A/N: I had been meaning to finish this before S3 airs, and I'm so glad I've reached my goal. :) Warning: fluff alert! This should keep your spirits up, if you like fluff, of course - because God knows when we're having something like this happening on the show. Hope you like it! Thanks so much for everyone who has read and reviewed this story - it really means a lot!


1923

John opened his eyes slowly, adjusting them to the lightness of the room. It was morning. Christmas. The house was quiet. He slowly moved his hand to the other side of bed, knowing it was still early – but there was nothing – or, rather, no one – resting beside him. John frowned at this. It was unusual for Anna to be up before him. He usually woke up before her, for work, but it did happen occasionally. Sometimes he would wake up at the usual hour to find her with the baby, demanding her attention. But in the past months, however, this had been getting rarer and rarer. Maggie was generally an easy baby, though at times her stubbornness could be noticed, even at the young age of eleven-months-old. Anna often said that was a trait Maggie took from him, but John disagreed.

The baby, as it was, had a lot of Anna in her temper and personality. And for the past weeks, Maggie had graced them with the ability of sleeping through the night, only sometimes waking up a little earlier than usual. John supposed today was one of those days. When he looked at the clock, however, he was surprised to see it was a little past seven, way after the usual time he woke up at. But he didn't worry; Lord Grantham had been kind enough to grant him the morning and part of the afternoon left – to enjoy his daughter's first Christmas, in his Lordship's words. John accepted the generosity gratefully.

Two minutes later, he was out of their bedroom, walking silently across the small hall, even trying to not make much noise with his cane. When he peeked into the door of the first room, the nursery, however, he found it empty.

He made his way downstairs and smiled when he heard muffled voices coming from the parlour. It would be nice to have a quiet morning with his family, something he rarely had the chance to nowadays. He often came home in the afternoons for tea if he had the time, and he always spent his half-days off with Anna, but, unfortunately, there were some days where he arrived too late to catch Maggie awake. On these days, he could generally account Anna to stay up waiting for him – but she'd be out like a light after welcoming him home.

Still silently, he reached the door to the parlour and took in the sight of his family. Anna was crouching down, talking to their daughter, and Maggie was standing up, her mother's protective arm holding her back so she wouldn't fall over. Maggie was wearing a comfortable romper, an indication that Anna had already given her a bath, but her mother was still wearing her nightclothes; Anna's hair was still loose, not braided, the way he liked it. She pointed at their Christmas tree and shook one of the decorations. Maggie giggled and he saw her extend her little chubby arms to touch it. They learned shortly after they decorated the small tree that Maggie had liked it. It was, after all, colourful and sparkly, two characteristics that would earn a baby's attention.

Anna turned her head then and smiled when she saw him.

"Look who is here!" she said excitedly, turning the infant ever so slightly, making Maggie turn her head too as two pairs of identical blue eyes came to look at him. "Who is that, Maggie?"

"Pa!" Maggie answered happily, already wriggling off Anna and taking tentative steps towards him.

John's heart swelled with pride; people could tell him anything about babies, but Maggie surprised him by each day. She was speaking for some time now, mostly incoherent words, but she already knew all the basics, and her small steps grew confident as time went by. He walked towards her too, slowly, making her walk a little more before picking her up in his arms. He smiled as she settled comfortably in his arms and he smelled soap and that nice baby smell he had come to know and love for the past months.

"Happy Christmas, Maggie," John said, kissing the top of her head. Maggie didn't reply, all too interested on the buttons of his pyjama top. He noticed her hair was curling. She was growing up – no longer the tiny baby who kept them up at night or the small newborn with almost no hair and curious eyes. He turned his attention from his daughter and looked at Anna, who was now walking slowly towards him. "Happy Christmas, Anna."

She smiled sweetly at him, "Happy Christmas. Did you sleep well?"

"I did. You should have woken me up, though," he told her as she approached him and kissed him lightly on the lips.

"I didn't have the heart to wake you up. You're rarely home in the mornings, and we stayed up so late last night, I thought you could use the extra sleep," she told him sheepishly with a small grin on her face, "If it's any consolation, Maggie was already awake when I went to check on her. I overslept a little myself."

