Bella was awakened by a pillow to the face.
"Seriously Alice you couldn't wake me up like a normal person?" Bella asked.
"Who ever said I was normal?" Alice replied. "Now hurry up we still have to get to the store for mom."
"That list is like eight pages long."
"That is only because she wants to keep us out of the house while she wraps last minute gifts," Alice replied. "She has Edward and Jasper hanging more lights up outside and Dad is going to be in and out all day because the hospital is understaffed but after nine o'clock tonight he is off unless there is a major accident that needs absolutely everyone available to work."
"Oh that's nice of him," Bella replied. "But from what I've seen it is because of his sister and her family."
"It probably is but he won't admit it," Alice said. "Now feed Snowball and get dressed so we can go."
Bella climbed out of the pallet of blankets that Alice put together for her and looked in on Snowball. He was sleeping peacefully curled up in a ball. In fact he was in such a deep sleep that if it wasn't for the slight movement of his belly she would have thought the worst. She trudged her way down stairs and found that the rest of Snowball's formula was gone and she had enough for at least three more feedings. Bella closed the door and went back up to Alice's room where she quickly got dressed and texted Leah to double check the recipe ingredients for Snowball's formula.
"Ready to go?" Alice asked.
"Yes."
The two girls walked out of the house just as Esme was arriving home.
"Home already?" Alice asked.
"Yes, a surprising amount of people showed up to spend a bit of time with their families. I however have to go and start prepping my Christmas Casseroles," Esme replied. "Oh, Bella do thank your step-mother for the list of those in need this year."
"I will," Bella said. "Once I see here again."
"Yes, I heard she was filling in for one of the nurses that called in."
"She is but it helps her out as her kids both got a late invitation to spend the holiday with their cousins on the reservation."
"I would love to chat but I have to get started or the whole day will be thrown off," Esme said.
"We'll be back soon with the rest of the stuff," Alice said dragging Bella over to the garage. "Okay checklist before we climb in and leave something behind by accident. Cash?"
Bella held up a white envelope Esme had given them the night before.
"Check," Bella replied.
"List of supplies needed?" Alice asked.
Again Bella held it up.
"Okay, check I have the keys is there anything else we need?" Alice asked. "Oh wait credit card just in case there isn't enough cash."
"It's in the envelope with the cash," Bella replied. "Can we go now?"
"Of course," Alice replied as she hopped into the drivers seat. "Don't touch that dial. Only the driver can pick the music."
"I was reaching to adjust the heat," Bella replied. "I have known you for most of my life now I know not to mess with your music. Oddly that's one of the few things I know you have in common with Edward."
"He is worse about it than me," ALice replied buckling herself in. "Once we get to the store we both will need carts."
"Yeah the list is massive," Bella said. "I have to get everything for Snowball's formula because it was all gone when I went to get it twenty minutes ago."
"That's odd, will the store have everything you need?" ALice asked.
"Yes, it'll be expensive but their website says that everything is available in store."
"Let's hope the website wasn't lying," Alice said as she pulled out of the garage.
The drive to the store was a little treacherous as there were several patches of black ice along the route. Alice parked at the back of the lot as the spaces closet to the store were filled up already. Bella quickly grabbed two carts from the nearby cart carousel. Alice took the cart from bella along with the list and trudged headlong into the only grocery store in forks open on Christmas Eve morning. She made the loop around the store like Esme did as it allowed them to get everything as quickly and efficiently as possible. Bella was able to find everything for Snowball's formula as well as a few stuffed toys for him.
"Okay let's double check and make sure we have everything," Alice said pausing near the small selection of books the store offered.
"Everything in the basket of my cart is for your mom. Everything in the seat part of the cart is for me," Bella replied.
"It's no problem," Alice said as she methodically went through the list and marked everything off. "The only thing we are missing is that sixth bag of tater-tots but they didn't have any in the back and I'm sure we have a bag at home that we can use."
"I'm going to head through the check out first that way we can get my stuff paid for and out of the way," Bella said.
Alice nodded that she understood. The check out took longer than they wanted because one of the items wasn't ringing up correctly until the cashier finally called for the manager to help. Both carts were both piled high with bags of the fabric variety as Alice made sure to keep several in her car since she didn't like the use of plastic bags that were so flimsy and harmful to the environment.
The moment they pulled into the garage Esme was out of the house in her apron to help carrying in bags into the kitchen. Esme, Alice and Bella were the only ones to carry the bags inside even though Sasha and her family except Kate had been in the home as well.
