Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

I included the Mummerings because I am a theatre hag, as always. There's a great reason why Edward lives in SoHo in London. I'll explain later, it's part of the story, which I hope you will all enjoy.


Christmas Eve Day was just as Edward said- all the good attractions shut down. When I woke up, Esme and Liz wanted to go for a walk to the local "commons" (their word for "park") and back to see all the Christmas decorations. There weren't any parades scheduled, although I missed that a little bit. Renée and I used to watch the Thanksgiving and Christmas Parades together, although she was usually burning the turkey during this time.

Hattie wouldn't let anybody in the kitchen- she had defrosted the goose overnight and was cooking it today. She was leaving early to go home to her family that was gathering in South London. I was beginning to understand the geography of London- we were Islington, in North London, which was really quite rich, but open to new comers. Liz explained that Edward had bought a flat in SoHo last summer before Medical School started, near his school and usually stayed there, but she had asked him to come home while his aunt and uncle were here, since he hadn't seen them in over seven years.

When we got back, Hattie had finished most of the cooking and was leaving. "Now, we can start our Christmas Eve," Liz said, getting out a cookbook from the cabinets. "One thing I used to do with Edward when he was little was made gingerbread men that looked like us. I think we should do that this year." She flipped through the cookbook.

"Oh, I remember that!" Esme said. "We should do that for everybody in the house, today."

"That'd be fun," Rosalie said.

"I'm not that good at baking," I said.

"Oh, I'll watch what you do, Bella," Liz said. "The only problem is, everything is metric here, so I have a hard time using the recipes from home."

"I'll design them!" Alice cried, getting out a scrap of paper and a pen.

Liz assembled most of the ingredients and we started reading over the ingredients. Alice was still designing the gingerbread family and was now working on a matching gingerbread house and a gingerbread minivan. "Give her an inch, she goes a mile," I said.

"That's our Alice," Liz said, getting out the countertop mixer and rolling pin.

The ingredients were quick and easy to assemble, and then we took turns with the cookie cutter. We put extra muscles on Emmett's. Alice started making the icing and was coloring it.

"Hey, I need grey!" Alice said.

"There's no such thing as grey food coloring, is there?" I asked.

"Just use a little bit of the black, but not too much," Esme said. "Why do you need grey?"

"For Emmett's sweatshirt," she said, mixing it up with a spoon.

We started decorating to Alice's designs and red-hots. I got Edward's design and I looked at it for a moment and concealed laughter. Alice had dawn, 'My Dad is The World's Greatest Dr!' on his shirt, glasses, a retainer and wild red hair. Rosalie snatched it from me and started giggling, too. Esme looked over her shoulder. "You can't do that!" she cried when Liz was out of the room. We started laughing even harder. Esme stole it from me and crumpled it up. "Alice, design another one."

"You didn't like Edward's gingerbread man?" Alice asked, grinning.

"No!"

"We'll just change the shirt to say, 'Geekward,'" Alice replied. We laughed even harder.

"You will make him look like a doctor or so help me-"

"What's going on?" Liz asked, innocently.

"Inside jokes," Esme said, trying to brush it off.

"How do I make Edward's look like a doctor?" Alice asked.

"Just give him red hair," Esme said.

"And a mold and spore collection," I muttered.

"I'm sorry?" Liz asked. Alice and Rosalie cracked up.

"Nothing," I said.

We set out the gingerbread family and the gingerbread men, and Alice was complaining because we didn't make a house and car, too.

"This is what you slaved over all morning long?" Jasper asked. He went to pick up Esme's cookie, but we stopped him.

"Don't eat that!" Rose cried.

"Eat the generic ones! That one's not yours, anyways, it's Mom's!" Alice cried.

"I almost ate your mom," Jasper said.

"Eww!" we chorused.

After everyone returned to the family room, I stayed behind with Rose and Alice. Alice got out the camera as I picked up the different cookies. "'Hi, my name's Rose,' 'I'm Emmett,'" I said, dancing the cookies across the table. "'And we have to shower together in the middle of the night.'" Alice cackled.

"You heard that?" Rose asked.

"Yes," I said, putting down the cookies. I picked up Carlisle and Esme's cookies. "'Hi, I'm Dr. Carlisle.' 'Hi, I'm Esme,'" I said. "'We had it going on like Donkey Kong last night.'"

"I don't want to hear that!" Alice cried.

"'We didn't know that Bella was calling home last night on the first floor," I said. "And we were making noise!'"

"Bella!"

Rose picked up my cookie. "'Hi, my name's Bella Swan, that means Beautiful Swan,'" she said. "'I'm a nosy bitch because I was listening to my surrogate parents do it.'"

"I was not!" I cried. "I was calling Ang!"

"Sure you were!" Rose said. She picked up Edward's cookie. "'I'm the sexy, intelligent, talented wanna-be-Brit Edward Masen. And I secretly wanna fuck Bella! Because I'm so sexually repressed!'"

"Good job, now we can't ever show this to anybody!" Alice cried.

