Today's story was suggested by Boris Yeltsin, Thanks for the suggestion and the character of Cheryl.

Story 10: Christmas Comes, No Matter what

Prompt/ Premise: Lori tries to host her first family Christmas, but the weather has a different idea.

It was the day before Christmas, it was snowing at the Santiago residence. Lori, Bobby, and their two daughters were getting ready for their family members to come over. Cheryl, their eldest and adopted daughter was a tall for her age 14-year-old with red hair, she was the daughter of an executive friend of Bobby's who died and left him custody of his daughter, she was wearing black jeans with an orange skirt over them, a black t-shirt with an orange button-up shirt, unbutton-ed over it. She was vacuuming the floor.

"This storm is strengthening, and the winds have increased to about 20 miles per hour and we've seen gusts of nearly 50," the voice on the radio said.

"Storm is getting worse," Lori said with worry, "It would happen when I was planning the first Christmas with most of the family."

"It's alright, Babe, we'll still have a good Christmas," Bobby said to his wife.

Their daughter, eight-year-old Alanna, walked into the room holding Lori's cell phone. She had dark hair, fair skin, and light freckles.

"Mom, it's a call, Aunt Leni is on the phone," she said.

Lori grabbed the phone. Alanna walked over to the window she was happy to see the snow falling. She hoped to play in it, but her father told her, she had to wait for the wind to calm down to do that. She hoped it would soon.

"Yeah, Merry Christmas, Leni, tell Chaz, Chaz Jr., and Ashley, I'll miss them," Lori said in a downcast voice. She hung up the phone and sighed an exasperated sigh. "They can't make it; the storm is in multiple states and their flight was canceled."

"I'm sorry," Bobby said.

"I hope Aunt Luna and Sam are still able to make it," Cheryl said.

"It's like a literal sign, we should have just spent Christmas with Mom and Dad," Lori said.

"This storm is in Royal Woods too," Bobby remarked.

She had planned to have her family: Lincoln, Leni, Luna, Lynn Jr, Lana, and Lola, and some of Bobby's family: Ronnie Anne and Carl come over. Lucy, Lisa, Luan, and Lilly were staying with their parents, the rest of the Casagrande family were spending their holiday together.

Bobby rubbed her shoulders; it always made her feel better. The doorbell rang. Alanna jumped up in excitement. She was wearing blue boots, with blue jeans, a white turtleneck. She ran to the door, Lori looked at Cheryl to have the older girl follow to make sure her younger sister was safe.

"Uncle Lincoln and Aunt Sid!" Alanna yelled.

It was indeed Lincoln his wife, Sid, and their three-year-old daughter, Lauren, she had white hair with naturally dark tips, she looked more like her mother, but had her father's blue eyes and freckles. They were bundled in coats, scarves, and winter wear.

"Lincoln, you made it, somehow!" Lori said with excitement.

"You know him, man with the plan, plus that truck was like a tank," Sid said.

Lori looked over and could see a 4-door pickup truck in between the blots of snow, it looked familiar.

"Wait, where's Lana?" Lori said.

"She didn't tell you?" Lincoln asked, "She and Skippy decided to go to Canada, to do some weird Christmas thing."

"Of course, she did, well come on in," Lori said," Hello there, Lauren."

"Hi Aunt Lori," she said shyly.

After Lincoln went back to the truck to get the stuff, Lori showed them the guest room they'd be staying in.

"The Winter Storm warning continues until ten o'clock, tonight, but don't worry kids, Santa will be fine," the weatherman said.

Sid put some gifts under the tree and saw Cheryl sitting on the couch looking at her phone. Sid smiled and said hello to the girl.

"Hello, Sid, nice to see you again," Cheryl said.

"Are you exited for Christmas?" she asked.

"Aunt Sid, you brought some Christmas stuff?" Alanna asked intruding.

"I did!" Sid exclaimed.

Lori got off the phone again, she found out that Lola and Carl couldn't make it either. With them being in Tampa, and the flights to Great Lakes City being canceled, they just had to stay Tampa. The Santiago woman was dismayed, it felt like this whole thing was cursed. She didn't notice that Cheryl had walked into the kitchen to get some chips until she saw the girl standing there eating the chips.

"Are you alright?" Cheryl asked.

"Ugh, I just wanted to prove that I could do a good Christmas and that storm literally ruined everything," Lori grumbled

"It's not like you control the weather, "Cheryl replied.

"I thought Mom and Dad would come down, but they decided to stay up there and have Christmas there, that should have been a sign," Lori said.

"I don't why people stress themselves out over Christmas anyway; you really just open gifts, eat some food, and watch old movies," the teenager said.

