Andrew looks at the camera screen to make sure that they can get their Christmas photo done in one shot before Parker starts getting fussy. With Elena spending the holiday with Francisco, Caroline insisted that they take their photo early before she heads out.

He gestures, "A little to your left, Caroline."

She moves in place and when she is right where Andrew wants her to sit, she calls out to her daughter, who is running down the stairs after making sure that she looks good for the picture. Elena takes her brother from her mom and when everyone is in place, Andrew sets the timer and takes his place next to Caroline and the camera flash goes off. The sudden light surprises Parker, who starts to cry.

While Caroline soothes her son, she looks over at Elena, who is yawning, and asks, "Are you okay? I heard you wake up last night."

Elena nods her head, "I had a terrible headache, but it went away after I took some medicine."

Andrew looks over at Caroline, who appears to be a little tense after hearing Elena mention the medicine. After some time, Andrew learned from her that Francisco struggled with an addiction to pain pills. From what Lynn said, aside from a short stint after surgery, he has not consumed a pill, but Caroline has been worried that Elena could go down the same path as her father, despite having a professional to help the girl.

"I'm going to go pack," says Elena. "Dad's going to be here at noon."

The two adults watch her as she heads upstairs.

Andrew looks over at his wife, "Did you tell her about your parents' invitation?"

"I did, and she wanted to go to Francisco's place for the holidays, so I'm not going to stop her. Would I love for my daughter to be around for Christmas? Yes, but she spent a whole week in Florida for Thanksgiving, and it's important for her to know her be around her dad."

He's confused. It took a lot of convincing from many people to get her to even consider letting Elena see Francisco for a weekend, let alone a whole week, now she acts as though nothing as has happened in all this time.

Caroline hands over Parker to his dad, "Can you hold him? I'm going to make some hot chocolate."

As she steps into the kitchen, Caroline looks out the window and notices Francisco's truck in the driveway. She looks over at the clock; Elena mentioned that he is supposed to arrive at noon, so she wasn't expecting him to be waiting nearly fifteen minutes early.

Francisco can see her looking over at him and he gives her awkward wave before focusing his attention on his phone.

Rather than leaving him to wait out in the cold, she grabs her coat so that she can invite him inside. It's a small step, but Caroline figures that the only way that the two of them can go back to sense of normalcy is by trying to move past everything that has happened this year.

He notices that she is walking towards him and he unlocks the truck in the event that she wants to open the door. Caroline knocks on the window and Francisco lowers it so that he can hear her. He knows that she's going to invite him inside, but he doesn't want to intrude on the family and he is willing to wait in truck.

"Do you want to come inside? We have hot chocolate if you'd like."

Francisco shakes his head, "No, I'm fine. I can handle a few minutes out here."

She's disappointed. Ever since their tense session with Dr. Lopez, Francisco has kept his distance from her. She's sure that her keeping Elena from seeing him didn't help, but even with their weekly visits back on, he still walks on egg shells, as if afraid that she's going to take their daughter back. Caroline hopes that one day they can start to put what was said behind them, especially since he's been staying sober, but after years of pretending to get sober, it's going to cost Francisco some time.

Caroline gets inside the truck, "How are you doing?"

Francisco puts his phone away, "I'm fine. Are you ready for the holidays?" he asks, not sure of what else to say.

"Yeah, I only need to buy a present for Violet and I'm done. What about you?"

"I got everyone's gifts ready. It's definitely easier with only four of us."

Caroline starts naming potential guests, "You, Elena, Chuy, and Lynn? Is your mom heading out again?"

"She insists, plus she likes getting away from the cold. Speaking of cold, I'm surprised that your parents didn't invite you guys down to Florida for Christmas."

She looks him with a knowing gaze, "Who says they didn't? Don't think that just because they moved hundreds of miles away that they didn't try like they always do."

Ever since Francisco and Caroline split up, her family has made efforts to keep Elena around them and away from him. Between her parents and her sister, they lavish the teenager with an opportunity to see the life that they can offer her, which Francisco cannot match. Despite Caroline making it clear that she is uncomfortable with actions, they don't stop.

Upon returning from Florida, Elena showed him plenty of pictures of her grandparents' new home down south and recounted everything that went on in great detail. Francisco isn't sure if Elena is aware of how her grandparents purposely spoil her, but he isn't going to turn her against them, especially when they were able to give her what he can't.

She groans, "I'm happy that she decided to stay here instead."

Francisco looks at her, "Me too."

He's never said it to her, but he does appreciate that she instilled Elena with a grounded worldview and not the grandiose one that her family members wanted to spoil her with.

Elena steps out of the house. When she notices her mom in the truck with her dad, she calls out to Andrew, "She's outside talking with dad."

Caroline steps out of the truck to let Elena in. She gives her daughter one last hug, "I'll see you both after New Year's."

Elena returns the hug, "I'll see you too. Merry Christmas, mom," she says before getting into Francisco's truck.

"Don't worry, you'll see her soon," he says before pulling out onto the street.

The drive to Royal Woods is uneventful, but as Francisco pulls into the driveway, he and Elena can see Lynn shoveling the sidewalk.

The two step out of the truck to greet her, and while Francisco heads inside with Elena's things, she walks over to Lynn, and asks, "Can you help me out with something?"


Elena grabs her markers and begins drawing on the piece of paper in front of her. Caroline looks over her daughter's shoulder and notices her drawing herself and her parents. Even after months of not seeing her dad, she still thinks about him, and Caroline can't help but notice.

"Is daddy still sick?" asks the girl.

Caroline doesn't say a word as she tries to think of what to tell her daughter. After she and Francisco split up, she thought that the most age-appropriate way to tell the soon-to-be five-year-old why he wasn't around, was that he was sick. It isn't wrong and it has worked so far, but Elena keeps asking for him as her birthday approaches, and her repetitiveness is beginning to break Caroline.