Rose continued. "'Oh, Bella, don't you think I'm beautiful, too?' 'Um, no Edward, I think you're too conceited. And a wanker!'" Rose said. Alice and I started cracking up. "'I'm a nice girl that secretly snoops around my host's houses at night! No, I can't do you!' 'Yes, you can, Bella- see, I have a trust fund!' 'Okay, just one kiss, Wankward and that's it.'" She pressed our cookies together. "'Ew, Edward, no tongue! Ugh! What will I tell my residents?'" She danced my cookie away from his. We were laughing so hard by now. '"What about my mold and spore collection? Isn't that sexy?'"

"Do me and Jasper, now!" Alice cried.

I picked up Jasper and Rose picked up Alice's. "'Gah, life is so difficult. Faulker was a genius due to his depression,'" I said.

"'Hey, Jazz, wanna go shopping?'"

"What are you guys doing?" Carlisle asked.

"It's gingerbread puppet theatre," I said.

"You're going to get in trouble doing stuff like that," Carlisle said.

"Oh come on, we're equal opportunity offenders," I said.

"Okay, good enough, we thought we'd finish decorating the lounge," Carlisle said, waving us away from the cookies.

In the lounge, Liz was sorting stockings. "I had all these made," she said. "I wanted each of you to hang your own."

"Thank you!" I cried when she held up the one with my name on it. I went over to the mantle and hung it up on the fireplace.

Once the stockings were hung, we went to the mummerings- an old medieval Christmas play tradition in England. It was on one of the commons. They had actors in masks depicting the Christmas story. We had mulled wine (again- I asked if they had egg nog here, and they said "huh?") and watched from a distance. I figured out that mulled wine had cinnamon, brandy, lemons and cloves and some other stuff. After the play, Liz kept on running into friends of hers- mostly other doctor's wives she knew from the hospital. I was freezing by the time we got back to the house.

Dinner was ready by now- the table had been set by the butler, who had vacated for the night. We sat down for Christmas Eve dinner, which was delicious.

After dinner, Tony insisted on everybody opening up one gift. "Just one, mind you- the rest are for tomorrow," he said.

"Okay, okay," Emmett said.

"Emmett, can you and Jasper help me pass out the gifts?" Tony asked.

Emmett handed me a present and winked at me. He got out Esme's present, and she gave him a kiss on the cheek, and then he handed Rose a giant box.

"How am I going to get this home?" Rose complained.

"You'll find a way," Tony said.

I noticed Jasper gave Alice a tiny present. I suddenly realized something was up.

Rose opened the first box, and found tons of newspapers in it. Looking confused, she pulled out crumpled newspaper after newspaper, making a mess.

"Oh my God!" Alice cried, suddenly. She stood up. She had a ringbox… a oval-shaped diamond ring? I looked down at my sweater. Either something was up or I got the shaft because I'm not somebody's favorite niece.

"Alice, we've known each other for over five years now, and I've never been more sure of this than anything," Jasper said. He was unearthly pale. "I want you to be my wife."

I saw Carlisle's grimace, and Esme's wide eyes, but I looked back at Alice, who was bouncing up and down. "Yes, of course!" she cried. "I want to be your wife! I'll marry you!"

She held out her hand for him to put the ring on her and Jasper breathed a sigh of relief. He hugged her so hard he lifted her off the floor.

Rosalie was standing in a small mountain of wrapping paper and newspaper, unwrapping an even tinier box, looking exasperated. "How many boxes are inside this thing?"

"That's the last one," Emmett promised.

Emmett? Oh no…

Rosalie opened up a pear-shaped diamond ring and cried out. "Oh, Emmett, it's beautiful!" she cried. I actually saw tears in Rosalie's eyes. "Does this mean?..."

"Yeah, it does," Emmett admitted, bashfully. He got down on one knee and did it properly. "Rose, would you marry me?"

"Yes," she said, wiping her eyes with her French-tipped acrylic nails. He slipped the ring on her finger. Alice and Jasper were doing a victory lap in the backyard.

"Both my kids in one night," Carlisle said. "Thank God I only have to pay for one."

"Yeah Dad, and it's Alice's," Emmett said. Everyone laughed.

Alice and Jasper came back inside. "I'm getting married!" Alice shrieked.

"So am I," Rose said. She held up her hand.

"Oh, Rose!" Alice cried. She ran up and hugged both of them. "Rose, will you be my maid of honor? It just fits- we got engaged on the same night!"

"Oh yes, of course!" she cried, hugging Alice.

"I've got so many ideas for my wedding," Alice said, excitedly.

"And I have to pay for it," Carlisle said.

"Imagine how my dad's going to feel," Jasper said. Esme laughed.

"Did you plan this?" Edward asked.

"Yes, I called Emmett and told him I was planning on proposing to Alice on Christmas Eve in London," Jasper said. "And Emmett said to me that he wanted to do the same thing for Rose. So, we emailed Tony and asked him for some help with getting this to work out."