A/N: I started this on the 22ad with the intention of posting it on Christmas, but I got really busy and sidetracked so it's a little late.

It was Christmas Eve and Booth was tucking the blankets around, his four year old daughter, Christine.

"I miss Mommy. She's been gone a long time." Booth sat on the bed and took Christine's hands in his.

"I know you miss her I do too. Two months is a long time to be gone, but they needed the best anthropologist in the world to figure out how old the bones are-"

"Mommy's the best antromoligest in the world?"

Booth smiled, "Anthropologist. Yep Mommy's the best, nobody in the world is better at looking at bones and figuring out what happened to someone than Mommy. Tomorrow when you wake up we'll open our presents from Santa and have pancakes then we'll talk to Parker on the computer for a little while. Then tomorrow night we'll go have dinner at Angela's. Then we'll come home and go to sleep because we have to get up really early to go get Mommy from the airport. Then later after Mommy rests for a little while you can open your presents from me and Mommy, okay?"

"K."

"Good now go to sleep so Santa can come and leave your gifts."

"K." Booth stood up and leaned over the bed, kissing Christine's cheek. "Goodnight, I love you."

"Goodnight Daddy, I love you." Booth smiled and headed for the door. He was almost in the hall when Christine called to him. "Daddy?"

Booth turned around in the doorway. "Yeah?"

"Can you put out some celery sticks with the carrots for the reindeer in case they don't like carrots? I forgot before."

Booth chuckled, "sure pumpkin."

"K." Christine's voice got softer as sleep overtook her. Booth headed to the kitchen and grabbed a handful of the precut celery sticks that they kept for Christine's snacks, and went to the living room and put them on the plate with three cookies and a half dozen carrots by the tree. He didn't know why he was doing it; he hated celery sticks. They along with the carrots would go back in the refrigerator as soon as he set out her Santa stuff. Booth watched A Christmas Story and logged onto Skype to see if Brennan was online, she wasn't. Once the movie was over Booth tiptoed to Christine's room to see if she was asleep, she was he went back to his man cave and started pulling things out of various hiding places and piling them under the tree. An hour later Booth was trying to make room for the 'grown up' bike and the doll house that Santa had been discreetly putting together in the garage after Christine was in bed for the last week when he head keys in the front door lock. There were only two people besides himself and Brennan that had a key to the house, Max was at Russ and Amy's and Angela was playing Santa with Hodgins for Michael Vincent. That meant Brennan was home early, not wanting to startle her Booth resisted the urge to meet her at the door and stayed planted where he was. Through the branches of the tree Booth could see how tired Brennan was, but he could tell she was happy to be home. "Bones!" Brennan looked around and smiled, spotting him on the other side of their tree. "Hi Booth." Booth set the boxes in his hand aside and went to Brennan. "You're home early!"

"Yeah, I got everything done early and came home."

"You could have called so I could have picked you up at the airport!"

"I wasn't sure I was going to be able to get a flight until the last minute. Plus I knew if you woke Christine up we'd never get her back to sleep."

"True. How'd you get everything done early? Last time we talked you said you'd be lucky to finish on time."

"I started working longer hours-"

"Bones you were already pulling 14 hour days..."

"I know, but I wanted to come home. I missed you and Christine very much. Plus its Christmas, I didn't want to miss it…"

Booth chuckled, "As much as I hate that you worked longer hours to get home faster I'm glad you're home. I missed you."

"I missed you too, Booth."

"You know Bones Christine isn't going to pay much attention to her presents now. All she wanted is for you to come home, she even asked Santa if he could bring you home."

"Aw, I'm not going on any long digs again. I used to love them, I still do, but I love being here with you and Christine more. Two weeks is long enough to be away anything over that is too long. Maybe when Christine is older I'll do a longer one, but not right now."

"Bones, she was fine, she missed you, but there were no tears except that week she was sick. Apparently I'm not the best with earaches fevers and antibiotics."