"I'll call him to see how he's doing," she assures the girl. "Can you promise to be a good for your aunt Violet while I'm gone?"

Elena nods her head and goes back to drawing.

Caroline heads downstairs and tells her younger sister that she is going to step out to run errands, "I should be back in a few hours, Elena is upstairs drawing, but she has a bag of toys with her. Remember to give her–"

"Lunch at one, and don't let her watch more than an hour of television, you tell me this every time I watch her," says Violet, "I can handle my niece and she loves spending time with me."

The older sister sighs, "I know. I'll be back soon, I have to make the preparations for Elena's birthday."

"Why? Dad already said that he and mom have the whole thing planned."

"What? Why? I told them that I could handle it."

Ever since she and Elena moved in with her parents, her parents have insisted on helping her financially. At first, she didn't mind, she needed the help, but she knows that at some point her parents are going to push her daughter towards their world and their way of thinking the same way they did with her.

"I don't know what to tell you."

Caroline sighs, "If you knew, why didn't you tell me?"

"I assumed that you knew. Dad has paid for you to finish college, given you a free place to stay, and all after that no-good bastard walked out on you."

"I broke up with him," Caroline corrects. "And it hasn't been that long."

"But you needing our parents' help has been."

Caroline is getting frustrated and she decides to go upstairs to take Elena home.

The girl looks up at her mom, "Is daddy coming?"

"What?" she asks, forgetting that she asked for Francisco to go to the party, "I haven't called him yet. Let's pack your things so that we can go back to grandma and grandpa's house."

Elena whines, "We just got here, and aunt Violet was going to take me swimming."

"You can go another time," she says, as she helps packs Elena's markers and drawings into her backpack. "Let's go," she says as she leads the girl to her car.

On the way back to her grandparents' house, Elena asks, "Can daddy come to the party?"

Caroline looks at her daughter from the rear-view mirror. She hasn't spoken to Francisco since they broke up, and she isn't sure if enough time has passed either. It's hard to trust him when she's offered him plenty of opportunities to get help and he never took them, but seeing those little green eyes stare at her, makes her weak.

Then there was the issue of her family throwing the party. Ever since she was pregnant with Elena, her family has talked about Francisco with disdain. She was at least able to get them to stay quiet around the small girl, but it doesn't stop them whenever Elena not nearby. Caroline made a rule to herself to never bring him up, but in her current predicament, he was sometimes the subject of some conversations.

"I'll call him, and we'll see how he's feeling."


Elena looks over at the mannequin and studies what it is wearing, so that she can have an idea of what is in-style for men at the moment, and then she looks over at Lynn, who is walking away from the men's clothing section. Shopping for Christmas gifts for her dad is always difficult, he rarely wants anything and if he does tell you then it's out of a kid's price range. She assumed that asking Lynn or her mom would have helped, but at the moment, Lynn finds it easier to walk away from the crowds towards random sections of the store that would not appeal to him and her mom's knowledge is limited.

The fourteen-year-old follows her and sees her pick up a box from the end cap filled with novelty gifts. They're marked on sale, but none of them look like a good fit, unless she's missing something.

Lynn shows Elena the box, "You know I was pretty good at beer pong in college."

She's confused as to why Lynn would share that, "That's nice…do you think that dad's going to like it?"

"No, but it takes away the fun of Christmas when he tells you what he wants. 'I want a jacket' or 'I could use a new hammer' or whatever he said last year, I wasn't really listening. Most of the real fun either comes from remembering stuff they said or getting them a surprise that they might like, like those Dairyland tickets I got him a few years back."

"You bought those?"

Lynn sets the box down and walks towards the suit and tie section, "Yeah, when we were kids he said that he's never been for that Milky Way walk, and everyone was like, 'What do you mean you've never gone?!' or 'We should go!' but it never happened, so I bought him the tickets."

"That was one of my favorite Christmases," Elena says fondly, unaware that Lynn was the one that bought those tickets for them. She turns towards Lynn and notices that once again, she is on the move.

Elena follows her, so that she doesn't lose her in the crowd of people doing last minute Christmas shopping, "Lynn! Wait up!"

Lynn turns around and spots Elena quickly walking towards her, "Did you find anything that your dad might like?"

"No, I thought that you agreed to help me."

"I am, but nothing seems right, and I want a pretzel. Do you want one? You look like you'd like a cinnamon pretzel."

"I would, but– hey!" Elena says as she runs after Lynn, who is making a beeline for the pretzel stand.

As Elena tries to run after her, Lynn immediately stops upon seeing a jewelry store. She doesn't know what possesses her to stop, but as she looks at the display case by the window, she sees a watch that is calling out to her.

Elena runs past the store that Lynn walked into. She stops and looks around, but can't see where Lynn went. It's moments like these that make her wish that either she or Lynn were taller so that they could find each other more easily.

The teen looks at the pretzel stand, but she doesn't see Lynn, so she decides to retrace her steps in order to find her. Elena looks through the stores and sees a familiar red jacket inside of a jewelry store. Lynn is looking through the display cases and seems to stop at a silver watch.

Elena walks over and looks at the price. When she told Lynn that she wanted help finding something for her dad, she assumed that it would be in her price range, not nearly triple.

"I think your dad might like this watch," says Lynn.

"Why?"

"It's waterproof and blue."

"Is that all?"

"No, he only has that digital watch and this old-timey one is probably nicer for him to wear when he goes out."

Lynn does make a point; for as long as she's seen a watch on her dad's wrist, it's always been the same digital one, but she can't imagine that he'll ever get rid of it.

"I thought that you would want to give something more whimsical?"

"I thought that we were looking for you to buy something for him, I already got him something. Besides, I didn't think that money was such an issue for you."

Elena sighs, "Lynn, I'm not using my grandparents' money to buy my dad a gift, I'm using my own. Now can we please figure out something before the mall closes," she says in an exasperated tone.