"You should have awoken me and I could have taken care of her for you," John complained lightly, caressing Anna's cheek.

"It was no trouble. I just fed her and gave her a bath. The usual. Miss Bates here has quite the un-changing routine," Anna said, stroking Maggie's arm and making her throw herself at her father's chest. John chuckled. "We should just enjoy it while she isn't running around yet."

"That we should," John agreed wholeheartedly, "Shall we have breakfast, then?"

"Oh, of course. Only," Anna hesitated a little, but at John's arched eyebrows she continued speaking, "I was hoping we could open the presents first."

John fought the urge to chuckle, but couldn't help but grin. Of course Anna wanted to open the presents now.

"Don't give me that grin," she said with a smile, "It's Maggie's first Christmas. It's important."

"Of course, my dear," John agreed, kissing the top of Anna's head, "Let's open the presents. I'm sure Maggie is excited about it."

At the sound of her name, Maggie turned and looked at them expectantly, waving her arms at Anna, expecting her to pick her up. Anna smiled and did so, balancing Maggie against her side.

She rolled her eyes, "She is excited about it. Well, maybe not now but she will be, I'm sure," she looked at her daughter with a bright smile, "Won't you, Maggie? Won't you?"

Anna spun her around, making Maggie squeal in delight, and started walking towards the small but friendly Christmas tree. She put Maggie on the ground as she kneeled to take a look at the few presents underneath. John chose to sit on the sofa beside the tree, and smiled at his wife and his daughter. Anna reached for one of the presents, wrapped in a bright red paper, which attracted Maggie's attention. John frowned.

"Did you buy this one?"

"No, it's from Lady Mary. For Maggie," Anna said excitedly, "I've wanted to open it ever since she stopped by yesterday with this."

"That's nice of her," John commented as Anna eagerly opened the package, talking animatedly to Maggie in the meantime. The baby seemed far more excited by the paper, as her eyes darted from Anna to it, and when Anna revealed a very nice white little dress for Maggie, the baby reached for the paper and started to rip it into pieces, far more interested in it than in the dress.

"Oh, it's so pretty," Anna cooed, her fingers going through the soft material. She held it up for John to see. "What do you think?"

John smiled at the soft pink dress as Anna held up the matching bloomers. "I think it's a very generous gift."

"It really is," she agreed, "Maggie will look so sweet wearing this. I'll have to see if it fits later. I think it might be a little too big for her now, but that's even better. She can wear it for a little longer then."

She carefully passed the present to John, and he examined it before putting it to his side on the sofa. Maggie wasn't interested in the wrapping paper anymore, and John observed as her curious eyes darted from the tree to Anna, who was now stretching over her daughter to get another present. John cringed as Maggie threw her little hands up in the air, and he knew what she was going to do. Before he had any chance to stop her, however, it was done.

"Ouch," Anna exclaimed as Maggie had pulled her necklace towards her. She pulled away from Maggie, making her free the necklace from her hands. "No, Maggie. It hurts Mama if you pull her necklace."

"No?" Maggie said; she knew she had done something wrong. John smiled. His girl was so clever.

"No," Anna said with conviction, her fingers caressing the locket in her necklace absentmindedly.

He had given her the gold necklace with the locket in the previous Christmas; it was, by far, the most expensive gift he had spent on her until then, and Anna had been enchanted by it. Its chain was delicate and feminine, and the oval locket wasn't very big, but he thought it was perfect for Anna. He had given her a wedding ring, of course, but all of her other jewellery – which weren't much – came from his mother. The locket now contained a small picture of Maggie, taken only months previously. It had one more space for a picture. Anna rarely took it out, sometimes hiding it beneath her dress to wear something else, but never taking it off. She had been pressuring him to take his own picture for her to keep there. He had yet to take a picture for her.

"No!" the baby repeated, her high-pitched voice making Anna shake her head, but smiling. John bent down to pick Maggie up and sat her on his lap.

"I'm sorry. I should have been paying more attention," he told her apologetically.

"Don't be. At least it wasn't my hair this time," Anna said softly. "Let's open our gift to Maggie."

