Quick shout out to Icefresky. Yes I do remember Ulraj. We barely see more of him than Francis, so we have some more room for developement. I love the competitive nature of Zak and Ulraj's friendship and, for the moment, I am curious as to how he will respond to Francis. So yes, he will have an important role in this story.

I do not own the Saturdays or Let it snow.

Now that I've got that out of the way, grab a cup of hot chocolate, sit back, relax, and enjoy!

(Or not. It's up to you.)

"Oh the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is sooo delightful. And since we've got no place to go,"

Let it snow let it snow let it snow. Zak thought with the song. He grabbed a crystal baby Jesus and hung it under a wooden dradel. the teenage boy stepped back and observed his handiwork. The Christmas tree had been strategically placed in the center of the room so it did not obstruct anything while taking center stage. Fiskerton was adjusting the star to his imagined specific requirement, but other than that the tree was fully decorated. Golden tinsel spiraled all the way down the tree, and ornaments of every shape, size, color, and religion covered its many branches.

Fiskerton made one final adjustment to the star and stepped back, pleased.

"Nice work Fisk." Zak smiled at his older brother, who immediately grinned in response. "Let's go see how Mom and Dad are doing."

Zak and Fiskerton left the living room and viewed their parents handiwork. Several hallways had holly hanging over the doors, especially around the elevators and entrances. Many of the windows were lined with Christmas lights, though not enough to give away the house's location. As they walked, Zak noticed that there were several plants with white or red berries suspended from the ceiling in hidden and inconspicuous locations. He couldn't remember what they were called, but he knew they were poisonous.

They found their parents in the kitchen. Doc was attaching the last of the lights to the window, and Drew was pulling out a tray of freshly baked cookies out of the oven.

"Hello sweetie. How's the tree?" She asked, putting the cookies on the table.

"Great. It's ready for presents and you guys can hang up the lights whenever you want." Zak responded. His eyes were stuck on the cookies, but quickly went back to his Mom's face.

"Good." Doc tacked the last part of the lights and stood behind Drew. "You boys can decorate the cookies while we decorate the living room."

Both parents started out of the room when Zak remembered a question that had been bothering him.

"Hey guys? Why were there nine stockings in the living room?"

Both parents stopped and exchanged a glance.

"You didn't tell him?" Drew asked.

"I thought you did." Doc replied.

They turned back to Zak.

"Ulraj and Wadi will be staying with us over the holidays. Francis might be here as well, if he decides to join us." Drew said simply.

"shweet." Fiskerton said.

"W-Wadi will be here?" Zak said, his face flushing red. He suddenly remembered the name of the strange plants hanging around the house. Mistletoe. If Zak bumped into Wadi right under one of those, he'd have to kiss her. It wasn't that Zak didn't like her, quite the opposite really. It was the awkwardness he dreaded, and what if someone caught them at it? If it was Ulraj, he'd never live it down.

"Will that be a problem?" Doc asked.

"No." Zak said, snapping out of his daze. "I'm cool with that."

Doc nodded, a slight smile on his face, and followed his wife into the hallway.

Zak and Fiskerton exchanged a glance as the door closed. They were having guests, for the first time, over the holidays. Things were going to be interesting. Zak felt a thrill of excitement. He would get to see his friends again, maybe even learn how Francis was coping with dimension travel.

"Jawi?" Fiskerton asked.

Zak smiled. "Yes Fisk, Wadi is coming over."

Fiskerton immediately folded his hands and made kissing faces.

"We aren't like that!" Zak blushed fiercely. "Come on, let's just decorate-" Zak turned and saw that roughly half the cookies had disappeared. As he watched, the light around a cookie distorted, then half of the cookie disappeared.

"Wha- Komodo! Bad Dragon!"

It seemed like a good idea to end with a joke. This is the kind of stuff that usually goes through my head, Myunchers being the exception of the norm. I think.

Working on the cover. I do most of my stories on my iPad, and the image manager doesn't take things from my photo stream.

We don't know what religion the Saturdays have, if they have any at all. (I count Aethism as a religion.) It makes sense to me that they would have a jack-of-all-trades kind of Christmas.

Please don't get on me about political correctness. If you are offended then just don't read my work or ignore it. I mean this in the politest way possible and intend to extend the same courtesy to the other writers.

That's all I got for now. I might add another chapter soon. Until then, Merry Christmas and happy holidays. :)