Annotation: MERRY CHRISTMAS or happy post-Chanukah!

I want to thank the people who reviewed, I didn't think I would get any. This chapter is one of my favorites and I hope you will enjoy it!

-Andrea

Back at home

FOUR POV

The smoke detector was very loud for a somehow quiet house, I told everybody to relax as I ran into the kitchen with the suit that I got as a gag gift before Annie was born for diaper changing. I grabbed the fire extinguisher in the cabinet and slowly opened the stove, I sprayed to my heart's delight until finally the smoke cleared. The cookies were disintegrated. The alarm was still going, I stood on the table and ripped it out of the ceiling, I would get to that later. I turned around and everybody was looking at me through the doorway.

"Are the cookies alright daddy?" Bailey asked. I knew that was coming.

"You're probably better off eating dirt, it is less black than the cookies, you see we forgot to spray the foil and it caught fire, I am very sorry, no cookies." I said, waiting for the tears to come.

Looks like it was going to be a full blown temper tantrum, he was on the floor screaming bloody murder. It was only so much time allotted before the neighbors called the police. Thinking fast I whispered to Marlene quickly what my plan was, and I bolted out the door, no shoes or nothing, I just ran, Lord Jesus I ran all the way to the food store. I ran into the pre-made cookie aisle and picked the closest I could find to the cookies I had baked earlier. Since the food store is like 3 minutes by car from our house I ran back in under 15 minutes, that was a new record. As you would guess, I've had to flat our run before because when Annie was born we completely forgot about diapers and the car was in the shop because on the way to the hospital I totaled the back of the car and Tris got a luxurious ride in the back of the police car to the hospital, but there was no car for me. This time I was out of gas and wasn't making two stops. I didn't have time for that.

I burst into the door to find Bailey in the same spot I left him.

"Look, I made it to the cookie hospital just in time and they were able to save your cookies, now you can eat them!" I said, trying to sound as happy as can be when really, I was about to have a heart attack.

Luckily, Bailey seemed to buy it and he sat at the table and wiped his tears while I gave him cookies. Marlene congratulated me for the clean break through and I went to sit on the couch and catch up on the game with Zeke.

Tris POV

We had been shopping for 3 and a half hours. My eyes were burning from looking at price tags. Even Christina was getting tired. I hadn't seen Uriah since Lynn pried the body guard off of him. Finally it was time to go to the check-out aisle. After a half an hour of standing in line we finally got to the checkout desk, the lady running it was about to say something, probably about how there was a gift limit, but she sighed and told us to put our stuff on the conveyor belt. I had a 50% coupon that should help bring down the price a little. I gave it to the clerk and she just shook her head and gave it back to me. Christina tried to tell me to pack my patience, but it flew out of the suitcase hours ago.

"Excuse me, but I am pretty sure that the coupon is still valid." I said, trying to sound as nice as possible.

"Um, I don't think that it is valid. It expires at midnight."

"I believe that it is only 9:30," I checked my watch and was spot on.

"Well, if you're going to be rude, you are not going to get the coupon at all," the lady said, and she threw it in the trash.

That's it, all of my patience was gone, in fact, I was in debt with patience. I threw my self over the counter, and took the lady down, but as much as I wish I could have kept going, Christina pulled me off of her and tied my arms and legs with a belt. This is not how I imagined my shopping life would be. The lady was so scared she gave us a 75% coupon, I had never felt more victorious in my life.

Christina untied me and we left, we were off to find Uriah, we saw Lynn first, who was freaking out for no apparent reason. I decided to let Christina do the talking while I looked for my patience which seemed to be so far gone, it would be a surprise if I ever got it back.

"We looked everywhere for the transformer that Bailey wants, but I can't find it anywhere."

"I found it!" Uriah screamed, and came running out of one of the hidden aisles.

"NO,NO,NO" WE NEED THE YELLOW ONE NOT THE RED YOU imprudent elf!" Lynn screamed.

Seems like I wasn't the only one who had lost serenity.

"Wait, I have an idea." I said "What if we spray-painted the red one yellow?"

"Actually, that's a genius idea, Will has some, before we pick up the kids at your house, we can definitely spray paint it. Tris, you're a mastermind." Christina said.

We waited in the car while Uriah and Lynn checked out, this time I was driving so I controlled the radio. No, el there will be no, el on the car ride home. If I hadn't been hearing Christmas music since July, maybe I wouldn't mind so much. Don't mistake me for the Grinch but my kids come home from school singing "Oh come all ye Faithful" every day since November 12th. I can't take it anymore. The car ride here was the tipping point.

We stopped at burger king on the way home because I had an extreme craving of the salty fries, I was sick this morning probably because I ate the waffles Four made and I skipped lunch because I still didn't feel too well. But now I wanted food.

