A/N: So, we've reached Christmas Day. Everyone has turned up; a full house for the extended Bartowski family.

I'm publishing this on December 22. For some that will seem early, but as I will mention at the end, not so for my family in 2021.

Thank you to those that left reviews of Sarah's chapter. Not surprisingly, a more reviewed one than some of the others. I hope you all like this one too.

MyNameIsJeffNImLost beta'd this chapter, as he has all the earlier ones. I'm sure it will be a great relief to him that he doesn't have to correct any more of my typos, tense issues and British words/phrases. Thank you, my friend. As usual, any mistakes found are all mine, there will probably be some in what I added since he last reviewed it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Chuck or the lyrics I have used, but, as always, recommend listening to the songs or even watching them on YouTube, as well as watching the show.

After You, Christmess
Christmas Day

Are you hanging up a stocking on your wall?
It's the time that every Santa has a ball
Does he ride a red nosed reindeer?
Does a ton-up on his sleigh
Do the fairies keep him sober for a day?

So here it is merry Christmas
Everybody's having fun
Look to the future now
It's only just begun

Are you waiting for the family to arrive?
Are you sure you got the room to spare inside?
Does your granny always tell ya that the old songs are the best?
Then she's up and rock 'n' rollin' with the rest

So here it is merry Christmas
Everybody's having fun
Look to the future now
It's only just begun

What will your daddy do
When he sees your Mama kissin' Santa Claus?
Ah-ha

"Merry Christmas Everybody"
Slade

As Sarah comes down the stairs, she wants to rush into the living room and watch Kathryn and Liam opening their presents. She can hear them laughing and chattering already, but she needs a coffee first.

She staggers into the kitchen, where Chuck has already started to make one.

"Morning, Gorgeous," he says as he sees her walk in.

"Morning, Lover," she replies as she walks to him and leaning on tiptoes, she kisses him.

He definitely earned that title yesterday when he returned. Oh, had he!

Their love life is as strong and intense as it had been when they had first gotten together, but after nearly two weeks of abstinence and worry about each other, it is all the more so.

She cast her mind back to yesterday.

= ! =

Chuck got home around four in the afternoon, after Sarah's mom and sister arrived. That was good as it had given her some time with them before he arrived.

She felt guilty and a bad mother, daughter and sister once Chuck arrived. She only had eyes for her husband. Not only eyes. Once he had greeted everyone and spoken a few words with each of their children, she grabbed his hand and dragged him upstairs for their "alone time" as the kids called it. He hadn't resisted!

Maire took over the hostess role, but Molly helped. Those two always bonded and worked well together.

When Chuck and Sarah finally went back downstairs, everyone was chatting happily, and no one objected to them being away.

Chuck went straight to Maire for a long chat and many, many hugs. Sarah left them to it. That father / daughter bond was important to both of them. Sarah knew Maire was alright, but her dad's love and support was important to her.

Sarah sat next to Gwen and places her arm around her second daughter. "I take it you told him that you'd talked to Maire about that boy."

Gwen nodded. "Yeah, Mom, I did. I texted him about it a couple of hours before he got here."

Sarah squeezed her a bit tighter. "You did good, kid, you did good." She kissed the top of Gwen's head. Normally, Gwen would have objected to that, but today, she hugged her mom a bit tighter.

Sarah's mom chatted to both Liam and Kathryn, keeping them entertained.

Molly walked over and sat next to Gwen enabling Sarah to see her over her daughter. "Thanks for helping out earlier, Molly."

Molly rolled her eyes slightly. "I know what you two are like!"

Sarah reached a hand over to her sister. "I'm sorry if it's a reminder of what you're missing."

Molly blushed. Of course, her sister knew the status of her relationship with Gan, but saying that was obviously still embarrassing.

From where Sarah was sitting, she could see through to the front door. She didn't hear the door lock being picked, but could obviously see the result when the door opened, and Mary walked in. Why she refused to have a key is beyond Sarah, but obviously lock picking seems to have kept the agent's mind alive.

Sarah called over to her husband, "Chuck."

She didn't have to say more. People always comment about how they communicate either silently or with few words. Chuck excused himself from his firstborn, got up and walked towards the front door.

It always pleased Sarah when she saw Chuck and his mom hug each other and kiss. Mary is affectionate, in spite of what people say.

Not surprisingly, Chuck spent time with each person there that evening, obviously starting with their children. As always, it brought tears to her eyes watching the interaction between them. Each child loves him so much and he is exactly the same.

