I can hear Phin's door open in the quiet of the house, and a few seconds later, he knocks softly, and I leap out of bed. It's 5:26 a.m., and we are officially late to wake up Dad.

I pull open the door and hiss at him. "What took you so long?"

"Sorry! I slept in!" he whispers back.

We both shuffle down the hall to Dad's door and pause. My hand grips the knob, and I nod to Phin. He nods back, and slowly, I turn the handle, opening it carefully. Both of us start creeping towards Dad in the middle of his big bed, stretched out and sleeping on his stomach under the covers. It's obvious Dad's awake and just pretending some Christmas mornings, but this year, he is out like a light and snoring a bit. Phin walks around one side, and I walk around the other, and my stomach starts to tickle, staring down at him, knowing what's coming next. Phin counts down with his fingers so I can see, and when they disappear, we both jump into the bed, landing right next to Dad and scream.

"Merry Christmas, Dad!"

He lurches awake and shakes his head, shocked at first but then he chuckles, collapsing back down on the pillow.

"You guys got me this year." He yawns and scratches his stubbly face. "Merry Christmas."

He rolls onto his back, and we scramble under the covers to hug him, one on each side. I put my head on his chest, and I can hear his heart pounding hard from our wake-up call in my ear. He always wears the same thing to bed, sweatpants and no shirt, except on Christmas when he wears pajamas that match ours. Today we're all in green-plaid, and it feels cozy and fun to be dressed for the occasion, even if it's so early in the morning.

We both squeeze him until he gasps, laughing. "Okay! Stop! I'm going to be like a toothpaste tube, and my guts will pop out the top of my head."

I giggle and relax my grip. When we were little, we would crawl into bed with Dad a lot, especially Phin, but we grew out of it. Now, we just like waking him up. He says we're his "adventure alarm clock"—when we wake him, he knows that it's time to get up and have fun.

I'm content to cuddle with him right now while he yawns and rubs the sleep from his eyes. Even in the low light, I can see he has deep circles under his eyes, and I wonder how much sleep he got last night. After the whirlwind of emotions we all had, I wouldn't be surprised if he was up all night.

Dessert could have been awkward last night at Grandpa's, but Mom went into her full fake perky mode, covering the fact that she was upset by keeping the conversation going. We always know when she has a bad day at work because she does this at dinner, suddenly becoming crazy interested in every second we spent at school. The only time she stopped was when she had that first bite of cake, and she seemed completely satisfied for the moment, and I looked over at Dad to see him smirking, as if proud of himself for bringing her that much joy, in cake form. When she took a massive scoop of Pistachio ice cream after, she looked the same, and it made my heart happy, knowing that she could also be thinking about how Dad used to buy it for her when she was pregnant. Grandpa was game to talk with Stosh again, but for the most part, Stosh seemed to avoid conversation with Dad and vice versa.

But then, at the door—where Dad and Mom usually talk about picking us up, and Dad gives her a kiss on the cheek—this year, Dad loaded our presents into the car and Mom stayed back in the living room with Stosh. Dad just gave her a quick wave from the doorway and said he would see her on New Year's Eve around 6ish, and that was that. When Dad spoke to her, Stosh wrapped his arm around Mom's waist, and she didn't even attempt to move closer to Dad or us, forcing us to come to say good-bye to her (and him...ugh) as we left. And you could totally tell, when Dad got in the car, that he was sad about it.

My memory is interrupted when Dad kisses me on the head, then Phin, and pats our shoulders. "You must be getting older. Usually, you've dragged me out of bed to see what Santa brought you by now."

I shift my head into the softness of his shoulder and close my eyes. It's funny, but until Grandpa mentioned it, I had forgotten about the first time we spent the summer with Dad. I mean, we were really young, but I remember how happy we were to see him at the airport, and how he lifted us both up in his arms when he saw us. I remember being scared of the plane ride and wondering why Mom wasn't sitting with us, and then seeing Grandpa and being happy, but when we got home, how sad I was that Mom had 'disappeared', and how I cried and Phin cried harder, and how Dad just held us in his big arms and rocked us until we stopped. How we all slept in the same big bed, so when we woke up crying, Dad could do it all again. And again.

Squeezing him again, I hold back my tears. "It's just cozy, Dad. That's all."

"I didn't sleep very well," Phin says sadly from the other side.

I open my eyes to see Dad kiss Phin on the forehead again, and he sighs. "Me either. You should have come down and done some laps in the pool with me."

"I will next time, Dad."

"Just don't do it alone. If I'm not still awake, come and wake me up and I'll join you, okay Phin?"

"Okay. Sure."

We all lay together for another minute or so before Dad groans and sits up, and we're forced to get up with him.

"Come on. I want to see what Santa got you guys. Those were some awfully heavy presents," he says, and we scoot off the bed. "Had to help him pull them out of his sleigh. Good thing I work out all year, just for this moment."

I giggle and hand him his black robe from the foot of the bed, and he throws it on.