Once everything was put away where Esme wanted it Bella go to work on Snowball's formula since he was bound to need it soon if not now. She found the bottle she had put the formula in and cleaned it out for another batch of formula. One she was done cleaned the bottle she quickly made another batch of the formula and even labeled it with a label maker she had found in Esme's study and wrote that the bottle contained formula for a kitten. She debated on setting up a hidden camera to see if who ever drank or dumped the formula but decided against it and went to feed her cat.
Snowball was awake and meowing when she reached Alice's room. Bella went right to work feeding him and he took each and every drop of formula Bella had for him in the bottle. Once she was done feeding Snowball Bella kept a hold of him as she quickly switched out his dirty towel for a clean one before putting him back into the box. Snowball quickly snuggled up to a fold in the towel and fell back asleep.
"Hey Bella, this got lost in one of those bags."
Bella looked up from Snowball to see Alice's cousin Kate standing in the door way holding up the little Garfield catnip toy she bought for Snowball. Bella stood up and walked over to Kate.
"You didn't have to bring it up. I would have gotten it later."
"It was no problem. I wanted an excuse to come up and see the little guy," Kate replied. "Garret and I fostered a litter of kittens that lost their mom to the harsh weather."
"Of course you can see him. I would let you hold him but he just fell back asleep."
"That is okay. He is so cute, I can not believe my sister threw a fit over this little guy," Kate said.
"How are the kittens you took care of doing?" Bella asked.
"We lost all but two and they were adopted into the same fur-ever family so they get to live their lives out with each other."
"That's nice but I have to say that..."
"I am nothing like my sisters, I know. You would not be the first person to tell me that," Kate replied. "Honestly the only reason Garret and I are even here for Christmas this year is because he got a great job offer in England and he couldn't pass it up."
"Good luck," Bella replied.
"Thanks, I am going to go and avoid my sisters by binge watching Game of Thrones with my husband before he watches another episode without me."
Bella just awkwardly waved as Kate left the room. Bella checked on Snowball one last time before heading back down to the kitchen to help Esme and Alice with their Christmas Casserole makings.
"Esme how come I never saw you make these while we were still in school?"
"Oh I made most of them over night since Alice and Edward were always so busy even during the holidays," Esme replied.
"One year she even used the ones for us that she had put away in the deep freezer," Alice said. "Are we doing the soup kitchen this year?"
"Yes, I have twenty casseroles ear marked for them and two for every one else."
"That is a lot of casseroles," Bella replied.
"That is why we must get to work," Esme said as she shoved an empty casserole pan in front of her. "Start pealing potatoes. Alice you start on the onions."
Eight hours later Bella, Alice and Esme were packing the casseroles two per bag with the family's name and address written on them and then placed into a card board box. The only difference was the soup kitchen order that had been placed directly into card board boxes.
"Are you sure you don't want us to help?" Alice asked.
"No, I need you girls to get started on breakfast. With Sashas dietary needs Christmas Eve dinner is harder to fix this year."
"We'll get it started," Alice said. "It's full English right?"
"Yes," Esme said as she climbed into the car. "There is a list taped to the refrigerator."
Esme waved and then drove out of the Cullen's front gate. Bella and Alice returned to the kitchen to start prepping for dinner which would be a full English breakfast a Cullen family tradition started by their great great grandmother when she game over from England. They were in the middle of making biscuits when the door bell rang.
"Bella could you get that?"Alice asked. "I'm elbow deep in dough over here."
"Sure, add a little more flour it's looking a little sticky," Bella said.
Bella opened the door to see a delivery man with an edible arrangement standing there.
"Is there an Isabella Swan home?" He asked.
"I'm Isabella," Bella replied.
The man shoved the arrangement into her hands and quickly ran back to his van before Bella could register what had happened. She looked closer at the arrangement and was happy to see a card among all of the cut up fruit. She carried the basket to the kitchen after closing the front door.
"Who is that for?" Alice asked.
"Me," Bella replied. "I think it's from my Secret Santa."
"Well hurry up and get the car out," Alice replied.
Bella did as Alice requested and pulled the simple envelope from inside the arrangement and pulled the beautifully drawn card from inside the envelope. There was no note but the image looked to be hand drawn.
"So who sent it?" Alice asked.
"I have no idea," Bella replied. "It's just a hand drawn picture."
Bella showed Alice the image before setting the arrangement down on a spare section of counter space. She plucked a chocolate covered Mellon ball from the arrangement and ate it before taking the card back from Alice.
"Kind of sucks that you don't know who sent it," Alice said. "But I think that card is a hint at who it might be."
