Christmas morning began with Rossi, Garcia, Emma, and Reid, gathered in the great room drinking coffee (heavy on the sugar and cream for Reid) and hot chocolate in front of the decorated Christmas tree.
"How do you want to do this?" Rossi asked. "Eat and then gifts or gifts first?"
"Compromise!" Garcia quickly suggested. "We each open one small gift first, then we eat, and then we open the rest."
"Please?" Emma added.
"Sounds like an idea," Rossi agreed. "And I will go first." He handed an envelope to Garcia and another to Emma.
"Oh Dave!" Garcia exclaimed as she examined the contents. "A day at the spa – Thank You! I have heard of this place and it is supposed to be incredible!"
"A spa?" Emma questioned as she read her matching certificate. "I have never been to one."
"Well, this one has a special package for expectant mothers, as well as another for new mothers," Rossi told her. "So, you can decide when you want to go."
"You will love it!" Garcia told her. "We can get massages, and have our nails done, and our hair," she began planning. "And, they will feed us a healthy lunch. It will be a real Girls' Day Out!"
"Well, if you want to round out the group," Rossi smiled. "I happen to know that both JJ and Blake are getting certificates, too."
"This place isn't going to know what hit them!" Emma declared with a smile. "Thank You, Dave!"
"Now, I'll handle the men," Garcia announced as she pulled out two long, flat boxes and handed one each to Rossi and Reid.
"A tie!" Reid announced as he lifted his gift out of the tissue paper.
"A hand-painted, hand-stitched, custom made for you by yours truly, tie," Garcia corrected him.
"OH WOW!" Reid began carefully examining the fabric.
"Here, let me," Emma took the tie from him, placed it around his neck, and began tying it for him.
"Looks – Sexy!" she purred into his ear before kissing him on it. "Especially when paired with this scruff." She pulled away and ran the back of her hand over his cheeks where he was sporting the beginnings of a beard.
"It does look sexy," Garcia agreed as she began tying Rossi's tie around his neck.
"Not too sexy, I hope," Rossi commented dryly. "I have breakfast in the oven and I would hate to see it burn up before we get around to eating it."
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
The breakfast Rossi had prepared for them consisted of breakfast pizza with a fresh fruit compote. Emma immediately attacked the fruit.
"I am hungry!" she declared. "And, this is something that neither of you will try to stop me from eating."
"You caloric requirements will continue increasing throughout the rest of your pregnancy," Reid began telling her. "You will most likely do well to begin eating several small meals a day as opposed to large ones. And, you also need to concentrate on getting enough protein and fat in your –
"Reid, enough already!" Garcia interrupted him. "It is Christmas Day and Emma is allowed to eat anything she wants."
"Thank you, Penelope," Emma told her friend. "However, just for the record, I do intend to keep things within limits. Although – " she paused to think.
"What?" Rossi smiled. "You have a sudden craving for something exotic?"
"Chocolate!" Emma sang out. "Dark Chocolate - I have a craving for dark chocolate!"
"Well, I do have several boxes of assorted chocolates I received from various agents and reps," Rossi volunteered. "As well as a variety of liquors."
"Brandy?" Emma questioned eagerly.
"Chocolates and brandy and, maybe, a stinky cigar?" Garcia teased.
"If that is what you want," Rossi agreed with a straight face while Reid looked on, horrified.
"That is not a healthy diet for – " he burst out.
"Spencer, we are just kidding!" Emma laughingly reassured him. "Can you imagine me trying to smoke a cigar – or anything else for that matter? I would probably end up sick as a dog!"
"A dog - That's what you need – A dog for the babies!" Garcia declared with a smile.
"Maybe an Old English Sheepdog that they can ride like a pony," Rossi suggested with a grin. "I'll have to put that on my shopping list!'
"Not if you want to continue living!" Emma threatened him.
The ensuing laughter continued through the rest of their breakfast and, before long, everyone was back in front of the Christmas tree ready to resume opening gifts.
"Why don't you start with this?" Reid asked Emma as he handed her a rectangular package.
"Me first?" Emma questioned as she looked around.
"Go ahead!" Garcia encouraged her. "I wrapped that for Spencer and I want to see your face when you open it."
"Okay," Emma began carefully opening the wrapping paper. She soon was holding a cardboard box and she cautiously lifted the top to peer inside it.
"Spencer?" she asked as she saw an engraved wooden top.
"Let me help you," he replied as he reached over her shoulder to lift a wooden jewelry box out of the various layers of protective wrapping.
"Oh My Gosh!" she gasped as she examined the engraving. "Spencer, this is beautiful!"
"You don't have a real jewelry box," he told her. "Just that old wooden box you brought from Las Vegas. And I thought you might need a nicer place to put – this."
He handed her another, much smaller, wrapped box.
"A ring?" Emma questioned as she took the paper off and opened the hinged top.
"A Mother's Ring," Reid corrected her. "I didn't have any stones put in it because we're not really sure when the babies will arrive. But, when the time comes – "
The rest of his comment was lost as Emma enveloped him in a hug.
"Now for you, Kitten." Rossi handed Garcia a tall, rectangular box.
"What?" After opening it, Garcia was staring at what was obviously a custom-made wooden holder of sorts, divided into compartments.
"It's for your hair products," Rossi explained. "Every time you stay here you have to carry your hair stuff in and out of my bathroom. I had this made to fit in a space I have emptied out for you under my bathroom sink and, as soon as the stores open tomorrow, we are going to go shopping and get you everything you need so you can leave it all here permanently. There is also a companion box for your hair decorations. And, there is a corresponding spot under my sink for that, too."
"A space – Dave, you emptied out a space for me?" Garcia questioned, looking wide-eyed at him.
"Now," Rossi continued. "I am not going to ask you to move in with me right now. I know you value your independence far too much and you have commitments with your various groups in the city that you need to handle; but, when the time comes – "
"Oh, Dave!" Garcia threw her arms around his neck and began kissing him.
Each of the men then received a small package with a tag reading 'From The Twins'. When they opened their packages they each found a framed copy of the twin's latest sonogram – Rossi's was in a classic wooden frame while Reid's was in a white ceramic frame decorated with pictures of Dr. Who's Tardis – and also a matching empty frame.
"It looks like your kids know you already," Rossi kidded the father-to-be who was smiling as he examined the Tardis decorations.
"The empty frames are so you will have matching frames for each of the babies after they are born," Emma explained.
Reid's favorite gift, however, was the monogrammed bathrobe Emma had had made up for him. As he tried it on, he realized that he was finally ready to part with the old, patterned, flannel robe he had spent weeks living in while he mourned Maeve.
Rossi, meanwhile, declared that he could not wait to start playing the computer game that Garcia had arranged to have designed and built for him and the two of them soon disappeared into his den, ostensibly to set it up.
