A/N: Hello everyone. Here is the Christmas special. I have managed to get my brother off of his computer for enough snippets of time to write this, but I probably won't update for a while after this. I apologise for any dodgy Spanish translations. Blame Google Translate. I have used some British slang, which may be confusing/unfamiliar to non-British readers, so I have included a 'Britionary' at the bottom, which defines those words. I hope you all had a great Christmas.

Monday, 23rd December

Today, I:

9:00: Got up.

9:15-9:45: Ate breakfast. The Great Parental Argument began.

10:00-11:30: Last gym meeting before Christmas. Performance for family members, apart from mine didn't come because IALB is still bitter about me not going to his karate grading and emotionally blackmailed the parents into not coming.

11:40-12:10: Got home and played Sims.

12:15: Now. Writing diary…

That time of year has come again. The time where Abuela and Nana Flanagan stop pretending not to hate each other and go into all-out war over where the Flanagan-Lopez family unit go for Christmas. It is supposed to be the time of peace and understanding, but for my family it is exactly the opposite. The bickering starts around mid-November, when Dad starts getting more stressed because people are booking their Christmas parties at The Fat Gull and there is never enough time for everyone to have their Christmas parties on the same convenient weekend.

Things escalated from there and now it is December 23rd and we still don't know where we're going. Even I'm torn, and normally I am strictly one way or the other. Mags and Lizzie are going to be at Nana Flanagan's, and I don't have to suffer IALB in the car on the way to Southern 4. On the other hand, if I go to Abuela's, there will be lots of yummy food and cousins who are close to my age waiting for me in Southern 4. We've bought presents for everyone, so that isn't a problem.

UGGGHHH, I CAN'T DECIDE. Nana Flanagan herself is really boring and perpetually smells of cabbage soup, but I can use my Spanish swear words around her without too much trouble because she does not understand a word of Spanish. Abuela is loud and bilingual and most totally against swearing. Christmas would be fun and exciting in Southern 4, but peaceful and fairly quiet in Northern 4. I shall go and check how the parents' argument is going. They've been at it for 2 and a half hours now, so they must have reached some kind of verdict.

Nothing. Nada. Zilch. My parents have got to be the most unproductive people in Panem. They have been arguing for nearly 3 hours now, with no signs of stopping; much like those cheesy Christmas songs about snow, which are all ironic because it does not snow in District 4. Well, it does in the mountains, but most people don't live/spend the holiday season there, so they don't count.

We decided to give the grandmothers a miss one year and go to the mountains, and it was absolutely amazing. Thing was, I had to spend 5 hours in the car with IALB, and by the end of it, I actually thought I was going insane. Snow is great, but sanity is better. Besides, the cold does absolute horrors to your joints, and the broken ankle I sustained from skiing put me out of action for most of the gymnastics season that year. As I am going to Nationals next month; getting injured really isn't an option.

Also, the rebellion. At the moment, I'm not doing much for it. We've tried peaceful protests, but they're not working. The Peacekeepers are absolutely merciless. Anton (my penpal in 2) says that they're training the Peacekeepers there to be more brutal because of all-out war in the outer districts. We were going to do something over Christmas, but most of Southern 4 is strictly religious and would never dream of making war over the Christmas period. I have been assigned position of 'medic', so I have been shoved out of the planning stages of it all. Word on the street says that we're hosting a full-scale uprising on the 7th, when all of the Christmas stuff is over. Instructions will be sent out on Boxing Day.

Speaking of rebellion and medical stuff, Poppy (aka Dr O'Neill) has moved Bianca's and my medical training to today because they are off to District 11 to see Poppy's parents. Bianca has invited me over for lunch so I have to go now. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve! Yaaaaaaaaaay.

Tuesday, 24th December *CHRISTMAS EVE* (Bueno Noche)

Today, I:

9:00: Got up.

9:15: Had breakfast.

9:30-2:30: Did last minute emergency Christmas shopping and had lunch with Niamh and Louisa.

2:45: Now. Writing diary…

The Great Parental Argument yesterday never did reach a verdict, but Abuela phoned us last night and yelled at Dad about how it isn't fair that we went to Nana Flanagan's last year and how he shouldn't have any more power than Mum over where we go for Christmas, etc. So we're going to Abuela's. It is going to be awesome. Christmas with the cousins is a complete hoot and I always have lots of funny stories to tell when I get back. Going to Southern 4 is great, but we're leaving at 4 and I still haven't packed or wrapped my presents for Abuela and the rest of the family. So. Much. Wrapping. It's not even funny. I really don't see the point in wrapping paper. You put so much effort into it to make your presents look beautiful and then it all just gets ripped off.

Not to mention the scissors. IALB keeps nicking my scissors, so I can never find them. Then, I go to buy a new pair of scissors, only to find that there is so much packaging on them; I need a pair of scissors to open it. The very object I need to open the scissors is staring at me through layers of unbreakable plastic packaging. Eventually I just went to Ellie's house and wrapped all of my stuff there. From then onwards, I kept my scissors in my ancient combination safe where I keep my apothecary and babysitting money.

Ah yes, you probably want an update on Ellie and Sean. Well, I know that Sean is going to The Capitol for Christmas to visit his grandparents and that Ellie is staying here, so no new developments will be made. Whilst I have been at Ellie's house wrapping, I have come to the conclusion that she is the same Ellie as she was before this whole thing started and that she puts it on around Sean and his crew of idiots. I congratulate Ellie on her acting skills; she nearly had me fooled.

