December 25, 2025
Evan spits his toothpaste into the sink and wipes his mouth before shutting off the light. When he steps out of the bathroom, he runs into Avery who's bouncing in place.
"We wake 'em up now?" she asks.
"Gotta brush your teeth first." Evan says as he nudges his sister into the bathroom. "Then yes, we can wake Mama and Daddy up."
Avery hurries into the bathroom and begins brushing her teeth, only doing a good job because Evan is watching her. When she's done, Evan takes her hand and leads her down the stairs and to the door of their parents' bedroom where he makes her wait until he can see the clock flip over to six am. Once the clock changes, Evan nudges Avery into the room and the two of them go running for the bed and climb up, bouncing in an effort to wake their parents up.
"Christmas Christmas!" Avery cries as she bounces by Kate's stomach, accidentally catching Kate's stomach with her knee.
"Ave," Kate gasps as she sits up. "Gentle, baby."
"Sorry, Mama. 'M 'cited."
"I know, Ave," Kate says.
"Merry Christmas, Daddy," Evan says.
"Hi, bud," Castle replies. "Merry Christmas."
Kate and Castle climb out of bed and Castle heads to the kitchen to start coffee while Kate heads to the bathroom to begin her morning routine.
"You're in jail now, guys," she says just before she shuts the bathroom door. "No leaving now."
Evan and Avery nod and hurry under the covers and hunker down to try to warm up. Castle comes back in from the kitchen and takes a moment to tickle Avery until she's cackling with delight. He leaves her to recover and makes his way to where Evan has ducked under the covers, but before he can start tickling his son, Kate opens the bathroom door and steps out.
"You saved Evan, Mama!" Avery cries as Castle stops in his tracks with his hands outreached toward his son. "The tickle monster was going to get Evan!"
"Well, I'm always here to protect the people!" Kate says as she walks to the bed. She climbs over Evan and settles between her kids. "Go brush your teeth, tickle monster."
Castle huffs out a sigh but heads for the bathroom. Kate pulls both kids closer to her and lets them settle in with her.
"When can we leave jail, Mama?" Evan asks as he shifts under the covers.
"When Alexis wakes up and Gram and Grandpa and Ben get here."
"I'm awake," Alexis says as she walks into the bathroom. "Dad start coffee yet?"
"Good morning, Alexis. Coffee's started, should be ready now."
Alexis nods and turns on her heel, heading for the kitchen. "Ben's almost here," she calls over her shoulder.
"Grandpa said he'd be here by 6:30." Evan reminds his mother.
She nods. "He did. And Gram should be here by then too."
Castle comes out of the bathroom then and heads back to Avery's side. He grabs her feet and pulls her out of the bed so that she's hanging upside down and laughing until she's red in the face.
"Castle," Kate sighs as she shifts until she's able to grab Avery beneath the arms and pull her back onto the bed.
"She was in my spot."
"Hardly. Your eldest is awake and in the kitchen. Go make me coffee and stop tormenting your children."
Castle gives Kate a smile and leans in for a kiss before standing straight again and leaving the bedroom. From the bedroom they can hear a knock on the door and then voices talking.
"I'll go see who it is," Kate says as she gets out of bed. "Stay," she says as she points to her kids.
They laugh as they're left alone again, but Alexis quickly returns and calls them to join the rest of the family. "Everyone's here."
Evan and Avery scramble out of the bed and rush to greet their grandparents and Ben. Once hellos are exchanged everyone settles around the fireplace while Evan and Avery go back and forth distributing the gifts from Santa.
When the kids are done handing out gifts, everyone starts opening them, exclaiming over funny bandaids and scarves and everything in between. It doesn't take them all long to get through their gifts from Santa, and when they're done, Castle and Alexis head into the kitchen and start work on breakfast while Evan and Avery hurry to put their things away. When they come back downstairs, Kate and Jim are talking softly together while Ben fiddles with the penguin popper he got from Santa, laughing each time he hits Alexis and she looks over and glares at him.
"Can I try?" Avery asks him as she stands by his side.
Ben nods and hands over the chucker with a smile. "Here you go."
Avery takes the popper and aims it at her brother who's sitting next to their grandfather, but when she squeezes it to release the foam ball she barely misses and hits Jim in the cheek.
Jim looks over and pretends to glare at her, and Avery blushes deeply. "Sorry, Grandpa."
Jim laughs and holds his arms open for Avery who goes running to him. "Sorry," she murmurs as she hugs him tightly.
"It's ok. I figured you weren't aiming for me."
Avery shakes her head. "Nope. I was aiming for Evan."
"You missed," Evan says with a smile.
"I won't next time," Avery retorts.
"Breakfast is ready, everyone!" Castle calls from the kitchen. "Everyone to the table!"
Everyone scrambles off the couch and heads for their seats at the table as the food makes the round.
Once everyone has eaten, Evan and Avery help Alexis clear the table while Castle and Ben wash and dry the dishes. Kate helps put the dishes away and supervises the kids loading the dishwasher, and when everything is put away and the dishwasher has been started, she herds everyone to the couch by the Christmas tree.
