A/N: Apologies, I meant to get this chapter posted a few days ago but I've been a little busy. We've got another four to go before the end of this story which I hope to post over the next week. WDTA and ANB will get an update towards the end of the week.

I hope you all had a good Christmas and I wish you lovely readers a Happy New Year!

Enjoy!

Chapter Three

Christmas Day

Thomas sat in his study, wrapped up in his pyjamas and thick dressing gown, looking up at the clock and noting how it wouldn't be long until Rose was up. It was one of the things he loved dearly about his eldest granddaughter, she loved Christmas and when she was excited she wouldn't sleep very much. Every year Rose was always up in the early hours of the morning and this year he wanted to wait up for her. Everyone else was asleep, Jane and Charles had remained at Longbourn with the girls and he couldn't contain his joy at having a house full of people again. Three days ago, he believed he would be facing a lonely Christmas and now he was surrounded by two of his daughters and all his seven grandchildren. Underneath the Christmas tree presents were overflowing and stockings had been hung over the fireplace for each of the children in age order and filled with several different little items each of the children would love. The snow was falling as he looked out of his window, hoping it would lay so they would be able to carry on the tradition of going sledging down the village hills once the presents had been unwrapped.

Just as he expected, the door to his study creaked open ajar, the light from the hallway creeping in and adding to the light in the room. He saw two big brown eyes and a mass of curly hair look through the gap, smiling widely when Thomas gestured for her to come into the room. Rose closed the door behind her, skipping over to him and sitting on the rug at the bottom of his feet.

"Couldn't sleep Rosie Posey?" Thomas chuckled.

Rose nodded.

"You know grandad I can never sleep on Christmas eve." Rose replied.

"I hope that never changes." Thomas sighed happily.

"Why would it change?" Rose asked, confused.

"Things change the older you get." Thomas replied.

"Like what?"

"Just things change in life Rosie, it's an ordinary thing."

"You mean like how nan left you?"

Thomas sighed and nodded slightly, he hoped that Rose wouldn't want to talk more about it; the topic of his divorce wasn't exactly something he wanted to discuss with his ten-year-old granddaughter.

"Something like that darling." Thomas smiled.

"Grandad, don't be sad she left you." Rose said encouragingly.

"We were married for a long time Rosie, it's hard sometimes to not feel sad."

"Will my parents get divorced?"

Thomas patted his knee, wrapping his arm around Rose as she sat on his lap and cuddled into him. He hadn't meant to make her upset, with a worry that Elizabeth and William would get divorced.

"No, they won't sweetheart. Do you know why?"

"Because they love each other?" Rose guessed.

"That's right," Thomas said warmly, "They love each other. And your parents have the kind of love that will last forever. They found their way back to each other, they are there for each other through everything, they get through the bad and the good and look after one another."

"But…didn't you feel that way about nan?" Rose asked.

Thomas sighed. One thing that hadn't changed about his eldest granddaughter was her curious nature to ask a lot of questions and he decided to take an example out of Elizabeth's book, to tell her the truth as much as it permitted.

"Your nan and I had a different kind of love, Rose. I loved your nan, I did. And we made each other happy a long time ago but your nan…she's a bit…old fashioned. Your nan's parents believed that boys were more important than girls, so your nan really wanted us to have a boy, but we never did. We only had five girls."

"Oh…so nan was disappointed that she never gave you a boy?"

"I think so. But I was happy with five girls, beautiful girls. And I think your nan changed and in some ways, I changed too. But we had five girls, we were a family. And sometimes adults have silly arguments." Thomas explained.

"Nan never liked me…did she?" Rose asked.

"It was never you, Rose. When you were in your mum's tummy, things were a bit hard." Thomas replied delicately.

"I know. Mum told me that she was alone, she thought dad didn't want us."

Thomas nodded, knowing that Reginald had told Rose a while ago before he passed away the truth behind why she went without her dad for the first three years of her life. It amazed him how Rose hadn't been upset with her other grandad, she was able to see that people made mistakes and Reginald had been a wonderful, devoted grandfather to Elizabeth and William's children in the years after Rose had formed a bond with him. Reginald had apologised to Rose and instantly, the amazing little girl forgave him because she saw the person he was, not the person he used to be.

"Don't ever think you aren't loved, Rosie Posey. It's your nan's loss that she doesn't get to be apart of your life and see you grow up. She doesn't get to spend time with you and make memories with you like I do. And I wouldn't trade you kids for anything." Thomas said quietly.

Rose smiled widely up at him.

"I love you grandad."

"I love you too sweetheart. Now, why don't we have some hot chocolate?" Thomas suggested.

Rose grinned.

"Mum doesn't like me having too much hot chocolate." She reminded him.

