knock you out!" Jackson snapped.

Yeah, so what if Simon could be a little chatter box? And yeah, he could be a little prone to tears. And he wasn't the strongest or fasted kid is his class. He just marched to the beat of his own drum was all. And he was only five.

Laughing harder, Karev held his hands up in surrender, "Avery, don't be so freaking sensitive. I was gonna say he was easy. At his age Megan woulda latched on to that and whined for weeks, just to spite us. Just because we said no. He's reasonable."

"Oh..." Jackson replied sheepishly. "Well, that just proves she is your kid then."

"Very funny..."

Alex picked up an overly bedazzled box and opened the lid, glancing back to Simon skeptically and inquiring, "If we do find stuff to buy, are we sure he isn't blab it around every where? 'Hey look, Ma, Dad got you a freaking paper weight.'"

"Nah," Jackson shook his head. "He's not a blabber...he talks a lot but he usually can keep a secret about presents."

Simon was not the tattle tail in his family. Conner? Yes. Riley? Maybe. Hannah? A lot of the time. But Simon was the youngest and it seemed he had picked up on the concept of gifts much earlier than the other kids had. Jackson had taken Simon on Christmas shopping trips since he was an infant. He knew where non-'Santa' presents came from and that they were most fun when everything was a surprise.

"Whatever." Karev still looked skeptical.

They wandered around the booth a little bit more before stepping back into the long main corridor lined with stalls of all sorts. To the left there was a nut stand. On the right the beginning of the fish market. Food to flowers to fountain pens the place seemed to have it all. And at the same time, neither Jackson no Alex were having much luck in picking gifts. They sidled into another partitioned area filled with small carved objects.

"If it makes you feel any better," Jackson said, letting go of Simon's hand and allowing the boy scamper over to a special holiday area filled with carved nativity scenes. "I have no idea what I am going to get April this year."

He'd known his wife for over twenty years. He'd gotten her Christmas gifts for almost as long. And sometimes it was just harder than others. Over the years, Jackson had given diamonds and books, and clothes, and clothing. He never wanted to disappoint. And yet, he never felt that he could ever find a gift that actually told April everything he wanted her to know.

How could they? How could he possibly find something that said, "I'm so happy we found each other, I am happy to have spent another year with you, thank you for being a great mother, and I love you," all wrapped neatly into one object?

There was no way to say everything he wanted to say.

Even gift giving had it's limitations. Especially when every time Jackson asked April what she wanted, her reply was a simple and useless, "Oh, I don't need anything..."

Very helpful. At least kids told you what they wanted.

"No, that doesn't make me feel any better," Alex replied, picking up a finely detailed carving of a salmon, and pulling Jackson's mind back to the store. "Just get her some office supplies or something. Kepner freaking worships the ground you walk on. Always has. You could give her a stapler and she'd think it was the most thoughtful gift of the century."

He held up the wooden fish and gave Jackson a questioning look. He shook his head, and Karev put the object down.

"See," Alex continued. "Unlike your marriage, mine was founded on the basis of Lisa calling me on my crap. If I get her crap, I'll freakin' hear about it."

Jackson shrugged. It wasn't like he and April didn't have issues over the years. Everyone did. Marriage and all that.

He browsed around, looking at some wood carved jewelry. He eyed a pair of earrings, carved as whales and inlaid with small rubies. Not really April's style but maybe...Jackson held the package up and Alex wrinkled his nose shaking his head vehemently.

"No way! She'd know I didn't pick those."

"I'm just trying to help."

Shrugging, Alex glanced at his watch and sighed, "Eh, well presents or not, I gotta get back or Bailey will have my ass. I've still got twelve days, right? I figure something out."

Jackson chuckled. Karev did the same thing every year. He'd start shopping early and bitch and moan about how hard it was and how he didn't know how to get the right things for people, and then right at the end he always managed to give his family just the right gift, in the perfect way. Shaking his head, Jackson watched the other man breeze out of the store, offering Simon a small wave as he walked past the place where the boy was playing.

