Okay here is the next chapter from Christmas.
Hopefully you enjoy.
Within seconds of pulling up at the Shepherd house everyone was outside greeting them. Cooper had woken and Meredith put his hat on his head.
"Merry Christmas." Was said to them every time they greeted a family member.
Meredith had Cooper in her arms and Kaylee had the puppy in hers. Everyone grab the things from the back and carried them inside, placing the food and drink in the kitchen, the presents under the Christmas tree and the toys were scattered everywhere. Alice and Amelia had Braden, Kaylee, twins Conner and Caitlin, Claire, Maddie and Lacey were outside playing with Peanut who was enjoying the attention and had started a Christmas hunt looking for Chocolates and lollies.
All the adults mingled in the kitchen. Cooper was being passed from one person to another receiving kisses and cuddles.
"He is looking very cute today Meredith." Nancy says.
"Why thank you. I was thinking the same thing but I think that he is cute every day."
"He sure is." Carolyn says.
John was holding him.
"His not so cute when he needs his nappy changed."
"Oh John you have 3 kids and had to do the smelly nappies."
"I know but I just don't think it's cute when it's not your own."
"Oh just shut up." Kathleen says laughing.
"I will."
"Come on sweetie let's you changed and fed."
She lays him on the floor in the lounge room and changes him.
"That's better." She says after changing him. Derek came in and took the dirty nappy and took it to the trash.
Meredith sat on the lounge and started feeding Cooper when Nancy came and sat down beside her.
"So has my brother been good and spoilt you this year."
"Yes he has. I got a new D.S.L.R camera that was 2 grand and some photography books, the necklace I'm wearing and a lot of other stuff."
"Well he has learnt well. What'd you get him?"
"A new laptop, a watch and stuff like that."
"What about the kids?"
"Well a kitten and puppy. A play set and a lot of other things like toys and clothes. We spoilt them a lot this year."
"That's good. We spoilt the twins and Maddie as well." She says. "And I mean we spoilt them a bit too much."
"Well that's okay, next year you will have one more person to spoil."
"Yes my little boy."
"Did you find out you were having a boy?"
"Yeah yesterday was my 16th week exam and we wanted to know this time and they said it's a boy."
"That's amazing. I wish it was a girl carrying on from Coopie but it's still amazing. I want to hug you but this little one has my arms full."
"How long are you going to keep breastfeeding?" Nancy asks.
"As long as I can. I love it. It is something that helps me bond with him better and it helps me relax."
"But it is going to be hard when you start your internship."
"Yeah it will be so I will most likely stop at 1 year. I will see how I go. I stopped feeding Kaylee when she was 12 months so I will wait and see."
"Well it's your choice. I didn't feed the twins for long it was too tiring. After 6 weeks I stopped, Maddie was for 6 weeks as well but this one I will hopefully feed for longer."
"I believe it's a mother's choice. Some can some can't it's just life."
"Sure is. I'm going to leave you to it and go and check on the kids."
"Okay."
Nancy leaves and Meredith continues feeding Cooper.
When she finished feeding Carolyn walked in.
"I guess we can open the presents. The kids have been waiting for a while now."
"That is a good idea."
They had brought all the kids into the lounge room. They decided the kids would be easier to open the presents first then they could go off.
Cooper once again got the first present from Carolyn and the girls. He got a trike and a cream teddy.
"God I think we could open up toys are us." Meredith says.
All the others opened their presents and them being toys. It was Kaylee's turn and from Carolyn she got given her very first tutu, leotard and jiffies.
"Wow Kaylee look at that." Meredith says. "What do you say to nanna and Alice and Amelia?"
"Thank you."
The other presents were soon passed out. Cooper got some more clothes, bath toys and toys. Kaylee was given some toys and stuff for preschool when she started the next year like a bag, a lunch box and drink bottle.
The kids ran off with their new toys outside and the adults started opening their presents. Cooper sat in the middle of the floor surrounded by paper.
"Okay Derek we have a present to give you and it is important so we are going to give it to you first." Carolyn says and hands him an envelope.
He opens it and reads the letter.
