Santana sighs audibly at another lull in the conversation. Everything on the table looked perfect, from the Christmas Eve ham to the homemade buttermilk rolls. She had wanted tonight to be special, something for the kids to remember. Instead, her kids acted like they were being punished. Bela hadn't looked up from her plate in hours and Max had been in a sour mood all day. Even CJ had picked up on the discomfort and was carefully picking at his dinner quietly.

Why had she thought this was a good idea? Instead of the huge Christmas Eve bash that she was practically famous for, she had decided for something small, just her, Charlie and the kids. Tomorrow was already going to be stressful enough with the entire extended family making the trip. That had been the plan. She thought it might be nice for them to start working things out so the kids had a little more stability between their warring parents. She even had tried to invite him over herself, only to have him avoid her calls. Infuriated, she had invited Sebastian to come instead.

That had been a mistake. Clearly. The kids, Max especially, clearly weren't ready for a guest at their family dinners. But it had been too late to change her mind.

Sebastian frowns at the droop in Santana's shoulders. He knew she had been worried about how the kids would handle a family dinner with all of them and feels bad that it's not going as well as she wanted it to. He gulps, plasters on the warmest smile he can muster and tries to helpfully clear the silence. "So I hope it's okay, but I got each of you kids a little something."

"No thanks."

"Oh." Sebastian scratches his brow. How the hell was he supposed to respond to that? What kid wasn't excited for Christmas presents?

Santana put down her fork. "Don't be rude, Max. That's really nice of you Sebastian." She offers him a grateful smile at the attempt. "Right Bela?"

"Sure." Bela agrees half-heartedly.

"My dad will get me better stuff than you ever could." Max mutters angrily. Christmas was supposed to be a time for family and Sebastian was dumb. Why was he even here? It was probably his fault that Max's dad didn't show up. Max had tried calling him twice and Charlie hadn't answered. He scowls at Bela who elbows him.

"Enough." Santana threw her napkin down and stood. She was sick of Max's defiant attitude, "You don't get to be rude to guests. Go to your room."

Max tosses his fork and knife onto his plate loudly and pushes his chair back before stomping upstairs. "I'd rather be with dad," he mutters loudly as he passes his mom.

Santana stiffens, she had grossly overreached here by inviting Sebastian. She can feel his eyes on her and she forces a smile to her lips. "Just what I need more teenage angst."

"He's—seven," Sebastian reminded her. He reached over to touch her hand gently, noting how she immediately pulled away. "Christmas is a big time and I think that maybe I should let you and your family enjoy it. I'm not—I'm not going anywhere if you don't want me too."

Santana's jaw clenched for a moment, she couldn't force her kids to like him. Between the three of them CJ liked Sebastian the most and she wasn't quite sure if that counted. Her son liked a lot of things that were bad for him. She lets out a sigh, "I'm sorry. I thought—"

"It's fine." Sebastian assures. This was what he signed up for when they started dating. He moves to give her a quick peck on the lips but thinks better of it at the last minute and instead offers a quick kiss to her cheek. "See you tomorrow?"

She nods and stands to walk him to the door, her mind racing with every step. She gives him a quick kiss goodbye and sighs as she closes the door behind her. She sighs as she closes the door and leans against it. How the hell was she supposed to handle this? Max was lashing out and angry, but she couldn't help but feel like it was her fault. She had pushed too much too soon.

Still, his behavior was unacceptable. Focusing on that, she strode confidently up the stairs toward his room, pausing when Max's voice came through the open door. "—but he's dumb."

'Buddy, no matter what, I'm always going to be your dad. Even if your mom is dating a putz. You and me, we're a team, okay?'

Santana frowns as Charlie's comment comes through loud and clear and Max cackles with glee. Was this why her son had been a little shit? Because Charlie couldn't be enough of an adult to tell him to be polite?

"Do you think I should apologize?"

'To your mom?' Charlie pauses for a moment and Santana can practically hear the gears in his head turning before he sighs. 'Yeah, you should. You may not like him, and he may be a putz, but your mom is your mom, and you need to respect her and you need to be nice to her guests. But to Sebastian? No way.'

Max laughs again. "I miss you."

'I miss you too. Just don't tell your mom we talked, okay? It's our secret.'

"Cool." Max agrees, flopping back on his bed.

Santana bites her lip, well Max probably was never going to respect Sebastian as any type of authoritative figure hopefully he would take his father's words to heart and there would be fewer outbursts. She didn't think she could handle both Max and Bela having outbursts anymore. "Max?" She pushes his door open. Charlie hadn't handled it perfectly and she doubted he would ever give his blessing. She watched as Max tossed her old tablet on his bed. "Talking to dad?"

