"Mommy, is the North Pole really far away ?"

"Yes, it's all the way in Alaska." Brennan brought up a map on her iPad. "See we live here in Washington D.C. and Alaska is all the way over there. See?"

"Uh-huh. How long would it take to get there?"

"if we drove it would take a little over a week. If we flew it would take about 14 hours, probably a little longer."

"Okay!" Max ran off, Brennan shook her head and went back to reading her journal. A half hour later Max ran back into the living room and crashed into the couch. "Slowdown sweetheart."

"Mommy, I'm ready to mail my letter to Santa!"

"You wrote your letter to Santa already?"

"Yep. I gotta mail it now so it'll get there before Christmas!"

"We'll mail it in a few days…"

"No mommy, I have to mail it now!"

Brennan glanced at her watch, "Go get your shoes and coat on while I tell daddy where we're going…"

"Okay!" Max ran to the door to get his shoes and coat. Brennan headed to the man cave.

"Hey Bones."

"Hi Booth. Max wrote his Santa letter and is insistent that he mail it today. I'm going to take him to the post office so he can drop it in the North Pole mailbox. I saw it a few days ago, I planned on taking them all next weekend, but he's insistent. I want to get out of the house for a little while…" Brennan shrugged.

"Have fun. I'll take the girls whenever they write theirs…"

"I hope they won't be upset that Max has mailed his…"

"They won't be, I'll turn it into a daddy/daughter thing…"

"They'll enjoy that."

"Yeah."

"Mommy, I'm ready!"

"Okay."

B&B

An hour later Brennan and Max returned and found everyone in Booth's man cave just starting to watch Elf. Max found a seat on the floor in Gracie's nest of pillows, blankets and an extra-large beanbag chair. Brennan walked in behind him carrying a bakery box and a tray of hot chocolate.

"Bones, you got sugar cookies and hot chocolate from the bakery?"

"Yes, when we went by on our way home there wasn't a line so I thought I'd get a treat for everyone."

"Cool. Bones, you're the best."

"Mommy, did you get a snowman cookie?"

"Yes, I got two, you can have one now and the other tomorrow."

"Okay!"

Brennan put one of the snowman cookies on a napkin and carried it and a cup of hot chocolate over to Gracie.

"Thank you, mommy."

"You're welcome, Gracie." Once the kids had their cookies and hot chocolate Brennan got her own and snuggled next to Booth and started to watch the movie.