Seven's a lucky number.
CHAPTER SEVEN
The seven von Trapp children were all properly dressed and sitting at the breakfast table by seven thirty the next morning, as Gretl had decided to make an early appearance, and for some reason Maria hadn't woken up and prevented Gretl from waking everyone else up. Luckily, except for Kurt and occasionally Louisa, the children were usually understanding with their younger siblings in their more excited moments. And they were all pretty excited anyway, as this would be their first real Christmas in a long time.
"It's Christmas!" Gretl announced, jumping up from her bed, her first victim Marta. "Marta, wake up, it's Christmas!"
The seven year old immediately sat up, grinning from ear to ear.
"Let's go wake the others!"
The quiet seven year old's smile dampened a little, "Do you think we should? They might not want to be up so early..." But her sister promptly grabbed her hand, dragging her down the hall towards the room Brigitta, Louisa and Liesl shared.
"Wake up! It's Christmas!" Gretl said pretty loudly, although it was not quite a shout. There was a groan from Brigitta, something incomprehensible from Louisa (and probably best left that way...), and nothing out of Liesl who hadn't heard any of this.
"'Gitta, it's your turn this year," Louisa said something comprehensible this time, but without opening her eyes. "I did it last year, Liesl the year before."
"I think you would all benefit from waking up with your siblings..." Maria popped up at the doorway seemingly out of nowhere.
Brigitta, who had reluctantly sat up somewhere during Louisa's speech, just looked bemused, there was still no response out of Liesl, and Marta and Gretl had jumped when Maria first started talking, as they weren't expecting it at first.
"Must we?" Brigitta asked, very much comfortable in the warmth of her bed.
Fredrich popped out behind Maria, "Yes, because she made us get up too."
Kurt could be seen behind Maria with a disgruntled look on his face, as if he still wasn't completely awake.
Suddenly Liesl sat up, talking quite loudly, "Not the purple bunny rabbit, please..." She suddenly realized where she was, much to the amusement of everyone else in the room. "Umm..." Liesl tried to think of an excuse for her outburst for a second, before skittering off to the bathroom.
"And she teases Friedrich about blue strawberries," Georg arrived on the scene, and he made a clicking noise with his tongue after he said it. His remark was much to the delight of the other children, especially Friedrich. "Children, why don't you meet us down at breakfast when you're ready?... On second thoughts, do you think you can get ready by yourselves without causing complete and utter chaos?"
"Father, we can handle it. Louisa and I can help." Fredrich said without any confirmation whatsoever from his sister.
"Hey!" Could be heard from the lump of blankets that was supposedly Louisa, but the mound of blankets did start to move showing that she would indeed help out.
"Good. We'll meet you down there." Georg and Maria walked downstairs together, their arms linked.
"I love you." Maria declared when they had reached the bottom of the stairway, whirling around to face him straight on as she said it.
"As I love you, Fräulein. As I love you." He returned her comment, kissing her fully.
purplepleaseSo the children were now sitting at the table, starving (Well, Kurt was starving. The rest were mildly wishing for food.), and pretty bored. Except Gretl, who couldn't sit still. Liesl was trying to keep her entertained.
Kurt was sitting slouched in his seat, sitting sidesaddle, and was staring hungrily at the center piece. "What do you think poinsettias taste like?" He said, reaching his hand out toward the plant.
"Kurt, I don't think you're Mother or Frau Schmidt would be too pleased if you ruined their centerpiece...I don't dare upset their feminine rituals of proper table settings, so would you be so kind as to leave it alone?" The Captain walked into the room, sitting down at his place. Maria was somewhere else. Not here. No one really noticed. The children just accepted it, and Georg knew where she was.
"Yes, Kurt. Please don't eat the poinsettias." Louisa threw her sarcastic imput into the conversation.
Kurt rolled his eyes and sat frontward again, resting his elbow on the table and his head on his hand.
All of a sudden, a soft ringing started, with an almost a tinkling sound to it. The seven children immediately knew what it was, and jumped out of their seats, running towards the ballroom in a stampede, the Captain slowly following up behind. Upon arriving they found Maria standing in front of the doors of the long forbidden room, holding a small, silver bell that alerted the coming of Kristkindl and the fact that his work was finished in this house. Maria stepped aside, pulling the door open as she did so, allowing the children access of the room. The children unconsciously stopped three paces into the room, excitement apparent on their faces. They clearly weren't quite sure where to start. Then, suddenly, each went of in its own direction, leaving a trail of spent wrapping paper in their wake.