"He's not picking up," Max lies and huffs. "I'm sorry I was rude."

Santana sighs and takes a seat beside him on his bed. "You were very rude, I'm not dating Sebastian to be a replacement for your father. He's just trying to get you to like him—"

"I don't want to like him. I don't like him, he's dumb."

Santana lets out a patient sigh, "He's a doctor Max, I doubt he's dumb. But I think you should just give him a chance. He's not going to be your dad, and I'm not planning on marrying him."

"He's your boyfriend—"

"He will never replace your dad, Max. If I do get married again to someone else, then I promise that you won't ever have to call him dad, unless you want to. I'm not trying to erase your dad from your life Max, I promise—"

"Then why did you get rid of all his stuff?" Max frowned. "His shoes, and his cars and his pictures and everything! He still has pictures of you and and—well his ring got stolen but he had it! And he was super angry when it disappeared, that's why Bela's being punished that's what she said—"

Santana pressed her finger against Max's lip silencing him. "Your sister got grounded because she threw a party that got out of hand. She lied to me and abused your father's trust in her. As for your father's stuff—maybe I shouldn't have gotten rid of most of it, but I was very angry and when you're angry you sometimes do stuff that you regret. I—see how it might have looked like I was trying to erase your dad but—it's difficult for me sometimes to be around all that stuff. It reminds me of him and a lot of times that makes me sad."

"But he said he was sorry." Max protests.

Santana sighs. "It's not that simple Max, I know—sometimes I wish it was that simple. But you're seven you shouldn't be worrying about your mom and your dad. So how about we go downstairs now and finish dinner and then we can go watch cheesy Christmas movies alright? Remember Santa is coming tonight so we all need to go to bed early tonight so he can come and give us presents."

Max's eyes widened. "Did you get the good cookies?"

"Yes and the terribly unhealthy milk." Santana shook her head. Her son nodded pleased at this and she sighed trying to hide her smile as Max hugged her tightly before heading downstairs. She could make it through this holiday.

~O~

Santana checked her clock once more, it was just after four am and she hadn't been able to sleep. Which was fine, because it was Christmas Max and Bela were probably going to rush into her room and drag her out of bed so that they could see if Santa had come. Well, Max would rush in while dragging Bela with him, she was nearly twelve after all and didn't believe in Santa anymore. It was something Charlie had started from the time he had deemed that Bela was old enough to enjoy Christmas. CJ was still about a year out from being able to enjoy the full Christmas experience, but they would get there.

She shifted on her bed turning over so she wasn't staring at the clock, hoping that it would make time go faster. Charlie had gone above and beyond to make sure the kids had everything they wanted and needed. Bela certainly didn't seem in the doghouse with all the gifts that she had received from her dad. All of which had been wrapped perfectly and delivered by a few days ago. She had spent a good portion of the night putting the gifts under the tree and arranging it so it didn't topple everything over.

Today was going to be one of those days, and even though she had already done most of the food prep it didn't stop how much work she needed to do today. Her parents were making the trip up with Judy to give the kids their presents and join in the festivities. Brittany would probably show up with Mike for free food sooner or later. Quinn and Rachel would probably show up with even more presents for the kids, before they would go and spend the rest of the day with Rachel's parents. Then there was Sebastian. There was a large part of her that questioned her decision to even invite him especially after Max's outburst.

But if Max's birthday party had been difficult, this week had been demonstrably worse. He had only spoken to her once and that was to arrange a time for the gifts to be delivered so Max and Bela didn't see them. The conversation had been curt and simply to the point before he had hung up after getting the details from her. She hadn't been able to get a word in edgewise. She certainly hadn't been able to extend an invitation to him to join in the festivities for today either. She did understand that he was recovering from his broken nose, but that still wasn't an excuse to sort of fall off the face of the Earth. Max had only gotten him one or two times this week, and the conversations had been short. Bela was still probably avoiding her father to some degree, only calling him when she absolutely need to.

The idea that Charlie would simply get over this was beginning to ring a little false. She had no idea what was running through his mind. Max and CJ were his, but she had to wonder if he was questioning everything. He already assumed that she had only married him because he was going to be an NBA player. He doubted that she had ever loved him and he couldn't be farther from the truth. Maybe she should have said no when he had proposed, they could have waited, but he had never made her feel anything other than loved and cared for. Even when he had proposed, it wasn't about the fact that she was pregnant, he had simply loved her and wanted to spend the rest of his life beside her. Though after she had yes, he had gotten super serious and informed her belly that she had said yes and that they were going to be a family. He had loved Isabela since he had found out that she was pregnant.