Lori's phone rang again, interrupting the conversation. She sighed and figured the caller was another cancel, but she was pleasantly surprised it was just a telemarketer trying to sell life insurance. She hung up and looked for Cheryl, but the girl had returned to wherever she was before. The doorbell rang.

"Lynn sanity and family in the house!" she heard a voice yell.

It was, yes, her sister Lynn, along with her husband Liam, and their 2-year-old boy, Jacob. Lori ran over and hugged her sister. Lincoln and Liam exchanged hugs, as the old friends they were.

"You actually made it!" Lori exclaimed.

"Of course, the coach didn't take me out of this game," Lynn replied.

"We were already in the city when the storm ramped up, I reckon it was because we left early, we were able to make it," Liam said.

"Let me help you with your stuff, and show you the room," Bobby said.

"Good going, Bobby, here's my suitcase," Lynn said. She handed him a heavy suitcase that caused the man to collapse.

"Hey aunt Lynn," Cheryl said from the background.

"Hey there!" Lynn said.

The girl walked off not wanting a long conversation.

"Huh, she called me Aunt Lynn," Lynn remarked.

"I guess she's warming up to the family in, a way now," Lori replied.

The wind wiped causing tree branches to knock at the front window. It made Alanna slightly nervous, it also made Sid nervous, they were nervous together. Lori was in the kitchen making sure the ham was baking well. Lynn was watching a basketball game on TV. Lauren had found Cheryl interesting and wanted to sit on the girl's lap, she accepted. Bobby went to the kitchen to tell his wife some more bad news.

"Ronnie Anne can't make it," Bobby said.

"I figured, they said on the radio, it's impossible to get anywhere," Lori replied, in a defeated tone.

"Have you heard from Luna?" Bobby asked.

"No, but we should prepare Cheryl for the bad news, that they probably can't make it," Lori said.

"It's alright, Babe."

He saw tears running down his wife's face and started to rub her back again. She smiled slightly and kissed him on the cheek.

"You know, let me take over this for a while, you take a break," he said.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure," he said.

"Alright, get those tamales, your grandmother made, and warm them up, they'll be good to eat."

Lori took a break in her room; she got a phone call from her parents who were concerned about the storm. She really wanted to tell them that she was annoyed that they didn't try to want to show up to her house for Christmas, but she refrained. They told her that they missed her and hoped she was safe. It was a slight comfort. After the conversation was over, she took a rest on her bed.

Meanwhile, Cheryl was looking worried as the wind and snow blew harder. Lincoln noticed this, he wasn't used to his adopted niece yet, being in a big family made it hard to get to know every single kid. He walked over and just sat next to her looking out the same window. She looked over at him, there was a curiousness if he was going to say anything. He didn't for five minutes.

"So, you are uh Lincoln, right?" she asked.

"Yep, you remembered," he said.

"You sat next to me, but didn't talk, is that something you do normally?" She asked.

"I… didn't think you wanted to."

"This storm is getting worse."

"Yeah, it was weird being in it."

"I'm worried about Luna; I hope she's alright."

Lincoln then realized why she was worried about the storm, more than anything else, she was worried about his older sister.

"You two are really that close?" he asked.

"Well, she understands me, I guess," Cheryl said, "Especially when I told her I had a girlfriend."

Lincoln smiled. It was the first the time the girl had really talked to him about anything. They had only seen each other a couple times since she had moved in with Lori and Bobby late the year before.

"What's her name?" he asked.

"Stephanie," Cheryl said.

"Is she your first ever?" Lincoln questioned.

She laughed at Lincoln asking it that way, then nodded.

"Luna is a really cool sister, Lori is too, I hope you like being with her."

"Yeah, she's really cool, guess my parents were right to have them take me in."

"I'm sorry, I haven't seen you much, I don't live in and I…"

"Hey, it's alright, you really seem like a cool guy; I guess I gave off a vibe that said Leave me alone."

Sid and Alanna were hugging each other, the wind scared them both. Lynn looked over at them. She was kind of amused that a grown-up woman was still kind of afraid of the sound of trees thumping against house.

"Are you alright Sis?" Lynn asked.

"Yeah, of course, but I'm trying to get on Alanna's level," Sid said.

"Right, of course," Lynn replied, "I'm sure everything is going to be fine."

The storm had some other plans, about 15 minutes after Lynn said that, the power had gone out. First, there was some panic. Lincoln got up and grabbed his coat, it was like he had planned for the power to go out or something.

"What are you doing?" Cheryl asked him.

"Going to the truck, Lana, has everything for any situation in there," he said.

"Can I come with you?" she asked.

"Sure, get your coat and boots," he said.

Bobby spent time pressing a button on the stove expecting it come on. Sid was holding Laruen who was giggling and not really caring about the situation. Alanna went to find her dad. Liam saw Lincoln walking over with his coat on.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"I'm getting some stuff from the truck, for the power outage," Lincoln answered.

