Disclaimer: The only part of Castle that I own is the TV on which I watch the show.

"Two can play at this game, Beckett." That's what Dad said the morning after Mom and I went to the Hamptons. "Eliot and I are going out now to get your Christmas present."

Mom was putting stuff in the dishwasher and looked bored, but I'm pretty sure she was pretending. "Really? I'm surprised. I thought that you were the grand master of Christmas shopping. Emperor. El Primo. Figured you had it done months ago."

Dad moved me around a little bit in my carrier. "Yeah, well, I didn't say I hadn't already bought it, you know, picked it out, just that we're going to go get it."

"Oh, okay. I like the subtle distinction. You boys have fun. Bring me back something good."

"Dad always brings back something good, Mom, don't worry."

"I heard that, Beckett. You chortled."

"Maybe. Off you go. If you don't come back with shopping bags I'll wonder if you found out where I hid your present."

Mom walked past us and Dad said, "See that, Eliot? That's called sashaying and seducing. Your Mom just sashayed seductively right out of the kitchen. I'll explain that to you when you're older."

"Why can't you explain it to me now? I'm older. I'm almost four months old."

He didn't explain so I guess I have to wait some more. Anyway, the place where Dad and I went to get Mom's present is a jewelry store called Harry Winston. A man took us to a special room and we sat down in a comfy chair like at home. I didn't know you could do that in a store.

"We sized this so it should fit your wife perfectly, Mister Castle. Of course if there's any problem at all we'll adjust later."

"Oh, it's spectacular. What do you think, Eliot? This is called a choker and it's made of rubies and diamonds."

"Choker! You can't choke Mom!" I had to scream right there, even though it's not nice to scream in a store. I screamed so hard that the man jumped backwards and almost dropped the tray of other sparkly stuff he was carrying.

Dad rubbed his hand on my cheek right away. "No, no, Eliot, it's all right. This is just a necklace. A beautiful necklace for Mom, but a kind that's called a choker. It won't hurt her." And then he looked up at the Harry Winston man and said, "I'm sorry. I think my son must have been frightened by the word 'choker.' He's still a long way from talking but you should see how he reacts to all kinds of words. My wife noticed it early on, and I have to say it amazes me."

"Dad! You understood me! That's the first time. Thank you. Thank you for explaining about the necklace."

"Yes, well, my goodness. That was quite a, uh, startle response." He kind of coughed before he put the tray down on a table next to us. "You said that you wanted something else in addition to the ch— necklace, so I've taken the liberty of selecting a number of things that you might like."

"Look at all these, Eliot. What do you think Mom would want?"

I looked and looked and then I saw the best thing so I smacked it and it bounced right onto Dad's lap! "Yayayayayayayaya."

"The little fellow seems to have made his choice." Then the man went "heh heh" which sounded nervous to me. "He has excellent taste for someone of such a tender age."

"Dad, don't say anything out loud, but this man talks funny."

"That's my boy! I have to agree with him. Those earrings are perfect. We'll take them and the necklace, thank you."

Dad and I stayed there while the man went to wrap up the things for Mom, and when he came back he had a shopping bag. "Thank you so much, Mister Castle. It was a great pleasure."

"Oh, just a moment, please." Dad put his hand in his coat pocket and took out a plastic bag. "Could you put your bag inside this one?"

The man looked like he was going to faint or maybe throw up. "CVS? You want to put our jewels in a plastic bag from a pharmacy?"

That cracked Dad up. "That was quite a startle response from you. No, I'm doing it to throw my wife off the trail. I don't want her to have any idea where I've done her Christmas shopping."

"You know what, Dad? You're as sneaky as Mom. But where are you going to hide her presents?"

On the way home Dad said, "Once upon a time, before Mom and I got married, before you were even a twinkle in my eye, I bought Mom some earrings."

"I was a twinkle? What's that? I don't think I was ever little enough to fit in your eye."

"They were beautiful earrings, a present for Valentine's Day, but I never got to give them to her because I accidentally gave them to Captain Gates. But these are ten times more beautiful and she'll be extra happy that you picked them out." Then he looked out the window the rest of the way home.

"Wait, how did you accidentally give them to Captain Gates? Aren't you going to tell me the rest? That doesn't make sense."

He didn't tell me the rest, so that's another thing I have to ask when I can talk. When we got in the elevator in our building, Dad took me out of my carrier. "Watch this, Eliot. We're gonna play a trick on Mom so I can hide her presents. I'm going to lock them in the secret compartment in my desk."

As soon as we opened the door there she was! Dad wrinkled up his nose and handed me over. "Your son needs changing," he said and kept right on walking.

"Wow, thanks, Castle," Mom said and stuck out her tongue, which is not polite. She took me upstairs to change me.

"I don't need to be changed."

"Hey! This diaper is fine. Eliot, I think Dad just played a trick on me. Am I right?"

"Yayayayaya!"

We went down to the kitchen where Dad was getting a cup of coffee. "Back so soon?"

"What did you do with the CVS bag, Castle? Your no-need-to-be-changed son and I would like to know."

