Clothing

It was six in the morning in the Benson household. Sam and Freddie were both asleep, warm under their covers. Freddie, had a loose am hung over Sam's waist and Sam's face was buried in her pillow.

Both were so peaceful and in such a deep slumber that it seemed nothing could wake them…

"It's Christmas!" came a sudden loud yell as their bedroom door burst open and their eight-year old son, Tyler, jumped up onto his parents' bed.

"Tyler," Sam moaned, sitting up as Tyler hopped onto Freddie's lap, emitting a groan from her husband. "It's six."

"It's Christmas, mommy!" Tyler said in his sweetest voice that he knew very well his mother couldn't resist.

"Barely," Freddie yawned.

"Did Santa come? Did I get presents?" Tyler asked anxiously. "Do you think he got me rollerblades like I wanted?"

"I dunno," Freddie said. "But let's wait until your brother and sisters wake up before we go and-"

"It's Christmas!" twelve-year old Emma exclaimed, running into the bedroom with Ashton at her heels.

"Come on, it's time to open presents!" Ashton beamed.

"You remember the last Christmas we got to sleep in?" Sam asked Freddie.

"I think it was four kids ago," Freddie smirked.

"Alright, you guys win," Sam sighed, getting out of bed. "But someone's going to have to go wake up Jason. I don't want to start without him and-"

"People! Why are we still upstairs?" sixteen-year old Jason demanded, coming out of his bedroom. "We have piles of presents to unwrap! Let's move everyone!"

"Alright, alright," Freddie said, stepping in front of his children. "Now, we're not going to have a repeat of last year where everything was open and done with in under twenty minutes. So this year we're going to calmly go downstairs, your mother and I will make you breakfast and then we'll take our time opening the presents and-"

"Charge!" Sam yelled and the kids all cheered, shoving past Freddie as they sped downstairs.

"Ow! Sam!" Freddie said indignantly as Sam helped him up.

"Well you can't ruin Christmas by making it organized," Sam said, rolling her eyes. "Now come on! Let's get down there so we can see them open their presents!"

"Okay, okay," Freddie sighed.

The couple hurried down to the living room where their four children were happily going through their gifts.

"Santa brought me a helmet!" Tyler said. "And kneepads and arm pads. But why would he bring me this stuff and no rollerblades? Whoa! Look at this new videogame!"

"I thought Santa did get him rollerblades?" Freddie whispered to Sam as Tyler carelessly tossed aside a few articles of clothing he had gotten.

"Nah, I wound up wrapping them up and putting them under the tree from us," Sam said quietly. "I figure why should Santa get all the credit when we're the ones who went out and bought the stuff."

"Ah, clever," Freddie chuckled.

"Oh my God! Look at this Pearpod I got!" Ashton cried happily.

"That was in my pile!" Emma said, grabbing the device from her sister. "It's my Pearpod."

"No way! I totally pulled it out of my stocking!" Ashton retorted.

"No you didn't!"

"Yes I-"

"Girls, look, there's another Pearpod under all this wrapping paper," Freddie said quickly.

"Oh, cool!" Emma said, tossing the first Pearpod back to Ashton. "Hey Ashton, now we can download all those songs we have saved on our computer onto these!"

"Like Santa would be stupid enough to bring those two more things for them to fight over," Freddie mumbled to Sam.

"Jason! Look! I got a fencing stick like you and dad have!" Tyler said to his older brother. "Now I can come with you guys and fence, right?"

"Sure, if you don't annoy the chiz out of me," Jason grinned.

"I love these earrings," Ashton said.

"And this soccer ball is just what I wanted!" Emma said, tossing the ball into the air.

"Yes, Santa's amazing," Sam laughed. "But don't we want to open the other gifts now?"

"Yeah, let's see what we got each other," Freddie said.

"Oh! I want to give Emma my present first!" Ashton said, hopping up get her gift.

"Wait, I wanted to give Ashton her present first!" Emma said.

"Alright, just exchange your gifts at the same time," Sam said quickly before an argument could erupt.

The twins handed each other a box and tore the paper off their respective presents.

"Whoa!" Ashton gasped, holding up a small music box. "This is just like the music box you broke messing around on that mini-trampoline in our room last month."

"It is the music box I broke last month," Emma said. "I felt sort of bad that I broke it, so I looked on the web and found this place in the mall that fixes those sorts of things. So I took all my allowance and had it repaired."

"Aw, Sam, isn't that the sweetest thing you've ever heard?" Freddie whispered.

"Dude, can we have one Christmas where you don't cry about something?" Sam sighed.

"I can't help it! Our girls are angels!"

"Yeah, remember that next time they wake you up on your day off screaming at each other," Sam smirked.

"Emma, that's the nicest thing you've ever done," Ashton said softly.

"I did break it in the first place, remember?" Emma shrugged as she pulled her own gift out of the wrapping paper. "Hey! You got those new track shoes I've been wanting for forever! I've been looking everywhere for them; they're sold out in all the stores! How'd you get them?"

"I waited in a three hour line last week when the shoe store finally got a new shipment in," Ashton replied. "That's where I was when I told you I was studying with Clarissa."

The twins stared at each other for a moment before stepping towards each other and throwing their arms around the other.

"Okay…that was sweet," Sam admitted.

"I want to go next!" Tyler said, jumping up. "I want to give mom and dad their present from me!"

"You got us a present, honey?" Sam said, surprised.

"You didn't have to do that," Freddie said.