"Okay, I didn't know…"

There is an awkward silence between the two and Elena feels bad. She didn't mean to get annoyed at Lynn, but she has not been making this easy for her. The teen takes a deep breath and tries to think of what Dr. Lopez told her about letting her feelings be known and not burying them for the sake of others; she can be known without being aggressive.

She sighs, "I'm sorry. I've been stressed with everything that's been going on and the holidays don't make it any better."

Lynn wraps her arm around the girl's shoulder and leads her towards the pretzel stand. With everything that's happened this year, she's bound to be holding onto some pressure. Lynn wishes that she knew what to say to her, but most weekends Elena seems fine.

"It's okay. You're dad's gonna love whatever you get him."

"That's not the issue. I don't like feeling like I don't know my own dad. Did you ever have that feeling?"

Lynn stops to think about it for a brief second. She knows plenty of things about her own dad, but she had the luxury of being in the same home as him every day when she was growing up.

"Not really, but it's not like we can't figure your dad out. He likes sports, and tools, and cars, and building things, fixing things."

"I think he only does that last one because you keep causing damage to the house and because of Dutch."

"Well he never yells," she says in a matter-of-fact tone, "and that's good enough for me. C'mon!" Lynn says as she takes Elena's hand, "We'll find something or find a bunch of stuff for you to make him something that he'll like."

As she's being dragged, Elena reminds Lynn, "Aren't I a little old to make my dad a present?"

"You're smart and creative, I'm sure you can think of something more complicated than a macaroni picture."


Francisco walks into the toy store to find a gift for Elena. He hasn't seen his daughter in months, and he doesn't know what to get her. When the three lived together, he could see and hear what interested her, but children can lose interest in things quickly and he isn't sure if she likes the same toys or a newer one that have since came out.

As he looks through all the aisles, he is bombarded by the possibilities – dolls, Blocko bricks, and tea sets, she could easily like any of them. Francisco grabs a set of dolls off the shelf and looks at them to compare. He isn't sure whether Elena would like the one with the princess accessories or the one with veterinarian accessories, and those aren't even his only options.

"I guess I could ask Caroline," he tells himself, but he doesn't want to admit that he doesn't know what to get his own daughter.

Francisco knows that he has a few days until Elena's birthday and this is only the first store that he's gone into, he could easily find something that she'll like in another store or even online, if he's willing to spring for fast delivery.

Something starts to cross his mind – the price of these toys. After fixing up a part of his new house, he hasn't been left with a lot of money, especially since Kiké showed up recently, instead he's left with worn tools, piles of wood, and a collection of used furniture that he picked up cheap.

He starts to think about the upcoming party. Caroline mentioned that is going to be at her parents' house and he can already imagine what they'll say to him upon seeing him. Francisco hasn't faced the Aldrich family since he and Caroline moved back to Michigan and she made it clear that it was best he doesn't either. However, time has passed, Elena is almost five and they've had nearly six years to cool down, though he isn't sure if they actually have.

Francisco sighs in frustration and heads home without a single thing for his daughter. He has enough time to think of something, but he isn't sure what he can get her while still within his budget, "When did toys get so expensive?" he asks himself.

When he arrives home, Francisco hears the sound of a running river and spots Jackson meditating in his backyard. He walks over to him, and the older man presses pause on his CD player, "Good evening, neighbor. How are you doing?"

Francisco takes a seat by the fence, "Not bad," he answers. "I passed by the toy store before coming, but I couldn't find anything."

"Are you a fan of model toys too?"

"What? No, it's for Elena. Her birthday is coming up and I thought that I might be able to find her something, but everything was either too pricey or I wasn't sure if she would like it. I feel silly not knowing what to get her. She's my daughter, but it's been months since I've seen her in person. What if I don't even know her anymore?"

Jackson can sense that his neighbor is upset, "Francisco, a few months doesn't take away the years of memories that you made with your daughter."

'It does when she's barely turning five. What kid remembers anything before five?' he thinks to himself.

"I know, but between everything that's been going around the house, I have to be a little more price conscious."

The older man nods his head, "Well, there are ways that you could get your daughter a great present. You could get her an experience?"

Francisco shakes his head, "This is the first time that I'm going to see her, and I'm not sure if Caroline is going to be okay with that unless she tags along too."

"Hmmm…that could cause problems as Elena may mistake it for both of you getting back together."

"Exactly."

"Well, have you thought about making her something? You brought some supplies to fix two of the bedrooms, is there any chance that you could make something out of it?"

Francisco scratches his head, "I don't know, I'm not exactly the creative type."

"There are projects that you can find online. I'm sure the blueprints wouldn't be too expensive, it'll be something you build for your daughter, and depending on the project you would have all the supplies in your home."

"So all I would need to do is make it. You know what? That sounds like a good idea, thanks Jackson," Francisco says as he slowly makes his way inside to search for a project.

"You're welcome, neighbor," he says as he goes back to meditating.


With the girls out of the house, Francisco has an opportunity to get Lynn's present from Jackson. Every year since she's moved in, she has made it a habit to look for her present before they can be exchanged and every year the surprise is ruined, but this year, he planned ahead and had the present sent to Jackson's place.

Francisco calls his neighbor and lets him know that he's going to pick up the present that he ordered. After the Thanksgiving game, Lynn wasn't in much of a mood to head to the gift shop like they planned, so Francisco decided to buy her the jerseys that she wanted; now he hopes that she didn't already order one for herself.

Jackson steps outside with the box, "I'm sorry that I couldn't hold onto the present until Christmas."

"It's okay," says Francisco. "I understand. Christmas is for family and I'm sure that your sister wants to see you."

"What about you, neighbor? Any plans with your loved ones?"

"I've got Elena until New Year's, my mom is going to see her siblings down in Tijuana and Chuy is coming over."

Jackson sighs in relief, "Oh good, I can rest easy knowing that Kiké isn't going to be around. I don't need him trying to break into my house again."