"Do you need help?" Liam asked.

"Sure, it would make the trips easier," Lincoln replied.

"Guys, something happened to the oven," Bobby said.

"The power's out," Lynn said.

"Oh, no, no, why us?!" he cried.

"Get a hold of yourself, there's children here," Lynn said.

Lincoln, Liam, and Cheryl walked to the truck to grab flashlights that worked, and anything else they thought would be useful. The wind and snow were heavy. They had to walk into the force as they got back into the house. Coughing when they came inside to re catch their air.

"I've got some lights, we can use, but save it for the dark, if the power doesn't come back on," Lincoln said.

"We've also got stuff for the fireplace, this here wood, and apparently a cast-iron pot with grill trays, we can warm up some food," Liam said.

"Lana pretty much has anything in that truck, after all, "Cheryl replied.

Lori woke up from her winter's nap, she noticed the clock wasn't working. She grabbed her phone to look at the time and saw the battery was dead, she went to plug it in and found that it wasn't working.

"Of course, the power is out, why wouldn't it be?" she questioned.

What she noticed in the living room was interesting; her family were sitting around a fire. Sid was reading a book out loud to the younger kids, Bobby was handing out tamales while Lynn was watching a pot in the fireplace.

"Hey you're up," Cheryl said.

"You knew I was asleep?" she asked.

"Of course, Bobby went to check on you, and he didn't want wake you."

"Looks like everything is being handled well," she said.

"Yep, oh where's your phone? We can charge it."

"Huh?"

"Lana had a small battery powered generator in her truck, we've used it for charging the phones, we also have this wind-up radio to check up on the storm."

Eventually, it got dark as it did on a winter's night, at about 4:30. They had a battery lamp going and the fire gave a warm glow as well. The room was warm and comforting. Lori was still bothered that Christmas Eve wasn't going as planned. Lori did find out that Luan and Sam had found a place to hunker down, so they weren't in any danger. She sat down next to her brother; he could tell something was wrong.

"Everything alright?" he asked.

"Sigh, it's like my whole Christmas plan was cursed from the start," she said.

"Usually, it's my plans that do that, "he joked, "I'm glad we chose to come to your Christmas."

"Really?"

"Well yeah, we needed to see each other, it's been a while," he said.

"Yeah, our family got bigger and everyone kind of has gone their own ways."

"Well, the storm made those who could make it closer, we have to be close to this fire, and we can't go anywhere, maybe it was supposed to be."

"Lincoln, that's literally the corniest thing I've ever heard, and thank you."

The siblings embraced each other with a hug and Lori got up to check on Alanna.

The storm calmed down in the night, there was no more trashing of tree branches against the house, and the moaning of heavy wind. It was a silent night, so to speak, Lori was still up, everyone else was bundled around and sleeping. The fire popped and had a warm glow in the room. She was listening to Christmas music on her phone and noticed that time had gone past midnight, it was Christmas Day.

In the morning, the sun's glow poured through the windows. The kids woke up and excitedly woke up their parents. The power was still out, but they were able to exchange gifts, though, trying out any electronics was out of commission. Cheryl was talking to Lincoln, something had made the two want to bond, Lori was happy to see the girl be more talkative with her family, besides herself and Luna. Alanna ran over to her mother to show her the brand-new soccer ball she had gotten from Lynn.

"I wish we could play with it," the young girl said.

"Maybe we can, later on, we can find a spot in the house, and try it," Lori said.

"But you said…"

"Eh, maybe I should be more flexible."

Lincoln and Sid kissed after exchanging their gifts. Bobby talked with his family on the phone, he told the tamales went over great. Liam and Lynn were trying to finish cooking the ham in the fireplace, hopefully it would be edible.

A couple hours had passed, some of the kids who were early risers had fallen asleep in the mass. The wrapping paper was put into the fire, it was handy way to clean up. Lori sat down next to Bobby and Alanna was on their lap, Cheryl was listening to music next to them, wearing a new sweater, that Sid had gotten her. Just then the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it," Cheryl said.

The girl walked to the front door; Lori looked with alertness. Though it may have been the power workers. Cheryl opened the door and started to scream, it was screams of joy; Lori got up and ran to see what was going on, and it was Luna and Sam at the door.

"You made it!" Cheryl yelled.

"Well of course, but that trip was murder," Luna said.

"How'd you do it?" Lori asked.

"We rode when the sun rose, and almost nobody on the roads, we went slow, and here we are," Sam said.

The four of them exchanged hugs and came inside the house. As the rest of the family greeted them, the power came back on. Nobody there could say that wasn't a Christmas they'd couldn't remember for the rest of their lives.