Cynthia, Leon- 29

Jay, Holly- 30

Bree- 31

Lixa- 10

Flynx- 7

Miles, Cleo- 4

Catie- 6

Connor- 8

Christmas Chaos

"Mommy!" Flynx grinned brightly at his mother who was just emerging from upstairs. It may be Christmas, but the two older kids knew not to wake up their mother like they did their father or they wouldn't be opening presents for a long time.

Leon looked up from where he was sitting on the floor near the tree with a hyper looking seven-year-old Flynx in his lap; a drowsy four-year-old Miles sitting next to him, who was blinking slowly in a drowsy way; a tired and gloomy four-year-old Cleo who was half asleep on her twin; and a ten-year-old Lixa who was fidgeting and eager to start opening presents, which had been delayed due to Cleo having a seizure about half an hour ago. "Hey," he greeted, amber eyes stressed.

Cynthia gave him a empathetic look, she knew how hard it was to deal with the four kids early Christmas morning.

How they were going to make it to Bree's house by three this afternoon neither of the adults knew. At their house Christmas was a mess. Between having one kid who was prone to having seizures in the middle of the day, another who was ADHD, and their decently sized extended family, Christmas was certaintly the craziest time of year.

"Daddy I wanna open presents!" Flynx whined and wriggled in his father's grip, his multi-colored eyes were gleaming with excitement, his dirty blonde hair was a mess, and he was dressed in his race car footie pjs.

"Me too," Lixa smiled at her father and wrapped her arms around his upper arm, "come on daddy!" She and Flynx started cheering.

Miles looked rather cranky at his older siblings making loud noises and he furrowed his small eyebrows before he gave a very grumpy shout and flailed his short arms slightly, "you loud!" One of his hands smacked his twin in the face, causing Cleo to wake abruptly and fall backward, bumping her head against the fluffy cream colored carpet.

Cleo wailed in pain at the pain and grasped her head as her vision flickered and stopped. She then wailed, "I no like black!" Which spooked her brother and startled her father.

Miles jolted and huffed before he frustratedly smacked Cleo on the stomach, "stop!" he complained, "you hurting my ears!"

Cleo sniffled and scooted across the floor away from her brother and out of his range before she burst into tears, her green eyes filling with tears.

Leon's grip around Flynx temporarily loosened and the dirty blonde boy wrenched himself from his father's arms and pounced on a cushy looking present with a yell of triumph.

"Flynx no!" Leon pulled Flynx away from the presents by the middle, "you have to wait with everyone else!"

"But I don't wana!" Flynx whined, struggling against his father again.

Lixa quickly let go of her father and she plopped next to Cleo before she awkwardly pulled her wailing sister into her lap and tried to comfort her. But Cleo wasn't having it, the four-year-old struggled in her sister's lap, wailing. "Mama!" Cleo wailed, having heard how her father was busy with Flynx and her twin.

"Miles you do not hit your sister," Leon sternly told his youngest son while he struggled to hold Flynx back away from the christmas tree, "that makes her cry."

Miles looked at his father with round baby blue eyes before he looked guilty and nodded, "I sorry," he said sincerely to his father while he hung his head in shame, "I no like sissy crying."

Cynthia swiftly finished her trip down the stairs before she quickly strode over to Cleo and picked the crying four-year-old up before Cleo potentially had a seizure from the stress of the situation. "Thanks Lixa," she thanked her oldest while she situated Cleo against her shoulder so the toddler could recover from the hit that knocked out her vision.

Lixa beamed at her mother before she scrambled to her feet and skipped over to her father and younger brother, "can we open presents now?"

"After Miles says he's sorry," Cynthia said as she sat down next to Leon, ever the calm one, while holding Cleo whose wailing had stopped and now was sniffling. "And Lixa, you get to go first. Flynx, if you don't start behaving right now no opening presents till after we get back from Aunt Bree's."

Flynx froze and stared at his mother through wide and disbelieving multicolored eyes, "no presents till bedtime?" He asked in a hushed voice.

Cynthia kept her expression serious despite the urge to laugh at her son's expression. "Yes Flynx, no presents till bedtime."

Flynx immediately sat still in his father's lap, his multicolored eyes fixated on the presents. But he didn't lunge anymore, fearing that he wouldn't be able to open his presents till right before he had to go to bed.

"And now we have order, good morning Miss Discipline." Leon teased before he leaned over and gave his wife a greeting kiss.

Cynthia rolled her eyes before the short kiss. "Good morning to yourself blond hedgehog."

Leon huffed while their kids all giggled at their mother's sarcastic and teasing prowess.

"Mom!" Lixa huffed a little indignantly with her hands on her hips, "presents!"

Cynthia smiled at Lixa, "go ahead Lixa, I know the suspense is killing you."

Lixa nodded vigorously before she walked around the tree and picked up a small box, wondering what was inside. She plopped down next to her father and delicately pulled the wrapping apart, not wanting to damage the wrapping paper cause she liked the patterns and turning the paper into colorful origami -unlike Flynx who wouldn't care if the wrapping paper was plain white paper.

"Hurry up!" Flynx whined and fidgeted a little, unable to help himself.

Miles watched Lixa's progress for a few moments before he crawled on his hands and knees to her and stared as the gift was revealed.

Lixa's hazel eyes brightened excitedly as a pack of color pencils and stencils were revealed. With her artistic talent stencils and color pencils were her best friend. Besides her stuffed animals of course. "Stencils!" She gasped excitedly, "and color pencils!"