"I know. But…your mum is still asleep…it'll be our little secret." Thomas chuckled mischievously.

Returning his mischievous smile, Rose hopped off his lap and helped him to his feet; the two of them heading into the kitchen to make a hot chocolate together.

ooOoo

The rest of the house were awake at seven in the morning. The children came running down the stairs as if a herd of elephants were in the house and excitedly made their way into the living room to see the huge pile after pile of presents waiting to be unwrapped. Jane, Charles, William and Alice were seconds behind the children, all yawning and pulling dressing gowns around them tighter to keep warm. Rose, who had gone back to sleep at four in the morning was asleep on the sofa with a thick blanket draped over her to keep her warm while Thomas slept in the armchair until he had been woken up by his grandchildren. Elizabeth came down about ten minutes later, she had just finished breastfeeding Henry and cradled the baby against her chest as he chewed on his fist.

"Morning all." Elizabeth greeted happily.

"Merry Christmas." Came the many replies as Alice started handing out presents for everyone to unwrap.

"Lizzy, do you want me to take Henry?" Thomas offered.

Elizabeth smiled and handed the baby over to her dad, watching admirably as her dad's eyes lit up as he started entertaining her baby son. As she watched the baby laugh and coo as her dad started singing nursery rhymes and playing peek-a-boo with Henry, she silently told herself that this was the best thing she could have done this Christmas. Her dad was watching as six of his grandchildren opened their Christmas presents excitedly while the rest of the adults took turns to open Henry's presents. Just seeing her dad so happy, that was enough for her.

"Hey mum?" Rose called out over the loud sounds of excited shrieks and wrapping paper being torn open.

"Yes darling?" Elizabeth asked.

"Thank you for bringing us here, this is the best Christmas ever!" Rose replied warmly.

Elizabeth looked to her dad, noting how Rose's declaration brought tears to his eyes. Rose went back to opening her presents like her siblings and cousins were doing. Many 'thank yous' were shouted at them by the children who were chuffed with their presents and eventually, the last of the children's presents were opened and Alice took the six of them into the dining room to eat their breakfast while the adults opened their presents.

After they were done opening their presents, they joined the children in the dining room to help themselves to toast or bacon sandwiches that Charles and Will had cooked up, with Rose getting down from her seat and heading over to the window, peering out of the curtain and turning back to them with more excitement in her eyes.

"Mum, dad there's snow! Can we go sledging?" she asked.

Elizabeth laughed lightly as she bounced Henry on her knee.

"Alright. Go and get dressed, we'll head out in a little while."

The adults laughed as the six children ran back up the stairs to get changed out of their pyjamas and into some warm, thick winter clothing that had been packed the day before. Giving the children a five minute head start, the adults hauled themselves off the sofa and went upstairs to change.

ooOoo

The snow was falling slowly as the children clambered up the steepest hill in the village. Ally, still too small for the steep climb had ended up getting a piggy back ride on Rose's back who had so much energy, she was already near the top whilst Will, Charles, Jane and Elizabeth hauled the sledges to the top. Thomas couldn't help but laugh as she pulled his one behind him, remembering how it felt when his children were small. He still remembered the excitement of his daughters climbing the hills with their sledges, it was something that he had introduced when Jane and Elizabeth had been old enough to walk and be steady on their feet, Fran only came along because he had insisted she be a part of it. But Fran never had liked the cold much, having always preferred the warmer months in the year. But snow wasn't something you saw every day, so when it did come to the winter and the snow began to fall, he wanted to make lasting memories with his daughters.

And even when his girls got older, the excitement remained. He had always assumed it was because it as their Bennet family tradition. And Rose's second Christmas, when his granddaughter was four months off turning two, had been the first time he'd introduced sledging to a grandchild. Even now, knowing Rose was four months off turning eleven, he still remembered that hilarious chuckle when he'd gone down the sledge with her for the first time, it hadn't been a hill as steep as this one, but Rose still enjoyed the experience just the same.

Finally, they had all made it to the top of the hill, all waving down at Alice who had Henry wrapped in a thick snowsuit in his baby carrier attached to her chest. He watched as Rose climbed onto one of the five sledges with Ally, Tom climbing onto a second with Will while Charles climbed onto the third with Hannah, Jane partnering up with Megan while he partnered up with Amelie.

"RACE, RACE, RACE…" the children chanted.

"One…Two…Three…GO!" Will shouted.

The adults kicked off from the ground, holding tightly onto the child who sat in front of them as they whizzed down the hill, going over the bumps in the snow, the children screaming with delight as they all raced down the hill, faster and faster until they reached the bottom; with Charles and Hannah landing at the bottom of the hill first.

