I hope everyone who celebrates it has had a wonderful Christmas. I've had an awesome birthday! Please enjoy the final chapter. :)

December 25th: Christmas Joy

"Papà? Papà! It's Christmas!" were the first words Luigi heard the next morning.

The Fiat opened one eye and discovered that it was still dark outside, but he couldn't really blame his daughter. He and Guido were the exact same way when they were her age. (In fact, they kind of still were.) They would stay up nearly all night on Christmas Eve, looking for the Santas, and wake everyone up at the crack of dawn. However, most of their family would still be tired, having attended midnight mass.

"Fudge", he murmured sleepily, trying not to sound too harsh, "it is too early to get up yet." He wrapped his tyre back around her waist. "Go back to sleep, okay, angel? Just for another hour or two."

"Okay." Fudge snuggled down again and closed her eyes. Within a minute, her papà was asleep again, but she was far too excited to sleep. Not long later...

"Wake up, Papà! It's Christmas!" Fudge repeated excitedly. "Buon Natale!"

"Fudge", Luigi muttered again, opening one eye, "I told you. It is much too early. Please, just go back to sleep."

"Okay." Once again, the six-year-old lay down and closed her eyes. This time, however, she did manage to fall asleep. The next time she opened her eyes, the sky had turned a slightly lighter shade of blue.

She leapt up one more time with a wide smile. "Buon Natale! Wake up, Papà! Buon Natale!"

"I am awake", he muttered, rolling off his mattress slowly, still half-asleep. There was no way he was going back to sleep now. Then he smiled at his daughter. "Buon Natale."

Not surprisingly, the entire town was awake by then. They all stirred as they looked over at the little girl sleepily.

Fudge charged off of Luigi's mattress and hurried over to her other father. "Babbo! Wake up, Babbo! It's Christmas!"

Guido laughed and tickled his daughter. "(I am already awake. I could hear you telling Papà to wake up.)"

That made Luigi chuckle.

"Oh. Buon Natale!"

Guido smiled. "Buon Natale, Fudgie."

"Merry Christmas, everyone!" Fudge shouted across the room. "Merry Christmas!"

Mater grinned. "Merry Christmas, Fudge! Merry Christmas, McQueen! Merry Christmas, everybody!"

"Merry Christmas!" everyone called to each other.

"Feliz Navidad!" Ramone added.

Doc smiled. "Well, let's go over to Flo's!"

After getting bundled up to embrace the cold weather, the townsfolk all made their way over to Flo's.

"Wow!" Fudge exclaimed breathlessly. "Look at all of those presents! There are so many!"

Luigi laughed. "You know they are not all for you, yes?"

"I know", Fudge acknowledged. "I've just never seen so many presents before."

Flo whipped up her famous chocolate chip pancakes while Lizzie provided plenty of hot oil and hot chocolate.

Finally, once everyone was full and a little warmer, the ex show car smiled. "All right, everybody. What do you say we start opening these presents?"

"Charge!" Mater hollered, diving into a huge pile of presents, Fudge not far behind him.

They all laughed before joining the two kids in a more civilised manner.

It didn't take long to open all of the presents. Everyone was thrilled to pieces with every last present, from the flashy, expensive gifts that Lightning gave, to the drawings that Fudge had created for everyone, even if those did get a little mixed up...

"Thanks, Fudge!" Sheriff studied the drawing that was in his envelope. "A very nice drawing of Mater goin' tractor tipping. How did you know?"

Everyone laughed.

"Oh, no!" Fudge cried, her cheeks burning in embarrassment. "That was supposed to be for Mater!"

"I done got a drawing of flowers", Mater informed her, holding it up.

"That was supposed to be for Red!"

The fire truck held up a drawing of cars racing, which was meant to be for Lightning.

One by one, everyone showed the little girl the drawings they had received. Only Luigi, Guido and Ramone had the correct ones.

"I'm sorry!" Fudge apologised sheepishly. "I guess I must've mixed them up."

Her family smiled at her.

"I like my drawing", Sheriff declared. "It's funny."