"Yes I did, everyone gets presents on Christmas, even if they're old and not a kid," Tyler said, handing his parents a flat box.

"Did he just call us old?" Sam asked Freddie.

"Let's not kill the moment," Freddie said as Sam began to tare off the wrapping paper.

"Aw!" Sam said, holding up the present. It was frame that Tyler had painted on his own with a picture of the whole family inside. "Tyler! This is the sweetest present ever!"

"Yeah, you made it yourself?" Freddie asked.

"Uh-huh!" he nodded proudly.

"Lucky…he's still little enough to get by with homemade presents," Emma mumbled under her breath.

"He better enjoy it while he can," Jason nodded.

"Alright, I'm next," Freddie said, picking up a small box from under the tree. "This one is for my beautiful wife; the mother of my four children; the woman who makes me feel like-"

"Ugh!" Ashton cringed. "There are kids here!"

Freddie rolled his eyes as he handed the box to Sam. "Here you go, baby. Hope you like it."

"Hmmm, little box? I wonder what this could be?" Sam said jokingly as she began to unwrap it. "You know, no offense or anything, but jewelry is sort of becoming a predictable thing with you, Frednub. I mean I love everything you get me, but I don't even have that much space left in my-Holy chiz!"

She pulled out two slips of paper from the small box. "These are tickets to see the final fight of this year's MMA tournament in New Mexico!"

"That's right," Freddie chuckled. "Next month you and I are going to take a kids-free vacation to see that fight and have a little alone time."

"What's alone time?" Tyler asked innocently.

"Something that's going to make us vomit in about three seconds," Emma said, clutching her stomach.

"You're the best," Sam smiled, giving him a quick peck on his lips. "And here I thought I had you beat with presents this year. Well, hopefully you still like what I got you. Here."

She grabbed her present to him and tossed it onto his lap.

After taking a moment to neatly take the wrapping paper, Freddie's mouth dropped open as he held up a thin piece of poster board.

"Sam," he said. "This-This looks like it's one of the original movie posters form Galaxy Wars."

"Well duh, because it is," Sam said. "And some dude named Paul Romero even signed it. I don't know who he is, but I think he's sort of important because-"

"Paul Romero signed this?" Freddie yelled. "Are you serious? Sam! He's the actor who plays Lou Groundrunner in all the films! He's like, the essence of Galaxy Wars!"

"Oh…well cool," Sam shrugged.

"Oh man, I need to get this framed," Freddie said, hugging his wife with one arm as he continued to hold to poster in his other. "This baby is going right above our bed."
"Yeah, think again, nub," Sam said. She glanced over at Jason, who was sitting quietly between Tyler and the twins.

"Hey, Jason?" she said. "You've been pretty quiet this morning. What did you get in your stocking?"

"I didn't have a stocking," Jason replied.

"No stocking?" Tyler gasped. "Were you bad or something?"

"Why didn't Jason get a stocking?" Ashton asked.

"Yeah, he's too much of a goody-two-shoes to get into trouble," Emma nodded.

"Hmm," Freddie said thoughtfully. "That is weird. Maybe there was some sort of mix-up."

"No, his stocking's right here," Sam said, reaching across Freddie and picking up a seemingly empty stocking and tossing it at her oldest child. "There you go, Jason. See, it just got misplaced."

Jason frowned. "But it's empty."

"Is it?" Freddie said, raising an eyebrow. "Maybe you should, you know, reach down in there and check that out for sure."

"But it's pretty clear nothing's in here," Jason said, though he stuck his hand down into the stocking anyway. "The stocking's totally flat and-"

He suddenly stopped talking as he slowly pulled out a single key from the bottom of the stocking.

"A key?" Emma said. "What are you going to with a key?"

"Boy, you must've done something really bad this year," Tyler said.

"Maybe that key goes to something," Sam said, grinning. "Something that might be outside in the driveway…"

"No way…" Jason said, scrambling to his feet and running out to the driveway. "No, there's no way-Oh my God!"

The family ran outside after Jason where he was standing in front of a brand new car.

"I got a car?" Jason exclaimed. "I got a car! I got a car!"

He ran over to his parents and hugged them both. "Thank you guys so much! You're the best parents ever!"
"Why are you thanking them?" Tyler said. "The key was in your stocking so that means it was from Santa."

"Well then thank you, Santa," Jason beamed, rustling his little brother's hair. "Hey, mom? Dad? Can I take this for a test run?"

"Sure, it's your car," Sam nodded. "Just be careful."
"I want to come!" Tyler said. "Can I come with you Jason?"

"Us too!" Ashton said as Emma nodded.

"Fine, you all can come," Jason said, rolling his eyes. "But wipe your feet! I don't want my car to get dirty!"

"Hurry back," Freddie said. "We still have more presents to unwrap and then your mom's making her famous cinnamon rolls. Fresh from the tube."

"I'll just go around the block," Jason assured him. "Seriously, you guys are the best! I'll never ask for anything ever again."

"Sure, we'll see how long that lasts," Sam chuckled.

Sam and Freddie watched Jason back out of the driveway and begin to drive down the street.

"Told you he'd freak out," Sam said, looking up at Freddie.

"Obviously, what sixteen-year old kid wouldn't freak out about getting a new car?" Freddie pointed out. He put his arm around Sam. "He deserves it. He's a good kid."

"I know," Sam said, resting her head on his shoulder. "But you know now all the others are going to be wanting cars too."

"Oh jeez," Freddie sighed. "Maybe we should've thought this through more."