"She cries with me when she has earache too so don't feel bad. Still I wish I'd been home."

"Me too. Tonight she said she wished you were home. You're not going to be able to get much sleep. I won't be able to keep her from opening presents long and she won't be quiet doing it."

"That's fine I slept on the plane. I can take a nap later. "

"You want to fill her stocking while I bring in her bike and dollhouse? Everything is in the bag by the fireplace."

"Sure." Booth nodded and headed to the garage only to return a few minutes later carrying a large pink, purple and white dollhouse.

"That's larger than it appeared to be online."

"Yeah tell me about it, it also has thousands of tiny pieces. She'll love it though."

"Yes she will. Booth, why are their celery sticks with the carrots and cookies?"

"Christine asked me to put those out in case some of the reindeer don't like carrots."

Brennan chuckled and picked up some celery.

"I got you a tub of that hummus you like at the store yesterday, go eat I'll finish up."

"Thanks Booth." Brennan took the vegetables off the plate and headed to the kitchen. She returned with her own plate containing more celery one of the carrots cut into sticks and generous dollops of hummus and ranch dressing. Brennan waited until Booth was sitting on the couch and handed him the plate. "I added carrot sticks and ranch dressing for you."

"Thanks Bones." Booth dipped a carrot stick. Brennan nodded and went over to her suitcase and pulled out three medium size flat packages wrapped in shiny red and gold paper. "You went shopping on your dig Bones?"

"No, I had a long layover and flight delay in London, so I called Rebecca. She and Parker met me for lunch near the airport. After we were done eating Parker asked if I could bring gifts back for us to open when we video chat later, he hasn't opened what we sent yet. I helped him choose things for you and Christine. Rebecca helped him choose mine, I don't know what it is. "

Booth smiled, "Bones. It's great that you were able to see Parker for a little bit. I wish Becca would let him visit more…"

"I know I spoke to her about letting him spend the whole summer with us instead of just two weeks she said she'd think about it."

"That's something I guess, but I'm not holding my breath."

"That would be a wise choice." They finished their snack in silence and Booth gently pulled Brennan to her feet. "Come on Bones, let's get some sleep before Christine gets up. I'll try and keep her quiet and not opening things until you get up."

"Don't do that Booth I can take a nap later. It wouldn't be fair to Christine to make her wait to open her gifts just so I can sleep."

"Okay." It was barely 5 A.M. when Booth got out of bed in hopes of intercepting Christine before she jumped on their bed and jolted Brennan awake. Thirty minutes later Christine's bedroom door opened. "Daddy! Did Santa come?"

"Yeah, but before you go see that he left you I have something to show you." Booth picked her up and headed to his and Brennan's room. He silently apologized to Brennan for the fact she was going to get woke up at 5:26 on Christmas morning and opened the door. Christine's eyes quickly fell on the lump that was in the bed. "MOMMY!" Booth held on to Christine tighter as she strained to get to the bed and Brennan. Brennan stirred and pushed herself up a little as Booth let Christine fall onto the mattress. "Mommy I missed you so much! You were gone a long time! Daddy said it was because you're the best antromoligest in the world! Are you?"

Brennan smiled and kissed Christine's cheek. "I missed you and Daddy very much too. I know I was gone for a long time, I didn't like being away from you and Daddy so long. I'm not going to be gone for a long time like that again. I will go away for short trips, a week or two, but not two months."

"Not now right?" Christine started to pout, Brennan rubbed her back.

"No, I'm not going to be going on another trip anytime soon."

"Good. Are you the best antromoligest in the world?

Brennan chuckled and kissed the top of Christine's head, "Yes, I'm one of the best Anthropologists in the word, there is one other who is as good as I am if not better…."

"K." Christine yawned and snuggled into Brennan, "go back to sleep honey, you can sleep in here with me and Daddy tonight."

"K" Brennan kept rubbing Christine's back until she fell asleep.

