Chapter 1 Christmas memories

The chapters will go backwards as I wrote this one first. E.g the 25th then the 24th December. Enjoy.

It was the day of Christmas Eve and the boys were allowed to open one present between them while they were sitting around the tree in the lounge. Grandma had left Scott's present deliberately till last, as it was really for all of them.

"Here open this one." Grandma said as she gave it to Scott and the boys peered over at what Scott had in his hands. Kayo who was leaning on Scott's shoulder used his head as a headrest since her present was first.

Scott opened the envelope and read the card, "It's a card signed from Dad it says, 'These are your Christmas memories'. Then a hologram messaged showed up in the card. It was a hologram of Jeff and Lucy, and it said 'press here' so John pressed the button and they all watched the screen.

Flashback/hologram messages.

Scott- 11

Virgil-8

John- 6

Gordon 4

Alan- 2

These flashbacks are set in the ranch before they moved onto the island.

It was the 25th December at 12 pm and Jeff was preparing the Ham for the Christmas dinner in the kitchen. Since his wife has done Christmas last year, he decided to give her a break and with a new little one Lucy seemed to have less time on her hands.

Lucy placed John on the countertop and went to see Jeff stood by the oven preparing the meat. "Jeff, I thought we were having Turkey."

Since Gordon and Alan were playing with the older boys, Lucy had some mother to son time with John trying to get him to pronounce words rather than just pointing or crying all the time.

Jeff sliced the ham and placed it neatly on the plastic plate, "Yeah well, they run out so my second option was ham or tofu." Jeff wouldn't get tofu since he didn't like it and didn't want to ruin the star ingredient of Christmas day lunch. It would be something different for his sons to try when they got older or became a vegetarian.

Lucy arranged the remaining food and plates onto the buffet table, "Not like braking the tradition then is it." Lucy received his plate of meat from him, gave him a look and rolled her eyes.

"Love you too, Lucy." Jeff went to kiss her, but she ducked away leaving Jeff hanging.

John started sobbing as he heard his parents arguing and was trying to talk but was just pointing his finger instead. At the age of six, John still couldn't talk fully, he mostly pointed or did whatever baby did. He hadn't completed that milestone yet.

Lucy plucked John onto her hips giving a kiss on his temple, "Oh Johnny, it's okay we weren't arguing." She then brought him to his high chair. Even though John was too old for a high chair, they couldn't afford a booster seat yet even though Jeff owned a millionaire company.

Jeff followed Lucy into the Dining room splitting off Jeff went to sit at the table with John.

"Lucy, John isn't 1 anymore, he shouldn't be in a high chair,"

Lucy stopped what she was doing and turned her head directly at her husband, "It's Christmas Day Jeff, give me a brake." John sat there laughing.

Jeff tickled his son's stomach, "Yeah, that's right John, your too big for the highchair." Jeff cooed to the 6yr old lifting him into his lap. John picked up his knife and fork, starting to eat his hand picked meal by his dad from the buffet.

Lucy called the rest of the boys in for dinner and served up in buffet style. Scott came in carrying Alan and Gordon standing on Virgil's feet. Then they placed the 2 youngest boys in the high chair and went to the buffet.

Scott took a look at the buffet on the table, "Nice buffet dad." He picked a slice of ham using the tongs for himself and put some veg onto the rest of the plate.

Jeff accepted his son's compliment, "Thank you son." Jeff waited for the rest of the family to sit down after grabbing food from the buffet, "Happy Christmas everyone,"

"Happy Christmas Daddy." Gordon announced as he waved his cutlery in the air.

"Happy Christmas Dad." Virgil faced his father next to him, who clinked their cups together.

"Happy Christmas Tracy's and wouldn't change it for the world." Lucy announced, clinked her glass with Jeff's and gave Alan a kiss sat in his high chair next to his dad.

"Ma ma!" Alan babbled to Lucy.

Once the boys and Lucy finished eating, they went to see the tree in the lounge. Then Virgil and Scott disappeared to their rooms without telling Lucy, so she thought Alan was being watched over.

Lucy placed Alan in the centre of the lounge, "Boys I'm going to do the washing up please don't touch anything which includes the tinsel." Lucy instructed, smiling at her youngest, still not noticing her two eldest weren't there.

Suddenly there was a massive bang, Scott and Virgil both came running in.

"Mum, Dad the Christmas tree has been knocked over." Scott shouted as he picked up the broken tree.

"Oh no, what has the terrible 2 done now." Virgil said as he saw his favourite ornament got smashed. The ornament was shaped of a musical note, he had got it for Christmas last year.

Lucy stopped washing up and dashed to the tree. She assessed the situation and decided to call for backup. "Jeff, can you clean the boys mess up please and I'll make sure they aren't hurt?" Jeff came running in when heard his name called, discussing with the others what happened. He had luckily just got off the phone, so he had time to help with the incident.

By this time, Alan was upset as he had a bit of branch stuck in his finger where the tree had fell on top of him. Lucy picked Alan up from the floor and cradled him rubbing his back, "Oh Alan, why is it always you that's ends up getting hurt."

Lucy ran up to Alan's nursery and sat him on her lap in the rocking chair, trying to stop him crying she pushed his favourite yellow duck dummy his mouth. She managed to calm Alan down enough so she could physically do something about the branch without him moving too much.

Lucy got up and shouted from the stairs, "Scott can you grab the tweezers from the bathroom please hun." Scott put the brush back from cleaning up the mess and ran to the bathroom.

Scott came back with the tweezers and a plaster. He knelt down next to his baby brother, "Here mum, I got you a Christmas plaster Alan." Alan knocked it out of Scott's hand luckily it was still in its wrapping so it was still usable.

Jeff came walking in with his hands on his head stressed, "Gordon is fine now, hows Alan? Scott,"

Scott looked up at his father, "Not so well dad, he looks like he's been crying for over an hour, but he's got a bit of branch stuck in his finger." Scott showed his father the branch.

Jeff examined the branch in his youngest child's index finger before placing a kiss on it, "Having a boo-boo ain't fun is it buddy? Alan's reply was just a louder scream.

"Scott, can you hold him while I get the bit of branch out of his finger please?" Lucy asked, passing Alan to Scott who cradled Alan on his lap.

Scott wiped his baby brother's tear away from his cheek, "Sh Allie, it's okay, Scotty is here." Alan dug his head into Scott's chest, biting his top when he felt his mother's grip on his finger.

As Lucy took out the branch out of Alan's finger he started screaming more. Lucy had to squeeze Alan's tiny finger tightly, making it red to get the branch out as it was deeper in the skin than she thought.

Lucy disposed the branch and put the tweezers back down away from the 2 yr old, "I'm done baby boy, I'll put a Christmas plaster on for you that your big brother got." Lucy placed the plaster on Alan's finger, she took the crying baby out of Scott's arms and comforted him till it was his bedtime.

Lucy turned to Jeff who was stood behind her in Alan's bedroom, "Not how I wanted to spend my Christmas day Jeff, we didn't even open the presents."

"Me neither Lucy, but we will open them tomorrow just a day late, I'm sure the boys wouldn't mine, they didn't even mention it." Jeff placed a kiss on Lucy's head and Alan's before making sure his sons were in bed.

Afterwards, him and Lucy watched a Christmas movie till dawn appeared the next day. It wasn't the Christmas day they had planned, but it was always different every year in the Tracy household.