Family Secrets – Part 17 (OMG)

The clock next to the bed read 7am when Duncan and Shelley ran into their parent's bedroom the week after; Christmas day was dawning to be just as hot as the rest of the holidays.

Lexie and Archie lay in bed sprawled over the mattress with no blankets covering them. The windows were all open and the overhead fan was on full ball, Shelley immediately jumped on top of them waking them both with a start.

Duncan held back, waiting by the chest of drawers and watching them. What would it have been like with another child thrown into the equation? Would his parents be happier? They looked pretty happy now, tired…. but happy. Once they had got over the shock of Shelley waking them up from deep sleep with a dive bomb they had been very receptive to her rambles about Santa and how many presents were under the tree.

Lexie and Archie motioned for Duncan to come over for a Christmas hug and he accepted, even though he acted like he was getting too old for all this stuff he still secretly craved it.

" Come on now, out you two. We'll meet u under the tree in a minute- and no opening any presents until we come down," Archie ordered with a smile

" Awwww" they both whinged, but obediently tramped back down the stairs, thoughts of 'shaking presents wasn't mentioned' filling their heads.

Archie turned to his wife and shook his head, his smile widening

" Why does it always feel like we only just fell asleep?"

" Because we did" Lexie replied glancing at the clock "We didn't finish putting everything out till 3am cause the brats wouldn't go to sleep"

" Still" Archie mused, standing next to the window as he pulled on a shirt " I love all this stuff, don't you?"

" Yeah" Lexie smiled " But I wish I got more sleep"

" Hmmm" Archie deliberated " Are you sure it's 7am? Seems very dark…."

Lexie wiped the sleep from her eyes and looked at her watch, it read 5am.

" You'd think we'd notice that wouldn't you." She sighed, " They've gone and changed the clocks again"

Archie grinned through his frustration, automatically knowing that this would be funny when the kids were older. " Can we go back to sleep?" He appealed

Lexie smiled wearily " No, they'll never give us any peace until they've opened the presents now"

Archie pouted and collapsed back on the bed, landing on Lexie

" Owww" she complained, and then giggled as she tried to push him off " Get off me you big lump!"

" No" He announced

" Archie!" she commanded

He rolled over and stared at him with big brown eyes. Then grinned as he kissed her quickly on the lips. She grabbed his arm " That the best you can do?" she challenged cheekily

He smirked and kissed her again, softly and deeply moving in closer to her. The door opened " Ewwwww" Shelley exclaimed, bursting into the room for the second time that morning " Come on we're waiting!"

" OK!" Archie yelled, sprawling back into his original position "We're coming"

" That's what you said before" Shelley complained

" Okay. Okay." He grabbed his wife's hand and pulled her out of bed " I'm not doing this alone."

The lounge room smelt of pine from the Christmas tree which was now starting to loose its needles. Archie collapsed in the nearest armchair on arrival and Lexie collapsed on top of him.

" What were they doing?" Duncan asked

" Kissing in bed" Shelley answered pulling a face

" Oh, so didn't need to know that" Duncan replied, turning back to the tree

" Can we opened them now?"

" Go ahead" Lexie replied

Without further adieu they began ripping off the paper and throwing it around the lounge room as they opened their presents. Dolls, cars, video games, books, a cricket set and football, dvd and cds all became visible among the coloured paper mounting up at their feet.

Many exclamations of "Oh", "Wow!" and "Yes!" were heard as new presents were revealed. Lexie looked across at her husband, she had to admit that this was one of the best joys of being a parent; Christmas was just so much more fun through the eyes of a child. Archie smiled at her and she knew that he was thinking exactly the same thing.

After all the presents were unwrapped and the two children were busy piling all the paper into a heap Archie extracted himself from under his wife and whispered in her ear " I'm just going to wish Paul an early Merry Christmas- since its actually so early here I might actually catch him."

" Okay" Lexie agreed, then leant down to collect up her and Archie's presents and put them in their room.