Dear Derek
We have decided that because you use the land the most out of all of us and it was always your father's dream to give you the land on your 21st birthday we are handing over the title in your name.
"Oh wow mum, thank you." He says hugging her.
"Because I forgot all about the land going to you on your 21st and only just earlier this year I read a letter from your father that stated this I had the name changed on the deed. So congratulations on your new property."
"That's okay. See Meredith we can build our dream home on here now." He says kissing her.
"Hey I don't want to stop you from your romantic time but your little boy has started to crawl." Kathleen says.
They turn around and watch him move around.
"Oh what a clever boy you are." Meredith says picking him up.
"God I guess now we are going to be on our feet watching him." Derek says.
They soon finished unwrapping the rest of the presents. Derek was given smaller gifts. Just CD's and books and money. Meredith got given a beauty pack, a pair of earrings and money.
"Thank you guys for the presents." Meredith said going around and kissing and hugging everyone.
"That's okay. I'm going to go and get everything ready." Carolyn says.
"I'll help you Ma." Nancy says.
Kathleen follows them as well. Meredith and Derek read over the letter but stop when they hear crying.
They both look up and see Kaylee running inside crying and straight to Meredith.
"What's wrong sweetie?" Meredith asks as she hugs her.
"She fell over and hurt her knee." Alice says.
"Oh that's okay; let's have a look shall we." Derek says.
Meredith picks her up and they carry her into the kitchen sitting her on the bench.
"Ready now you get to see daddy do his amazing doctor skills." Meredith says to her.
Her crying has stopped but the occasionally sniffle comes out. Derek comes over with a first aid kit.
"Now let's have a look at this sweetie." He says.
Derek looks at her leg.
"Oh that looks serious I think we might need to chop your leg off." He says.
Kaylee's face drops and everyone laughs.
"No don't chop my leg off daddy, please don't."
"Okay I won't. Oh this is easily fixed all we need is to clean it then we can put a bandaid on it." He tells her.
He cleans her leg and then places a bandaid on it.
"All better." He tells her.
"It's still sore."
"How about me and mummy kiss it better." He says.
She just nods her head. Derek kisses her knee and then Meredith kisses her knee.
"Better." Kaylee says.
"Okay since you were a brave girl how about a candy cane? Carolyn says.
"Yes please nanna."
Carolyn hands her a candy cane and Kaylee starts eating it.
"So how did this happen?" Meredith asks.
"We were playing with the ball and I tripped on the hard ground and hurt my knee."
"Oh that's okay. Do you want to know something?"
She nods her head.
"Coopie is crawling." Meredith tells her.
"Really?"
"Yeah he is so it won't be long until he is chasing you around."
"Yes."
"How about we go into the lounge room and set Cooper's trike up." Meredith asks.
"Okay mummy. Daddy can come and play as well."
Meredith picks her up and carries her to the lounge room. They grabbed the box for the trike and opened it. They took the trike out of the box and set it up.
"Where is Cooper, we need him to try it out." Meredith says.
She gets up and goes looking for him, she finds him in the office.
"Oh look at you. We are going to have to keep an eye on you." Meredith says picking him up and carrying him to the lounge room. "We are going to have to keep an eye on him tonight Derek."
She puts him on the trike and he looks around at everyone. Derek grabs the camera and takes a photo of him.
"Make sure we get a group photo of everyone." Meredith says.
"Yes we will. We will have to get a photo of all the kids though."
"Yes we will have to."
All the kids soon came inside asking for drinks. Peanut came running straight to Kaylee, licking her. Kaylee was laughing the whole time.
"Okay Peanut that's enough. I think it is dinner time for you." Derek says picking him up and taking him to go and get fed.
"I think we should get a photo with all the kids now." Meredith says.
All 7 kids and Cooper followed Meredith outside. She got them to sit on the step outside. Kaylee sat in front holding Cooper and Claire, Lacey and Maddie sat beside her. Conner, Caitlin and Braden sat behind them. All the kids had Christmas hats on and other Christmas gear on.
"Ready say Christmas."
"Christmas." All the kids say.