It's time to stop procrastinating and start packing. We need to get to Southern 4 in time for the procession and to help set up the nacimento (the Nativity scene at our house). The Lopez family are known throughout the village for having an excellent nacimento, a bit like having excellent Christmas lights in another, less religious district. See you in Southern 4.

Later on Christmas Eve

We are stuck at a petrol station just inside the Southern 4 border. There was a really slow driver in front of us, and IALB was being a mierdicilla as usual, so Mum slammed her foot on the accelerator in exasperation and wrecked the front of our car (not to mention the back of the person in front of us' car). Now, I am sitting inside a petrol station shop with a pack of pringles awaiting news of the tow truck that we called half an hour ago.

IALB keeps asking me thoughtful, articulate questions, such as: 'When is it going to coooome', 'Can I have a pringle' and the all-important: 'When will we get to Abuela's house?'. The answers are: 'I don't know', 'No, that's your fault for not bringing money' and 'We won't, at this rate'. He just keeps recycling the same 3 questions. I am considering ripping a page out of this diary and just writing the answers down for him in case he feels the need to ask the questions again. Oh look, the tow truck. Bye.

Wednesday, 25th December **CHRISTMAS DAY**

6:15-7:10: Hosted 'early morning club' for IALB and crazy cousins.

7:15-7:45: Opened presents.

7:55-8:55: Breakfast, which consisted of far too many delicious chicken tamales. Emma and Charlie are going to kill me. Whatever, it's Christmas! I'll exercise when I get back to Northern 4.

9:00-10:00: Helped assemble little cousins' presents (scooters, bikes, playmobile swimming pools, etc.).

10:05-10:45: Skyped Nana Flanagan and other cousins.

11:00-1:00: Church. Technically illegal (The Capitol outlawed all religion associated with Christmas and commercialised it), but the Jimenez family gather the village in their little house anyway.

1:15-4:15: Christmas lunch. Poor Dad was just sitting there, absolutely clueless as to what everyone was saying. I keep telling him to learn Spanish and it's a New Year's resolution every year, but he never gets around to it, which is awkward at the table at Abuela's because 90% of the conversations are in Spanish.

4:15-6:15: Watched 'A Christmas Carol'. The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come has some serious anger management problems. I hope s/he seeks help. IALB and the Lil' cousins were terrified. I need a picture of their faces.

6:15-7:05: Ate dinner. Basically consisted of leftovers from lunch.

7:30: Now. Writing diary…

'Early morning club' is where I get rudely woken up by IALB and my cousins because I am the oldest child and therefore tasked with the job of looking after excited little children at the unsociable hour of 6:15am. Normally, I wouldn't find this so bad, but we went to Midnight Mass last night so I only got about 4 hours sleep. It is hard to be grumpy on Christmas Day, but tomorrow I am going to be incredibly grumpy. Luckily, I will be spending the morning in the car, so I can sleep there.

On to the actual present opening. For Christmas, I received: a new practice leotard, a new competition leotard (I sense a pattern here…), a really pretty bracelet and necklace, some books, a football, a sombrero, various homemade contraptions from the under 5 cousins, a huge food hamper in a cool box from Abuela, a new computer (YAY) and Lewis (one of my cousins from Northern 4) gave Dad a board game to give me especially so he could beat me at it. He is annoying.

You'll never guess who I bumped into at church. Well, you're an inanimate object, so you can't guess. I was just getting comfortable on an extremely uncomfortable makeshift pew when completely unexpectedly, Max appeared. Here is the conversation that played out:

Max: Hi Kirra.

Kirra: Max, what are you doing here?

Max: You seem to have forgotten that our mothers are best friends and come from the same village.

Kirra: You have lost your arrogant mannerisms. Did they confiscate them at the border?

Max: No, I'm just more relaxed when there's less pressure.

Kirra: You mean when you are not surrounded by your crew of imbeciles.

Max: Precisely. Besides, who am I to act cocky when I am wearing this? *points to outfit obviously handmade by his abuela*

Kirra: Is it just me, or are our mothers talking about us?

Max looks at our mothers who are pointing at us whilst having a hushed conversation.

Max: Oh dear. That just confirms my suspicions.

Kirra: What suspicions?

Max: Our mothers ship us.

Kirra: *shudders* But Max, you're like, a second IALB.

Max: I'll take that as a compliment.

Kirra: Our mothers shipping us just feels like incest.

Max: It does. This is really weird.

Kirra: Let us ignore it, our mothers are weird. Come sit, hermano.

Max: *sits*

So today I found out that my mother ships Max and I. That is utterly gross. I view him as a brother. It's like all of those child actors that grow up together and would never dream of getting off with each other. Ugh, I'm going to bed now. Christmas is exhausting, but it was fun. It really makes you realise that underneath the arguments and the early mornings and the taco fights and the 4-hour-long karate gradings, you actually do love your family. Feliz Navidad (Spanish for 'Merry Christmas') and goodnight.

Britionary

'Is a hoot' = Something which is amusing and funny.

'Nicking' = Stealing, taking without consent.

'Phoned' = Slang for 'telephoned', often spoken as 'called' by Americans.

'Petrol'= What Americans call 'gas'.

'Football'= What some people call soccer, in this case referring to a soccer ball.

'Cool box'=Cooler, Esky, whatever you want to call it.

'Bumped/bumping into'= Unexpectedly meeting someone.

'Cocky'= Arrogant.

'Getting off with' = Getting together with.