Dad took a sip of coffee. "Hmm?" Then he put his hand in his pants pocket and took out the bag, only it was empty. "Oh, you mean this? Right here. Did you want it?"

"Good thing you have to go to Chicago for the day tomorrow for that book fair. I'll have plenty of time to snoop."

"You'll never find it, Beckett."

"This place is big, but not that big. I'm a detective, you know."

"Still won't find it."

"Keep your phone on tomorrow. I'll text you when I find it. Attach a photo, too."

Dad just finished his coffee and didn't say anything.

The next day he had to go on a plane so early in the morning that it was still nighttime out. Later on Mom was feeding me in the rocking chair. "We're going over to Gram's because there are going to be some workmen here today, like there were at the Hamptons, remember? It will be kind of noisy so it will be hard for you to nap, and I don't want to be in their way. It's another surprise, but it's a surprise for you and Dad together, so I'm not telling."

I'm getting very excited about Christmas. I have a surprise present for Mom and Dad and Gram and Granddad and Alexis, too. I have been secretly practicing!

We had fun at Gram's. She loves to dance around with me. She calls me Fred Astaire, but I know she knows that isn't my name. When the workmen called Mom we went home so she could say thank you and then they left. I didn't see anything different so I don't know what they were doing all day long.

Mom was holding me on her hip and walking towards Dad's office. "I bet you know where Dad hid my present."

"Mohooo lala."

"I'm pretty sure you're in cahoots with him. You know what that means? That means you know the hiding place. But I'm going to tell you. I bet it's in the secret compartment in Dad's desk."

"Oh wooohoh."

"Here we are. Just for fun I'm going to open the drawer and put a little note in for Dad, okay? For evidence. But I won't open the compartment, I promise."

"That's amazing, Mom. How did you figure that out?"

Mom put me to bed by herself because Dad wasn't going to back until late. I wasn't asleep yet and I looked at the ceiling. It looked sort of different. I didn't know why.

And for the next couple of days everything was so busy because of Christmas coming. The thing I loved most was looking at our big tree which is sparkly like Mom's present. I got very tired with so many people around things going on. So many things I can't even remember. On Christmas Eve night Santa was coming so before I went to bed Alexis and I put some cookies and a glass of milk for him by the tree plus carrots for the reindeer. Alexis says they are very hungry from flying around all over the world.

When I woke up in the morning I made some noise so Mom and Dad would hear me on the monitor and come get me, which they did. The weird thing was it was so quiet outside when it has been such a racket out there lately. You know why? There was white stuff coming out the sky and going by our windows like rain only in shapes. Dad said, "It's snowing!" He wanted to go up on the roof in our PJs but Mom said no, no, no, n-o. Dad whispered "Later" to me.

When we came down the stairs, oh! you should have seen our living room! There were presents all over the place and stockings with things in them. We waited for Gram and Granddad to get here before we opened anything and luckily they came soon and everyone had breakfast. I won't tell you all the presents, just the main ones. And I'll tell you that Santa and the reindeer had their snacks and Santa brought me the teddy bear I wanted.

Everybody loved their main presents. Alexis got a trip to anywhere in the world from Mom and Dad. If they gave that to me I would go to the North Pole to see Santa but Alexis said she wanted to visit some place called Machu Picchu. Granddad got two tickets to every Yankee game next summer. He is one person but he got two tickets so I hope he'll take me sometimes. And Gram got something called a chaise longue which looks like a sofa only one arm fell off. She said she had wanted it desperately. Mom and Dad had hidden it in the guest room for a few days so she didn't know. The color of the material is turquoise which is Gram's favorite. You probably know that if you have ever met her.

After Gram's present Mom said we all had to go to the nursery. We went up the stairs and she asked Dad to carry me since she was holding two shopping bags. We all went in my room and Mom took two striped hats out of the first bag, a big one and a little one.

"Put yours on, Castle, and put Eliot's on him please. And read the tag."

"The tag says, 'For my two boys. I love you. Beckett/Mom.' These look like engineer hats, Beckett/Mom. What's RC&EB-C RR?"

Then she handed him a remote control like for the TV. "Everyone please back up just a little bit. Now, Castle press the green button on the remote."

There was a whirring noise and then a big square came down from the ceiling. That's what I thought I saw up there the other night! The square was attached to the ceiling with wires and it stopped before it got to the floor. And then everybody but Mom and me yelled at the same time, "TRAINS!"

Dad just stared and stared and finally he grabbed Mom's hand. "Beckett? You did this? How did you do this?"

"Yup. The Richard Castle and Eliot Beckett-Castle Railway. Well, I didn't build it, I just designed it. I found a woodworker who made it, all the tunnels and the trees and little buildings and things. They installed it the other day while you were in Chicago. Do you like it?"

You won't believe what happened. Dad cried. And Gram cried. They looked so happy but they were crying. Did you ever see that happen?

"Oh, Katherine, Katherine," Gram said when she hugged Mom. "Thank you, you Christmas angel."

