Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon.

Author's Note: Merry Christmas everyone! =D I hope you enjoy my story, it was intended to be a one-shot, but might be a little bit longer than that.

Christmas On The Ranch

I was woken quite early, when our son, Vinnie, decided to jump on our bed and shout "Mummy! Daddy! Wake up, Christmas!"

"Ummn.." Vaughn muttered.

He was up late last night, taking care of one of our cows, Cream, so I decided to let him sleep in a little. I scooped up Vinnie, our energetic toddler. Vinnie is such a handsome boy, looks just like Vaughn, but he has my eyes.

"Christmas presents!" Vinnie chanted.

"Shh! Let Daddy sleep," I told Vinnie, pressing my finger on his lips for a seconds.

"Shh! Daddy need sleep..." Vinnie said, holding his finger over his mouth.

I couldn't help giggling, because Vinnie was so cute when he did that. He did understand that Vaughn needed his sleep though, because he worked very hard. When Vaughn wasn't helping me with my animals, he was helping Mirabelle transport animals, and taking care of them.

While I cooked breakfast, Vinnie ran around the kitchen, with a piece of string pretending to lasso everything.

"Got you Mummy!" Vinnie said, as he whipped the string at my leg. "I'm like Daddy.. I catch you!"

"You did!" I said, joining in with the game. "Are you going to let me go now?"

"Yep!" Vinnie said, as he pulled the string away from me.

I could tell he was looking forward to opening his presents, but he had to wait until we were all awake, and had eaten breakfast. I remembered not to add some sugar to Vaughn's porridge, because he liked it plain.

"Morning," Vaughn said, as he shuffled into the kitchen.

"Morning," I replied, as Vaughn poured himself a glass of milk.

"Got you Daddy!" Vinnie said, as he whipped Vaughn's leg.

Vinnie ran towards the table, Vaughn played along, like Vinnie was dragging him. Only when Vaughn was sat down at the table, did Vinnie 'release' him from the lasso. Vaughn lifted Vinnie up into his high chair, while I brought breakfast to the table on a tray. That was our morning breakfast, a bowl of porridge and a glass of milk.

When we finished our breakfast, Vinnie said, "Presents!"

"You know the rules," Vaughn told him, as he lifted Vinnie out of the high chair. "When everyone has eaten breakfast. The animals haven't eaten yet."

"That's right! And, if we all work together, we'll be able to open presents sooner!" I said, smiling.

"I feed all animals myself!" Vinnie said. Vaughn and I laughed at that.

"I'll feed the cows and sheep, most of the sheep need sheering anyway," Vaughn said.

"That leaves Vinnie and me to collect the eggs and feed the chickens," I said.

"Horsey, cat, dog and pig too!" Vinnie added.

Just recently, we had to move the pig to my farm, because it kept getting sick. Now it lives in the pet barn.

"If we finish sooner, we'll come and help," I told Vaughn.

Vaughn nodded his head. Because it was so cold, we all had to get dressed, to stop us from freezing to death.

While I put chicken feed in the feeders, Vinnie went around the coop, collecting eggs and putting them in a pail. Vinnie had watched me collect them lots of times, and made sure to be extra careful. He was gentle with the chickens, just like his father. If one of the chickens was sat on an egg, Vinnie would gently nudge them off, or take some feed, and lure the chicken off the egg. He had probably learned that, on the days Vaughn took care of the animals.

"Finished?" I asked.

"Yep! Lots eggs!" Vinnie said, holding up the pail.

I took the pail from him, because even though he'd been able to carry it around the coop, he would probably hurt himself if he carried it around outside. It didn't take long to feed the horse, pig, cat and dog. But, Vinnie had to stroke each one of them, and be lifted up onto the horses back to pretend to ride it.

"Presents! Presents!" Vinnie chanted happily, as he ran towards the house.

Vaughn was already in the house, when Vinnie and I returned. He had already separated the presents into three separate piles. Vinnie began opening them, and disappeared into a pile of wrapping paper and ribbons. I couldn't help laughing, at how cute he looked. Vaughn and I exchanged gifts. I'd gotten him some new work gloves, and he'd gotten me a new pair of boots. Mine were getting extremely scuffed, I'd had them since before I moved to the islands years ago.

"Do you like all your presents?" Vaughn asked Vinnie.

"Yep!" Vinnie said, as he climbed out of the wrapping paper pile with a cow plushie.

I knew that would be his favourite present. We had gotten him a chick, sheep, pig, horse and cow plushie, so he could play farm and wouldn't have to imagine all the animals. After opening presents, we had to go to Mystic Island, to make an offering to the Harvest Goddess, to thank her for a wonderful year and make our own Christmas wishes.

Vinnie loved stamping around in the snow, he even tried to throw a snowball at me or Vaughn, but missed every time. They were more like snow clumps, because he hadn't quite mastered how to make them into balls. Vaughn stopped to show Vinnie how to make a snowball, then threw it at me. I just had to throw one back. Vaughn made another for him, Vinnie stood so close to me, that he could have just slapped the snowball onto my leg, but he laughed and clapped because he'd got me with a snowball. Kirk the boatman wasn't there, when we arrived at the dock, there was a message written on a plank of wood. I wiped the snow away with my hand, and read the message out loud.

"Gone home for the holidays, feel free to use the boat," I said, reading the words.

Vaughn climbed into the boat, followed by Vinnie. "Looks like us men will have to row then," Vaughn said, while picking up the oars.

Vinnie sat on his lap, and place a hand on each oar. "Mummy nav-navgator!" Vinnie said.

I smiled, as I climbed into the boat. I couldn't have wished for a more adorable son, or a more wonderful husband. Vinnie pretended to be Captain Vinnie, the best pirate in the world, and bossed us around.

"Daddy, row boat more!" Vinnie ordered.

"Yes, Captain!" Vaughn said, joining in on the game.

We passed Denny and Lanna out in their fishing boat, with their daughter Annie. She was the very image of her father, but had Lanna's eyes. Annie was a year older than Vinnie.

"Merry Christmas!" Denny, Lanna and Annie called over.

"Merry Christmas!" Vaughn, Vinnie and I replied.

Once we pulled up at the docks on Mystic Island, Vaughn made sure to tie up the boat, so we didn't lose it. That would be a horrible thing to have to explain to Kirk, when he returned, if we lost his boat. I had kept our offering in my rucksack, it was a flower that Vaughn had gotten from the city. I set the flower a float on the spring, there were 4 other flowers afloat on the water surface, maybe other families had made wishes.

"Vinnie, ready to make your Christmas wish?" I asked. Vinnie nodded his head.

"I wish for good health for both our family and our animals," Vaughn said.

"I wish that we can do this all again next year," I said.

"I wish for more presents!" Vinnie said.

Vaughn and I laughed at how cute Vinnie was. Vaughn scooped him up, and carried him back to the boat, me walking beside him. I was lucky to have such a wonderful family, and you never know, we all might just get our wishes.