Desmond was sitting on the floor with a bunch of his younger cousins in front of the Christmas tree. Desmond was one of the only teenagers in the family. Most of the others were either tweens or younger, or in their twenties. Only his cousin Anna was even close to his age at fifteen, but she and her parents were in Tokyo for Christmas. Probably better that way since a lot of the family disapproved of Anna's dad who was Japanese. They weren't a fan of interracial couples because most of them were bigoted assholes. For that reason most of them didn't like Asia on the principle that she was black.
So Desmond was the lone teenager but he was fine with that. He got along good with his little cousins and his older cousins so it wasn't a big deal.
Everyone was slowly making their way to the main house this morning, the kids no doubt waking up anyone they could. Desmond was tasked with keeping the little kids in order until everyone was awake and a the main house. So he had them playing duck duck goose. So they could run around without actually running all over the house, and help burn off all that extra energy.
In the kitchen some people were bustling around making some things like coffee and tea and Desmond heard them cutting fruit. The front door opened briefly, letting in a shock of cold air Desmond felt even in the livingroom and a few kids complained. Then the door was closed.
"Goose," Nicky tagged him.
Desmond lurched to his feet and Nicky gave a little yelp before taking off around the circle. Desmond let her do two laps before scooping her up. She shrieked as he picked her up and spun her before setting her back down, Nicky laughed the entire time. Desmond then went around the circle.
They played duck duck goose for a while more until the adults started calling each other and telling those who weren't here to get their lazy butts up it was Christmas and the kids were about to tear down the house for want of presents. Everyone eventually showed up and coffee and tea was poured and everyone sat in the livingroom.
David oversaw the presents. Everyone got one before anyone was allowed to open any. David lived full time at the Farm with nanny and pop-pop and made sure nothing happened to them. He basically ran this reunion and made sure there wasn't any fighting. It was impressive since no one had said one rude thing to Asia or given Jamie a snide comment.
Desmond had a feeling it had more to do with the fact that nanny and pop-pop were old and dirt and probably going to die soon than that they'd had a change of heart. No one wanted to be left out of the inheritance. Nanny and pop-pop were surprisingly liberal for old people who lived in South Dakota. Probably because nanny was part Lakota, and so unlike a good portion of the Miles family didn't have a problem with 'colored folks' or interracial marriages. As it was Chloe got a pass because she looked white though she was hispanic and as mixed as could be.
His family was so stupid.
A box with striped wrapping paper was dropped into Desmond's lap. He looked at who it was from. Nanny and pop-pop. It was fairly big, a bit bigger than his lap, but rather thin. When he shook it a little it didn't make any noise. He had no idea what it was.
"Okay, you can open them," David said, though that was mainly for the kids who looked ready to rip off the skin on their faces if they didn't get to rip open the presents. Happy cries from the kids quickly filled the air. Desmond worked on unwrapping his present and his mouth fell open.
"Woah," he said. He had an iPad sitting in his lap. He looked at his grandparents. For being super old both of them were active and with it and modern and even on Facebook (which was more than Desmond could say). Pop-pop winked at him and Desmond's smile grew huge. His grandparents were fucking awesome.
"Who's that from Desmond?" he looked over his shoulder at his mom sitting in a chair behind him.
"Nanny and pop-pop," Desmond said and started to open it. He wanted to go charge it. He heard his mom say something to his dad but wasn't really paying attention. He opened the box and pulled out the sleek iPad and found the charger and scrambled to his feet to find an outlet. he found one by the stairs that led upstairs and plugged it in before going back to the living room.
When he sat down someone handed him two envelopes. He opened the first one and it was a hundred dollars in cash. The other was a visa gift card for a hundred and fifty bucks. In ten seconds he'd earned two hundred and fifty dollars and he knew that was just the start. Buying for kids was easy, they wanted toys. Buying for teenagers or twenty somethings was not. Desmond foresaw getting a lot of money for Christmas this year.
Desmond opened several more envelopes, they all had some sort of money in it. Cash, checks, iTunes gift cards, Amazon gift cards. He racked up about seven hundred bucks pretty quick in various quantities of money in cards or cash or checks. He was pretty stoked about that honestly. Duncan seemed equally thrilled to get a thousand bucks from nanny and pop-pop along with the other money from aunts and uncles and cousins. Desmond was in the same boat as his relatives though. He had money from his job and he'd given the family members he liked (and were young enough to not laugh at him) money. It was easy and it let them get whatever the hell they wanted.
Then another box was put on his lap. This was from his parents. It was long but thin and kinda wide. He laughed when he opened it. "Macbook to go with my iPad?" he asked and turned around to them.
"We had no idea they were getting you that," William huffed.
"It's for school," Chloe added.
"Suuure," he grinned at them.
"You get it now instead of as a graduation present," William said.
"Do you like it?"
Desmond got up and kissed his mom on the cheek and gave his dad a one armed hug, "Love it," he said.
The rest of Desmond's gifts were clothes. Sweaters and gloves he'd never wear after this trip because he lived in Florida. He got some nice stuff though and got a last check of five hundred bucks from David. Desmond had literally made out like a bandit this year. Across all his relatives he'd gotten close to fifteen hundred dollars in money and gift cards. And an iPad, and a Macbook.
Once all the presents had been opened half the family went about throwing all the wrapping paper and boxes away while the other half went to make lunch, since the entire ordeal had lasted longer than expected. Desmond helped with the pick up and threw everything into a garbage can that had been brought into the living room to handle the sheer volume of plastic, cardboard, and gift wrap. When it was all done the kids were left to play with their new toys. Including Desmond.
He went and plugged his new laptop in his room before grabbing his iPad and finding an outlet closer to a comfortable char.
"You like it?" he looked and saw he'd sat right next to pop-pop.
"It's awesome pop-pop," Desmond said and reached over to give him a big hug.
"Good!' pop-pop said, "David said you'd like it."
"David knows where it's at," Desmond said and turned the iPad up. The first thing he did was create a security lock for it so no one could get on it or waste battery.
"I got one too," Duncan called across the living room, squeezed into an armchair with Jamie. "They're the big ones. Nanny and pop-pop did us good this year," Duncan beamed.
"Keep yours away from mine. No doubt it'll be full of weird pictures and viruses in no time," Desmond said and hugged his iPad closer to him. Duncan flipped him off and Jamie punched him in the arm for that and gave him a look that could kill a small animal. Desmond liked Jamie. She kept Duncan in line and controlled that bad mouth of his. Desmond spent the rest of the day on his iPad, stopping only to eat. Probably better that way since it was starting to snow pretty hard outside.