"I'd say your right," Bella said. "What is left for us to make?"
"We've gotten everything but the meat but mom wants to wait until closer to dinner for us to start but you could make the gingerbread dough for the decorating contest."
"You and Edward did get into a big fight over it last year," Bella replied.
"He freaking cheated and you know he did," Alice replied.
Bella just rolled her eyes as she started work on the gingerbread cookie dough. She was making it batches as tiring to make one huge batch it didn't turn out right. Edward and Jasper showed up just after She and Alice finished pre making the breakfast dinner and the gingerbread cookie dough.
"Alice when is mom supposed to be back?" Edward asked.
"As soon as she is done making her deliveries and It'll be time for dinner by then," Alice replied. "And then after dinner it's the cookie contest and you are so going down this year. Where have you and Jasper been anyway? I have hardly seen you two."
"Mom had us go check on the cabin since we were able to head out their this year because of the storms," Edward said. "And you should ask Jasper how bad it was."
"It was crazy," Jasper added. "I'm going to shower to warm myself up. If we have to go out again we are taking the snowmobile."
"We don't have one," Edward said.
"You should get one," Jasper said as headed up the stairs. "It would make doing things at the cabin a whole lot easier."
"He's right," Bella said. "A snowmobile would make things easier but you would also have to make sure you had enough gas and or battery power to run it. You'd be SOL if any of them ran out."
"True, and you are so on with the cookie contest Alice." Edward said.
"Alice, I'm going to check on Snowball, the timer just went off," Bella said.
"Okay, let me know if you need anything."
Bella gave a quick reply and followed Jasper up the stairs. She caught sight of Jasper messing around on his laptop instead of taking the shower like he said he was going to do. She paused and knocked on the door frame causing him to jump.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," Bella said. "I thought you were going to take a shower?"
"I am, I was just looking up ideas on how to present my gift for Alice. My only idea didn't work out so now I'm at a loss of what to do."
"Look up idea's until you find one or an idea comes to you," Bella replied. "I'll help you as best I can but it has to come from you otherwise it won't mean anything."
"I knew I should have come up with a back up idea," Jasper replied. "The tree thing was all I had planned."
"I think she will love it no matter what you do and I would love to stay here and help you but I have a kitten to feed," Bella said.
"And I have a shower to take," Jasper replied. "I will come run an idea by you because I don't want to accidentally use something Alice secretly hates."
"Good idea," Bella said. "Don't forget you always got her family to ask."
"I'm trying to avoid that," Jasper replied.
"Good luck."
Bella left Jasper to his own devices and found Snowball awake and walking around his box calling out for food. Bella gently picked him up and began to feed him. Snowball took every thing in his bottle and would have taken more if Bella let him. She made sure he was free of gas and that his blanket was clean before placing him back into the box.
After taking care of Snowball she turned around and took care of herself by getting ready for dinner. She had heard Esme arrive home while she was feeding Snowball. Once she was ready Bella headed down stairs to help Esme with the rest of breakfast as she and Alice only worked on things that could be pre-made, the meat and a few other things had to wait until just before it was about to be served.
"Thank you for your help today," Esme said as she turned off the stove cooking the last bit of bacon.
"It was nothing," Bella replied. "I enjoy cooking."
"I can see that. Why didn't you go to a culinary school?"
"Cooking relaxes me and I didn't want it to become the thing that caused me to stress," Bella explained. "That could change in the future but for now its just something I love to do outside of work and school."
"You Bella, do cooking like I do gardening, why do you think our property looks like a mini-balmoral slash Windsor castle instead of you're average home."
"Oh I thought that you and Carlisle just wanted your own castle."
"That we did it took us years to build because we couldn't decided on what plan to use."
"It's a bit ostentatious if you ask me," Sasha said. "Twelve bedrooms and you only use four unless you invite family over for a holiday."
"We chose this one so it could be added to and turned into a bed and breakfast later," Esme said. "After all your brother and I want something we could do after we retire."
"Bed and breakfast is a good idea," Bella said. "It also explains some of the design choices."
"Thank you," Esme said as she started to carry the bacon out to the table.
Dinner went pretty quickly considering how long it took to make everything. Bella of course helped Esme clean up after breakfast dinner and prep the kitchen for baking the cookies. Bella watched as Esme took some of the dough measure it and cut it before placing the pieces on to a cookie sheet and placing it in the oven. Once every bit of the dough was baked they had to wait to decorate them as they were to hot.