Meredith looks at the photo.
"Oh Coopie and Lacey weren't looking. One more."
She gets Cooper's attention by making silly noises. He smiles and she gets a photo of them again.
"That one was better." She says.
"Can we look Mer.?" Braden asks.
"Sure."
She walks forward and shows them the photo.
"Do you like it?"
"Yes."
"Good, now I think its dinner time." She says picking Cooper from Kaylee's arms.
All the kids run inside and Meredith follows.
"Ah just in time kids. Go sit up at the table. Dinner is ready."
The kids sit at their end and the adults get the kids food ready and hand it to them all. The kids tuck in and start eating while the adults get their food and start eating.
"Merry Christmas everyone." Tom says holding his glass up.
"Merry Christmas." They all say clinking their glasses between one another.
The conversation is casual with everyone talking about what they were doing for the rest of the holidays.
"Mummy I'm finished." All the kids say at the same time.
"Okay go and play."
The kids climb off the chairs and go and play with their toys.
"Oh before we forget, Claire's birthday is in 4 days and we are having a party for her. It would be good if you could all make it." Kathleen says.
"I will see if I can. I know I am working that day and if I have too many days off they will most likely fire me." Derek says.
"Okay you are excused."
"Where are you having it?" Asks Meredith.
"We are having it at McDonalds. We are having a McDonald's party."
"Okay sounds like a good idea."
"We will send details around later about time and stuff."
Meredith gets up and goes and makes some dinner for Cooper and comes back and starts feeding him.
The night goes by with the kids singing Christmas songs and everyone enjoying dessert. They get a quick family photo before the kids all start falling asleep.
Meredith fed Cooper upstairs in Derek's old room. While everyone else got the kids settled for bed. Everyone was staying at Carolyn's house tonight. They had the kids in the spare room and put a DVD on for them and had them all in bed so for when they fell asleep.
Derek darted home quickly to get a change of clothes for him and Meredith and to check and feed the kitten and bring Peanut's bed over for her to sleep in.
When he got back Meredith was just putting Cooper down.
"Your back how's Sparrow?"
"He is good. I locked him in the laundry for the night and he has food and water."
"Did you get us some clothes?"
"Yes I did. In this bag."
"Okay because I didn't want to sleep in this tonight."
"Well I think you look sexy." He says. "You could sleep naked for all I care."
"Sounds like a good idea but I don't think so when we have eight kids under 5 in this house."
"Yeah good point." He says kissing her. "How about we join everyone downstairs."
They follow everyone downstairs and join them in the lounge room. Nancy had gone up to bed. Tom was sitting on the floor. Carolyn was in the arm chair, Kathleen and John were on the lounge beside on another and Meredith and Derek were sharing the other lounge chair. There was also a thing of crackers, dips and cheese in the middle.
"I think this was a great Christmas." Carolyn says.
"Yeah it really was. Cooper's first Christmas as well."
"Do you think he enjoyed it?" Kathleen asks.
"Well he is a 5 almost 6 month old kid. So I don't know."
"I think the kids all had fun and are having even more fun being with each other tonight. Hopefully Alice and Ally can keep them under control."
"They should be able to. They are all under 5 and exhausted. They have the easiest job in the world." Tom says.
"Yeah they do. Only if it was Christmas every day." Kathleen says.
"Yes what a great idea, we would never have any money." Derek says.
"Shut up."
"As much as I want to stay and listen to this argument I'm off to bed." Tom says.
"Same here." Carolyn says. "Stay up as long as you all like and I will see you all in the morning."
The two leave the room.
"How long do you think we have until the kids are all asleep?" Meredith says.
"I'll give it 20 minutes."
After 20 minutes everyone called it a night heading up to bed. It was quite late as well. They all checked the kids and they were asleep even Alice and Amelia. Derek switched the TV off and then came and joined Meredith in bed. She was changed and in bed. He wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her cheek.
"Night Meredith."
"Night Derek."
What'd you think? Let me know.
Next chapter is the day after. In Australia it's called Boxing Day. Everywhere else I don't know but hopefully you all enjoy it.