Chapter 11 - Lost Presents (21 December 2028)
"I could have sworn that I put the packages with the tickets for the basketball game under the tree," Ziva muttered to herself as she moved some of the wrapped gifts around. She had started putting some of the smaller gifts that were not "Santa" gifts under the tree to make late night Christmas Eve easier on her and Tony.
She looked over at Asher who was watching her from the dog bed; three of the four cats were also curled on the bed with the greyhound. "I am not losing my mind, Asher. I know I put the three gift boxes with the tickets here this morning." Not a one of the sports-themed small gift boxes were there.
As she was rummaging through the small pile of gifts, her phone chimed the reminder for the kids' arrival home from school; it was an early release day, so they would all be ready for lunch when they stepped in the front door.
Ziva quickly made the pile of gifts have some order, and walked to the kitchen to begin making food for her hungry brood. They would be home for holiday break for the next two weeks.
The five young DiNozzos burst through the front door as Ziva was stirring the tomato soup and flipping grilled cheese sandwiches on the griddle. Asher and Daisy ran to greet the kids in the front entryway.
"No more school until next year…" LJ ran through the main hallway to the kitchen to show his Ima the goody bag from his class party.
Anthony hung his coat and hat on his peg by the front door and scratched behind Daisy's ears. "Two whole weeks at home, girl. I hope we have some snow to play outside." The border collie wagged her tail and grinned at her person. The two followed LJ to the kitchen. "What's for lunch Ima? I'm starving," the eleven-year-old peered at the stove. "Ooh, yum, grilled cheese and tomato soup; I can eat three sandwiches please."
Tali, Rivka, and Beth put up their backpacks in the cubbies in the playroom and headed to the kitchen as well. All three girls were looking forward to time off from their school and afterschool activities. Ima had promised a sleep-over with Tori and Katie after Christmas and the five cousins planned to do some crafts.
Before entering the kitchen with the others, Rivka and Beth slipped over to the Christmas tree in the family room and each placed a small, wrapped gift under the tree, one for each parent. They had made picture frames in art class and their teacher had snapped instant prints of the girls to put into the frames. The two cats who were still on the large pet bed looked over at the girls. Beth stopped and gave her cat Lightning some pats on the head. Callie yawned, stretched, and laid back down in a curled-up position after a few head rubs. Simba had gone with the dogs to greet the kids when they came in the front door; he was currently being carried by his person Tali.
The kids chatted about the upcoming holiday and plans for their time off while eating lunch. Ziva put out food for the dogs and cats who all came running when they heard the food hit the dishes. Only Tony was missing from the family gathered in the kitchen for lunch. He would be home at his usual time later that afternoon, and would be off for the remainder of the week to spend time with his family.
"If any of you who would like some help wrapping your gifts to others I am ready to do so this afternoon and tomorrow. Since we will be having the whole family over on Christmas Eve for dinner and the traditional watching of It's a Wonderful Life, I will need you all to help with weekend chores a few days early. We have tomorrow and Saturday to get them done. I would like all weekend chores done by bedtime on Saturday, please," Ziva laid out her plan for the next two days.
Tali added, "I will help also with wrapping if anyone wants. That way Ima won't wrap her own gift from someone. I have mine all done as of this past weekend; Ima when can we put them under the tree?"
"Any time is fine," Ziva replied. "I have started putting out gifts already. All I ask is that you do not pull one of your Abba's tricks and start snooping in the other gifts…"
Anthony and LJ chuckled, "Yeah, Abba always tries to snoop and figure out what his gifts are. Last year, when LJ swapped the tags, Abba was so messed up with his guessing…" Anthony high-fived his younger brother.
"Speaking of last year's prank," Ziva gave her offspring her best 'Ima glare,' "There will be none of that this year, understood?"
"Yes, Ima," the five replied as one.
"Good," Ziva made eye contact with each of her children. "And I will make certain that your father understands that there will be no pranks as well."
The family finished their lunch and cleaned up the kitchen before heading separate ways to wrap gifts, read, relax, or whatever plans they had for the afternoon. Ziva checked again for the missing gift boxes and when she could not find them, decided to re-print the tickets for Tony, Anthony, and LJ and put the newly printed versions in their stockings. She was annoyed about the missing gift-boxes though and made a note to herself to mention it at dinner to everyone.
At dinner, Ziva decided to just casually mention the no pranks rule again, "As we all talked about earlier, there will be no pranks this Christmas. That includes removing gifts that you did not put under the tree. Anyone who has considered a prank or has started one can redeem him or herself by just replacing or undoing said prank."
The kids all glanced at each other and then at their father; no one had any idea what Ima meant about missing gifts. They had all been good and not a one had even thought about pranks this year. Ziva let the topic drop, hoping that whoever took the sports-themed gift boxes would return them to under the tree.
After dinner, Rivka carted her gifts out to place under the tree. She noticed that the gifts to her parents that she and Beth had placed earlier were missing. She rummaged through the piles already under the tree, determined the two gifts were indeed missing, and placed her own wrapped gifts before seeking out her father.
She found Abba in his office, checking his emails. "Abba? Got a minute?"
