Part One:

Anna hurried into Bulda's kitchen, several grocery bags in hand. It was nice and quiet in the house, except for the soft pitter patter of footie pajama-ed feet scurrying around on the level above her. She grinned up at the ceiling, hearing sweet, far off voices pleading with their mother for "fifteen more minutes of play time!" and "I know Anna is here, why can't we say hi?!" She chuckled a bit to herself as she unpacked the grocery bags. It was Christmas Eve

"ANNAAAAAA!" rang a chorus of sweet voices as she stepped through the threshold of Bulda's farmhouse. She laughed softly, grinning from ear to ear as she was hugged from all sides. Ruby (3 years) was attached to her leg, Jay (8 years) had her free arm in a death grip, Hazel (6 years) was hugging her middle, and Jasmine (14 years) had decided for one night that she wasn't going to be too cool to greet Anna at the door, 1 year old Ash on her hip and a small smile gracing her lips.

"Hello!" she laughed excitedly, trying to move towards the kitchen with her grocery bags. It proved to be more difficult with extra appendages, but she managed alright in the end. "Are you ready to make some cookies for Santa?"

"YEAH!"

She couldn't deny the fact that she was a little nervous. She and Kristoff had been dating for 6 months now, and while they both spent a lot of time with his family, she had never been to the house without him. But she loved those kids, and they now meant as much to her as they did to Kristoff. She wanted to do something special with them. Kristoff and Pabbie had gone off to do some male bonding, and Anna had instructed Bulda to stay upstairs to relax and take a load off.

"But sweetie, what if you need help finding something?" she had asked on the phone the week before.

"Please don't worry! I'll be bringing all of the ingredients I need, and if I do happen to need something, I'm sure Jazz will know where it is!" Bulda had then spent the next ten minutes telling Anna how much she adored her, how sweet she was, how she was so absolutely perfect for her Kristoff, and that if he did anything to mess it up, she'd kill her himself.

Anna blushed thinking back to the conversation, but quickly pulled herself together as Hazel and Jay started rummaging through the grocery bags. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, cool it, kiddos!" she giggled, stepping between them and placing her hands over the bags. "Off to the table you go, come on!" She gently pushed, softly tickled their precious sides until they were each sitting at the table, Ash in his highchair, completely content with the wooden spoon he had grabbed from the counter. "Okay. We are going to make a ton of Christmas cookies, some to leave for Santa tonight, and some for dessert tomorrow night." She placed the cookie cutters on the table, reminding them that they would all get a turn with whichever cutter they wanted after the great reindeer debacle between Ruby, Jay, and Hazel.

Before long, the dough was spread out, Anna at the center of the table with a rolling pin and flour. "It is very important that you use flour to coat the rolling pin before you flatten the dough. If you don't, the dough will get sticky and stick to everything!" She tapped her chin with her finger, looking up in thought. "Hmm… but before we start, something is not quite right…" She took the bowl of flour and went to every child, dabbing a bit here and there on their cheeks and noses, sending a chorus of giggles throughout the kitchen. "Aha! Perfect!"

With that, they were off. Stars, reindeer, Christmas trees and santas were cut out and set on cookie sheets. Hazel was hung up on snowmen, and made at least twenty. "They're all named Olaf!" she declared. Anna collapsed in one of the kitchen chairs as the cookies baked. Ruby immediately held her arms out, a request to sit in Anna's lap, while the other kids played in the flour. She smiled and picked up the little girl, giving her a gentle squeeze.

"Kiss!" she said with a little bounce in Anna's lap. "Kiss!?"

Anna giggled, her eyes bright, eyebrows raised. "You want a kiss?" she asked, tucking a dark curl behind the toddler's ear.

Ruby scrunched her face and shook her head. "No! Kiss! KISS!? Where Kiss?" Anna looked down at her confused before looking up at Jasmine for a translation. She teen rolled her eyes and grinned.

"Ruby still has trouble with her 'R's.' She's trying to ask you where Kris is," she said, trying so hard to hide the fact that she found it cute.

Anna swore her heart melted in her chest. How had she not noticed it before? Ruby was not one for many words, so she supposed it wasn't all that strange that she hadn't heard her trying to say Kristoff's name. But it was perhaps the most adorable, sweetest thing she had ever heard. She looked at Ruby, biting her lower lip, she was grinning so hard. "Kris?" she asked the toddler sweetly.

The angel's face positively beamed, nodding her head vigorously. "KISS!"

"Awe, he's with Grand Pabbie. He'll be back tonight, once all the cookies are done," she told her softly with a smile.

Ruby leaning forward and rested her head against Anna's heart, absently twisting her tiny fingers around one of Anna's braids. "I luh Kiss…" she mumbled into her sweater.

If Anna hadn't been in the presence of a judgmental teen, she would have cried. Instead, she nuzzled her head against the toddlers dark curls and whispered, "I love Kris, too…"