"Christmas! Daddy it's Christmas Morning! Daddy wake up! Now! Daddy!"

Suddenly, the white sandy beach where I had just been laying, kissing Ace, who had a striped beach ball as a belly, are gone. The bright light that disturbs my eyes is not the sun shining from the blue sky but rather the ceiling spots that shine right into my half opened eyes.

I knew it. Sleep! I want to sleep! Maybe if I shut my eyes and can't see her anymore, maybe she will disappear.

"Daddy, please!" Nope, didn't work.

"Daddy! I wanna see what Santa brought me! Mommy says we have to wait for you to get up."

Wait, Mommy says? I move my arm and check Rory's side of the bed. Nothing. I feel some more and still no Rory, the sheets are not even warm. That's when I slowly open one of my eyes and realize for sure there is no Rory in my bed.

I turn my head and see a fluffy pink robe and a little further up, I see my daughter's bright eyes and rosy cheeks.

"Yay, you're awake! Now com on Daddy!" One second she claps her hands joyfully and the other second she pulls my arm, trying to drag me out of bed.

"Please Pixie, just let Daddy sleep for some more minutes…" I mumble. How much scotch did I drink last night? Was it that much? Did I check the cookies for their expiration date? Wait, junk food never gets old in our house.

"No Daddy!" she whines but then adds: "Mommy is making breakfast and you need to come and have some before I can go and see what Santa got me!"

I immediately become scared.

"What?" I ask her, sitting upright. "Mommy is making breakfast?"

I can't tell if she's nodding or shaking her head. Fumbling with the front stitching of her nightgown she says:

"Well, she's not actually making breakfast… But she told me to tell you that if you didn't want to get up."

Groaning I fall back into the pillows. Rory making breakfast is scary, Rory making Lailie lie about her making breakfast is kind of funny. By the way, where is Rory?

"Pix, where is Mommy?"

"Oh she is in the dining room, setting the table. She actually sent me up to make sure you get up. So, please Daddy, get up!"

Reluctantly I move and sit up, running my hands over my face.

Wow, the alarm clock says it's 8:15. A lot later than I would have expected.

"Ok, Princess, see, I'm up." I sigh. "Now go tell Mommy that I will be down in 10 minutes."

She beams and starts running off.

"Hey Pix!"

"Yes, Daddy?"

"Never scare me like that again?"

"Okay, Daddy! Now hurry!" and she's out the doors.

Wait, who's the parent here?

As the water splashes in my face and gradually wakes me, I run over today's schedule again.

Breakfast, made by me, NOT Rory.

Legendary opening of presents. Hm, wonder what the cute and soft thing is.

Lunch at the Dragonfly, combined with picking up the food for tonight's big bash with our friends.

That reminds me, I have to call Finn and check on the kitten. This would be such a Finn thing to do. Maybe we can put the litter box in the mud room. Though we'd have to put one of those flip things in the door.

I hate Finn!

Lailie only nibbles on her pancake although I made a Santa face for her, complete with a strawberry hat, chocolate chip eyes, and a whipped cream beard. She's sliding up and down in her chair, tapping her feet against the table legs.

"Honey!" Rory finally says and puts her fork down. "I know you want to go check the living room if Santa has left you anything but is it too much to just eat one pancake?"

Lailie nods with a quite serious face.

"Ok, Pix," I sigh, "I have an offer of peace: You eat all the strawberries, half the pancake and drink all your juice and you're allowed to go. Deal?"

"Yes!" She picks up a strawberry and starts to munch happily.

Rory looks at me with a disapproving expression.

"When did we start the good cop, bad cop thing?" She hisses.

"When I started depriving you of coffee, my dear!"

I smirk, take my coffee cup and inhale deeply. Payback for the 'Mommy making breakfast' wakeup call.

She growls softly and sips at her orange juice.

"Finished!" Lailie announces suddenly. And she's right, there are no more strawberries and half of the pancake, of course the whipped cream half, is gone. Even the juice cup is empty.

"Well then, lovely ladies," I say as I get up, "I believe the living room awaits us."

And as soon as I open the sliding door from the dining room to the living room, Lailie runs through the doorway and comes to a screeching hold in front of the fireplace. Beaming with joy, she first checks for her stocking and then if the cookies and the milk are gone.

My Ace and I keep standing in the doorway, looking at what she's doing.

"Mommy, Daddy! Santa ate the cookies! And see, he even left me a note!"

I knit my brows at the last part. Wait, wasn't the thank you note making disturbed by our, well, 'make-out session' on the couch? I can't remember Rory making it.

She sighs at my questioning look at whispers in a very low voice: "Things you do when you can't go back to sleep after puking your guts out…"

"Oh, I'm sorry Ace." Kissing her on the cheek I add. "Hope this won't last very long. If it does, we might have to stock up on your crafts supplies…"

Rolling her eyes, she slaps my arm and goes over to help Lailie taking down her stocking. I join my ladies and pick up my own stocking.

Rory and I started the tradition of filling each others stockings at our very first Christmas as a family. We always pick a theme, sometimes it's funny and silly stuff. I remember one Christmas when all I got was a stocking full of sausage. It was disgusting! I stopped eating any kind of sausage after that. Once I put a pair of earrings in one of Lailie's baby socks, that sock in a bigger one and so on. It was a lot of work but hilarious watching Rory go nuts as she unwrapped sock after sock after sock, with no ending in sight.

This year, we decided to fill each others stockings with something that reminded us of the time, when we knew we wanted to be with the other person.

Emptying her stocking, Rory reveals a new digital camera, a pocket sized umbrella, some note pads, a small gorilla – they were out of masks! Maybe the current LDB had a huge gathering – and a small bottle of champagne.

"Ah, I see Santa was a member of the infamous LDB!" She smiles and leans over to kiss me. "Thank you Santa!"

"Mommy, why were you winking at Daddy when you said 'Thank you Santa'?" Ah, caught in the act.

"I… Um, I wasn't winking at Daddy! I… I just had something in my eye!" Liar, liar… "Now, Honey, have you seen all the things under the tree? Go check them if they're for you!"

Lailie runs off to the tree.

"No more winking for you, Mrs. Huntzberger!" Laughing at her flushed face, I take my stocking and let the content fall on the couch.

"Let's see what we got here… A blonde Ken doll in a tux, a brunette Barbie in a tux, a little net bag filled with almonds, a CD with 'Moon River' and also a small bottle of champagne. Ace, it seems as if there was a lot of alcohol involved when we realized we wanted to be with each other, huh?"

She giggles and sits on my lap. Watching how Lailie jumps between wrapping paper and bubble foil, she leans into me and whispers:

"Merry Christmas Logan."

"Merry Christmas, Ace… Hey, Ace, what is the soft and cute thing you got me?"

Reluctantly leaving her spot, she goes and fetches a square box from under the tree.

"Honey, are you sure this isn't Lailie's?" All I can see when I open the box, is the head of a rather large teddy bear.

"Go on, take it out!"

Doing as I'm told to do, I smile when I read the stitching on the bear's sweater. 'For the proudest Daddy in the World'

"And now press his right arm!" Ace tells me impatiently. When nothing happens, she takes the bear and presses harder. And suddenly, it starts singing: "All I want for Christmas, is youuuuu…"

Well, not only men turn into four-year-olds when it comes to babies and toys, women do, too.