"Why don't you open my gift to you first? Maggie can wait this year. I'm not sure she'll let us open our gifts first in the future," John commented, earning a chuckle from Anna, "If she's anything like her mother, that is."

Anna grinned, "So you're not the least bit curious to know what I've bought you this year?"

"Just a little bit. I've learnt how to enjoy Christmas," he mentioned with a smile, balancing his good leg up and down and making Maggie giggle happily at the motion. Anna reached for the gift with a frown, and after sharing a playful look with John started to open it.

"Oh, John," she said as she saw her gift. Mimicking what she had done mere minutes ago with Maggie's dress, she took out the deep blue dress and stared at it, "You shouldn't have. How much was this? Oh, it's so beautiful."

"Of course I should have. I noticed you had been staring at it that time we went to the village on my half-day. And I knew you wanted a new dress," he told her quietly.

"Yes, I haven't had one ever since Maggie was born," Anna said, standing up and walking towards him, "Thank you."

She kissed him on the lips, her lips hard against his own, and his free hand naturally reached her cheek, caressing ever so slightly. She pulled away and smiled brightly at him.

"So you like it?" he asked a bit nervously.

"I love it. I'll try it on later and you'll tell me if you like it," Anna grinned. "Now my gift to you."

She walked back to the tree excitedly, and brought to him a small package. She took Maggie from him as she started to grow impatient at being quiet for so long; Anna tried to keep her still but it was easy to see that the baby girl wanted to be on the floor. John let out a laugh when Maggie clapped her hands excitedly as soon as Anna put her down.

Turning his attention back to his present, he opened the small box to reveal a pocket watch. He smiled.

"I know it's not the same as your old one," Anna told him softly, "But you needed a new one, anyway. I'm sorry it's not a much elaborated gift."

He looked up and smiled brightly at her, easing her worries that he might not have liked it. His previous pocket watch had been a present from his mother, many years ago, much longer before he met Anna, and he had been disappointed when it stopped working and couldn't be fixed. Of course Anna knew it had been valuable to him, especially emotionally, hence why she appeared to be nervous over a replacement. John found it endearing.

"It's perfect, darling," John said sincerely, reaching her waist and bringing her to rest on his lap, "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Anna said happily, wrapping her arms around his neck and smiling as he pulled her closer for a kiss. He took a strand of hair and pulled it behind her ear as they pulled away from each other. "You know, you didn't get what I asked for this Christmas."

"I didn't."

"Will you ever take your picture for me?" she asked him with a smile, "There's space for another one here, you know."

"I know," he said simply, "But I thought that, maybe, in the future, there might be someone else and you'll feel guilty for taking my own picture to put someone else's there."

"We don't know when that's happening," Anna told him stubbornly, but her voice was soft, "It might not even happen at all. And if it doesn't, and we only have Maggie, I'll still want your picture. Will you take it for me?"

John sighed dramatically, and Anna giggled, "Alright. I'll do it."

She kissed his lips once more before wriggling out of his embrace. "Let's open your present, Maggie!"

Maggie was already at the bottom of the tree, too focused on the papers around it. He watched as Anna sat beside their daughter and opened one more package, this one revealing a teddy bear. Anna smiled as she handed it to Maggie, who was too young to really know how to play with it, but she giggled when Anna talked with her through the bear. John smiled. He was glad he got to stay home this morning.

As he looked at Anna, so happy and carefree, he couldn't help but feel even happier at this Christmas' prospect. Who knew what the next ones would bring? Each year continued to surprise him, to this day.

Anna caught him looking and grinned.

"What are you thinking?"

"Just a memory. Our first Christmas together. Remember?" he smiled fondly at her.

"How could I forget?" Anna grinned, "We stayed up until so late that I could barely wake up the next day."

"It was your idea to eat more dessert," he pointed out.

"I didn't hear you complaining!" she said with a laugh, smoothing Maggie's hair as she spoke, "Well, you didn't like Christmas then. Remember?"

"I do," he said, "But I like Christmas now."

They shared a knowing look, and Anna got back to entertaining Maggie. John couldn't help but smile as he got up to be a part of their play.

He had come to like Christmas very much, indeed.