"Don't worry, he shouldn't be here," he tries to assure his neighbor. Francisco checks his watch, "I should hurry up and hide this, thanks a lot, and Merry Christmas," he says as he heads inside to find a good place to hide the present.

Francisco opens the door and quickly heads inside to find a place that Lynn won't think to look for her present.

Come December 24th, Lynn and Elena are in the kitchen attempting to make sticky buns. Despite being a cook at a restaurant, Lynn is hopeless as a baker, she overworks the dough, she skips steps, and she tends to go rogue despite having a proven recipe in front of her and Elena is not any better in the kitchen. Regardless, both of them plan on successfully making the treat.

"Is this your dad's recipe?"

"Nah, my brother got it from his best friend and then gave it to us after we begged him for it. It's like a tradition that we started about year ago."

Francisco passes by her with a box of decorations, "Isn't it a little early to be starting on dessert? We haven't even made dinner yet."

"Whose fault is that? I wanted an early dinner, especially if we're gonna party 'til midnight."

"I've got the corn husks soaking in water, and we're only waiting for Chuy so that he can help make the tamales."

Lynn groans, "What's taking him so long then?"

He doesn't bother to answer her and instead opts to finish decorating that living room. Francisco can't blame her for wanting to get started on dinner, but he can't imagine that they're going to do anything different than they did last Christmas, so there isn't any point at speeding up the night.

Elena walks over to her dad, "Do you need any help?"

Francisco pulls out old cardboard star, "Yeah, I could use a little help finishing up with tree," he says as he hands her the star.

She looks at the faded piece of cardboard, "I can't believe that you still have this. I made it when I was six."

"Do you want me to get rid of it?" he asks, despite knowing that she'll say no.

Elena shakes her head, proving Francisco right – that she's a sentimentalist.

He pulls out a wrapped present from the giant box and when Lynn isn't looking, he places it underneath the other presents so that she doesn't find it.

Elena notices what her dad is doing, and asks, "What are you doing?" she whispers.

He turns around and looks to see Lynn staring at the sticky buns in the oven, "It's her present, but I don't want her to pick it for when we open one at midnight."

"Why?"

"It's a surprise," he tells her.

The doorbell rings. Elena heads over to the door and is met with the sight of her uncles, who are holding presents and a Rosca de Reyes cake. The three are look at the door, surprised to see Kiké, who never mentioned that he was going to appear.

"Kiké…what are you doing here?" asks Francisco, as he slowly steps towards the front door.

"That's no way to greet a guest," he says as he walks past his younger brother. "I come all this way from Amsterdam just to be shown the door."

"What were you doing in Amsterdam?" asks Elena.

Kiké takes a seat on the couch, "I went to see an old friend and then we saw the museums. I got the biggest fucking headache in the Van Gogh museum and the bastard laughs. At least those crates were able to help," he says as he lights up a cigarette.

Everyone is confused, by what he is talking about.

"What crates?" asks Elena.

"It's for sitting in, because apparently Vincent was such a great artist that I was overcome with emotion," he says in a falsely dramatic tone. "Personally, I had more fun with the rabbits by the museum and posing with the Japanese tourists. Now who's ready for games?" he looks over at Lynn, "Lotería rematch, you damn trancera!"

"You're on! But don't cry when you lose to me again!"

The timer does off, but rather than take the sticky buns out of the oven, Lynn walks over to the dining room table and clears everything off so that they can set up for the game. Last time they played, he accused her of being a cheater, and Lynn is clearly not going to take that lying down. Everyone knows that there was no way for her to rig the game so that she can win some pocket change, but the two don't seem to want to stop fighting.

Kiké searches for the game in a closet and begins to set up for their rematch. Francisco, Elena, and Chuy stand around, watching the two set up. The timer goes off again, but Lynn pays no attention to it, as she's too invested in beating Kiké at the game.

Francisco walks over to the oven, grabs a pot holder, and pulls out the sticky buns. Chuy and Elena look at their 'dessert', and neither one is interested in eating.

"Well, I'm glad I brought something…"

She looks at the store-bought cake, "I guess…"

Francisco looks over at the table as Lynn and Kiké play, "Well they aren't going to be much help," he remarks.

Chuy sets down the cake on the counter, "It's fine. Besides, do we really need so many people? I can get the filling started, you get the dough ready, and Elena can wrap the tamales. We can be done before one of them flips the table or tries to tackle the other."

The father and daughter laugh as they get started.

Any time that the brothers make one of their mother's recipes, it typically falls on Chuy to take charge of cooking duty; it isn't his preferred job, but compared to Francisco and Kiké's skills in the kitchen, he has no choice but to play chef.

The older brother begins to cut the pork, while his niece takes the corn husks out of the bucket of water and her dad gets started on the dough. Chuy looks over at Lynn and Kiké and he's annoyed that they're just playing. He understands Lynn not wanting to cook, she does it for a living, but his brother can easily help.

When Francisco takes a small ball of dough and puts it in a glass of water, Lynn stops to look at him. She ignores Kiké and walks over to see what he is doing. This is the first time that she's seem him make tamales, and she's curious about how much work really goes into the dish that he has never made for them. Francisco notices that the ball of dough sank to the bottom of the glass and he grabs more lard to put in the dough.

Lynn looks over at him, "You're still adding more?"

"It needs to float, that's when it'll be ready," he says as he kneads the dough. When the lard is worked in, he takes a small bite of it, "Needs more salt."

Lynn looks over at Chuy and then back at Francisco, "You sure that you don't want someone else to taste it?" she asks, knowing full well of his inability to taste when something is too salty.

Chuy chuckles, "Don't worry about it, Lynn. It's supposed to be salty–"

"It's the one time his salt tongue is useful in the kitchen," remarks Kiké.

Francisco rolls his eyes, and goes back to tending to the dough.