Checking his phone for time, Jackson sighed. Maybe he'd have to call this trip a bust too. It was around lunch time, and he wanted to make sure Simon ate. He still had twelve days to figure something out. He knew he would.

Approaching his son, Jackson squeezed the little boy's shoulder, "Time to go, bud. We gotta eat."

"You should get Mama this one," Simon said, holding up a box containing a carved nativity, similar to the ones on display that the boy was playing with.

Jackson took the box and examined it skeptically. A pig nativity scene. Not exactly the gift he had in mind for his wife.

"I think this would be more for you than for Mom."

"Mama likes pigs," Simon shrugged, jumping to his feet. "And Nana and Grampi used to have pigs on their farm before they went to heaven. And she used to live there, before she was my Mommy, right?"

"Yeah, but..."

"Pigs are cool. Member when I was little and we went and met the pigs? They were big, and smelly, and soft, and Riley tried to make me ride one, but Grampi wouldn't let her..."

Shaking his head and letting Simon talk, Jackson went to put the box back, but for some reason he paused. He closely scrutinized the picture on the outside of the box.

It wasn't much really.

A pig Mary and Joseph with a little piglet Jesus to round it out. It didn't even really make sense when you thought about it. After all, the whole thing was supposed to have happened in a stable anyway, and pigs did hang out there. Only the story Jackson heard never featured pigs in the starring roles. It was the ultimate level of 'cute'.

Bad cute. Tacky cute. Sweet cute.

Still, Jackson couldn't quite bring himself to pick the box back. Something about the pig nativity spoke to him. Maybe he was crazy, but knowing his wife, it really was the kind of thing she'd go for. Jury was still out on how she'd react to receiving it as a gift from him. It was a far cry from your typical husband wife sort of gift.

Nothing like he'd gotten April in the past. And certainly not diamonds. But, still...

Turning the box over Jackson saw the the little gift was not a bad price. And there wasn't anything that said it had to end up being the actual gift he gave April. He could always buy this and find something else later.

Yeah.

Taking Simon's hand and walking over to the cash register to pay for the set, Jackson nodded to himself. Yes, the nativity was just a back up gift. Just a start.

While the cashier rang them up, Jackson glanced down to his little boy, who stared back with a smug dimpled grin, "I told you Daddy! Piggies are funny."

Laughing Jackson shook his head. He'd have to see how all this went.

"Thanks, little man," he said. "You did a good job helping me today."

Sure enough, the smile grew, and Simon started to bounce on his feet. With Simon, a small compliment went a long way.

Taking his change and his purchase from the cashier with a quick thanks, Jackson led his son out of the store and into the bustling main market.

"Let's go eat," he continued. "What do you want?"

The little boy had gone back to concentrating on walking on only green tiles, and didn't seem to hear the question.

"Simon? Earth to Simon?" Jackson said, catching the child off guard and lifting him to his hip."What do you want to eat, big guy?"

"Su-shi!"

"Sushi? Really?"

"Yes," Simon said firmly. "Please? I like sushi. It tastes cold, but not cold like ice cream. And you get to eat it with sticks, and the white stuff is good when you put brown sauce on top, but I don't like the green stuff..."

"Okay..." Jackson shook his head.

Hardly the lunch he'd had in mind. But oh well. It was a special day together, just the two of them. Why not splurge? He continued walking, and checked his phone to find the nearest sushi place.

"Daddy," Simon interjected, staring down in mock horror as Jackson walked on the tiled floor. "You have to walk on the green ones!"

Jackson could only laugh, and begin walking with an exaggerated swagger from green tile to green tile, to the sound Simon's delighted giggles. What ideas this kid had.

Green tiles only. Sushi in winter. Pig nativity gifts.

But the sushi that they ate did end up tasting pretty good, and Jackson would walk like anything, even a duck, to make his kid laugh that hard again.

So maybe, just maybe, a pig nativity would turn out to be a good idea after all.