"And I love how you drew yourself racing with the cars", Red put in with a smile.

The rest of them chimed in with similar comments. Fudge beamed. Her mixup hadn't been a disaster after all.

The rest of the presents were opened and the townsfolk loved them all, not necessarily because of what they were, but who gave those presents to them. It was like Fillmore always said: Christmas isn't about what's under the tree; it's about who's gathered around it.

That most definitely was true. Guido and Luigi had tears of joy shining in their eyes as they watched Fudge unwrap presents and then take on an ecstatic look. They had limitless appreciation for every moment that they were now able to spend with their daughter worry-free. And, of course, for the race car responsible for the social workers' verdict.

After the presents, the residents of Radiator Springs sang Christmas songs together with full joy. Not all of them were good singers, but that didn't matter. They still had fun, but it kind of fell apart when Mater would make up his own words that sent the others into a fit of giggles.

"I was right!" Sarge declared. "It really is the silly season." He didn't sound mad, though.

Most of the morning was then spent inside Flo's, drinking warm beverages, watching the snow fall. Fudge played with some of her new toys. There was no TV, no radio; they didn't even talk much. Since they saw each other all of the time, they sometimes ran out of things to talk about, but that was okay. Just being together was enough. It was just very quiet and peaceful and nice.

Eventually, though, it was time to eat. In Radiator Springs, it was tradition to have everyone's Christmas foods that they grew up having for lunch. So, there was always plenty of food that would be passed from person to person; everything from the traditional roast turkey, ham and eggnog, to the much less traditional chicken wings Lightning used to have when spending Christmas alone and the broccoli pasta Fudge liked (she didn't have a Christmas meal and the others didn't want her to feel left out).

Most everyone had been busy in the kitchen, preparing their respective special meals, making conversation (mostly about memories of that certain food on Christmas) and laughing as they did so. The only exceptions were Doc, who was a terrible cook, and Fudge, who created the place cards (with the correct drawings on them this time) and Doc chose where to put each one. There were already so many terrific smells coming from the kitchen and, in an instant, the chocolate chip pancakes they'd had for breakfast became a distant memory.

Flo rang the bell and that was their cue to come to the table. When they all gathered around it and the glasses were full, everyone said grace, something that they really only did on Christmas and Easter. (Some of them were more religious than others.) The cars bowed their hoods. Fudge looked at them all, a little unsure, not really understanding what was happening, but then she lowered her head.

Once Flo had done the first part of saying grace, Lightning cleared his throat with an embarrassed look on his face.

"I'd like to say something, real quickly, if that's okay", he began, staring at the tablecloth. "I am very glad to have a family who care about me. I know I hated this place when I first arrived, but... but now, even though I'm surrounded by people who are so different from me- shy fire trucks; rusty, goofy tow trucks and grumpy old race cars" (that brought a few chuckles) "I have never felt more at home. So, I- I guess I wanna say thanks for that."

Everyone smiled. It warmed their hearts to know he felt that way.

"Well, we wanna thank you too, for bringing our town back to the map", Sally informed him.

"And for keeping Fudge here", Luigi put in, kissing his daughter on the forehead.

Fudge beamed and hugged him back.

"I think we're all very lucky this year", Doc commented.

"We're lucky every year that we're together", Fillmore put in.

"Well, we thank the Lord for such a wonderful family!" Lizzie tried to get back to grace.

"Amen", Flo concluded.

"Amen", everyone murmured.

"Amen", Fudge echoed uncertainly, not entirely sure what that meant, before a flurry of plate passing began.

"What a feast!" Lightning declared hungrily.

"I know", Sally agreed. "I'm starving."

"Christmas crackers!" Fudge exclaimed abruptly, grabbing the one next to her. "D'you wanna do it with me, Papà?"

Luigi laughed. "Of course."

"(Then you can do mine with me)", Guido added.

Amidst eating their lunch, everyone pulled the Christmas crackers and unearthed paper crowns, silly little plastic toys and jokes.

"I wanted a blue crown!" Fudge declared, staring at her red one, disappointed.

