"How many Christmas lights does one person need?" Maggie Pierce dropped the second box labeled 'Christmas lights' on to the couch next to her sister and was met with an unamused glare.

"Hey, it's the one time of year when I actually care about what the exterior of this house looks like," Meredith replied defensively. "And technically this house is home to five people at any given time."

"Hopefully the lights make it look better than the inside."

Surrounding them was a living room littered with toys and blankets and clothes from the chaos that was characteristic of the children's daily activities. Zola's homework was left on the coffee table, just barely completed before being hurried up the stairs for a shower before going to bed, Bailey's shoes laid haphazardly on the couch, one working its way in between the cushions, and Ellis's favorite book laid open, face-down with a misshapen page corner peeking out from the bottom edge.

"Merry Christmas, bitches." Amelia entered the living room holding two full glasses of white wine and a mug of peppermint hot chocolate.

"I'll drink to that," Maggie muttered and received the glasses from Amelia, passing one off to Meredith before falling into the comfort of the couch and taking a swig.

"Remind me again why we're doing this?" Amelia stirred the candy cane that stood in her ceramic mug.

Meredith sighed, inspecting the stem of her wine glass. "Because I wanted to."

"Five more minutes?"

"No, we'll never get it done." Maggie's lips formed around the rim again. "Come on, let's go."

With a great deal of effort, she managed to drag Meredith and Amelia to their feet and gave them directions as to what their objectives were. Meredith was assigned to household decorations, Amelia initially assigned to tidying the house (to which she snickered and sat back down), then, more fittingly, to hanging the garlands and stringing lights, and Maggie appointed herself as the official tree decorator.

It had been quite a while filled with soft Christmas music and wine glasses being refilled before Meredith found herself elbow-deep in a plastic storage container, feeling her way around for decorations that were buried beneath numerous layers of ornaments.

"What are you looking for?"

"I'm trying to find the stockings."

"Amelia found him in her box about an hour ago."

"Are you kidding me?" Meredith retracted her arm, the ornaments shifting into disarray beneath her. "I've been looking for fifteen minutes!"

"I did what now?" Amelia entered with another candy cane in hand, the end of which was sharpened into a point.

Meredith let out an exasperated groan and grabbed the stockings from the end table, hanging them up on their metal hooks on the mantle.

"The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there," Maggie recited. "It was my favorite Christmas story as a kid."

"More like in hopes that a hot piece of ass would be there." Amelia took a hard drag from her candy cane shank and noticed their unamused demeanors. "What? You thought it, I said it."

"Shut up, Santa is real." She responded, indignantly. "Anyways I need help, I can't reach the top of the tree to put the star on."

"So just get a ladder."

"If you wake my kids up you are taking them home with you."

"Actually," Maggie pondered, "hear me out. When I was a little girl I was in cheerleading, and we'd have these huge, intricate stunts, and I was the one they'd always put into the air. I bet we could do that to-"

"Yeah let's get the three pairs of million-dollar hands in a position where they can be injured, why don't we?" Meredith snorted.

"You guys are more than welcome do what you want with yours," Amelia held the back of her hands up in the air. "But these assets have a booty call with Owen Hunt in half an hour and a surgery in the morning. Merry Christmas to me."

"I was a great flyer! Some might even call me the best, actually."

"Screw it, I don't want a star this year." Meredith threw the tree topper into the storage bin and grabbed hers and Maggie's glasses from the coffee table. "Maggie, goodnight, Amelia, go get yours, if anyone needs me I'll be sleeping, so don't need me." She turned and cast a smile over her shoulder before walking into the hallway, leaving Maggie and Amelia to bask in the warmth of the tree lights.