Author's note: Sorry about the long time between updates, real life intervened. Between the holidays and everyone in the house being sick there wasn't a lot of time to work on this. Anyway here's the next part and more will be up soon.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Aunt Sam! Aunt Sam!" the bed shook violent as a forty pound bundle of energy scrambled up the side, the blankets slipping off of her in the process.

"Austin!" came the over loud whisper that only children manage to use. "Mommy said to let her sleep."

"But Grandpa said she was being a lazy bones, and that I should wake her."

Sam suppressed a smile. Her father had always believed you needed to be up at the crack of dawn. Military discipline was all well and good, but on her days off she liked to sleep.

"Aunt Sam?" Emily's voice questioned from the other side of the bed. "Are you awake yet?"

"No," Sam murmured, trying hard to keep the laugh out of her voice.

"She says she's not awake yet, Austin."

"Dr. Daniel said to tickle her feet." Sam felt the bed shake again as the kids tried to dislodge the sheets to get at her feet.

"Dr. Daniel is going to be in big trouble," she said sitting up in the bed and glaring at the two kids.

"You are awake!" Austin shouted as he flung himself into her arms bowling her backwards into the pillows. Sam laughed and hugged the squirming child.

"Barely," she replied as she ruffled his hair.

"You should have heard your father's suggestion."

Sam noticed Daniel leaning casually in the doorway, his eyes sparkling in amusement as he watched the scene before him. Apparently he hadn't woken up much earlier for his hair was still rumpled from sleep and his glasses were missing.

"We were all out of water balloons," Austin sighed, his disappointment evident.

"I think Aunt Sam could use a cup of coffee," Daniel suggested as he entered into the room, holding two cups of coffee. "Why don't you go tell your mom she's awake."

"Yes!" Emily shouted as she jumped off the bed, "Now we can decorate cookies!" Austin wiggled away trailing after his sister insisting that he got to do the reindeer's noses.

"Thank you," she sighed taking a whiff of the aroma as he passed it to her. After a few sips she observed, "Cookies? It's barely 0930." Sam patted the bed.

"They're for church," Daniel answered as he settled himself next to her. "Apparently they are in the Christmas pageant later today and everyone is bringing something for refreshments." Sam nodded slowly in reply as she allowed the caffeine to work its magic on her system. Daniel balanced his cup on his thigh, its contents mostly gone.

"I was a sheep one year. All I really remember was the costume was too big, and the ears kept flopping into my face."

"I think Austin is making his debut as a sheep this year. I saw something white and fluffy hanging up in his closet."

"How'd you enjoy bunking down with Dad."

"Selmak snores."

Sam spit a mouthful of coffee back into the cup, her eyes wide with laughter, "Selmak?"

"Well, Jacob insists that he doesn't snore, so logically. . ." he gestured with his hands as if to indicate it was an obvious conclusion. Sam burst out laughing at the absurdity of it.

"Dad always snored. Mom used to comment that the only time she got a full night's sleep was when he was out on maneuvers."

"Well, I guess a symbiote can't cure everything."

"No, but she did wonders for my personality, or so I'm told." Jacob commented as he entered the room in his pajamas. "There is a small war zone developing downstairs and I was sent for reinforcements."

Sam drained the last dregs of her coffee cup and pushed Daniel playfully off the bed, "I call the cookie gun."

"Cookie gun?" Daniel wondered aloud as he headed down the stairs.

"Don't worry, its not as deadly as it sounds."

Sam proved to be as proficient with a cookie gun as she was with her P-90 quickly filling cookie sheets full of little Christmas trees, stars, poinsettias, and of course, reindeer. Armed with seven containers of colored sugars, Emily appointed herself official sprinkler. Not to be hampered by traditional notions of color, she liberal covered the cookies in an assortment of purples, pinks, blues, and yellows, in addition to the expected green and red. Austin eagerly placed the noses onto the reindeer cookies, although only one in nine could have a red hot nose instead of a chocolate chip. After all there was only one Rudolph to the eight other 'regular' reindeer. Jacob found himself the official oven operator, keeping the cookies flowing to and from the oven, while Allison arranged for the cooling and packaging for transport. The kids roped Daniel in as the cookie design consultant, as he separated out the M&M's into piles of green and red, and gravely determined the proper placement of candy ornaments on the Christmas tree cookies. Mark designated himself as official photographer of the event, snapping photos for posterity. Soon the spritz cookies were finished and the cookie gun put away in favor of the more traditional rolling pin and cookie cutter.

"I'm glad I hadn't gotten dressed yet," Sam commented dryly as Emily, who had scrambled into her lap in order to help cut out the cookies, dumped another cup full of flour on the cookie cutters, herself, and Aunt Sam.