"Did he like the scotch you left for him?"

Dad wiggles his hand back and forth, his lip curling. "Eh. He thought it was a bit peaty for his taste, but he enjoyed it better than the milk he got next door. Especially with the butter tarts, I picked out from the bakery. He said it paired really nicely."

I take Dad's hand, and Phin takes his other one as I lead us out of the room, down the hallway and the stairs. The lights are still on leading to the kitchen and living room, and I get a tickle of excitement in my belly. Really, it's one huge room anyway, so as soon as we hit the kitchen, we can see all the white lights on the tree still lit, reflecting off the silver and gold balls, and I hurry past the big dining room table. When I come around the big leather couch, I gasp at the sight of two massive boxes and one smaller one, set apart from our already opened presents and wrapped up in the red and gold paper. Our red knit stockings are hung from the mantle, and all three are stuffed so full they are stretching.

Phin rushes past me to the box with his name on it and crouches, waiting with wide eyes, until I kneel next to mine.

Dad sits on the ground near us and nods. "Alright. Let's see how Santa spoiled you both this year."

With that, Phin and I rip the paper off our presents, only for us to find two unmarked brown boxes underneath. I frown and pull the tape off that one, pull back the flaps and reach inside to pull out the movie theatre LEGO set, and I'm so surprised and excited that I'm speechless. But it's not the only thing in there, and I pull out another box with the shopping mall, then the bookshop, and finally the diner.

"I got the Lego Death Star!" Phin yells, nearly falling over as he pulls out the massive box. With a grunt, he drops it to the ground and looks inside again. "And the Ewok Village! Wow!"

"I think these are all the ones I need to finish my Lego City!" I say and line them up on the coffee table to look at them better. "Santa rocks!"

Phin yanks the second Lego set out of the box, then looks at the ceiling and yells, "THANK YOU, SANTA!"

I cover my ears and shake my head as Dad laughs. "That definitely made it to the North Pole, Phin."

He reaches for the box with his name on it and lifts it, shaking it in the air. It's smaller than our presents, but it still sounds like the same thing. And when Dad rips the paper off it, Phin and I start to laugh.

"Santa brought me the Lego Millenium Falcon!" Dad exclaims with all the excitement of a small child. "This is AWESOME! I always wanted this!"

"Lemme see," Phin says and crawls over me to get to Dad as I shriek and swat his butt when he goes by.

Dad presses the huge box to his chest and shakes his head. "No! This one is all for me! All for meeeeee!" He laughs, and I burst out laughing too as Phin swipes at it.

"I thought you were on the naughty list this year?"

"Nope! Worked my way off! And now I get this!"

Dodging him, Dad drops the box with a thud and yanks Phin onto his lap as Phin laughs and laughs. I crawl away from my presents towards Dad, and he leans over to grab me too, and suddenly we're a big pile of giggling mess on the ground.

"But you're a grown-up!" Phin laughs.

"Says who?" Dad exclaims, and he gets us in a tight grip while we scream and wiggle.

He kisses my head, then Phin's, before releasing us, and we wobble to our feet and get our stockings while he rights himself again.

I grab my stocking off the hook, and Phin grabs his and Dad's, and we bring them back to where Dad is sitting, and we join him again. Phin hands Dad his stocking, and Dad smiles, waiting until we're ready before he starts to pull things from his.

"One. Two…" Phin starts.

"Three!" I end, and we both dump our stockings on the ground.

Dad just chuckles as the contents land in a pile in front of each of us, continuing to pull out things like colourful socks and ties from his.

"More makeup!" I squeal and pull out the compact from its box, with the big YSL logo on the front. It's filled with small circles of sparkling eye shadows, and I'm dazzled by how beautiful they are. "Stella and I are going to have so much fun with this."

"Well, if this is the direction things are going…" Dad states with a heavy sigh. "I'll talk to your Mom, and maybe she'll let me take you to see Grandma Lynn's old makeup artist in L.A. this summer, once you turn 11. She can teach you everything you need to know about the stuff because I sure can't."

"Oh my gosh! That would be the best!" I clasp my hands together as my stomach does happy flip flops. "Thank you! I mean, Stella and I have been figuring it out, but Mom's not too big on fun makeup, you know? So that would be so cool."

Dad laughs and shakes his head. "I don't think your Mom can go to court with electric blue eye shadow on. It may be distracting for the jury."

"True." I wrinkle my nose at the thought. "But it would leave an impression."

"This is such a cool nano-drone! It even has a camera."

I look over at Phin to see him pull a small flying saucer-like thing out of a box, along with a little remote control.

"That's pretty awesome," Dad states. "But I think that it may have to stay here, and we can use it on the grounds. Wouldn't want you to get arrested for taking pictures of people in Central Park."

Phin shrugs. "I'm okay with that. Maybe I can figure out how to fly it through the house too."

"That would be super cool, Phin. And I think, if Gracie looks through her pile a bit more, she'll find that she has one too." Dad winks.