Maybe she hadn't wanted to burst that bubble that he had. She had been terrified that she was going to lose him. With Russell whispering in his ear, it had been a real possibility and a DNA test would have proven that Bela wasn't his. With Russell in his life it had pushed her to make decisions to protect herself, to make sure she didn't come back to Lima in disgrace. That even if Russell won, that she'd still be able to stand on her two feet.

Santana sighs and rolls over again reaching for her phone and tapping the screen. She hesitates for a moment before unlocking it and dialing his number. They were divorced, that was fine but she didn't want him to hate her. She waits for a second, but it immediately goes to voicemail and she groans flopping on the pillow. He either had his phone off or he had blocked her number. She'd try on Bela's phone later.

~O~

Bela covered her ears as CJ shrieked as he grabbed some of the torn wrapping paper and threw it in the air making it rain down all over them. She hadn't expected all this stuff, a new computer from Charlie—her dad. She had thought that she wasn't going to get any presents from him this year, but there were still ten or more gifts with her name on it from 'Santa'. She had come to the realization that the red 'Santa' presents were from her mother and the silver ones were from her dad. Her mom had then wrapped up her personal presents in green. While her dad's presents were the golden ones that had clearly not been professionally wrapped. She touched one, "Well, he tried again," Bela laughs looking at her mom.

"It's probably because he has such big hands," Santana shook her head, glad that the kids weren't depressed that he wasn't there. "He really should just invest in those gift bags." She looks over at CJ to make sure he wasn't getting to close to the tree to start knocking off ornaments. She had already lost five with him trying to eat them. "CJ! Over here let's open your next present okay? Let's see what Santa brought you apart from all these new books and DVDs. Max can you help? The big one please?"

Max got up, from where he was looking at his newest pair of Jordans with a huge grin on his face. He didn't even mind that CJ was getting bigger presents. He counted three gifts from his dad, two from his mom and a pile of presents from Santa. He grunts as he pushes the box towards his mom, wondering what could be inside. "Here you go mom."

Santana tries not to grimace at the huge box, it had been a pain to hide it, but it was a good thing that the kids never really went into the laundry room. It had also been a pain in the ass to get the present under the tree—or at the very least beside the tree. "Come on CJ, lets see what Santa got you," she calls again as CJ stumbles over and touches the box while looking at her. She plucks the bow off the top and puts it on CJ's head causing him to giggle and start attempting to open his present. He struggles for a few minutes before Max helps him pull off the paper to delighted squeals.

"COOL! Bela! Look at what Santa brought for CJ!" Max's voice boomed through the room as Bela shifted and looked at the box.

"No way, he got a replica of dad's Shelby? That's actually pretty cool," Bela said getting up to rip open the rest of the packaging. "It even has a little trunk that you can put your stuff in CJ, isn't that cool—though I mean dad's making sure that you never ever have to walk again if you don't want to."

"Because that's the best way to make sure my son hits his developmental milestones." Santana mutters to herself.

"Cool." CJ offers Max a toothy grin, looking at his older brother who immediately pats him on the head.

"Can we open it?" Max is almost more excited at CJ's present than he is with his own. This is so cool.

Santana sighs. "Maybe later once abuelo is here." At least she can make her dad put this whole thing together. If her suspicions are correct, there will probably be more ridiculous gifts for him to put together. Of course she had gotten her son educational things, like books and stuff but Charlie had once again gone for flash and very little substance.

"Alright—my turn!" Max said reaching for one of his dad's presents, he laughs at how badly it's wrapped before tearing it open. His jaw dropping as he notices the box containing an iPhone. "I GOT A PHONE!"

Santana grins while thinking of all the ways this was an epic disaster. She should have gone with her first instinct and re-wrapped all of Charlie's presents. Then she could have filtered through the completely unreasonable gifts. Max was seven. He didn't need a phone, who was he going to call? "That's great." She lied.

"Can I call dad on it! I can take pictures right! And do facetime with it right?" Max asks as he looks at Bela pouting immediately.

"I'll help you set it up when I set up my new one." Bela smiles at him. Eying the box it didn't have it's plastic wrap around it so it meant that their dad had probably opened it already. "But uh—maybe you should check and try and call dad on it."

Max looks at his phone and opens the box carefully, it's already in a case that's designed to look like his dad's jersey and even has his number on it. He pokes the home button and it lights up and he grins noting that it has a picture of him with his dad on it and he quickly unlocks it. "I've got to call him!" He goes to his contacts and grins when he finds his dad's number and quickly dials it.

'Hey guys!' Charlie answers on the first ring and Santana was pretty sure he had been waiting for the call. 'Did Santa come?'

Max grins and starts talking about a mile a minute. "Yeah, but Dad. You got me a phone. That's so awesome!"