"Sure, what's up?" Tony turned to his middle ninja.
"Remember how Ima has said no pranks? Well, Beth and I put gifts for you and Ima that we made in school under the tree when we came home today. I just put out my gifts for family and the two from school are missing," Riv explained. "Somebody took them!"
Tony stood up and headed to the family room with Rivka following, "Where did you put them?"
The girl pointed to the piles of wrapped gifts, "Right there; both were in paper with candy canes on it. They are not here; nothing with candy cane wrapping paper at all."
"Hmmm…" Tony checked around. "You put them under the tree?"
"Yes. I guess we could have put them in your stockings; they aren't too big," Rivka replied. "I hope we can find them."
"Me too," Tony planned to have a chat with Anthony, LJ, and Tali. Any pranks were off limits, and he didn't want to have Christmas spoiled for the family. He found the three in Tali's room wrapping gifts.
"Just the three I want to talk with," he sad as he knocked on Tali's door. "May I come in?"
Anthony pulled a bag over his gift for Abba, "Okay, we hid your gifts, Abba." He looked at Tali and LJ; from Abba's tone, one of them could possibly be in trouble. LJ and Tali looked back at him with confused looks but also with concern.
"Some gifts have gone missing from under the tree," Tony started. "If one of you has taken them, I want to reiterate Ima's plea for no pranks this year. If one of you has them, you can put them back tonight and no one will be any the wiser. Understood?"
Tali nodded, "We understand. No pranks. I did not take anything. I hope if someone else in here did, that he puts things back and decides to obey the no pranks rule." She looked at her brothers.
"Hey, don't look at me," Anthony held out his hands. "I get in enough trouble without taking Christmas gifts from under the tree." He and Tali looked at LJ.
LJ shrugged, "I learned my lesson last year. No pranks at Christmas. It wasn't me, Abba, I swear."
"Okay, but if more stuff disappears, I won't be as nice next time, and Ima won't be too happy." Tony left the three to their gift-wrapping.
~Missing~
By dinner the next evening, the missing gifts were still missing and three more small packages had disappeared. Ziva was furious and planned to have a very stern talk with the entire lot of them, Tony included. Enough was enough.
She was quiet through the meal, and the five kids could tell Ima was upset about something. Tony watched his five as they fidgeted and tried not to piss off Ima more. Finally, when they had all finished eating, Ziva spoke up.
"I thought I made it clear that there were to be no pranks this Christmas, but apparently one or more of you do not seem to understand that. Multiple small gifts have gone missing from under the tree. Some of them can be replaced, some cannot. It does not matter; these presents should not have disappeared in the first place," Ziva glared at all six other DiNozzos. "We have offered amnesty to whoever has taken these gifts and they have not reappeared. I want an honest answer from each of you; did you take the small gifts?" She looked at LJ first.
"I did not, Ima. I learned my lesson last year," the boy replied. "But if we need to look for them, I will help."
Beth felt her mother's glare boring into her eyes, "I didn't take them Ima. I promise."
"Me neither," Rivka tried to avoid the 'Ima glare.'
"Not me," Anthony held out his hands. "As I told Abba, I can get into enough trouble all on my own without taking Christmas presents from under the tree."
Tali shook her head, "I didn't do it. But I will help look if needed."
They all turned to Tony, and he held up his hands. "Hey, don't give me that look. I swear that I did not touch those gifts."
"Well, then who did?" Ziva retorted. "They did not just walk away on their own." She caught a movement in the hallway as she spoke and peered past the end of the table. "Which cat was that?" she asked.
"Huh? I don't see a cat," Tony replied.
"One of the cats just walked by towards the living room," Ziva explained. "I think it was carrying something." The six jumped up and headed to the hall. A tail disappeared around the corner to the living room as Ziva, Tali, and LJ made it to the hallway first.
"Could have been Simba or Patches," Tali noted. "Short haired, orange and white on the tail, possibly some black…"
Tony came around and followed the rest to the living room, the motion sensitive lights turning on as they moved. Patches crawled out from under the sofa as the family came into the room. She gave them a look and started licking her paw. LJ moved over by the sofa and looked underneath as Patches ran off.
"Ima, Abba! I found the missing gifts!" LJ called out to his parents when he saw the pile of gifts under and behind the sofa.
"I think we found our thief," Ziva noted to the retreating calico cat. "I apologize to everyone for thinking that you were all pranking the family."
Rivka went after her cat; she found Patches in the family room trying to take another gift from under the tree. The cat dropped the gift and ran to the twins' bedroom when Riv yelled out, "Bad cat."
"I wonder what made her take gifts this year; she has not done that in the past?" Ziva mused as LJ and Anthony retrieved the cache of stolen gifts.
LJ noticed a weird smell on the paper of several, "They smell like catnip, Ima. Maybe that's why?"
Tony had followed Riv into the family room; he picked up one of the gifts for the cats that he had placed under the tree over the weekend because its wrapping paper looked wet. "I found the answer; the catnip spray that I got for the cats leaked. I bet it got on the gifts Patches took."
Ziva laughed, "Only the DiNozzos would have a catnip Christmas thief!" The family laughed with her; another Christmas memory for the retelling in future years.