-This is such a long chapter, but my brain just wouldn't shut up lol

-This has a ton of friendship content in it, so pls let me know if you like this!

-As usual, pls keep leaving reviews!

—

Arriving fashionably late to the party, Mark, Lexie, Sofia, Branden, and Alexa stepped into what was formerly known as the East Ballroom, but had turned into Santa's workshop.

Massive candy canes were at the door, plenty of fake snow and snowflakes adorned the room. Seeing everyone in some form of the Vineyard Vines holiday collection helped pull everything together too.

At Seattle Grace Hospital, everyone had their "person." Lexie has Jo, Jackson has Alex, April has Arizona, Meredith has Cristina, Mark has Derek, Callie has Link, this new ortho guy. You just naturally buddied off with this person, whether it was sitting together in the cafeteria, going out for drinks together at Joe's, saving them a seat in the OR gallery, you stuck with them.

Jo waved at Lexie, who hurried towards her best friend, with Alexa trailing behind her.

"Gracie!"

"Alexa!"

The two girls squealed, before grabbing hands and hurrying towards the face paint station. Jo and Lexie followed suit, making sure their daughters, who were basically one person, didn't run off or go crazy.

"Figured you might need this?" Jo says, handing Lexie her signature Caramel macchiato with two pumps vanilla, which Lexie graciously accepts.

"My literal soulmate." Lexie says, already feeling her body being woken up from the coffee.

Branden spots Bailey, who sprints off to go play with him in the bouncy house. Mark spots Derek, hovering near the two boys, obviously looking for Mark.

"What's up Mr. I work for the President?" Mark says, pulling his best friend into a hug.

Derek had been going to DC weekly for the past few months, so they hadn't seen each other in a while. Derek smiles at his best friend's comment and says

"Never did I think I would live to see Mark Sloan, manwhore, wearing pajamas with whales on the bottom."

"Oh, Shep, you are no better. At least I have whales, and not, snowmen!" Mark says, in protest.

"Since when did we become so domesticated, man?" Derek says, thinking back to their residency days, pre- Addison when the two of them basically slept with every nurse in the whole hospital.

"I swear it's those Grey sisters." Mark says, admitting defeat.

Spotting her blonde best friend, April waves Arizona over.

"You look like death."April says, and Arizona shakes her head in agreement.

"Callie and I went out for like, the first time, in forever. I don't think I've had a hangover this bad since maybe college." Arizona says, rubbing her hand against her temple.

Ellis and Harriet ran up to April, wanting to get their faces painted, so the three of them, plus Arizona, walked across the ballroom. There they met up with Jo and Lexie, whose little girls were getting their faces painted with rainbows.

"Hey, what's up man?" Jackson greets Alex, as Ryler heads into the ballpit, disguised as a snow pile.

"Nothing much, just that my fantasy football team is absolutely crushing yours." Alex says, pulling up his scores from last week's games.

"Okay, once again, not my fault Cam Jacobs tore his ACL." Jackson says, trying to defend his team.

"Hey dad?" The two boys say, and both Jackson and Alex turn their heads, "Want to join us in our snowball fight? We can have teams!"

Jackson and Alex begrudgingly agree, and climb into the ballpit before aggressively throwing these styrofoam balls at each other.

"What in the world is Sofia going to do without her partner in crime, Zola, next year?" Callie exclaims to Meredith, who was watching the two girls attempt this obstacle course themed like the North Pole.

"I swear, I don't think they've ever gone more than a month without seeing each other. I don't know how they are going to do that! Maybe they'll FaceTime a bunch. Speaking of that, are you getting Sofia a phone this Christmas?" Meredith asks Callie, who normally don't talk, but were friendly with each other as a result of their daughters.

"Yeah, but Arizona thinks she is way too young." Callie says, emphasizing the way.

Just as Meredith was about to start talking, a bell began to rang, signifying breakfast was about to start.

All 5 families hurried to the massive table in the front reserved for their massive group. Seeing as they were easily the biggest table/group of people, the Chef opted to let them go first.

The breakfast had everything you could dream of- Waffles, Pancakes, Eggs, Fruit, Bacon, Sausage, Bagels, Muffins, Toast, Bread, literally every kind of juice you can imagine, every topping you could imagine, and everyone was in their own kind of heaven. By the time everyone had finished their food, it was time for all 10 of the kids to meet Santa.

Gracie and Alexa squealed so loudly when they saw Santa, so loudly Mark and Alex had to grab their hands to make sure they wouldn't go running towards the man. Every family had two minutes with Santa, and they all wanted to make them count.

First, Meredith and Derek's family went. Zola wants a phone, Bailey wants an XBOX, and Ellis wants a princess costume. Meredith snaps a pic of her 3 kids on Santa's lap, before she has Lexie grab one of all 5 of them.

Next up is Mark and Lexie's family. After Mark lets go of her hand, Alexa practically hurls herself on Santa's lap before asking for a pony for Christmas, Lexie smiles fondly at this, remembering how badly she wanted a pony at that age. Branden hops up onto Santa's lap before practically begging for a basketball and new hockey sticks. Lexie grabs a picture of her two kiddos, before passing her phone to Jo, before grabbing Mark and forcing him to get in the picture.

Next up is Jo and Alex's little family unit. Gracie simply hops up onto Santa's lap, and immediately rattles off the one thing she wants for christmas- a unicorn. Both Jo and Alex smile at this, because this is what children should worry about, not foster parents and foster homes, like they had too. Ryler, with a little bit of reluctance, hops up on Santa's lap and asks for a PS5, the newest gaming device. Jo snaps a picture of her 2 kids, and passes her phone to April to grab one of the 4 of them.

Following suit, Jackson and April's family is more than ready for their time with Santa Claus. This time, both Samuel and Harriet went running up to the man, plopping down in his lap. Harriet wants this fancy art kit, and Samuel wants a bouncy house for the backyard. April grabs a picture of her two kiddos, before having Arizona take a picture of their little family.

Finally, Callie and Arizona, who have sobered up after getting some food in their stomachs, are up. Sofia casually walks up to Santa, and just wants one thing. A phone. Callie looks over at Arizona with an "I told you so" face, to which Arizona ignores as she grabs a picture of Sofia and Santa. Arizona passes her phone to some random woman in line who grabs a picture of the 3 of them.

This place truly was a winter wonderland.