Cynthia and Leon both smiled, they enjoyed seeing the looks on their children's faces during this time, it made them seem so much more innocent and cuddly. "It's Flynx's turn now," Cynthia told them before she addressed her son, "behave Flynx."

Flynx nodded before his father released him and he calmly -or at least as calmly as he could get- walked to the tree and pulled a box out before he sat on the floor and ripped apart the wrapping paper, positively giddy from excitement. He grinned a huge grin when the present turned out to be a hat, a special hat. The hat was the same hat that he had been begging his mom to buy for the past month. It was his first very own baseball cap, and the seven-year-old loved hats -for some weird reason.

The twins were next, Leon leaned forward and pulled a blue and a green cushy matching cushy looking presents before he handed one to Cynthia and plopped Miles into his lap.

Cynthia put Cleo down in her lap and the four-year-old rubbed her eyes before she beamed at the sight of a present that was hers.

Miles looked over at his sister, waiting to make sure she was okay and ready before he opened his. Almost in sync, the pair began tearing apart the wrapping paper with their parents' help, to reveal matching blankets, that Lixa and Flynx complained about how it wasn't fair. The blankets were super fuzzy small throw blankets, which was perfect for the young twins. Miles' was a bright light blue with flecks of deep forest green, and Cleo's was a shimmering sunset color that drew her attention like a magnet. Miles smiled at his parents and pushed the blanket against Leon's face, "It soft! Look Daddy!"

Leon laughed, "yes it is Miles, it's very soft buddy."

Miles giggled and took the blanket from his father's face to put it on the ground and throw himself at it giggling madly.

Cleo on the other hand simply snuggled into the blanket and dozed, waiting for her next turn.

By the time all the presents were opened, the floor was covered in new things and a barage of wrapping paper, Flynx was staring happily at the legos he got, Lixa was stenciling something with her new stencils, Miles was playing with his new toy cars -an obsession he seemed to have gotten from his father,- Cleo was asleep in Cynthia's lap snuggled into her new blanket, Cynthia had some new jewelry from Leon and chemistry related stuff with from stuffed animals from the kids, and Leon had a new kind of bullet that acted as a taser from Cynthia along with a whole army of toy cars from all the kids. Now they only had to tear the kids away from their new gifts to get ready to go to Bree's where the gang was meeting up.

Cynthia wasn't looking forward to it, that was for sure. "Lixa, get the stuff you want to bring to Bree's together please," she told her oldest who was usually pretty responsible, "we're probably going to be sleeping over."

Lixa tore her eyes away from her stencil after she put down her pencil and looked up at her mother. "Okay Mom," she said, her tone laden with disappointment.

"You can bring your stencils with you," Cynthia said as she picked Cleo up while trying not to wake her. A crabby toddler was not what she wanted to deal with on Christmas of all days.

Lixa brightened and shot off up the stairs to her bedroom to fetch the stuff she needed for the activity.

Leon rapped gently on the brim of his oldest son's cap, "Flynx, that includes you."

Flynx groaned before he reluctantly looked up at his father, "okay…" he mumbled and pushed himself to his feet before he trudged unhappily to the stairs.

"Come on squirt," Leon pulled Miles to his feet, "lets go get ready," his voice died off when he noticed that Cynthia aburptly knelt back down on the floor before she leaned over and carefully lowered Cleo to the rug that covered most of the hard wood flooring of the living room. "What's," he then cut himself off after he realized what exactly was going on. "Come on Miles, lets leave Mama to help your sister," he said and picked him up before he walked toward the stairs while Cynthia handled Cleo's siezure. If Miles realized what was going on with his twin he would start bawling and make it nearly three times as hard to get him ready for the activity.

"Cynthia's exhausted," Holly mused with a chuckle as she glanced over at her sister-in-law who was knocked out on the couch in the living room with her set of twins snoozing next to her. "Christmas harder now that the twins aren't babies Leon?"

Leon groaned, "you have no idea, they are near polar opposites, and with how senstative Cleo's condition is it's caos Christmas morning."

Bree laughed, she was seated at the large table with the other adults in the adjoning dining room, leaning forward on her arms and hanging her head slightly. "I know what it's like, it's pretty difficult when Catie decided that Lion and Blissie need presents too." The mentioned cat slunk around the hallway corner, his piercing amber eyes trained curiously on his owner with his highly advanced collar that allowed translations from a 'meow' to a human voice, and other things was hanging around it's neck. Blissie lifted her head from where she -the chocolate lab- was lying sprawled in the living room with some of the kids petting her and rubbing her belly.

"How? They're pets, it's not that hard." Leon replied, "now two rambunctious toddlers, that's hard."

"You forget that our pets speak," Jay grunted to his brother with a roll of his eyes from where he was sitting next to Bree and massaging the back of her neck and shoulders, "and that Lion can be pretty picky about the things he owns."

"One semi moody teenage cat," Jay grunted, "searching for a present for him, now that's a nightmare."

Bree giggled slightly and rolled her neck, testing to see if the soreness would go away.

Holly chuckled, she was sitting in her seat with a thermos of hot chocolate in front of her mde by Finli before they had arrived here at Bree and Jay's rather spacious house. "Well Merry Christmas everyone, lets hopefully have a good year shall we?

Character Emails (all are gmail accounts)

Caylee and any other side character – youngcrazyteenageauthor

Cynthia – athleticsapphiresinger

Leon – athleticgoldenboy

Bree – cheerfulcuriosity

Jay – perfectgrumpytone

Holly – emeraldintelligencequeen

Fini – gingerandwhiteteenager

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