"Does everyone have their spots?" she asks as she looks around at her family. Avery and Evan are on the ground and Alexis and Ben are behind them. Jim is occupying his usual seat in the armchair while Martha perches on the piano bench, and Kate and Castle are taking up the opposite end of the couch from Ben and Alexis.
"We're all good, Katie," Jim says.
"Alright. Ev, Ave, disperse."
Evan and Avery smile as they hurry to their feet and once again distribute presents to their family. This round of presents takes longer to pass out than the gifts from Santa had, but it's not too long before they're all seated again and once again opening gifts.
Evan picks up an envelope with his name written in Jim's elegant script and opens it carefully and removes the card. As he reads the message written inside, a piece of paper slips out and into his lap. When he's done reading the short message from his grandfather he glances down at the piece of red paper in his lap.
"Really, Grandpa?" he asks as he looks up with a hopeful smile.
"Yeah, Ev. It's too cold now, but spring break would be a great time to learn, if you don't mind spending it with me."
"Yes!" Evan exclaims as he hurries to his grandfather's side and hugs him tightly.
"What?" Avery asks as she looks between her brother and grandfather.
"Grandpa's gonna teach me how to fish!" Evan says, his excitement causing him to bounce on his toes.
"Gross," Avery says. "Fish are gross."
"You're not invited, Ave," Kate says with a laugh.
"Good." Avery replies as she lifts a small box addressed to her from Ben and Alexis. She quickly tears into the paper and flings it to the side before opening the box within to reveal a pair of daisy earrings. "They're pretty," she breathes.
"It actually comes with a question, Ave," Alexis says as she smiles at her sister. "We got you flower earrings because we want you to be our flower girl for our wedding."
Avery's mouth drops open in surprise and her eyes quickly flick between Alexis and Ben before she nods quickly. "Yeah! Can I, Mama?" she asks as she turns to face Kate.
"Of course, baby."
"We don't really have anything planned," Alexis says. "But we knew we wanted you to be our flower girl. And Evan, we'd like to to be our ring bearer, if you'd like."
"Sure," he replies softly.
Everything is quiet for a bit as the adults begin opening some of their gifts and thanking each other for scarves and mugs and jewelry.
Evan glances at his sister and watches as she lifts the box he'd wrapped for her. She looks at it for a bit before ripping the paper open and pulling the top off the box to throw it off to the side. She pulls back the tissue paper and lifts the book out turning it over.
Ellinore and Sir Rawr are on the front of the book, dressed for an expedition.
"What's that, Avery?" Martha asks.
"It's a book from Evan," she replies. Avery opens the book and begins flipping through it, looking more at the pictures than the words.
"Which book, Avery?" Kate asks.
Avery flips back to the cover and her eyes widen as she looks at her brother who's begun to blush and duck his head.
"What is it?" Ben asks as he looks up from the scarf Alexis gave him.
"Across the Savanna. By E.J. Castle," Avery says as she looks back at the cover and then turns to her brother. "You wrote me a book?"
Evan blushes deeper and nods. "Yeah. Daddy helped me publish it. Sarah drew the pictures."
Avery glances at the cover again and sees that Sarah Grace is indeed credited with the illustration.
"Evan wrote a book?" Ben asks.
"It's 'bout Ellie and Sir Rawr," Evan says, obviously embarrassed to have so much attention focused on him.
Avery scrambles from her spot on the floor and crawls over to her brother to throw her arms around him. "Thanks," she whispers in his ear.
Evan hugs her in response and his blush starts to fade when Kate redirects everyone's attention away from him.
Once all the gifts are opened and everyone is organizing their things, Kate pulls Evan into the kitchen away from everyone and wraps her arms around him.
"That was very sweet of you, Ev," she whispers into his ear.
Evan's blush returns and he looks down at his feet. "You think she likes it?" he asks softly.
Kate nudges his head so that he turns to look at Avery. She's sitting on the couch with all her gifts surrounding her and her nose buried in the book he'd given her.
"That's the second time she's read it, Ev. Hasn't touched anything else."
Evan nods and smiles. "I just wanted to make her something."
"You did, Ev. You did so well."
"Daddy helped."
Kate shrugs. "He may have bound it for you, but you're the one who wrote it. You're the one who thought up the story and put it all together."
"Yeah," Evan murmurs.
"You've got a big heart, Ev. And you take such good care of your sister, and I'm so proud that you're my son," Kate says as she hugs him again.
Evan flushes with pride as he wraps his arms around Kate and hugs her tightly.
"Merry Christmas, Evan," Kate says as she kisses his cheek.
Evan hugs her tighter for a second before he releases her. "Merry Christmas, Mama."
I chose to post a day late so that I could spend all of Christmas with my family. There will be one chapter left, an epilogue of sorts, posted later in the week. Happy Holidays to all of you, and a very Happy New Year as well!
Thanks as always to Lindsey for cheering me on!