The doorbell rings again, surprising everyone. As far as they knew, they weren't expecting anyone else to come by, and when the doorbell rings again, Francisco walks over to see who is at the door. He looks through the peephole and is surprised to see Lily and Lisa, "Lynn, were you expecting your sisters?"

"No, are they here?" she asks as she approaches the door.

"Yeah. I didn't think that they would show up unexpectedly."

From outside, Lily knocks on the door and says, "We know you're in there."

"Yes, now please open the door, the temperature is dropping and–"

"And none of us are in the mood to play Corpsicle!"


On the day of the party, Jacob and Elizabeth's backyard is transformed with a bouncy house, balloons, and a variety of fancy candies from local shops. Elena is excited, but Caroline is silently upset at her parents for throwing such a lavish party when she made it clear to keep it small.

Growing up, these were the sort of parties that she and her sister had. It wasn't a big deal then, but this probably going to be the first party that Elena will remember and Caroline doesn't want her expecting this party as the norm. She saw how her sister grew up to be spoiled, and while she herself had enough sense, Caroline doesn't want to take that gamble with her daughter.

She sees her mother passing by and she approaches her. In a quiet whisper, she asks, "Mom, what is all this? I said that I wanted Elena to have a small party, instead you and dad invite half the neighborhood and who are some of these people?" she asks pointing towards some older couples.

"They're your father's business associates. He invited them and they brought their grandchildren along for Elena to play with. Besides, she deserves it after what happened between you and…him."

"He has a name."

Elizabeth places her hand on her daughter's shoulder, "We can talk about this another time. I'm going to go greet the guests, somebody has to."

Caroline sighs and rubs her temples in hopes of relieving her headache, but she can't imagine that today is going to get easier.

Francisco pulls up in front of the house. He parks the truck and steps out with Elena's present. There is an arch of balloons leading towards the backyard, and he can hear children squealing in delight. He can feel his back begin to ache and before he is seen by anybody, he pulls out the amber bottle and takes the last pill to keep Caroline or Elena from seeing him take one at the party.

He walks into the backyard and sees a bunch of children running around, adults standing in the shade while talking to one another, and caterers walking around with trays of food. Francisco isn't sure what to think, except that it too much for a five-year-old's birthday.

"Daddy!" screams Elena as she runs up to him to give him a hug.

Francisco smiles and does his best to return the hug, "Happy birthday, Sunshine."

She notices the wrapped box in his hands, and asks, "What's that?" as she jumps up and down with excitement.

"It's your present. You can open it later," he says as he moves the box away from her.

"Aww, but I wanna open it!"

Caroline, who is walking towards the two, says, "Elena, you have to wait," she looks up at Francisco, "It's nice that you were able to make it."

"I wouldn't miss it."

Elena pulls on her dad's hand, "Daddy, watch me on the bouncy castle!"

He slowly follows after her as she leads him away from Caroline.

Francisco watches Elena bounce around with the other children, he notices that he's the only parent who is watching their kids. Most of the parents seem to be ignoring their kids while leaving them under the watchful eye of nannies while they mingle amongst themselves.

While Caroline handles the guests and keeps her parents away from Francisco, Elena is dragging her dad around the party doing one activity or another. He can tell that she wants to make up for all the time that he wasn't around, but with each new activity, he can feel his back aching and pairs of eyes on him.

Elizabeth walks over to her granddaughter to lets her know that the clown they hired has arrived. The children begin to cheer and take a seat as he begins to set up. The older woman walks back to where the other adults are, ignoring Francisco, who stays put and watches. He hasn't been interested in these sorts of things since he was Elena's age, but he also doesn't want to leave her alone after she made it clear that she wants him around.

The clown introduces himself and performs his first trick – catching a pigeon out of the sky. He tosses the bird into the air and it turns into confetti which showers the children from above.

Francisco admits, "Okay…that was impressive."

He notices that Elena is focusing all her attention on the clown that she probably won't notice when he gets up to grab some food from the table. Francisco tries his best to not bring attention to himself, and he's mostly successful, except for the few children around him who can hear him groaning as he walks away.

As he grabs a plate of food, one of the older neighbors begins to spark up a conversation with Francisco, "You're Elena's father, right?"

Francisco can sense where the conversation is going. Despite spending most of his time with Elena, he has realized that the people around him are gossipy and in each other's business. He also knows that Jacob and Elizabeth are clearly upset with him after what happened, and he wouldn't put it past them to mention him negatively, especially with Caroline living back at home with their young daughter.

"Yes," he says, not knowing what to say about the man.

"It's nice that you were able to come for your daughter's party. I know that my wife used to give me hell for missing my kids' birthdays, but what can you do when work has us out of the state sometimes."

Francisco is confused, "I'm sorry?"

"Jacob mentioned that you're the engineer for a construction company out in Arizona, right?"

Caroline overhears the conversation and before she is able to correct her father's friend, Francisco says, "Yeah, I think that damn desert sun has been messing with me for too long."

The men laugh.

"It's nice to be able to come back, even if it's for a short time. I know that Elena misses seeing me, but I'm glad that she at least has her family around while I'm toiling away."

"Now if only our wives would remember that," says the other man.

"I think they do, but then they remember that we're gone whenever we show up again."

The two laugh again.

After overhearing that comment from Francisco, Caroline decides to interfere. She can't let him keep going on with this charade; lying without a care in the world, "Can I see you inside, Francis?"

He is confused about why she called him by the wrong name, but instead of questioning her, says, "Sure," before following her inside.


Francisco and Lynn watch her sisters as they lay a present under the tree. This is the first time that the two sisters have joined the couple for the holidays and he can feel some tension arise from Lynn.

He looks over at her, and she has now gone from playing lotería with Kiké to helping make the tamales. Ever since Thanksgiving, he noticed that she has been a little more distant from her sisters. He can't blame her, but she adamantly refuses to admit that she's upset or talk about what she said at the game. He hasn't pushed her to try and tell him anything either, but her actions make it clear that she is still bothered by what happened a month ago.