'I did.' Charlie agrees. 'But there's one more present that it looks like Santa dropped off at my place. I tripped over it this morning when I went to make my morning tea.'

"Really? What is it?"

'I'm not sure. I'm going to text a picture to you and Bela, maybe you guys can tell me what it is?' He suggested, playfully drawing this out as long as he could.

Max was nearly dancing with excitement, until he feels his phone buzz along sides Bela's phone. He quickly checks his messages and he nearly drops his phone. He scrambles as he sits down. "No. way."

Santana frowns moving to see what had gotten both her kids speechless. "What did Santa bring—" Her own jaw drops and she resists the urge to simply grab Max's new phone and go on angry tirade against her ex-husband on how he could be so irresponsible.

"You got us a dune buggy?" Bela eyed it excitedly.

'No of course not, Santa did obviously.' Charlie sniffed looking at Max. "This summer we can maybe head to the beach and try it out together."

"Over my dead body." Santana mutters but the kids are too engrossed in Charlie and their gifts to notice. She shook her head frustrated and wondered why she should be surprised. Once again, Charlie had won some contest she wasn't even aware they were having. But for the next year they would look at all this stuff and point out to their friends how much more he loved them. Never mind the fact that she did most of the work—making sure they had lunches and dinner ready every night. No, Charlie would swoop in with a few toys and be the hero only to miss basketball games and award ceremonies and leave a trail of tears in his wake.

"Well, I need to move this thing out of the way," Charlie said stretching a bit. "Enjoy your Christmas guys, you'll be able to see the dune buggy next time you come stay with me alright? Oh and Bela don't forget." Charlie reminds his daughter.

Santana narrowed her eyes, "Don't forget what?"

Bela shook her head, "That I can't shirk off my responsibilities just because it's Christmas," she lied with ease, as she nudged her brother. Max stared at her blankly and she sighed wondering why he was so slow. "I'm going to put some of my stuff in my room, I'll be right back. Max can you help?"

"I'm playing with my phone." Max turned back to his new toy.

Bela rolls her eyes. "Max. Come on."

Max grunts but stands to follow Bela down the hall to her room. Santana chuckles when she hears an 'Oh yeah.' Come from her son and momentarily wonders what the big deal is. She momentarily hopes that they aren't staging some coup because she's not sure she can handle the two of them working together. It only takes them a few moments before they're back with Max carrying a gift wrapped gift.

"We—"

"I got you something!" Max said proudly holding up the thin present puffing out his chest, interrupting Bela and glaring at her. "I paid for it."

"Taking dad's credit card and handing it to the cashier does not mean that you paid for it," Bela snaps at him shoving him gently. She flicks her attention back to mom.

"Yes it does! Dad said so." Max insists.

Bela rolled her eyes. "Fine but I designed it then," she crosses her arms over her chest looking at him as if daring him to contradict her statement.

Max shrugged and handed the gift to his mom, "Merry Christmas mom! Santa only gives presents to kids so we had to get you something."

Santana accepted the small box, glad that even though she hadn't been able to get a hold of Charlie she had sent Charlie's present through a delivery service that guaranteed they would deliver it by today. The kids—or more accurately, Bela—had helped her pick out a suit for the All-star fashion show and Santana couldn't help but sneak in her own present for Charlie. "Thank you."

"You don't even know what it is yet." Max pointed out.

"But it's from you three, so no matter what it is, I will love it." Santana assured even a she began to open the present. Stopping when she noticed the light blue box with the Tiffany's label written across it. She bit her lip, you didn't just wrap up Tiffany boxes, they for the most came in present form. But it was Charlie and he probably didn't know that and no one had bothered to tell him not to do anything of the sort, but it was the thought that counted and he probably hadn't wanted to ruin the surprise. She opens the box, taking a quick peek.

Her heart melts at the white gold circular pendant necklace. In the center it has intricate filigree dotted with five different colored stones, three on the outside and two directly in the middle. She vaguely recognizes her own birthstone next to Charlie's in the middle. All three of her children's names are written along a band that circumscribes the pendant and each kid's name is positioned next to their own birthstone. "This is gorgeous."

"I told you she'd like it." Bela pokes her brother.

"It's a girl thing," Max said crinkling his nose before pulling his new phone out of his pocket. He wanted to download games onto it. Santana rolled her eyes and flicked Max in the forehead before pulling him close and pressing her lips against his forehead as he squirmed. "Mom!"

"Thank you." Santana repeats reaching for her daughter as CJ immediately tries to squeeze himself into the group hug that's forming. It's almost enough to make her forget about Charlie's absolute refusal to talk to her about the gifts he was giving the kids. Almost. She'd be sure to go and have a long discussion with him before the kids went to see him, at least then maybe they could actually start figuring some things out.