"…And she's out…"

"I'm surprised she fell back asleep."

"I'm not, neither of us slept that well while you were gone…."

"I didn't either."

"No more long trips?" Booth leaned in for a kiss.

"No more long trips."

"Good." Booth went to his side of the bed and climbed in. Two hours later he slipped out of bed, leaving Brennen and Christine to sleep as long as they wanted. It was after ten when Brennan carried Christine into the living room.

"Hey sleepyheads, did you enjoy your extra sleep?"

"Yes."

"That's great. Pancakes or presents first?"

"Pancakes. Daddy I'm hungry!"

"Okay pancakes it is-"

"No I want to open presents first-"

"Okay."

"How about you sit at the counter and open your stocking while Daddy makes pancakes? Then when we're all done eating we can open presents."

"Okay." Brennan sat Christine on one of the stools and went over to the bookcase in the living room and got everybody's stocking and brought them to the counter. Christine dumped hers on the counter to find candy, stickers, a necklace and bracelet set, some headbands, barrettes and some lip gloss that had glitter in it. Brennan was next she got lotion, glitter free lip-gloss candy, and a gift card for her favorite coffee shop. Booth stopped measuring ingredients to open his stocking, he was surprised to find a pair of funky socks and a bobble head Bobby keychain and aftershave in addition to the candy and cufflinks he put in there when he filled Brennan's. Brennan mouthed the words 'airport gift shop' and started helping Christine put on her necklace and bracelet, Booth smiled and went back to making the pancakes.

An hour and a half later the pancakes were eaten, the dishes stacked in the dish washer and Christine was surrounded by piles of toys, games, books, clothes and every dollhouse accessory imaginable. Christine had just finished picking up the stray bits of wrapping paper like Brennan asked her to do when she spied the three presents from Parker under the tree. "Mommy, theirs more presents!"

Brennan smiled, "Those are from Parker, we'll open them in a little while when we talk to him on the computer."

"Okay. Can I ride my bike now?"

"How about you do that tomorrow? I'll move mine and Mommy's car out of the gauge and you can ride in there. It's too cold to ride outside."

"Okay. Mommy will you play with me?"

"Sure Honey." Brennan got up and walked over to where Christine was sitting on the floor and sat down. A little while later they had talked to Parker and opened their gifts, Brennan sat next to Booth.

"Do you think Angela would be upset if I called her and told her that we weren't coming to dinner? I really don't feel like going anywhere, I just want to spend the night with you and Christine."

"Bones, I don't think Angela will have problem with us canceling dinner with her and Hodgins now that you're home a day and half early. She might break your eardrum when she realizes you're home though. I don't know what we'll have for dinner though. I can get takeout if you want it."

"I'll make macaroni and cheese with green beans and that Hawaiian fruit salad Christine loves and I can make that chocolate peppermint cake you love and garlic bread. It's not a traditional dinner, but it has things in it that everyone likes and Christine will eat it without a fuss."

"Sounds perfect to me, Bones. Do you want me to help?"

"No, just keep Christine occupied, I love that she doesn't want to be out of my sight for long today, but I can get dinner made a lot faster if she doesn't try to help me…."

"You got it, Bones."

"Thanks Booth." Brennan got up and grabbed her phone and called Angela.

"Angela says that it's fine that we're not coming to dinner tonight. She's happy that Christine got her Christmas wish. She also said that we could get together for New Year's Eve if we wanted."

"Sounds great to me."

"Me too." Brennan headed to the kitchen.

"Mommy where are you going?"

Brennan walked over to Christine and kissed the top of her head. "I'm going to start making dinner. We're not going to Angela's tonight, we'll go over sometime this week and exchange gifts and have dinner with them."

"Okay."

"Christine, get your shoes and coat on while I go move the cars and you can ride your bike until dinner is ready."

"Okay Daddy." Christine ran to her room to get her shoes while Booth headed to the garage.