"We won daddy! We won!" Hannah cheered happily.

"Let's go again!" Amelie shouted excitedly.

Thomas watched as his grandchildren ran up the hill again, holding on to each other's hands as they made their way up in the snow.

"They don't even give us a minute to rest!" Charles laughed.

The adults started making their way up the hill, dragging the sledges behind them as they struggled in the snow. When they reached the top, the children climbed on to the sledges with an adult (or Rose in Ally's case) and raced down the hill, repeating the climbing and racing up and down the hill for what seemed like an eternity. Thomas continued to smile at the chanting of 'Race, Race, Race' from the children, enjoying the little victory dance Ally and Rose did when the two won the fourth race down the hill. They enjoyed a sixth race down the hill, only when Will and Tom had won the sixth race did the adults notice just how red the children's noses and cheeks were.

"Come on, time to head inside and warm up." Elizabeth instructed.

The disappointed "Ohhhhh…"s came in unison from the six children but Jane and Charles backed up Elizabeth's instruction to their three. Alice had already headed back to Longbourn with Henry after the fourth race, not wanting the baby to get cold.

"Come on kids, let's go and warm up. You can watch a film with me while your parents get Christmas dinner ready." Thomas said warmly.

"Okay. But nothing too girly!" Tom stated.

Thomas laughed at his grandson's determination to watch nothing too girly, to which he assumed Tom had watched enough of the Disney Princess franchise over the years. Together, they all walked back through the snow carrying the sledges with the thought of hot chocolate to warm them up in their minds.

When they had arrived back at Longbourn, coats, scarves, hats and gloves were quickly removed as the children hurried inside the living room. Elizabeth headed upstairs to her old bedroom where Alice had put Henry down for a nap, the baby was due a feed. Will and Charles had headed through to the kitchen, taking over from Mrs. Hill with the dinner preparations, leaving the housekeeper, Jane, Alice and Thomas to watch A Muppet Christmas Carol with the children.

The children sat in silence, their eyes glued to the TV as the film played on the large screen, the only words escaping their mouths were the thankyous that came when Will and Charles gave each of them a cup of hot chocolate.

"So…is Christmas turning out to be better than you expected, Thomas?" Mrs. Hill asked.

Thomas looked at his housekeeper, tightening his arm around Megan as she sat on his lap and nodded.

"It definitely is." He replied with a grin.

ooOOo

For the first time in countless years, Elizabeth was amazed at how everyone had been fitted into the living room. The already large dining table had been extended by the pull out in the middle with one of the smaller tables being pulled out of the storage cupboard to accommodate the extra bodies. A white plastic Christmas designed sheet had been placed over the table, with the children pointing out the various Christmas themed pictures on the sheet. The children had been squeezed together on one side of the table, with Jane finishing off the row, Mrs. Hill and Alice were seated at either end of the table and the rest of the adults on the other side. Up and down the table the food had been placed so everyone could help themselves as they went along, steaming bowls of carrots, peas and broccoli had been placed into two bowls at either end while a separate plate contained the Brussel sprouts and the parsnips had also been placed. Two jugs of gravy, a large plate containing stuffing balls, pigs in blankets and a tray of roast potatoes sat in the middle with the plate of cut turkey slices at the centre.

The children fidgeted impatiently on their seats as the adults filled their plates with food first before helping themselves and when everyone was seated, there were many exchanges of 'Merry Christmas' and the sound of the gold Christmas crackers being picked up; with everyone taking hold of the free end and on the count of three, they pulled. The sound of cracking and banging filled the room, with everyone scrambling inside the crackers to pull out the thin, different coloured hats that came with the small prize and joke.

Elizabeth put on her orange hat and picked up the small piece of paper that had her joke written on.

"How do snowmen get around?" she asked loudly.

"They ride an icicle." Rose replied with a laugh.

"Lucky guess Rosie." Thomas chuckled.

Rose shrugged, "Dad had that joke last year." She said, tucking into her food.

"I got one! I got one!" Megan announced, waving her piece of paper in the air before passing it over to Jane.

"What goes Oh, Oh, Oh?" Jane asked.

"What?" Amelie asked.

"Santa walking backwards."

Elizabeth smiled as the children laughed at the badly written jokes that came with Christmas crackers, but it was something that made Christmas even more special. As she tucked into her dinner, she watched as her dad looked around at everyone who sat at the table. Seeing his face, watching him smile and laugh and look grateful for having a very hectic Christmas around him was something she had wanted to see. The presents she was gifted this year didn't matter. Watching her children play, laugh, tease their siblings and their cousins, pester their grandfather into doing this and that with them was what mattered. Making her family happy, is the best thing she could have done this Christmas.