"Here." Lightning got a light blue paper crown and tossed it towards Fudge. "I wanted a red one."

"Anyone want purple?" Mater wondered.

"I'll swap", Red offered, handing over his red one. "I'm red anyway."

"Far out, man!" Fillmore exclaimed excitedly, pulling out his prize. "I got a frog!"

Sarge got a frog too. Normally, he'd mutter something like, "What am I supposed to do with a little plastic frog?" Instead, he sent it towards Fudge. "Here, Fudge. You want this?"

Fudge beamed. "Thank you, Uncle Sarge!"

"How do I look?" Sheriff quizzed the others, trying on the big red plastic lips he'd gotten in his Christmas cracker. Everyone shrieked with laughter.

"C'mere and give me a kiss!" Lizzie began puckering up her lips. Nobody was sure if she was being serious or not, but Sheriff turned away and took the lips off just in case. Then Lightning tried to put his keychain, which resembled a moustache, on his hood.

"Mater!" Guido exclaimed as a little plastic ring from Christmas cracker the tow truck helped open ended up in his stuffing.

"You win!" Mater shouted, laughing.

Ramone had gotten a tiny little badminton set, which he and Mater were trying to use without much luck.

"How're you s'posed to play badminton with a set this small?" Ramone wondered.

"Maybe it's for mice!" Mater suggested.

Sally couldn't help smiling. "That would be pretty cute."

They all took turns reading their jokes aloud, even though there were only four different jokes.

Q. What do you call a reindeer with no eyes?

A. No idea.

Q. What do you get when you swallow Christmas decorations?

A. Tinsel-itis.

Fudge frowned. "I don't get it."

Q. Who delivers presents to cats at Christmas?

A. Santa Claws.

Q. Why was Santa's workshop closed down?

A. Elf and safety.

Once all of that was done, they settled down and ate one of the best meals they had ever eaten in their lives. In between bites, they talked and laughed. Sarge and Fillmore didn't even bicker for once. They were all so very happy, not only with the food and the presents and the snow, but to have each other. A year ago, Lightning had had nobody and the rest of them thought that they wouldn't all be together for this Christmas. Instead, their family hadn't shrunk; it had grown. And that was worth celebrating.

"All right. Sheriff, why don't you go over there?" Flo suggested, gesturing. "Mater, Sally? I think the two of you should be either side of Lightning."

"Doc! Come get a little closer, man!" Ramone added. "We're not contagious, you know. Yeah, Guido, you hold Fudge. Lizzie! Where are you going?"

Flo and Ramone were trying to gather everyone together in front of the tree for a Christmas picture. Fudge was back in her angel costume, wings and all, at her fathers' insistence. She had heard of some humans who took their Christmas pictures all wearing matching pyjamas. Her family, on the other hand didn't do anything like that. They weren't humans and while they could've done matching hats or something, they decided not to. All kinds of hats were worn, from Mater's grey winter hat with antlers on it, to Luigi's red, white and green hat (the colours of the Italian flag), to Doc's Santa hat and Lightning and Sally's matching elf hats, to Fudge's cardboard and tinsel halo. It showed that they were all different, but how close they stood in the photo showed that that didn't matter. They were a family, albeit an oddball little family.

"Okay!" Flo smiled with satisfaction as Ramone got into his position. "Everyone ready?" She set the timer on the camera and hurried to stand next to her husband. "Everyone say, 'Merry Christmas!'"

"Merry Christmas!" Lightning, Sally, Mater, Doc, Sheriff, Flo, Ramone, Luigi, Guido, Fudge, Red, Lizzie, Sarge and Fillmore all yelled in unison with big grins on their faces.

With a flash and a click, the photo was done. When they checked it out later, it was perfect. Only, they didn't do that just yet. Just like the year before, they felt like they couldn't separate from each other, only for a different reason this time.

The End

I hope you enjoyed. I was thinking of doing something similar next year; a World of Cars one, focusing on Radiator Springs, Thomasville, Propwash Junction and more. And I'll update The Getaway again soon. In the meantime, one last time, please review. :)