"I'm beginning to regret I didn't think to get a second pair of pj's." Daniel hunted for a clean section of his shirt in order to wipe his glasses off.

"That's okay," Austin commented, placing one sticky, chocolaty, hand on Daniel's leg as he followed his sister's example and climbed into his lap. "Santa always brings us new pj's on Christmas Eve."

Daniel glanced across at Sam who shrugged a bit, pushing a loose strand of hair out of her eyes and smudging her cheek with flour in the process. "I'm not sure Santa knew I'd be here," he said slowly.

"Don't be silly," Austin pronounced with the faith of a child, "Santa knows everything."

Austin liberally coated the rolling pin and himself, and by proxy, Daniel with more flour, before handing the rolling pin to Daniel to roll out the dough. Gently he helped the little boy roll out the dough, his larger hands engulfing the much smaller ones on the handles. A large white cloud billowed up from the table as Austin slammed down the last bit of dough. Daniel tried to suppress a cough as he got a lungful of flour. Scared by the strangled snort, Austin patted at Daniel's cheeks, "You okay, Dr. Daniel?" The chocolate goo that had already gotten all over Daniel's pajamas smeared across his cheeks as the concerned child determined if he was alright. Sam glanced up to see his chocolate war paint and laughed out loud. The sound startled Emily, who was holding a full container of colored sugar. She jumped in surprise, the open container flying out of her hand, and raining sparkles down on the table. Austin blinked in surprise for a moment at what his sister just did and then without hesitation reached for the next nearest open container. Red sugar flew across the table, covering his aunt and sister. Sam's eyes widened in shock before it was replaced by an evil glint as she hefted the flour canister.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"So, this is time-out, eh?" Daniel observed conversationally as he stood by the railing of the deck. Sam snorted in an unladylike fashion and joined him.

"I guess so. I've never been in time out before."

"You've never been a red head before either, I'd wager."

"A red head?" Sam echoed, tilting her head to one side in question. Daniel, chuckled and reached over to show her a lock of her hair which was still dusted in red sugar. Sam laughed and shook her head, resulting in a shower of sugar flying every which way. She studied the damage that had been done to Daniel, his clothes streaked with chocolate and flour, several different colors of sugar were caked into his sleeves, and of course there was his war paint.

"You're going gray."

"You did get me full in the face with that canister of flour."

"I was aiming for Austin."

"You missed."

"Well, because of you I've got M&M's all down my shirt." Daniel just grinned. When Sam had flung that canister of flour at him, it had seemed only proper to retaliate with the closest item at hand. It wasn't his fault that she had a scoop-necked pj shirt on. Sam pulled at the hem of her top and shook it out, dancing a bit as M&M's tumbled out from under it.

"So how long do we have to stay out here, anyway." It had taken Allison a few moments to react to the war that broke out at the table. Apparently it was something she had not expected to happen with two 'responsible' adults sitting at the table with the kids. She had trundled the kids off to get baths and ordered them out to the porch where they wouldn't get anything else dirty while they waited for their turn to get clean. Emily had asked if that was where 'grown-up- time out' was as her mother shepherded them out of the room.

"Well, you're only supposed to put someone in time out for one minute for every year of their age."

"Good thing it's warm out."

"There is that," Sam said as she hopped up to sit on the porch rail.

"You have a very nice family, Sam. Although I'm not sure they'll say the same of me after the disaster in the kitchen."

She waved her hand dismissively, "Mark and I have done far worse. You know those packing peanuts, and how impossible those are to clean. Let's just say when I was here last year they were still finding them from the year before."

"Are you and your brother close?" he asked curiously. He knew there had been some estrangement between them that had only been patched up in the last few years.

"We were as kids. When you are a military brat, you cling to your siblings. They are the only friend you know for sure is going to be at the next posting with you. After my mom died we were even closer. My father took her death hard, spent even more time at work, and my brother tried to fill in for him."

"Protective big brother?"

Sam snorted in response, "Yes. Doesn't matter that I'm an Air Force Officer and could wipe the floor with him."

"You'll always be his little sister."

"Yeah," she sighed, "there is that. I thought I was going to kill him last year with his constant nagging."

"Oh?" Sam paused for a moment, uncertain of how to continue. Last year she hadn't been the best of company. She had been lost in her own grief too much to really participate in the holidays.

"I really wasn't myself last year, and they could tell. Mark made it his mission to try and cheer me up. It backfired horribly." Even though she saw her family only once or twice a year, both her brother and sister in law had known something was wrong. When her brother had jokingly teased her that she "looked like she'd lost her best friend", he had been stunned when she burst into tears and fled from the dinner table. Her father had gone after her while a confused Mark hovered in the doorway. Jacob tried to explain in the vaguest terms to his son that she had indeed lost her best friend. Mark had felt guilty the rest of her stay and tried his best to apologize.