= ! =

Back on Christmas Day, Sarah joins Chuck, and they carry their coffees into the living room, both calling out, "Merry Christmas, kids." They said it together, in unison.

The two on the floor called back, "Merry Christmas, Mommy and Daddy."

Wrapping paper is not scattered all over the floor, but in two groupings, one much larger and messier with Liam in the center. He looks up. "We've only opened the presents from Santa," he tells them.

Sarah raises one brow at her youngest daughter.

Kathryn shook her head at her mom. "No, I didn't catch him. I must have fallen asleep before midnight and didn't wake until about seven this morning." She then frowns at Sarah. "You didn't give me knock out drops, did you?"

Sarah chuckles. "Kathryn, I have never used those on any of you."

Chuck chips in. "I think it's Santa magic!"

"That must be why I didn't see him either," Liam says.

"Must be," replies Sarah. She looks at her watch. 8:05AM. Kathryn has been up for about an hour.

"I've been up for hours," says Liam.

Kathryn's eyes roll. "He'd been up for an hour before me, not hours."

"How'd you know?" asks Chuck, looking puzzled.

"Because Granny Mary told me," Kathryn replies.

Sarah scans the room and, yes, sitting quietly in the corner, sits Mary.

"I heard him get up, so I came down with him," the older Bartowski states.

Her stealth is as good as it ever was. Sometimes Sarah wonders who was better between the two of them, but now her own skills have atrophied, and Mary's haven't, so there is no contest. She is chuckling as she says, "Merry Christmas, Mary."

"Merry Christmas, Sarah, Dear."

Chuck walks over and hugs his mom. Sarah doesn't hear their greetings.

Sarah looks down at the paper around Kathryn. All of it is neatly folded and in pristine condition. She has always been so careful opening her presents, like Maire, neither wanting to damage the paper and admiring it almost as much as the contents. It drove Gwen mad when she was little. Well, it probably still does. She just saw the paper as an obstacle, something to get through to get to the prize. Little Gwen usually had no 'prizes' left when she looked up to see that less than half had been opened by her older sister. Liam doesn't seem bothered like that, thankfully.

"Merry Christmas, everyone," came a sleepy voice from behind Sarah.

They all reply, "Merry Christmas, Maire."

Sarah gets up and hugs her oldest and Chuck comes over, wrapping his arms around both of them. Sarah realizes they haven't done that with their youngest two and kneels down between them to correct that.

Another voice chimes up, "MC!"

Gwen gets the same response her older sister did. She has obviously changed recently, hugging her mom and dad back. Of course, being lifted off her feet as the two of them stand up means that she didn't really have much choice, but her contented hum indicates she likes it.

Molly is the next to join them. They go and eat breakfast. Emma joins slightly later. Shortly after, Sarah and her mom move to the kitchen to prepare and start cooking the turkey.

Sarah is so glad of her mom's help. Even now, she still doesn't think she is a good cook, in spite of what her husband and family tell her. Normally, she has Chuck's sister's help. Help! That's not strictly true. Whoever is the host of their gatherings, Eleanor Woodcomb always takes charge of the cooking. It's not that she is domineering, (although she can be a bit), it's just that she's the best cook in the family. Sarah would be mad not to let her take over!

Chuck, as always, joins to help prep the vegetables. He does that by doing the peeling. No one can chop as well or as quickly as Sarah. When Sarah starts chopping, she notices her mom staring in awe. Sarah chuckles and comments, "Putting my training to good use."

After he finishes the peeling, Chuck goes back with the others, leaving Sarah chatting happily with her mom. They open and share some wine. Sarah briefly pops into the living room telling Chuck to get drinks for his mom and Molly. "Already on it," he grins at her, pouring some wine for them.

Sarah knows Chuck will be spending time with the kids, who he obviously missed. Part of her thinks that serves him right for leaving at such a crazy time of the year, but she knows that's unkind. He needs that interaction with others, because he's such a social animal.

She heads back to her mom and her own wine.

They are all stuffed, unlike the turkey that is not just a carcass. Retiring to the living room to open presents, Sarah is pleased at how much she enjoyed the meal. She is normally so critical of what she cooks, but this time everything was perfect. Everyone else said so, too.

This time she sat in the love seat with her husband. Maire and Gwen, who seemed to be getting on so well, are dishing out the presents from under the tree.