I push aside the funky socks and velvet hair scrunchies to find a box with a picture of a drone on it too, and smile.

"This is awesome. Santa picked some amazing stuff this year."

Dad pulls a small box of cologne from his stocking and puts it up to his nose, taking a deep sniff, and grins. "Santa knows what we like. He's good that way."

There's a loud beep from the kitchen, and I smell the coffee start to waft through to where we are. Both Dad and Mom have the same coffee maker, timed to almost the same times each day, and now I wonder if they had one when they were together, and that's why they still make coffee that way.

"That's my cue to start making breakfast." Scooping up his treasures, Dad rises and looks over the chaos of the room. "If you want, we can eat breakfast at the counter, and you guys can set yourselves up at the table to start doing your Lego. I didn't really make plans for the next few days, other than us all hanging out together and the inevitable visits from Uncle Dick at random times, so you'll probably be able to finish before you head back to New York."

And just like that, my heart hurts again. I don't wanna go I don't wanna go I don't wanna go….

"Do we have to?" Phin says quietly, and I look over at him, horrified that he was in my brain.

"What do you mean, Phin? Do you have to do your Lego? Or do you have to go back to New York?" Dad bends and places his presents on the coffee table, then sits down across from us on the couch, frowning.

"Do we have to go back to New York with Mom?"

Dad scratches his stubble and sighs. "Yes, Phin, you do."

"Why?"

This time, Dad rubs his face with his palms, and I feel so bad for Dad that I wanna tell Phin to shut up, but I'm also kinda in awe of the fact that he had the guts to ask in the first place.

"Because that's the arrangement I agreed to when your mother and I got divorced."

He leans forward and rests his elbows on his knees, cradling his face as he looks between us. He looks so exhausted by everything that now I think it's best if we all just go and leave him alone to recover from us. And by us , I mean Mom and Stosh more than Phin and me.

"Don't you want to go back to your school, Phineus? To your friends? To swimming lessons and running club and soccer practice?"

Phin just looks down and shakes his head. "I want to stay here with you. Can't you talk to Mom and try and get her to change her mind? Maybe Gracie can go back, and I can…"

"Hey!" I yelp. "Do you think I want to go back with Mom and Stosh? No way! If you stay, then I stay."

"As much as I hate to say it...no one is staying," Dad states, firmly but gently, in that way he has. "Look, one of the reasons why you like it here so much is I get to be the fun parent. I don't have to make you make your bed, don't have to make you get up to go to school, don't have to get on you about homework and things." Crossing his arms, Dad shakes his head. "For better or worse, your Mom has that role. It's a role she chose for herself a long time ago, and frankly, she's perfect for it. I am not."

Phin pulls his knees up to his chin and wraps his arms around his legs, watching Dad but not saying a word.

"From what I've seen over the past few days, both Piz and your mother are exactly the people to manage your normal lives. Look, Piz even gave your mom a gift that would help her feed you guys!" Dad laughs. "If she complained to me about making dinners, I would have just given her gift cards for pizza and Italian restaurants around town and hoped for the best."

I can't help but snicker, and that even makes Phin snort, then try to hide his smile.

"And maybe I like being the fun one ." Dad shrugs. "I like being the one who does Lego with you and takes you dirt biking. Or build a climbing wall for you guys in my house, but then end up using it for myself." He sighs again, standing and shaking his head. "And that's not to say that I wouldn't absolutely love to have you with me 100% of the time. But your mother is making sure you guys are turning out so well. Not me. She's the one enrolling you in the best private schools, and caring about your grades, and getting you to volunteer for school functions and things. I wouldn't know the first thing about that stuff."

He turns and starts to walk back towards the kitchen but stops by the table and turns, throwing us a wink.

"Besides, you would get sick of my pancakes if you had them every day."

"No, we wouldn't, Dad." I know that he's trying to be funny and cute, but I really need to say it. "We wouldn't get sick of you at all."

A wobbly smile crosses his face, and he nods. "I'll take that as a huge compliment on my cooking skills."

Dad returns to his mission of finding himself a coffee and making us breakfast, and I turn back to Phin, who is sitting stone still, just staring into the distance. This can't be good. He has this look on his face like he's plotting wild ideas. When we were little, he would get this look before creating massive Hot Wheels tracks that snaked through our apartment from one end to the other. Or there was the time he built a skyscraper on our kitchen table with blocks and tried to reach the ceiling. Grandpa always says that Phin looks like Dad and has Dad's emotions, but his brain is all Mom. I know for a fact because Mom gets the exact same look when she's working in her office on a big case.

Then, he suddenly just snaps out of it, shaking his head. He looks at me and just smiles.

"Come on. Let's go start our Lego."

And with that, he jumps to his feet and picks up the box for the Death Star. Grunting, he lugs it over to the table and places it at the head, grinning at the box.

I scoop up the diner set from the coffee table and walk over to the table with a sigh. Whatever thing Phin has concocted will have to wait, for now.