"This is my daughter, Olivia!" Mom said for about the 50th time tonight. We were at her holiday work party. She was beyond excited to introduce me to everyone once again.

"It is very nice to meet you, I'm Lisa!" The woman shook my hand.

"It's nice to meet you too." I smiled.

"She looks so much older than last year. Such a beautiful young lady." Lisa said to Mom.

Mom smiled, "Thank you, how's your son?"

"Oh he's great! He's been walking all around now."

I listened to Mom have conversations with almost everyone in the room. Actually, probably with everyone. Mom is very social. She loves these parties- or any chance to talk to people. She is such a people person.

Some people asked me the cliché's:

"How old are you?" 14.

"What grade are you in?" I'm a freshman.

"How do you like high school?" It's okay, I guess.

"What do you want to do when you grow up?" I have no clue.

"Where do you want to go to college?" Again, no clue.

"Do you play any sports?" Not right now, no.

etc, etc.

Nonetheless, I thought that it was fun to see who Mom worked with. Mom saw these people almost every day, I didn't really know much about them. So, I enjoyed these parties too. I got to know a little bit more about who Mom spent her days with. They all were always very nice. They definitely knew I lot more about me than I did them. I figured Mom talked about me at work, though. I can just imagine her going into work and telling her friends about me getting a good grade in school or something silly like that. That's just who Mom is.

After a little bit, I saw Mom yawn. We had been there for at least 3 hours. It was getting a little late. I didn't mind, though. Mom was having fun, and I would say I was enjoying myself.

"You wanna head home soon?" Mom asked, patting my back.

I shrugged, "Up to you."

Mom smiled, "You're too good. Come on, I just gotta say bye to Alex and Jo, then we'll head out."

I nodded. Alex was Mom's closest work friend. And, Jo was his wife. I had met them a few times, they were very nice. If Mom ever didn't want to speak to every single person at a gathering, we would hang out with them. That wasn't often, though. Like I said, she's a social butterfly. So usually we saw them at the very beginning and at the very end.

"That was so much fun. And the food was amazing." Mom said with a sigh as she hopped into the car. She put her purse on the floor next to my feet and looked at herself in the rear view mirror, fixing the part in her hair that had gotten messed up by the wind outside.

"It was really good." I agreed, buckling myself in.

"I love getting to show everyone my girl, too." Mom tilted her head at me, a proud look on her face.

I rolled my eyes and laughed, "You're annoying." I joked.

"You love me." She said as she buckled, starting the car. She turned the heat onto full blast. It was freezing outside, and in the car. I shivered at the sudden warm air blowing at me.

We didn't even get out of the parking lot before Mom said my name- "Olive?"

"Yeah?" I looked up from my phone, giving her my attention, even though she couldn't look back at me.

"How do you feel about me asking Callie to spend Christmas with us?" Mom turned onto the main road. She seemed a little bit nervous. She always got like this. As if I would say something rude in response.

"Uh, I dunno. Why? You wanna ask her?"

Mom nodded slowly, "I would like to. If you think that's ok. I know we spent Thanksgiving with her, too, so it's ok if you think that it's too much. Plus, I don't know if she has plans with family or not. I just wanted to throw the idea out there."

"I don't mind. You wanna like... have a lunch or something?" I put my phone on my lap. This was going to be a slightly longer conversation, I could tell.

"I was thinking..." Mom paused. "Maybe I could ask her to stay the night Christmas Eve?"

She wanted to spend all of Christmas with Callie. Oh.

I thought about it for a second. It didn't really bother me. I didn't like Christmas that much anyway. It wouldn't be bad to have Mom's attention divided between Callie and I for the Holiday. I didn't want all that attention anyway. I had a feeling Christmas was going to be hard for me. But, seeing Mom so happy might help. Callie made her happy.

"I'm cool with that." I said after a few moments.

"You're sure? You can take some time to think about it."

I laughed. "Mom there's not much to think about. She sleeps over sometimes anyways. What's the difference?"

"It's our first Christmas in the apartment, Liv. I want it to be special for you. I wanna do what you want."

"I want you to make it good for you, too. Have Callie stay the night."

"Yeah?"

"Mhm."

A smile covered Mom's face immediately. "I'll ask her about it," She said casually, as if I couldn't see the insane excitement on her face.

"Sounds good." I said quietly. I waited a few moments, incase she still had more to say. When she stayed silent, I went back on my phone.

Christmas with Callie. I think I was ok with that. Callie was growing on me a lot recently.