A.N.: Hey guys, what's up? I'm fast forwarding this about a month, to right around the holidays. I'm going to start this right around Thanksgiving, and it's going to end right around midnight on New Year's Day. Without further ado, I'll let you guys get reading. So, please, R+R, PM, and enjoy. Until next time, OPKILLERFROST, out.

Tracking… Found

Sgt. Gary "Roach" Sanderson

Task Force 141

Colorado

It was one of my favorite times of the year. Today was Thanksgiving, in another few weeks, it'd be Christmas, and a week after that, New Year's. Today was my second favorite holiday of the year. I mean, who doesn't love a day where you get to eat as much food as possible. And the best thing about having a base in the middle of the United States, is that we can just go to a store and get everything to make a full Thanksgiving dinner. I always loved helping cook as a kid back home, and I've loved Thanksgiving ever since the Americans on the team showed it to us. We don't celebrate the holiday the same way in England, but we still celebrate it in a way. But we were celebrating this the American way, and it was going to be fun. I walked into the kitchen to find Dunn, Ava, and Liz in there. Dunn was cooking the turkey, Ava was making stuffing, and Liz was making some delicious smelling smashed potatoes. Smashed potatoes are so much better than mashed potatoes. And there is a difference, mind you. With mashed potatoes, you skin them before you put them in the pot to boil. With smashed potatoes, you leave the skins on, then put them on to boil. They are soooo much better and I couldn't wait to have them. While Liz wasn't looking, I grabbed a spoon and snuck a bite. Oh god, this was good. Just the right amount of spices. And not to mention how creamy it was. I was in love with her and I was in love with her cooking.

"Hey! Gary!" She said, catching me

"Um… it's not what it looks like." I said

"It looks like you just snuck some potatoes." She said, putting her hands on her hips

"Okay, then it's exactly what it looks like." I said, giving her a sheepish smile

She just shook her head and walked over to me. She kissed me, but then pulled my arm behind my back, and started to whisper in my ear.

"If you steal some of my cooking again, I'll hurt you so bad, you won't know which way is up." She said in a low, angry voice, but then switched to a nice girly one "Okay?"

Okay, that scared me. I just whimpered that I understood her, then left. I guess that you don't mess with Liz when it comes to her cooking. I left the kitchen to look for Ghost. If I had to guess, he'd be in the rec room with MacTavish and Price. It was good to have everybody back and alive. MacTavish had just recovered from his wound in Prague, and the Makarov hunt was going good. When I walked into the rec room, I saw them sitting at a round table with Frost, Gator (that's what we named Sandler after finding out he went to the University of Florida), and Yankee (the name we gave Hendrix after finding out she was from New York). By the looks of it, they were all playing poker. I walked over to the table just as everybody lost to Ghost. I guess they were all at an unfair advantage with him wearing his mask. They couldn't see his facial expression, so they couldn't know if he was bluffing or not. All they had to go on was that creepy skull mask. I walked over to them and pulled up a chair. I looked over to Ghost and smirked.

"Hey Ghost, Halloween was like, a month ago. Why don't you lose the mask?" I said

Frost burst out laughing, and Soap chuckled a little bit, and all Price did was give a small smirk. Ghost looked over at me, giving me a death glare through his glasses.

"Hey Roach, isn't there someone else you should be bugging?" he said

"Really? I say you're still dressed for Halloween, and you come back with 'bugging'? You need to up your game bro."

I get up, trying to find some other thing to do, and finally get the idea to turn the TV on and watch some American Football. I turned it onto the first game I could find. It was the New York Giants at the Jacksonville Jaguars. The score was 35-28, with New York in the lead. I sat down on the couch and started to watch. As I watched, I heard shouts come from the table.

"Come on Giants! Get rid of the ball! No!" Yankee yelled as the Giant's quarterback was sacked

"Ha! Yes, go Jaguars!" Gator said

"Oh, come on! How can you back the Jaguars?"

"Because they're a good team?" He said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world

"Come back to me when they actually win a Super Bowl."

After that, Gator just stopped talking. He knew that she won, and he wasn't going to try and come back with anything. I didn't know much about American Football, but I did know that the Super Bowl was they're championship game to see who was the best team for that season. I didn't know how many times the Giants had won that game, but according to Yankee, the Jaguars haven't won a single time.

"Hey Yankee, how many times have the Giants won the Super Bowl?" I called back

"Four. Once to the Broncos, another to the Bills, and the last two to the Patriots."

Well then. I guess the Giants were a pretty good team. And the Patriots must suck if they've lost to the Giants twice in a row. After a while, Liz came in and got us. I guess that dinner must be ready. We all practically ran for the mess hall, all except for Price. He just walked there. When we got there, I sat in between Liz and Yankee. After saying grace, we all started to dig in. I loaded my plate with a little bit of everything, and then came my favorite part: time to stuff my face. I started to practically shovel the food into my mouth, but then again, so did everybody. It wasn't every day that you got to eat good quality food like this in the military. I doubt the guys over in the Middle East were eating food this good right now. But the name of the holiday is Thanksgiving, but the thing I'm thankful for most was the fact that I'm alive and surrounded by my family.