"Are you okay?" he asks quietly.

"I'm fine," she answers.

Francisco doesn't believe her, and Chuy, who is pretending to not listen, doesn't get involved. He heard from his younger brother what happened, and like Francisco, he's sure that she's bothered, but she is doing a decent enough job at hiding it from her oblivious sisters.

Lily looks at the cards on the table, "I've never seen this version of bingo before. Is this a drunk?" she asks as she looks at the card entitled 'El Borracho'.

Kiké takes a seat next to her, and looks at the card, "Yeah, but they're not all bad. Most of them are silly little things like scorpions, devils, and skulls."

"As well as mermaids," she responds as she shows him the topless mermaid card.

He scoffs, "Are you also going to complain about number twenty-six too?"

Lily is tempted to look through the cards, but rather than take a chance on what she may find, she decides to set down the deck and walks over to the kitchen, "Do you guys need any help?"

Chuy shakes his head, "Nah, we're almost done. Although, an assembly line would be nice so that we can get these tamales into the pot soon."

"Great!" the youngest Loud says, as she washes her hands.

Chuy turns to Lynn, "Can you do me a favor and cut some cheese?"

Lily groans, "We haven't eaten yet. Can she wait until after we leave?" she jokes.

Kiké laughs and he turns to Lisa, "I thought you said that Luan was the funny one?"

"It's arbitrary," she reminds him. "Besides, I mentioned that she is a comedic writer, while my youngest sister hops around jobs."

Lily, who overhears that last part, argues, "I'm trying to find what I like. No one complains to you about having multiple doctorate degrees in different fields."

Chuy tries to get everyone focused again, and asks for some help make the tamales. After using all the ingredients to make pork tamales and some cheese ones, the food is placed in the pot and put onto the stove to cook.

The seven take a seat around the dining room table and talk, but everyone forms into their own little groups; not paying much attention to anyone else.

Lynn sighs, "This is boring. Can't we play a game?" she turns to Kiké, "You said that you wanted a lotería rematch."

"And you walked away, so I won."

"Like hell you did," she argues, getting ready to pounce on him.

In an effort to stop the fighting, Elena asks, "How about a different game? One where we try to answer questions and–"

"The team that gets the most answers correctly wins?" asks Lynn, as she glares at Kiké.

He mouths off to her, 'You're on, Stinkfoot.'

"No," answers Elena, "It's for fun, so we can learn about each other."

Lily and Lisa, who wish to avoid Lynn's competitiveness, and Francisco and Chuy , who want to maintain some peace, all agree to play the game. Everyone is handed some slips of paper and write down some questions that everyone will agree to answer. The pieces of paper are folded up and placed in a hat to be picked from one at a time.

Elena pulls out a card from the hat, "Worst Christmas ever?"

The sisters struggle to come up with an answer, but the brothers unanimously say, "Christmas at the gas station."

The four females look at them, wondering what they are talking about. Elena has never heard any of them mention that Christmas, though she can't imagine that they would want to recount the tale.

"A gas station? When'd that happen?"

Kiké starts, "It was a little over thirty years ago. We were going to see our maternal grandparents, and dad had the bright idea to travel on Christmas Eve. He figured that we would make great time since the roads would be mostly empty. He also thought that he and mom didn't need to exchange so much money, so they were traveling with the bare minimum. Anyway, we're right outside Guadalajara, and the truck begins to act up. None of us knew, until dad pulled over on the side of the road."

"Luckily, it was after we made it over a hill," remarks Chuy.

"So we're waiting on the side of the road, and about an hour of Pancho whining later, a cop shows up and calls a tow truck. We get taken to a Pemex gas station, where dad is trying to find a mechanic, but who's going to be open on the twenty-fourth? No one! Our parents had almost no money, they had to pay the tow truck and to top it off, we were getting hungry. Rather than letting us wait around, dad figures that calling a cab to take us to a bus station is better than waiting around–"

"Except," Francisco starts

"Except, the cab driver says that there is a mechanic in his family. He calls him up, takes dad to an auto parts store buy something, because that's what the mechanic said was likely wrong, and we stay put waiting for hours. The sun begins to set, mom is getting impatient and she's almost desperate enough to call one of her brothers to pick us up or a friend that lived in the city, but for some reason, her friend doesn't answer the phone, and her brothers are too far to come pick us up. We end up eating gas station hot dogs…wait, no, it was chicken from Pollo Feliz, we had hot dogs for breakfast."

"And peeing into soda bottles to avoid having to pay to use the restroom."

"Then, after the sun sets, the mechanic finally shows up. He's drunk and fixing something around the gas tank, which for some reason, he thought would be smart with a cigarette in his mouth, so we all just look as mom pulls us further and further away towards the security guard."

"Except, he couldn't fix it, and he said that he would be back tomorrow."

"Our parents didn't have much money, there weren't any hotels nearby, so we ended up having to sleep in the truck. We put anything valuable inside with us, and fell asleep."

Chuy reminds his brother, "Until you started panicking at six in the morning, because the cab was cramped."

Kiké rolls his eyes, "Point is, the bastard mechanic came back around noon and we left an hour or two later and reached out grandparents' place around six, with the Christmas cheer already sucked out of us."

The sisters look at each other, Lily speaks up, "I don't think we have anything that'll top that."

Kiké tries to high-five his brothers, "Point one for the boys."

"It's not that kind of game," Elena reminds him.

He and Lynn complain, "Fine…"

The game continues and everyone reveals information about themselves from Lisa's time traveling beverage, Lily's brief appearance in a South Korean music video, Chuy's failed love life, Kiké's stint on game show, Lynn's ideal place to be, Francisco's fixation on rural living videos, and Elena's most treasured possession.

