"This is really great, kids!"

"Yeah, it's wonderful!"

The Jacobs family and Jack were sitting in the living room, the parents relaxing on the couch. Mrs. Jacobs was sipping some tea, and her husband was drinking his coffee. Everyone felt cozy and safe around the holidays. The parents had just finished opening a present from their children. David, Sarah, and Les had put their money together and got their parents a special picture frame that now held a family photo.

"My turn!" Les cried. He grabbed an oddly-shaped package and quickly skimmed the card. "It's from Santa!" he said happily. He began to rip off the wrapping paper as if his life depended on it.

"Take it easy Les! There's no rush," Sarah said.

"Wow! A toy dinosaur! I can't wait to show all the newsies!" He looked up at the ceiling and held the dinosaur up high. "Thank you Santa!" he said as if St. Nick were hovering above his head.

"Can I go next?" asked Sarah.

"Sure honey," said her mom.

Sarah picked out a medium-sized box with a single red ribbon tied around it. She slid off the ribbon and removed the cover from the box. There was a little card inside that read: For my dearest daughter Sarah. She smiled at her mother.

"What could this be?" she asked, mostly to herself. "Oh." She had unfolded the tissue paper. "Um – wow."

She held up a pair of pink lacy panties.

"Do you like them?" her mother questioned.

"Erm… Yeah, they're great."

"Yeah! They're great!" Jack exclaimed.

"Jack!" Sarah scolded. "Not now!"

"What do you mean, 'not now'? What's not now?" Les asked curiously.

"So anyway…" David was obviously trying to change the subject. "Jack, do you want to open something?"

"Well I - "

"No? Good. Then I'll go next." David chose a red package that was hidden among all of the other gifts. After carefully tearing away a bit of the wrapping paper, he was unsure of what it was. Becoming impatient, he quickly tore off the rest and threw it behind him - all to reveal a wooden figure, about the height of a regular house cat.

The character was wearing brown boots, gray trousers, a pale raggedy shirt with a black sweater vest and a traditional newsboy's cap. The figure looked happy, with a wide smile painted on his face, eyes sparkling, and dark curly hair peeking out from beneath his cap. There was also one feature that was rather odd. Both of the feet were – hollow.

David thought it looked pretty interesting, but still didn't really understand what it was, so he asked. "Looks cool but um – what is it?"

His mother looked slightly hurt. "It's a cookie cutter!"

Davey's face showed a lot of surprise when she said that, but he actually did love to bake. He had helped his mother make four batches of lemon meringue cookies when he was four, and she gave him his very own kid's cookbook when he was seven. By the age of nine, he could make a picture-perfect crème brule. But eventually he grew older, and just as any other boy would have, he began to see cooking as a girly hobby, and left it in the past.

"Wow, I never would've guessed," he replied. "Thank you mom!"

His mother's face lit up. "I'm so glad you like it."

"Yeah, I do. It looks really unique," David commented. "As a matter o' fact, I'm not really sure I know how to use it…"

"Yeah, how the hell do you use that thing?" Jack agreed.

"Jack," Mr. Jacobs began. "There's a youngster in our midst. Please try to watch your language."

"No, it's okay Dad. I hear him talk like that all the time," Les put in.

Mr. Jacobs glared at Jack with a You better stop talking trash around my son look.

"Well, since the feet are hollow," David's mother started to answer her son's question. "All you have to do is press down the feet on the dough like you would with a regular cookie cutter."

"Oh, I get it. So the edges of the boots cut the dough," Sarah concluded.

"Yes, and after you clean it, it also makes a nice decoration, if you just place it in a room," Mrs. Jacobs added.

"So it makes, er, footprint-shaped cookies?" David asked.

He was honestly a bit weirded out by how his gift was supposed to be used. Strange questions ran through his mind. A cookie cutter? That looks like a newsie? And makes footprint-shaped cookies? But then he remembered that it was the thought that counts, so he tried to push his concerns to the back of his mind.

"Yes," his mother answered.

"Ahh… that's pretty clever. I'll be sure to put it to good use."

"So now that that's over with, do I get ta open a gift now?" Jack asked.

"Go ahead Jack," Sarah said.

Jack closed his eyes and ran his hand over the gifts still left under the tree. He grasped one with blue wrapping paper that had a bow stuck on top.

"Hmm… I wonder who this is from…" he pondered as he opened the card. "Oh! It's from Sarah!" He glanced at his girlfriend sitting next to him with a bit of a smirk. Jack and Sarah's relationship had become known to Mr. and Mrs. Jacobs only a couple days after the strike had ended. They had found it hard to keep it discreet.

When Jack had torn off all the wrapping paper, a white box was revealed. "Wow! A box! Gee thanks Sarah!" he said with mock surprise.

"No, silly!" Sarah replied, playfully hitting him on the arm. "There's something inside the box!"

"Jeez, that's pretty special," Jack joked. "Ya guys hea what she said? There's something inside the box."

David was getting impatient. "Jack stop flirting and open the God-damn box," he said. Les giggled a little from hearing what he would call a 'naughty word'.

Jack stared at David for a moment, and then turned his focus back to the present. He removed the cover of the box and was looking at a 100 silk shirt (with three buttons undone) from Tommy Bahama. "Oh, wow," he said with astonishment.

"Well? Do you love it? Or do you love it?" Sarah questioned.

"O' course I love it!" Jack turned to Sarah and gave her a light kiss on the cheek.

"Eww! Jack kissed Sarah!" Les exclaimed.

"Alright kids, that's enough." Mrs. Jacobs said. "You all go to your rooms now and change out of your pajamas. Then we'll head off to church."

The kids whined as they headed to their bedrooms. None of them wanted to go to church, but everyone except Jack remembered that their parents controlled their allowance, so they unwillingly obeyed.

AN: So there's chapter two. It seems kinda weird that the second chapter is so much longer than the first, but I got a little carried away explaining the opening of the presents. Hope you don't mind. I also want to know what you think of David's gift, because even I know that it's pretty kooky. I would have made it a normal cookie cutter, but it needed to be that way so I could continue the plotline… muahaha… So anyway, R&R!