RichardIII1955 - It was one of my favourite chapters to write, lol. Poor Angelo! As for Jingle Jill, she's heavily based on the BBC version of her that I copied, credit goes to them for that line!

Oh, dear, things still aren't brightening up. Angelo probably has a purple bruise on his bum now. Well, at least it's Christmas Eve! Things can't surely get THAT much worse...


It was Christmas Eve. Juliet sighed with relief that her family had made it so far without killing one another. They gathered in the reception hall, waiting for the Pudding Bus.

"So, what are we doing today?" yawned an even sleepier Romeo.

"Well, first of all, we're going out shopping to a nearby village. Then, in the evening, we're going to have our Christmas dinner and in the evening we're going off to Santa's Grotto to search for Santa" replied Juliet.

"We're having Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve? That's not right" Rosaline frowned.

"In Lapland, they have Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve" explained Juliet.

"I'd rather do it our way" Rosaline rolled her eyes "We all go to the church service on Christmas Eve. Then we watch a film. Then we hang the kids' stocking up and then the kids go to bed. Tibby and I get drunk, sort everything out for the morning, I dress up in my Christmas negligee. We...spend time together. And then we open our presents first thing in the morning!"

"Well, we're in Lapland now, and we're going to try it the way they do it whilst we here" said Juliet.

"And it's such fun!" Regina clucked.

"Eliseo, Micro, stop playing with the letters on the board" called Lord Capulet.

"Why is it always us that gets told off?" moaned Micro, stepping away from the activity board "Everyone is playing with the letters on the board"

"Because it normally always is you" replied Lord Capulet "Leave it alone"

Micro and Eliseo stepped away reluctantly from the activity board, which no longer read 'SEARCH FOR SANTA' but instead said 'SEARCH FOR SATAN'


"Want this!" declared Saffiro, pointing at a giant chocolate Santa.

"Now, now, Saffy" said Benvolio "It's Christmas tomorrow and you probably have lots of chocolates in your stocking"

"Want it!" snapped Saffiro.

"No, Saffy, I've just told you-"

"Want it!" howled Saffiro.

"Well, I'm afraid you can't have it. You'll get lots of presents tomorrow, and you don't need anymore" said Benvolio, trying to sound firm. It was no good. Benvolio's children knew that he'd never tell them off for anything.

"I want it!" screamed Saffiro.

"Hermia, help me" pleaded Benvolio.

"No!" said Hermia firmly "You are getting presents tomorrow, and if you have that and eat it now, you won't be able to eat dinner. You are not having it!"

"But I want it!" Saffiro continued to scream.

"Stop screaming, or you'll get a sack of coal for Christmas!"

Saffiro swallowed his cries, and snivelled, glaring at his parents.

"How do you do that?" sighed Benvolio enviously.

"Oh, fantastic" grumbled Rosaline, perusing through the stalls "It's all sugar. I don't want the kids eating this. They'll go hyper"

"Well, it's Christmas! It's a treat for them" said Juliet, paying for a bag of sweets.

"Not for us" Rosaline shook her head. Juliet sighed heavily, growing more and more frustrated with Rosaline by the minute.

Alexei and Angelo wandered over to Gabriel, as he had huddled away from the stalls and was hunched over his phone.

"Daddy, what are you doing?" asked Alexei.

"Work!" hissed Gabriel, pointing to his phone.

"You're on holiday – why have you got to ring work?" interrupted Angelo.

"The Christmas Eve dance performance is tonight" replied Gabriel "We're doing the Nutcracker. The Sugarplum Fairy has gone AWOL!"

"Sugarplum fairy what?" frowned Angelo.

"She's gone missing. She's supposed to be in the production tonight. She's probably run off with her boyfriend, but we need her back by tonight, or there will be a disaster!"

"Whatever" Angelo rolled his eyes.

"Come on now, my little Puddingers!" shouted Jingle Jill "We have five minutes before we have to get back on the coach for lunch. If there's anything you need, go and grab it!"

"Look" said Juliet, holding open a bag "I've got some special orange and chocolate bread, and some cocoa for this evening, after we've had dinner but before all go to bed. It's exciting, isn't it?"

"I need sleep" moaned Romeo.

"Well, you can get some sleep tonight" replied Juliet.

"No! I want to see the Northern Lights"

"Oh, Romeo!" groaned Juliet.

"Well, never mind. I think it all looks great" said Hermia. Juliet smiled at her sister "I've bought these pretty baubles for the Christmas tree next year. One for each of my little angels"

"What angels?" snorted Rosaline.

"I'm an angel!" beamed Eliseo, grinning at her.