Sarah watches the two girls. They work really well as a team, never bumping into each other. She knows they get their coordination from her. If Chuck was involved or passed on his clumsiness to them, there would be bumped heads, squashed noses, bashed shins and poked sides! Thankfully, he'd passed none of that on to any of the kids; they were all graceful and well-coordinated.

But it isn't just that about them. Their relationship seems to have changed, or more accurately, Gwen's attitude had. That problem she heard about had made a difference to her. She was worried about her sister and that worry made Gwen realize how much she actually cared for her sister.

Earlier, Maire invited Gwen to go shopping with Molly and herself probably helped too.

Now they were joking with each other as they worked, something Sarah hadn't seen before. It made her glad and proud of her daughters.

Kathryn sat with Sarah's mom and sister. Sarah hears her asking Molly about Harvard and particularly what the library is like. The look of awe evident on Kathryn's face is no surprise. Sarah knows this one will be heading to one of the top universities; time will tell where, depending on the subjects she chose.

Mary sat with Liam. Sarah knows they would talk once he has opened all his presents. He loves talking to Mary and already feels he knows everything about Washington, DC. He obviously doesn't, and thankfully knows nothing about the intelligence services based there, but Sarah already worries he will push his grandmother to share details of those. Mary knows not to, but would she in another fifteen years?

Sarah shakes her head to get such thoughts out. For now, at least, Liam is a happy, inquisitive five-year-old. Nothing wrong with that.

She leans over and rests her head on Chuck's shoulder as they watch what is happening before them. Occasionally, she has to sit up when she receives a present to open or when they receive a shared present. She has trained herself to open carefully, but also quickly, trying to set a good example for the kids. Chuck, however, has no more self-control than Gwen or Liam, ripping his presents open. Sarah still shakes her head when she sees this, after all these years. Opening together used to be a challenge, but Chuck now lets her unwrap, even though she can see his fingers twitching, desperate to rip!

There is more laughter and happiness in the room than there has been for the last couple of weeks. Sarah loves it. She also loves the Christmas music playing in the background, even the current fun but mad one from the seventies, Slade's "Merry Christmas Everybody."

Listening to the words, she grins. Santa never rode a red-nosed reindeer, but Kathryn still hadn't seen if one was in front of the other reindeers pulling Santa's sleigh. Unlike in the song, they weren't waiting for anyone else to arrive and thankfully neither granny told them old songs were best; she chuckles at that, they didn't have to, Chuck did that!

When she had first listened to this song with Chuck, Maire had yet to be born, but was on the way. The words, "Look to the future now, it's only just begun" had a special meaning for the two of them. Now all these years later, she knows there is still so much to look forward to.

She also grins at a later verse. This mama only has kisses for their daddy. She leans over and does just that. Chuck looks surprised, but then grins and gives her a deep kiss, getting yelled at by all the kids.

Sarah settles back into the seat. Although it has been a difficult couple of weeks, this day has been perfect. She has the perfect husband, the perfect children, and even though Ellie and family hadn't been able to come, having Mary as well as her mom and sister here made this one of the best Christmases ever.

A/N: A happy Christmas for this family, and I hope a happy holiday for you all too.

2021 has been a difficult year for all of us, with COVID-19 continuing to change our world. All of us have felt its effect, but I know some of you have suffered having it, too. On top of that, some have suffered from appalling weather conditions. My heart goes out to you all. Here's hoping that 2022 will be a better year.

For 2021, my family celebrated our Christmas Day on December 19, partly to ensure we had a day together in case the British government brought in another of their last-minute lockdowns. It's been a bit weird since then with everyone else still waiting for the big day. Consequently, publishing this chapter on December 22, seems perfectly fine to me!

All presents opening here happened on Christmas Day, which is certainly the norm for my family, all on one day. I know some of you open some of the presents on Christmas Eve, but that just seems so wrong to me!

My oldest, Kathryn, has always admired the packaging around her presents and careful unwrapped to make sure she didn't damage the paper. Our younger daughter, Sarah, ripped her as fast as she could and, like Gwen here, soon had no presents left to unwrap and then had to watch her sister slowly opening her presents for up to an hour!

The song this time, Slade's "Merry Christmas Everybody" is fun one from my youth. Slade's lead guitarist, Dave Hill, had a house on the road leading to the all-girls school my wife attended; it always seemed strange thinking of them all walking past his house at the start and end of the day. Slade's songs were always fun in those days, hence adding it here.

Please leave a review to let me know what you think of this chapter and/or the whole fic. This was a very different type of Chuck Christmas fic and although some have already told me what they thought of it, that might not be you, so please tell me.