Waiting for the cookies to cool gave them the opportunity to attend the candlelight service the church choose to put on this year for the people who wanted a Christmas Eve service without having to attend the midnight mass at the Catholic church. The service lasted nearly two hours with most of it being singing and the candle ceremony. The sermon was so short that Bella wasn't even sure what the subject of it was.
After arriving back at the Cullen home after the service the cookies were cooled enough to be decorated. Esme me quickly whipped up the icing before setting up for the cookie contest before letting anyone else into the kitchen.
"You have three different Gingerbread people to decorate as well as a ginger bread house nothing offensive maybe used," Esme said. "You now have an to decorate."
Esme pressed start on her iPhone's time and began decorating her own army of gingerbread people. Bella went basic with her design she couldn't help but watch at how compatible Alice and Edward got over a simple contest where all you one was the chance to be the first one to open the Christmas Eve gift. Even with Edward and Alice being so competing it was Jaspers quick but methodical decorating that had Bella watching him. He hid himself behind a spice rack that Esme always kept on the counter and he wouldn't let anyone look at what he was doing but when he reached into his pocket and pulled something shiny out Bella finally knew what she was doing. She picked up her plate of cookies and carried them over next to him under the guise of using the candy that was closest to him.
"Good work," Bella said looking closer at the cookies Jasper had been working with. "What gave you the idea?"
"I still had no idea what I was going to do until I saw Esme put these little balls of foil and placed the little guys arms against it."
"For what it's worth I think she will love it," Bella replied.
"I hope so."
"Hey what are you two talking about over there?" Alice asked.
"Nothing I was just telling Jasper that I think he has this contest in the bag," Bella replied.
"Oh really? Let me see."
"No peaking until your mom calls time," Jasper said. "I don't want Edward or you cheating."
"I don't cheat," Alice said. "Edward is the one that cheats."
"No one will be cheating," Esme said. "You have two minutes left on the clock."
Bella finished putting the candy on her cookies and set them up on the serving dish Esme had out and waited until for the clock to run out. Bella pulled out her phone and started to record. She knew Alice would want what is coming up to be filmed.
"Okay Alice show us your cookies," Esme said.
Alice lifted her plate up to show us her gingerbread people and the house. She had gone classic gingerbread. Next was Edward and his gingerbread men were smothered in green and red icing and candy.
"Okay Bella your turn," Esme said.
"I'm not in on this contest my cookies are already on the serving tray," Bella replied. "Jasper is next."
"Fine Jasper please show ups what you did," Esme said.
Jasper picked up his plate of decorated cookies and very carefully carried them over to where Esme and Alice were standing and set them down. He made sure that Alice couldn't see the cookie with the ring.
"How did you do that?" Alice asked.
"Those cookie videos are always popping up on my time line,"Jasper replied. "So I decided to give it a try doing this."
"Oh my they look like Santa and Mrs. Claus," Alice said. "Can I move them?"
"Of course," Esme said. "We need to put them on the tray."
Alice slowly moved the cookies onto the tray like her mother explained. She stopped as she started to move the second cookie. She spotted the ring for the very first time. She was speechless.
Jasper moved another cookie so the whole ring holder cookie could be seen. Alice jumped back in shock. Her hands went over her mouth as she said oh my g-d over and over again.
"So are you going to answer?" Jasper asked. "I'd hate to do all that work and not get one."
"Yes," Alice replied. "Of course I'll marry you."
Jasper took the ring off the cookie and put it on to Alice's shaking ring finger before kissing her. Bella stopped recording once Alice and Jasper pulled a part.
"Who knew about this?" Alice asked.
"I've only known for a few days," Bella replied. "He wanted my opinion on your ring."
"What is with the commotion?" Sasha asked. "Do any of you know what time it is?"
"Yes we don't so do you," Esme said. "I gave you a list of things that you were invited to join in on and you have turned down every chance to do so. Now if you don't mind its time to open the Christmas Eve gift I send yours put o your room."
"I'll go get dad from his office," Edward said.
Edward left for his father's office while Bella, Esme, Alice and Jasper sat down in the family room, Edward and Carlisle followed suit. Esme handed each person a box. Jasper was the first to open since he won the contest. After Jasper opened his gift of Batman footed pajamas for adults everyone else opened theirs going from oldest to youngest leavening Bella to be the last one to open her gift. Bella opened her box to see a set of Wonder Woman pajamas. Esme clearly went for a super hero theme for the pajamas this year. Edward got Captain America. Alice got Harley Quinn even though she was technically a villain. Carlisle got Wolverine while Esme got Jean Grey themed pajamas which had been kind of hard to find.