A/N: I got the idea for this story from a tradition my family has, every Boxing Day (26th December) we go up to my Grandparents to celebrate Christmas together. I look forward to Boxing Day as much as I do Christmas Day, because it's one out of a few days in the year when all the family is together, this includes aunts, uncles, cousins and their boyfriends/girlfriends etc. We usually have a traditional Christmas dinner round one big table, and then after we all gather around the main fireplace and open gifts togther.
So yeah, this story kinda came from that, as well as listening to 'Another Year Has Gone By' - Celine Dion
Hope you like it.
Another year had gone by, another Christmas, and soon to be another New Year.
Last Christmas, Jennifer remembered, was the first Christmas that everybody had been together, the whole city of Atlantis sitting together in the mess hall, safe knowing that they were all home and all alive, baring a few of course.
It was different this year though, very different.
For all the amazing things that had happened within the past 364 days Jennifer, for the life of her, could not remember a single thing even though certain happenings should have still been fresh in her mind.
But her memory had drifted further back to a time when she was ten; standing centre stage in a great hall dressed in an angel costume, feathered wings and all singing Ava Maria at the top of her lungs to over a hundred people, her mother she recalled had stood barely five feet away from her.
She could remember every note and word of that song and with it her mother's encouraging smile, maybe it was because she'd heard it on the radio that morning, but Jennifer liked to think otherwise.
She sighed as she looked over her shoulder from where she sat at the dining table in her new-ish kitchen to see family, friends and co-workers sharing stories and jokes in the next room as they waited for dinner to be served.
There were friends that were to be expected and those who weren't, but to Jennifer it didn't matter how odd the guest list was, or how she'd asked Rodney to help with it all.
"Who on Earth do you invite to these things?" she'd asked him, knowing she was being naive.
"Whoever you want, those who are special to you, those you know will make your day."
Some were more obvious than others like Sheppard, Teyla and Ronon and then there were the not so obvious like Zelenka, Sam and even Mr. Woolsey, all of who had played a rather large part of her day to day life.
Then there was her father, and Jeannie.
She'd never seen a house so alive and it surprised her, even more so than Sam turning up with a General on one arm and a three year old girl in the other, a shock to everyone else too.
Christmas day had been and gone, but as she looked past her (in a way) extended family she saw presents still sitting under the tree and heard Christmas carols drifting throughout the house.
She hummed along to the current song as everybody joined her around the table, chattering amongst themselves as they waited for Rodney to bring the Boxing Day turkey out from the oven, with Sam sharing out a bottle of champagne that had been chilling for the better half of the day.
The laughter rang in her ears, as Christmas crackers were pulled and the corny jokes read aloud, the clatter of plates made her look up as Rodney dished out the meat, telling everyone to dig in.
She looked over to her father as he took hold of her hand, smiling as she leant against his shoulder.
"Hey, wait, what about Grace?" General O'Neill said over the noise.
Silence rang out against the room.
"What about me Daddy?" the little voice of Sam's daughter split through it like a knife.
The laughter that followed did not die down until minutes later when John Sheppard stood from his place, "We are thankful for..."
Jennifer did not pay much attention to his prayer of sorts; she instead let her mind wander to what she was thankful for.
She was thankful for her friends and family being there with her.
She was thankful for another year (or what she'd spent it of) with her father.
She was thankful of Rodney, and his love for her.
She was thankful of their first house together, of his proposal and for their first half a year of marriage.
She was thankful for the lives she'd saved, and of the lives of everyone on Earth.
But for the life growing in side of her, for that she was grateful.
A/N: Hope you liked it. Thanks for reading and please review...^_^