We made our way home and had to go to Will's garage. Thank god it wasn't locked.

"Okay, let me get some spray paint," It should be somewhere in here, ah, there it is." Christina said, she kind of went Christmas happy and bought Will a bunch of things. I did get some nice things for Four like a new watch and a TV. I had one big surprise for him that would change Christmas, hopefully for the better.

"No, no, no" Bailey wants a yellow transformer, it can't be striped, spray the whole thing." Looks like Christina was starting to understand why no one wanted to go Christmas shopping.

"Okay, shoot me, I'll spray the whole thing." Lynn said, oblivious to the fact of how tempered Christina was right now.

"You know what, I'm going to go into your house and I'm going to get you some eggnog okay Christina?" Uriah asked.

"I think that would be best." Christina said, and sat on the hood of Will's corvette.

I decided that we would hide all of the presents at Uriah and Marlene's house, since only the turtles were there, and I doubt they would do much damage. We spent 45 minutes getting the presents, Uriah couldn't do any heavy lifting because he threw out his back on the treadmill yesterday and I was pretty much carrying everything. Good thing I'm young, with the people I hang out with, you'd think they're 40 with all of the problems. (No offense to 40 year olds you probably have less problems than these guys.) Santa called and said he would get the presents under the tree at everybody's houses in we would just get them in a pile and in one general location. I checked my watch, it was 11:45, this meant that we were getting dauntless cake!

I unlocked the door to find a not-so-surprisingly loud house for this time at night. I walked into the living room and there was Natalie wailing on Zeke's shoulder, Zeke looked at me with pleading eyes so I grabbed the baby and turned around to see what was going on in the kitchen. As soon as I had Natalie Zeke sprung out of the chair and right to the bathroom and I heard the loudest sigh of relief. There were 4 adults, not one right?

As I walked in the kitchen Bailey was running around with a cookie, and screaming "I am cookie monster" and spilling crumbs everywhere. Four was in the corner putting an ice pack on Annie's forehead.

"What in the name of, of...?" I was cut off as Annie ran and hugged me.

"She hit her head on the counter and has been crying for a half an hour." Four said, he looked more tired than team Christina put together. But of course he had the energy to make fun of me.

"Nice shirt, I looked better than you in that picture when I had braces in 5th grade." He smirked.

"Don't get me started, would you like to carry an extra 40 lbs. in your stomach and then push it out?" I replied, he was starting to unpack my patience right after I had gained it all back.

"Do you see this creature," I said, picking up Natalie, Annie was 10 pounds, if anyone looks good right before they deliver this, then they must have magical powers."

Four nodded, apologized and took the baby to put her to bed. That meant I had to control the other ones and get them to bed.

"Okay, everybody, it's time to leave, if your animals are asleep, leave them here. Pick up is 10:30 AM tomorrow, Christina where is Tommy?"

"I have no idea." She said, she was sitting on the couch downing the freaking eggnog.

I looked everywhere and found him asleep in the laundry basket.

I picked him up and gave him to Will who was watching TV in the garage.

"There is a very good chance that your wife is a little tipsy, so just be careful, Kermit is asleep so just get him tomorrow." I informed Will. I shoved Christina out the door and took a breath, time for the next family, the turtles were in the cage so they were easily sent out with their loving parents and I told Lynn to pick up her dogs tomorrow. Uriah was helping Christina down the hallway. Now for my kids.

"Annie, please sit on the couch and I will be there in a minute." I asked

Since she was the only good child, she listened and sat on the couch.

Bailey seemed to have had a sugar crash and he was asleep on the floor. I carried him into his room, somehow, Four had managed to get him in his pajamas, I don't know how and I plan to leave it like that. Once he was in bed I went to the living room and got Annie a Band-Aid for the small cut on her forehead.

"Okay, now just tell me what happened tonight, you were the most trustworthy person here." I told Annie. She gave me the whole thing, begging to end. I loved the diaper story; wish I could have been there to see that. She told me how she and Marlene cleaned everything up because boys are slobs, and everything she told me sounded right. I would probably call Marlene tomorrow and get the adult version of the story.

I tucked Annie into bed, and then went to my own. The baby was asleep in the basinet right next to our bed. Four was watching the news, I jumped into bed and we kissed for a while.

"I'm glad I'm not a stay-at-home-dad, I couldn't be with kids all day long." Four said.

"Me too, I can't wait to go back to work, this baby thing is getting boring." I replied. I am an interior designer and it is a lot more fun than laundry and cleaning dishes. Four is a lawyer and I am safe to say even though it can be stressful, it can't be as bad as being around these hooligans all day.

I turned off the TV and kissed Four again, it sounds cheesy, but I missed him today. Tomorrow was Saturday and Christmas Eve. We would have plenty of time tomorrow.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter, the 2nd to last chapter should be up either Friday or Saturday!