Chapter 21

Authors note: So, I'm not sure why but remembering the ages of the children as I write the story has been hard as I skip months etc quite a lot so in case you're confused or are not sure how old the children are here are their ages: Tori and Jenny - 5, Mia - 4, Lucas - 3, William - 1 and a half, Sadie - 3 months.

"It's Christmas Day!" Mia shouts at the top of her voice, running into Sam and Jules' room. "Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!"

"Ssh Mia! You'll wake your sister!" Jules exclaims quietly, motioning to a sleeping three month old Sadie.

"Sorry," Mia whispered. "Has Santa been?"

"I don't know Mia, we'll have to check when your brothers and sisters wake up." Jules says, nudging Sam with her foot to wake him as Sadie stirs in her crib. "Sam, wake up. Can you go and see if the others are awake please?" Sam nods sleepily and slips out of bed, kissing Mia gently on the head as he walks past her. "Come here princess." Jules says to Mia who climbs onto the bed beside Jules. "Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas mama." Mia repeats, burying her head in Jules' shoulder.

"Did you see the stocking that mummy and daddy left by your bed?" Jules asks, sitting Mia down on the bed and lighting Sadie out of the crib to feed her.

"No! I go find it!" Mia exclaims, running out of the room.

"Where's Mia going in such a hurry?" Sam asks as he walks back into the room carrying the boys with the girls behind him.

"She didn't realise we'd left a stocking for her by her bed so she's gone to get it." Jules replies grabbing the nursing pillow so that she could nurse Sadie. "Merry Christmas." She says to Tori and Jenny as they climb onto the bed next to her.

"I've got my stocking mummy! Look!" Tori says showing it to Jules who smiles at her.

"Me too!" Jenny exclaims as Sam sets Lucas and Will down on the bed and helps Mia onto the bed. He sits down on the edge, lifting Will into his lap. The 18 month old squeals as he takes the stocking off Sam.

"Go on then Will, open it and see what's inside." Sam says, laughing as Will pulls out the toys and places them all on the bed.

"You need to look at the toys Will!" Jenny exclaims, picking up a rubber duck and holding it out to him as Tori and Mia begin to take their presents out of their stockings.

"What about you Lukey? Are you going to open yours?" Jules asks. Lucas nods and picks a cuddly toy cat out of the stocking. "It's a new friend for Meow." Jules explains, looking at Sam who smiles as Lucas picks up Meow and the new cat and hugs them both.

"What's he called Lukey?" Tori asks

"Cat!" Lucas announces as he continues to pull presents out of the bag.

"That's a very creative name." Sam comments smiling at Jules who chuckles under her breath.

After all the children, including Sadie who had gotten some baby toys, had looked at all the presents in their stockings, they all went down stairs to see if Santa had been.

"Daddy look! Rudolf ate the carrot!" Lucas exclaims, holding the end of the carrot that they had left out in the living room, up to Sam.

"I know! Did Santa drink the milk and eat the cookies?" Sam asks following Lucas back into the living room where he placed Will down on the floor by a pile of presents addressed to him.

"Yeah! Look daddy! It's all gone!" Tori shouts.

"And he left us lots of presents!" Jenny adds.

"You must have been very good then." Jules says, taking a seat on the sofa to watch the children open all their presents.

"Mummy! Santa got me a singing Ariel doll!" Mia shouts waving the box at Jules who laughs as Mia puts the doll down and picks up the biggest present.

"It's bigger than you Mia!" Sam says as Mia rips the wrapping paper off the box and squeals.

"It's a shop!" She exclaims, "Daddy, can you open it please?"

"Why don't we wait until all your other presents are open before I open it?" Sam suggests. Mia nods reluctantly and moves onto the other presents. Once all the presents had been opened, Jules went into the kitchen to make some breakfast while Sam stayed in the living room to watch the children and to open their presents.

"Oh my goodness! I honestly don't think I've ever seen my living room so messy in my life!" Jules exclaims as she walks back into the living room. "I think we'll definitely be tidying this up before uncle Spike and Auntie Winnie get here!"

When Spike and Winnie arrive, the children all open their presents from them. After that, they all sat down to have Christmas dinner.

"So have you heard from your mum recently?" Spike asks as he helps Jules to clean up after the meal.

"No. I wouldn't be surprised if she turned up either later today or tomorrow though." Jules replies placing the plates in the dishwasher.

"What about your dad?"

"He rang to say Merry Christmas this morning and he sent presents for all of the children but he's spending Christmas with the boys this year."

"How do you feel about that?" Spike asks, handing Jules a glass.

"Fine, I guess. I mean, I don't like the fact that I hardly get to see him anymore but he sees the boys quite often but I guess that's what happens when you leave home and move away. How about you? Have you heard from your mum?" Jules asks, changing the subject.

"Yeah, she's fine. Winnie bought me tickets for us to go to Italy to spend New Year's Eve with my mum."

"That's nice, I bet she'll love to see you." Jules says and Spike nods.

"Me too. I've missed her. A lot."

"I understand how you feel. I moved to Toronto years ago and I still miss my dad everyday. It doesn't go away but you will get use to it."

"Yeah, I know. Anyway, Winnie and I have an announcement so we'd better get back into the living room.

"Ok so, we wanted you guys to be the first to know..." Spike starts and nods for Winnie to continue.

"We're engaged!" She exclaims, pulling an engagement ring out of her pocket and placing on her ring finger.

"Congratulations!" Jules exclaims moving to hug both Spike and Winnie.

"You hid that well!" Sam says, giving Spike a man hug.

"Yeah well we wanted it to be a surprise." Winnie explains.

"We were talking about this on the way here and we were wondering if you wanted to be the best man and maid of honour?" Spike asks.

"And the children would be bridesmaids and page boys obviously." Winnie adds.

"We'd love to!" Jules answers for both her and Sam.

AN: So what did you think? A little bit late but there is your Christmas chapter :) pleeeeease review!