"As am I" said Micro, batting his eyelids at her.

"We're darlings" Alexei added.

"I'll believe that when you all sprout wings" said Mercutio.

"Well, actually I meant my own three little munchkins, but I suppose you can all share a bit of spare tinsel" replied Hermia.

"Ok, is everyone here?" asked Juliet, peering around "Where's Tybalt?"

"Over there!" pointed Vittoria.

"Didier! Get down!" yelled Tybalt.

"No!" shouted Didier, as he sat on the roof of a log cabin. The entire party turned and looked over to where Tybalt and Didier stood. Didier was sitting sulking on the roof of a log cabin, and Tybalt, though he was tall, was standing beneath the roof, yelling at his son to get down, unable to reach him and successfully grab him.

"What the hell is he doing up there?" gasped Lord Capulet.

"I don't know!" snapped Tybalt.

"Aw, he's just like Tibby when he was a little boy!" clucked Regina "Tibby once got stuck up a tree! I had to call the fire brigade to get him down again!"

"How on earth did he even get up there in the first place?" Lord Capulet went on.

"I don't know that either! Didier, get down!"

"No!"

"I'll give you ten Euros if you get down!" persuaded Tybalt, pulling out his wallet.

"I'll give you twenty Euros if you stay there!" Mercutio interrupted, pulling out his own wallet. Allegra, Micro, Eliseo, Alexei, Vittoria and Hermia snickered. Rocco simply gasped, looking from the roof to the ground repeatedly.

"Thirty Euros, get down!" Tybalt quickly added.

"Forty Euros, stay there!"

"Fifty Euros, get down!"

"Oh no..." Juliet sighed, shaking her head.

Enough was enough when the men reached a hundred Euros. Rosaline stormed over.

"Didier!" she snapped "If you don't get down, then we get home, we're all going to eat healthily for a week!"

"No!" cried Didier. Immediately, the naughty two year old clamoured down off the roof of the log cabin and ran back to his parents. Tybalt threw a filthy look at Mercutio, who just laughed at him, before the dysfunctional family stormed back onto the bus.

Eliseo, Micro and Alexei gathered at the back of the bus.

"Ok, so you open the door, and I'll get the..."

"What are you three whispering about?" asked Gabriel, turning around.

"Nothing, daddy!" called Alexei.

Gabriel narrowed his eyes "Are you sure? Because if it's something fun, then you have to include me. Those are the rules in our house!"

"You won't find it fun!" Alexei shook his head.

"Well, in spite of everything else, at least the boys seem to get on quite nicely" said Angelo.

"That's the one blessing of this holiday" said Amparo, cuddling Natalio "I think I am going to go mad if there's one more argument"

"Perhaps this evening, we should just get pissed" suggested Gabriel.

"You can get pissed. I'm still breastfeeding" replied Amparo.

"Oh, yeah, of course. Are you ok with that?"

"Sure. It's Christmas, you enjoy yourself. But make sure you help me tuck the kids in. You know they love it when you read them stories and do the silly voices"

"All right. That's fine then. Angelo, are you up for getting drunk?"

"I hate you, Didier!" screamed Erin.

Angelo groaned "Count me in!"

Allegra turned away from where she was watching Erin and Didier argue, and Tybalt and Rosaline trying to separate them, and Regina uselessly batting around in the background, to Hermia and Juliet.

"Do you feel sorry for Tybalt and Rosaline at all?" she asked.

The three women looked at one another.

"Nah!"

"The way those kids have been carrying on is enough to put anyone off having kids" Juliet shook her head.

"They make me proud of my kids, even if they do start screaming for chocolate Santa's and jump off of wardrobes" added Hermia.

"What's the plan for this evening, after we've been to Santa's Grotto to search for Santa?" asked Allegra.

"I've bought us some treats" said Juliet "I thought we could all curl up together and watch a DVD if there's enough time, and have some treats, and then we could tuck the kids in"

"Good plan" said Hermia. She gently patted her daughter "Briony's fallen asleep on me. I think the trip has worn her out"

"Ah, bless her. She looks just like Benvolio, don't you think?" said Juliet.

"I think both her and Eliseo look most like Benvolio, but Saffy looks more like me" said Hermia.

"Saffy, stop trying to do summersaults over the seats" sighed Benvolio.

"He acts like you too!" remarked Allegra.

"Well, I think Micro is a micro-Mercutio" joked Hermia "And Tory is a mini-you"

"Tybalt, just shut those kids up!" Rosaline snapped.

"I can't!"

"Poohead!" screamed Didier.

"Idiot!" Erin screamed back.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" roared Tybalt. The whole bus fell silent "Thank you!"