The hour passes and after the tamales are handed out and enjoyed, Chuy grabs a knife and the Rosca de Reyes, "Alright, who's ready to play this game? Now how am I going to cut this evenly?" he asks.

Lisa pulls out a pair of calipers, "Give me one minute and I can determine how to cut the cake into seven equal slices."

He hands over the knife and Lisa makes the cuts. Everyone grabs a slice of cake and before anyone is able to take a bite, Chuy explains, "Whoever finds the baby has to host a party for the rest of us – food, drinks, everything, by next year."

Lily asks Kiké, "Is that a family tradition?"

"Yeah, I think it's because none of us actually remember how this game is actually supposed to be played."

Everyone takes small bites, except for Lynn, who scarfs the whole slice in her face.

"Now I know why Pancho keeps you around," Kiké says under his breath.

She immediately punches him in the arm, surprising Lily and Lisa. Lynn continues to chew on the slice of cake, and as she is about to swallow, she immediately feels something against her throat. She spits out the cake and the baby can be seen in the half chewed cake.

Everyone is grossed out, but Lynn happily declares, "I win!" as she waves around the plastic baby for the others to see.

Francisco reminds her, "That means that you have to host a party for us."

"Dang it…"


Caroline continues walking, leading him away from the party and from any potential guests that could interrupt them. She knows that he is prone to lying, but she never thought that he would go along with any of the lies that her dad told people.

"What are you doing out there?"

Francisco leans over against the wall to take some of the strain of his ailing back, "I was making conversation with your parents' friends, Carol. Did you even invite anyone that Elena interacts with on her own?"

She lends him a chair while reminding him, "Yes, but that's not the point. I mean, why are you going along with it? They lied to everyone about you."

"Yeah, I kinda figured that out when that guy said that I worked in Arizona, but today isn't about me correcting your dad's lies, it's about me being here for our daughter. I don't care if I'm dishonest, because at the end of the day the peace is kept."

"You should care," she stresses, "How can you be okay with my parents saying all these things about you?"

"Well it's better than what they really want to say about me." In a mocking imitation of Jacob, he says, "Francisco is a bastard. He ran out on our daughter and left her alone with a child. He isn't taking any responsibility. It's up to me and Elizabeth to care of them."

After she moved back in with her parents, they made it clear that she and Elena were going to have to do things their way, especially since they are covering their expenses. It felt like being a child all over again, and it was the reason that she ran off to California in the first place. She doesn't like the constant judgment or the lies that they tell in order to save face, but she has to endure it for Elena's sake.

"Enough! I hear it, I see it, I'm not blind to it," she sighs, and tries her best to relieve her headache, "I am sick of the lying, from everyone. I am not ashamed to how my life became this way, but it seems like everyone is and I'm a fool."

He sighs, "I'm sorry, but…"

After the clown finished his acts, Elena noticed that neither one of her parents were in the backyard. She decides to look around the house for her parents, and can hear her mother's hushed voice coming from the back of the house away from the party. She follows the noise and notices both of her parents talking to one another.

She stays hidden away from them and listens in.

"…but, what's a lie if it keeps the peace?"

Caroline wants to chastise him for thinking that way. While he is right that today shouldn't be about causing a ruckus around her family, she can't stand hearing him lie without a care in the world.

Before she is able to release her anger, Elena runs towards her dad and wraps her arms around him, "Daddy, we have to go, there's a buncha fun stuff to do."

Both adults are surprised by her sudden appearance. Francisco picks up Elena to put her on his lap, "I'm sorry, Sunshine, but I have to go," he says while looking over at Caroline.

"But you just got here," she whines. "Are you coming back?"

He looks over at Caroline again, but he can tell she isn't going to agree to it, "Someday, but, um, we'll see. One day we can go to the park or the lake or something, but for now, be a good girl for your mom and your grandparents, and I'll try to get better so that we can see each other soon."

Elena's eyes begin to tear up, "Promise?"

He gives her a tight hug, "I promise."

Caroline can't stand to see them both disappointed, and she asks that they stay put until she returns. Both of them comply, and a few minutes later, Caroline comes back with Francisco's gift.

She hands over the box to their daughter, "Go ahead and open it," she says as she pulls out her phone to record the moment.

Elena happily opens the box and is confused when she pulls out a piece of a tree, "What is it?"

Francisco pulls out a little princess and some animal carvings, "They're supposed to make a giant tree, so that you can play with it," she joins two pieces together, "See? You can make it however you want, and the animals live in the tree with the princess."

She begins to assemble the tree and Caroline reminds her daughter, "What do you say?"

"Thank you," she says, with a smile on her face.

Caroline stops recording, and walks over to Francisco, "It's a very nice present."

"I'm glad she likes it."

He looks down at Elena as she plays for a few minutes, before remembering that he was going to leave. Francisco gets up from the chair, and Elena immediately stops playing to keep him going anywhere. She doesn't know when she'll get to see him again, and while they only spent some time together, it wasn't enough to make up for how long he was gone.

"Wait!"

He sighs. He knows that this isn't going to be easy, but until things settle down, they'll all have to endure this separation, however long it will be.

"Don't worry, Sunshine. We'll see each other again. You keep playing with your birthday present, and before you know it, I'll be back," he reminds her, before giving her one last hug.


On Christmas morning, Elena wakes up and notices how dark it is in her room. She doesn't need to look at a clock to know that it's too early to be awake, especially after the fun everyone had last night.

She closes her eyes in hopes of letting sleep take her once again, but the sound of creaking in the hallway snaps her awake. Her heart begins to race and she thinks about who could be sneaking around the house on Christmas morning. The noise quiets down, but Elena is still worrying about what is going on in the living room.

She gets out of bed and places her ear against the door, but she can't hear a thing. Elena opens the door and looks down the hall; her dad's door is open and she can hear Lynn snoring. She slowly steps towards their bedroom, but soon hears someone opening the kitchen cabinets.

