Chapter 1

In all of the bustling city of New York, a colder winter had never been recorded. Here the snow not only peppered the ground, it sunk it into the depths of a white ocean. Shop owners spent gross amounts of time shoveling the snow off their store entrances just to allow the doors to open. Children were banned from walking to school for fear of getting berried by the snow plow, who's drivers could not possibly see their tiny heads over the 8 feet high snow banks. Some of the roads had to be reconfigured to one way streets once snow started piling up so much so that 2 cars could not possibly fit side by side.

And the snow just kept coming.

If it were not the bustling city of New York, it would have surely been completely buried down weeks ago. But the thousands of city folk kept this place alive with the usual excitement. Christmas was coming, and everyone was running about to finish their last minute errands. Or course, some were working harder than others…

"Michealangelo, step away from the shortbreads. Those are my favorite, and if I remember correctly, they mysteriously ended u in your room last year." Splinter glared at the orange masked turtle, who gave a devilish grin back.

"Hey Donny, you got anymore tape?" Raph called from the balcony over looking the living room.

"Yeah, heads up!" Don, getting a running start, catapulted himself off the couch, sending Master Splinter a good two and a half feet into the air, before chucking the tape to Raph.

"Thanks," Raph returned to his room again. Each of the turtles had either spent the day either wrapping presents, cleaning, or baking, with the help of April and a reluctant Casey. Christmas was only one week away, and there was still plenty to do to get ready for their guests.

Raph quickly finished wrapping the present he was working on. He had never had never possessed the craftsmanship that made the owner of Leos gifts beam with pride, or the finesse and technique that made Dons present so interesting, or even the creativity that made Mikey's presents so…. Unexpected. This had made gift giving from a turtle on a $0 a week income very difficult. Somehow, though, he had managed to dig something up for everyone, even Mike, for whom he managed to get a new coloring book and crayons Hey, if the 18 year old turtle still liked to color, it wasn't his problem.

For Don, he had managed to persuade Usagi to bring over some unknown plants from his home that Raph knew Don would get a kick out of studying.

For Master Splinter Raph had managed to work out a deal with April to let him work in the shop in exchange for a pair of black slippers April had bought and never worn. He was glad they didn't look like women's slippers, and that April had big feet.

For Casey, Raph had pulled together enough material to make him a punching dummy just like his.

And best of all, for Leo, he had found a quite interesting gift. When visiting his old friends at the junk yard, Raph had happened to spot a rather bizarre piece of wood in their burning materiel for the fire. Upon closer examination, he realized it was not a single piece of wood at all. It was a violin, to be exact. And by the looks of it, it hadn't been that well taken care of. Two of the strings were missing, and it was scratched everywhere, but with Donny's help he managed to get the strings back on there and tune it up. It still wasn't glorious, but it was functional. With a little more help from Don, they were able to down load and print a few beginner pieces of music, which they both supposed was alright to do illegally seeing as how they had no other option. The people at the junk yard had helped him find the place where it came from and together they dug up the old case and desperately mangled bow. Raph knew that Leo couldn't play the violin, and he doubted that instruments had ever passed his mind before but it was just too good an opportunity to pass up. Wood instruments are, after all, quite pricey.

Raph was just putting the finishing touches on his gifts when there was a knock at the door.

"Hey, you got any tape?" asked Leo, waiting patiently outside the closed door.

Raph shoved the wrapped presents into a trunk underneath his hammock and stood. "Jeez, don't we own more that one roll of tape?"