Daniel watched as sadness darkened her eyes and the smile disappeared from her face. He remember what Jacob had said last night about her not being in the holiday spirit. Gently he reached over to rub her back. Instinctively she leaned into him, the tension that had been building in her shoulders slowly relaxing.

"Your Dad said Christmas was hard on you last year."

"I'd just lost my best friend. The Colonel didn't want to talk about it. Brave soldier and all that. Teal'c has such a philosophical view of things. Jaffa dream of ascension and here you had achieved it. It was hard to sympathize with him. Everyone just expected me to 'carry on'. No one knew for sure what had happened. And I needed to know."

Daniel reached out and pulled her into his arms wrapping her in a hug. Sam snuggled into his arms, tucking her head into his shoulder. "General Hammond told me that you have to learn to live with the uncertainty. I did to a certain degree. Things got better. Jonas joined the team and we were back to business as usual. Then the day after Thanksgiving the Colonel shows up at my house with some boxes. He told me he had been sorting through your things and thought I'd want them seeing how I loved Christmas. We talked for a little bit and he took off. Since the colonel had gone through the effort of bringing them over I thought I'd sort through and see what was in them."

Sam remembered her amazement as she had unpacked the ornaments and lined them up on the table. Many of them were old, and she guessed had been his parents or even his grandparents. There were ones of Victorian blown glass and traditional German wood shavings. There were hand carved wooden ones, and ones made of sea shells. Some had names and dates on them others had the names of cities on them. Amongst the more traditional ones she had found a Hallmark ornament of the Millennium Falcon. Daniel had bought that one when Teal'c dragged them all to a Star Wars convention. He had explained to them how his parents had always bought a Christmas ornament when they went on vacation or somewhere special so they would always have a memory of the trip. It was a tradition he had continued and since he had never been to a sci-fi convention before he had to commemorate it. In that moment she realized that the story of Daniel's life was packed up in those boxes. Each of those ornaments represented a special moment in his life: from the childish Popsicle sticks covered in glitter to the miniature sphinx. Finally the reality of what had happened sunk in and she realized he wasn't coming back. Carefully she had packed all the things back away and stored them in the attic with the rest of her things. Her feelings were too raw this year to make merry.

"You were gone, and you weren't coming back," she whispered into his shirt. "I couldn't do it. Christmas is about hope, and I'd lost mine."

Sam tightened her grip on his shirt, reassuring herself with his solid presence. After a moment she leaned back a bit in his arms to look up into his face. A stray lock of her hair fell across her eyes and she blew at it impatiently, reluctant to remove her hands from Daniel's shirt to move it. With a tender smile, Daniel reached up to tuck back the loose tendril of hair behind Sam's ear. His fingers brushed against her cheek in a gentle caress, lingering for a moment against her hair as he smoothed the errant strands in place. Instinctively, Sam closed her eyes and turned her cheek into the palm of his hand. Softly he stroked the side of her face with his thumb.

"I'm home now," he said softly.

Sam's eyes fluttered open, and she stared up into his cerulean blue eyes. His gaze was intense upon hers, deep emotions simmering just under the surface. What exactly did he mean, she wondered; home with her for Christmas, home to Earth, or something more.

'He's going to kiss me,' Sam thought to herself as she titled her chin upwards in as much anticipation as invitation. Softly his lips brushed against hers, just the lightest touch. Sam sighed, not realizing until then she had been holding her breath. A delicious shiver ran down her spine and she reached up to curl her fingers in the hair at the nape of his neck. The gesture was enough of an invitation for him to capture her lips again. They were warm and gentle against hers. She leaned into the kiss, her fingers toying with his hair.

"You taste like sugar," he murmured against her lips. Sam was about to respond that he tasted like chocolate when she heard foot steps heading towards the porch doors. Reluctantly she stepped back from his embrace, avoiding any potential difficult questions.

"You can come in now, you two if you promise to be good." Allison teased as she opened the door allowing them to walk back into the kitchen. Sam blushed and wondered if having just kissed your best friend counted as good. "Santa is watching, you know." She placed a stack of towels down on the edge of the now clean kitchen counter. "Both showers are free. The pageant is at 3:00, so I'd like to leave at 2:15.

"Thanks, Allison," Sam answered. "We'll be ready."

"Sorry again about the mess," Daniel apologized as he glanced around the newly cleaned kitchen. "You should have let us help you clean at the very least."

"Don't worry about it. You had help."