Against her better judgment, Elena sneaks up to the shadowy figure and notices that he is lighting the fireplace. When he turns around she recognizes her dad, and immediately calms down.

"Dad, what are you doing?"

Francisco jumps up, surprised to hear someone so early in the morning. He turns towards the noise and sees Elena, "You scared me. What are you doing up?"

"You scared me. I thought that you were a burglar," she admits.

"No, but next time, don't try to confront a burglar by yourself; get me or Lynn to handle it," he takes a seat on the couch and invites her to take a seat, "Sorry I scared you, but I couldn't sleep."

She sits down next to him, "Why not?"

"I don't know," he says. "I was thinking about what happened at the get-together and kept waking up."

Elena silently thinks about what happened. It was a rather fun having so many people under one roof. Normally, her Christmases with her mom's family are less lively, and while they take place in more interesting locations, but it never felt as warm as she expected it the day to be. All throughout her trip to Florida, her grandparents seemed to have made it their mission to show her what she will miss whenever she spends her days with her dad. As a little girl, she never noticed, but as she grew up, it became more evident. Now, to keep some peace within her family, she pretends to not notice, but emphasize her 'desire' to stay home rather than travel.

"Do you ever wish that we could do something more fun for Christmas?"

"What? What are you talking about? I had fun today, even if Lynn and tío Kiké were fighting, and she was weird around her sisters, but we all had fun, right?"

He nods his head, "Yeah." Francisco looks over at the fireplace, "Sometimes…I feel like it's never enough. Like I'm doing the bare minimum that my dad used to do, and calling it a day. You know, when I was a little boy, I wanted Christmas to look more like it did on tv."

Elena looks around. A long time ago, that is what the house used to look like, but ever since Lynn moved in, it has livened up. It isn't like her mom's house, which looks as though it should belong on designer's website, but it has a warm charm that reminds her of the two adults living inside.

"Although if you saw the Loud's house back in the day, you'd swear it should fit right into a tv show."

She lets out a little chuckle, "Is there a reason you care so much?"

Francisco shrugs his shoulders. He doesn't want her to worry too much, and settles for telling her, "It seems nice, like nothing bad could ever happen. I know it's silly, but it's nice to pretend."

Elena agrees, "Yeah, I understand, but I like it the way we celebrate it, even if it's a little rambunctious."

He pulls her into a small hug, and tells her, "One day, we'll try for a Christmas like your mom does it."

"Please don't," she says with a smile. "I'm happy with the ones we have together."

The two sit in silence as they watch the burning logs in the fireplace. They have probably seen and ignored it hundreds of times over the years, but as they sit together watching the fire light up, the room they are mesmerized by the dancing flames.

Elena yawns, regretting that she woke up so early.

Francisco notices, and asks, "We would probably go to back to bed," he looks at his watch, "We can probably get another hour of sleep before Lynn rushes in here to open presents."

"Just a few more minutes," she pleads.

He nods his head and stares at the fire. He can feel his eyelids growing heavy, but he snaps himself awake to keep himself from falling asleep on the couch. Francisco gets to his feet, and immediately feels a pain in his lower back.

Elena takes notice, "Are you okay?"

He nods his head, "Yeah, it's probably because I haven't been exercising as much as I normally do."

"I can't blame you. Everyone seems to get that way around the holidays."

"Don't worry my back will be fine after a little gym session."

Elena nods her head to let him know that she understands, but she can't help but worry about him. He has worked so hard to get himself over his addiction to pain medication and she'd hate to see him carelessly throw it away because of his ailing back.

Lynn drags her feet as she walks down the hall to the living room. She didn't feel Francisco in bed, and decided to go look for him. She spots him and Elena by the lit fireplace and calls out to them, "What are you guys doing?"

They both turn around and Francisco speaks, "We couldn't sleep, so we decided to start the morning early."

When he said 'morning', Lynn remembers that they are going to open the rest of their presents. She hops over the couch and towards the small pile of presents under the tree. Neither one is energized enough to fight Lynn on the issue and they both opt to stay seated while she looks around for one of her gifts.

Lynn tosses a box at Francisco, "Merry Christmas," she says before giving him a kiss on his head. She hands Elena her present and takes a seat next to her. As she's about to open the box, Francisco takes it from her, annoying Lynn, "Hey! What the heck?! We always open presents in the morning, even if the sun isn't out yet."

"Trust me," he tells her. Francisco gets up and places his phone on the mantle. He begins to unwrap Lynn's present and she quickly gets up to stop him.

"Give it! It's no fun if you open it," she whines.

"Too bad, deal with it," he says as he pulls out a jersey from the box and tosses one to Lynn and one to Elena.

Lynn looks at the jersey and notices the number 03 on it, "What the? You know that my jersey number is one," she complains.

Elena looks at her's, and asks, "Why'd I get 24?"

Francisco doesn't answer and instead puts on his 02 jersey. He turns towards them, and says, "Don't worry about, now quick put 'em on."

The teen wonders, "What? Why?"

With a smile on his face, he says, "Just do it," he turns to Lynn, "you too."

The two comply and Francisco sets up the timer and he takes a seat besides Elena. He points at the camera, and tells the two, "Say Christmas."

Lynn quickly takes her seat besides Elena and the phone flashes taking a photo of the three.


Well, 2038 is officially over as of this chapter. It was a lot of lows for our protagonists, but now they can work on getting some closure, and put themselves in a good place next year

As for what Kiké mentioned happened to him in Amsterdam, Stendhal Syndrome is a psychosomatic condition that occurs when looking at works of beauty, and was actually based on my actual trip to the Van Gogh museum (those crates were definitely helpful against that headache)

Also, Rigerhit047, I know you probably may not remember, but like the guest reviewer, I am curious if you remember the video that mentioned this fic, and would thank you if you could help us out in finding it

As always, thank you for reading, and see you guys next time