Once the couch was cleared off, Maria and Georg sat down, delighted to just watch their children's excitement.
Cries came from all directions, "Mother, look what I got!"
"Father, look at this keen jack knife!"
"Oh, look at this dress!"
Only Brigitta was silent as she had already started reading the first present she opened, with a large mound of presents still piled around her.
Kurt was slowly devouring all of the sweets on the tree.
Georg found he was more watching Maria then his children though, her excitement matching their's at the very least. As he watched her, he realized that this was probably her first real Christmas. He didn't know much about her childhood; she had been vague in explaining it, and he hadn't pushed her too much as of yet.
He could clearly see it was an uncomfortable topic for her. He planned on slowly gaining the information from her, and as he wanted to know everything about her, he figured it was information best digested slowly so he could remember it all. He did know she had lived an unhappy childhood with her uncle though, and he definitely thought that there was some, hopefully not much, abuse written between the lines that Maria had chosen not to tell him as of yet.
He guessed that Christmas had most likely not been a very happy time for her; he doubted her uncle, and aunt in the earlier years, would have gone very far out of his way to make it pleasant for her. At least it didn't sound that way from what he heard. And after she had left her uncle's, she went to the abbey, where the opening of presents was eliminated in favor of prayers and masses.
The Captain sincerely hoped he was wrong, and she was just excited to be sharing it with her own family, her new family. He hoped.
A/N: I'm so smart, posting this the day, practiacally hours before, they plan to shut down and redo the site...I hope if you read this while it's down you'll come back and leave a review later, because it would mean a LOT to me:) Thank you. Have a nice day anda happy new year.
Oh, and I have decided to continue this to New Years:) But it definately won't be written until after...Well, I might get one more chapter done tonight, but no promises. And once school starts the updates will come even slower, but I'm sure I'll finish it...It's getting addictive...
Oh, and DISCLAIMER: I admit that the movie/song/book/kids-of-Jean-Kerr-who-appear-in-book Please Don't Eat the Daisies inspired Kurt's interest in eating poinsettias. I know I don't own it, but wouldn't that be cool...
And, sadly, I didn't recieve ownership of The Sound of Music or Julie Andrews, or Nicholas Hammond, or anybody involved with the SoM or even Doris Day (which would not be a bad consolation gift...I wouldn't even call it consolation...maybe alternative...) for Christmas. Wouldn't it be neat to come bounding out of bed and see Julie Andrews sitting in your living room under your tree or stuffed in your Christmas stocking with a bow on her head? ...
Amy/SweeetPassion - I have decided to keep going:) More Adelaide, Fredrich, and our favorite couple! (Oh, and everyone else thrown in as well...) Oh, and I'm sorry I smoosh your two reviews into one, I am a lazy, lazy noodle, and you are a good, faithful reviewer/reader.
megs - Thank you! I did have a lovely Christmas! I hope yours was wonderfultoo!(unless you don't celebrate Christmas...in which case I hope you are having a good Haunnakah, or Kwanza, or whatever you happen to celebrate...!)
cremated affection - lol, I'm glad you enjoyed it! That makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. :-D
The Lonely Goatherd - You lucky, lucky noodle. I wanted Star! and Cinderella. Although I love TMM, I saw some clips on the bonus of SOM 40th and I wanted to see Cinderella, plus I've already seen Star! (my friend has it) and it is possibly the most confusingand spazzymovie Ihave ever seen. But naturally I want to see it again, much to my parents' dismay (it was a bit too much for them...they usually only let me watch G or PG or mild PG13 movies, and that well, shocked them after my constant stream of Doris's...even though it is rated G...) lol, thank you, that was one of my more inspired moments...Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you too!
The Marauders3 - Is your name based on Harry Potter? Anyway, thank you! I'm so glad you forgive me, because I felt really bad about messing with really old traditions...
I luv Julie Andrews - You really think I'm a great author? That's so sweet:) Could I get a signed copy of that for my LA teachers?
practicallyperfectjulie - Did you play Baby Jesus in a play or place Jesus in the manger? Thank you SOOO much! I'm so glad you like it. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside when people say things like that. :) Lol, there wasn't any literal fluff in this chapter...but there might be in the next one...
TTFN!