Dad told Gram he wanted a turn and then he hugged Mom so hard and kissed her right in front of everybody. "This is better than the ones I used to watch at FAO Schwarz when I was a kid."

"Not better, but all yours, anyway. And made just for you and Eliot. Oh, here's something important." She picked up the other shopping bag that she had brought upstairs, a huge one.

Dad started taking things out and putting them on the train tracks. "Oh, my God, the engine, the coal car, the dining car, the observation car, everything. What do you think, Eliot? We are going to have so much fun in here, all the time. Wait 'til you see."

"I can tell, Dad. You're right, ours is better than the one in the store. Did you see that building there? It looks just like where we live. Here. Our building on Broome Street."

"I know you're dying to play with them, but I have something else downstairs that I'd like everyone to see before they're sucked into the electric train vortex. And I think we could all use some coffee. I could, anyway."

When we got to the living room again Mom asked everyone to sit on the sofa and she picked up the remote control for the TV. "Castle, this is my present for you. It isn't here, which you'll understand in a moment, but I hope you'll like it. I hope everyone will like it. Will have fun with it. Assuming Castle shares it, of course. And then she turned on the TV.

"Mom, it's us! It's the video of you and me on the floor piano!"

And then it was just like with the trains, only this time everyone yelled "BIG!"

"How did you get that, Kate?" Alexis said. "I didn't know you could buy one."

"You could if you called FAO Schwarz when you heard they were closing and made them an offer."

That's when Dad laughed. "You did that?"

"I did."

"What if they'd said no?"

"I'd have gone over there. Badged them. Made sure they saw my gun."

"I can't wait to get out there. I'm going to take piano lessons. I'm gonna sign up right now."

Gram laughed and said, "That didn't work last time, kiddo."

"Last time I didn't have incentive, Mother." Then he leaned over Mom. "Now I know why I couldn't find my present. And believe me, I looked. I could kiss you for this, Beckett."

"I should hope so."

And he kissed her like he did upstairs and then because Mom was holding me I heard him whisper, "I will do way, way, way more than kiss you for this later."

And Mom whispered back, "I'm counting on it."

I still don't know what they're talking about a lot of the time.

I bet you think I forgot about Dad's present for Mom but I didn't. He gave it to her after everyone talked about the floor piano and watched our video some more. Dad went in to his office and when he came back he was holding the two boxes, all wrapped up, and a little piece of paper. He walked right over to Mom and held it up. "What's this, Beckett?"

"That's a Post-It, Castle. I'm sure you've seen one before."

"Not one that says 'Gotcha! December twentieth'."

"Told you I'd find it, Castle. But I didn't open the compartment. I would never spoil your surprise, even it it's a box of candy from CVS, which I'm hoping it's not."

"It's not. Half of me considered that you'd find it, but I knew you wouldn't open it."

"May I open it now? Them? It looks like two boxes."

Mom untied the ribbon and took off the paper and opened the box and there was the choker that won't hurt her. "Oh." She said like it was a long word, not a short one. And then she said, "Oh, Castle," and took the choker out. I don't get this, but she was like Dad, she was crying but happy. Do grownups always do this at Christmas?

"Would you like me to put it on you?"

Mom nodded her head and then he put on the necklace and she wasn't choking at all, she was fine. Alexis and Gram were oohing and Granddad said, "You look so beautiful, Katie, and that red is really wonderful on you. I've loved you in red since you were a little girl."

Dad had brought out a mirror so Mom could see what she looked like. She kept touching the red and white sparkly things. "It's gorgeous, Castle. It's so incredibly luxurious but so understated. Thank you. I can't believe it, really."

"There's another box."

"You shouldn't Castle. This is too much."

"Never. Besides, this is from Eliot. He picked it out himself."

"I'm sure you did, baby."

"I did, Mom!"

"Not kidding. I'll tell you the story after you open the box."

When she saw the earrings she said, "Oh, these are beautiful. They're more beautiful than—"

"Than the ones that ended up with Gates? They are, ten times more beautiful, which is appropriate since you're ten times more beautiful than she is."

"Tell us how Eliot picked them out, Dad."

When he did they all laughed hard and when he told them about the CVS bag they laughed even harder.

"Talk about a Merry Christmas," Granddad said. "I wish I'd seen that guy's face."

So everyone had their presents, including me, I had a ton. But I had a Christmas present for everyone and I figured out how to tell them since they can't understand me. If I kick my legs and wave my arms around a lot, Mom always puts me on my plaY mat, so that's what I did. She went and got it and put me on the floor. I needed everybody to look at me at the same time, so I made my loudest happy sound.

"AAAAHH EEE II ALLL ALAA!"

It worked! Everybody looked at me so I looked at them and you know what I did that I'd been practicing in secret? I rolled right over from my tummy on to my back.

Mom said, "Look! He rolled over!"

And Dad said, "He flipped! He's our flipper! Look at you go, flipper!"

"Flipper is a dolphin, Dad. I'm Eliot. Merry Christmas!"

A/N The jewels are real. You'll find them on the store's website in The Incredibles collection.