One Month Later

Yankee's POV

It was Christmas Eve, and everybody was getting in the spirit. We decorated half the base in red and green, there were mistletoe hanging under almost every doorway, so only one person went through a door at one time. But the best part was the rec room. The tree was set up in there, and it was beautiful. All the different ornaments that hung off of it were amazing, and when I was in the room, I could hardly keep my eyes off of it. It was amazing. I couldn't wait until tomorrow morning. Then we could open up all the presents that people have been putting under the tree for the past couple days. We're all grownups here, so we know there's no Santa Claus to deliver presents, so when nobody's around, we've all been putting presents under the tree for one another. I got Riley a set of colored pencils, like the really good Prismacolor ones, and a sketch pad. I know that he loves to draw, but he just hasn't been able to because of the war and because he doesn't have the materials. But he'll be able to draw with the stuff that I got him. His face is going to light up like a little kid at, well, Christmas. I just wonder what he got me. I'll just have to find out tomorrow morning. For now, I was heading for the rec room. Everybody was going to get together and watch a movie and drink hot chocolate. I picked the movie, and I picked a comedy. I picked Elf. It's a comedy with Will Farrell, who crawls into Santa's bag as a baby and grows up in the North Pole thinking he's an elf. But when he grows up, he goes to New York City to find his dad when he's told that his dad's on the naughty list. It's a really good and funny movie. When I got there, everybody else was already getting ready and Riley was just putting the movie in.

"Going to begin without me?" I ask him

"No, just wanted to get past all the previews for movies that came out thirteen years ago." He said

I went to the Keurig that we keep in there (yeah, we get a Keurig in the rec room, how awesome is that?) and started to make myself a cup of hot cocoa. By the time it was done, Riley was able to skip to the main menu. I walked over to the couch and sat down next to him, and he started the movie. I rested my head on his shoulder and I looked at him. He was already looking down at me, and I leaned up to kiss him. It was one of my favorite moments ever.

The Next Morning

Oh my god! It's Christmas! This was my favorite holiday of the year. I quickly ran for the rec room, and when I got there, Ghost and Hazard were already there. She was just about to open up a present, but I quickly snatched it from her hands.

"Hey, what the hell do you think you're doing?" She asked

"You're supposed to wait for everyone in the family to gather around the tree before opening presents!" I said

"I don't care. Give me my present!"

She lunged for me, but I dodged her, and started running around the rec room. She started chasing me, and in our shenanigans, we failed to realize that everyone found a spot around the tree.

"Oi! When you muppets are done being nimrods, you can sit down." Ghost said

I stopped running, but Hazard didn't. She ran right into me, knocking me down. She took her present then walked over by Ghost. Bitch. I was only trying to be funny. I know that I've only known her about a month, but she doesn't have to be such a bitch about everything. I got up and walked over by Riley. I sat down and we all started to open up our presents. I was right when I said that he would be a little boy. When he say those presents, his face lit up like a, um, well like a Christmas tree. I grabbed his present, and opened it up. I found a new combat knife on the inside. It was beautiful. It was six inches of razor sharp stainless steel with a serrated edge. It was perfect. I looked over at him and tackled him in a hug. I kissed him and then we all continued to open presents. When everyone was done, we picked up the garbage and gathered around the fireplace. We started to share war stories and it was nice. I think I liked Price's the most.

"When I first met Soap, the first thing I said to him was 'What the hell kind of a name is Soap? How'd a muppet like you pass selection?'"

"Wait, those were the first words you said to him?" Roach asked, trying not to die of laughter

"Aye. I was kind of insulted, and I didn't help myself when I ran the cargo ship in almost a minute. I mean, compared to Gaz's nineteen seconds, I seemed to be an elderly person."

"Who's Gaz?" I ask

Soap and Price share a look before Price answers. "Gaz was the equivalent of Ghost. Only Gaz was killed by Imran Zakhaev."

"Oh." I say quietly

After that, we keep sharing stories. It was a good time, but eventually, we had to go to bed. It was getting late, and I was tired. Riley and I headed back to our room and we got into bed. I cuddled up close to him, and soon, I drifted off to sleep.

New Year's Eve

It was a minute from midnight, and we were watching the ball start to drop in New York City. We all gathered close to each other and began to count backwards.

"TEN, NINE, EIGHT, SEVEN, SIX, FIVE, FOUR, THREE, TWO, ONE! HAPPY NEW YEAR!" We all chanted

Everybody started kissing each other. Well, only those who were together. So I got a kiss from Riley. Roach kissed Liz, Ghost kissed Hazard, Frost kissed Midnight, and Soap actually ended up kissing Neon, which I did not see coming. I guess the big guy was good at keeping his emotions hidden. But now it was the first page in a 365 page book. Time to start writing.