"You're telling me you never had a real Christmas?" Sarah asked, shock written all over her face as they walked down the streets in LA, her arm linked through Callen's. He shook his head.

"I grew up being bounced around from foster home to foster home, some families tried to give us Christmas, but in the end it didn't work out" Callen said with a shrug weaving some of his real life into his life with her.

She looked at him for several moments before saying, "That's it! It's time for you to have a proper Christmas, Gregory Callahan! First off, we need a tree!" She then began to drag him down the street towards a place that sold Christmas trees.

"And where is this Christmas tree going to stay?" Callen asked warily looking at the plant, even though he had to admit it smelled nice. Sarah looked up from looking at one, a serious look on her face.

"You're place, obviously. Do you really think a tree is going to fit in my apartment when it looks like a tornado just went through it?"

Callen shook his head and backed away from the tree, hands held up. "There is no way in hell that thing is going in my house. I have a horrible track record with things that live, especially plants."

Sarah rolled her eyes. "Stop being over dramatic, its a tree, all you have to do is keep water in it," she said before turning to the salesman, "we'll take this one."

Callen looked from the tree to her, and seeing that she was giving him a look that almost rivaled Hetty's he gave in and sighed, "Alright, we'll get the stupid tree and put it up at my place."

Sarah's face lit up in a smile and she jumped up and down, cheering and clapping her hands. She quickly came over and kissed him. "I knew you would say yes eventually, G" she said with a sly grin. Callen just shook his head and smiled. They loaded the tree onto the top of her SUV and then headed to her house to pick up decorations before finally ending up at his house.

"How the hell do people deal with these things every year?" Callen grumbled as he wrestled the tree in through the door towards the living room, Sarah following behind him with several boxes of decorations and lights.

"Maybe because most people enjoy putting one up every year" she teased as she pulled a stand out out from the top box and placed it on the floor in front of the window so that Callen could place the tree in it. Callen just grunted as his response before picking the tree up and placing it in the stand. She then went into the kitchen and filled a cup of water and came to pour it in the tree.

She saw Callen watching and she said "Make sure you keep water in it, we don't want it to die."

"It's a week before Christmas, I think I can keep it alive until then" Callen replied.

Sarah gave him a look. "You're the one that said you had a horrible track record with plants, G" she said before going and opening the boxes.

"What do you have in here?" he asked coming over to peer in.

"Decorations I've collected over the years, stuff like that" she said with a shrug as she pulled out decorations while Callen began to work on wrapping lights around the tree. When he was finished he came and sat beside her, picking up an ornament.

It was a white bulb that had California painted on it with the lettering Los Angeles – 2009. He looked at her and then back at the bulb.

"Did you paint this?" he asked. She turned her attention to him and the ornament in his hand.

"Yeah, I painted that my first Christmas out here, I had a tree put no ornaments, none that seemed personal anyway, so I went to the store, bought some clear and white bulbs and painted stuff on them, seemed like fun" she said before pulling out several other ornaments similar to the one in his hand.

One was painted navy with the buildings and a skyline, outlined in gold. Under it the words "The City of Angles" was painted in white. Another was white with mistletoe painted around it, and one had some trees in a field on snow painted on it.

"They're beautiful" he said looking up at her. She gave a shy smile, sure, she got compliments from her clients, but it was different when Callen gave her a compliment. She couldn't really explain it.

"Thank you, now lets get them on the tree" she said standing up and placing the ones in her hand around it.

Callen placed one on the tree before moving it because he thought it looked wrong it that place. After moving it several times he finally just put it somewhere and then backed away. "I'm doing this all wrong, you decorate it, I'll watch" he said.

"Not happening G. You're helping, there's no wrong way to decorate a Christmas tree" she said before putting another ornament in his hand. She gave him a pointed look until he finally placed it on the tree.

"See, it looks perfect right there, now get another one"she said from the opposite side of the tree. Callen opened his mouth to protest but decided against and went to retrieve another ornament from the box. After a while, they had all the ornaments on the tree, and Sarah had Callen hanging two stockings from his fireplace as she placed a rug around the tree to collect the falling needles.

Callen handed her a beer and she took it, wrapping her other arm around his waist. "See, you didn't do a bad job, did you now?" she teased bumping her shoulder against his.

"I guess not, but if it wasn't for you, this place wouldn't look anything like it does now" he admitted.

"What does it look like now" she asked curiously.

Callen looked down at her and smiled. "A home, ready for Christmas" he replied, kissing her as she smiled.

Later that night that sat on the couch, her head on his chest. Her eyes were closed contently as he ran his fingers through her hair.

"You know, we should have a Christmas party" she said softly, and Callen froze.

"A what?" he asked.

She opened her eyes so that gray-blue was staring into pale blue. "A Christmas party? What normal couples do over the holidays? Have you seriously never been to one?" she asked.

"Only the ones at the office, and those usually end with someone making eggnog that everyone complains about being to strong, besides, you're the one that says normal is overrated" he replied with a small smile.

Sarah sighed before sitting up and facing him. "Come on G. It would be fun, you would invite your friends, who I have yet to meet. We've been dating for over six months and I haven't met a single friend of yours!" she said.

"Maybe it's because I like keeping you all to myself, besides who said I even have friends" he teased, clearly uncomfortable with the idea of his teammates meeting her, especially when she knew nothing about what he really did for a living.

"Invite your coworkers then, lets just do something to celebrate the holidays with other people" she said with a pointed look as he opened her mouth.

Callen sighed and ran a hand through his hair in frustration. He knew this was bound to happen sooner or later, he was just hoping for later. He really didn't want to bring the team into this but he knew that Hetty was right when she had caught him off guard one day and told him she would find out eventually.

"Alright," he sighed, "I guess I can invite a few people from work over."

Sarah grinned and threw her arms around him. "Don't worry, it'll be fun. We'll have it the day before Christmas Eve, everyone will probably be with their families then. That means you have time to invite everyone and I have time to get everything together" she said excitedly.

Callen couldn't help but chuckle at her excitement and couldn't help but get a little excited himself, even though worry outweighed the excitement.

"Whatever you want, babe" he said kissing her. What could possibly go wrong?

AN: Sorry for such a long delay and I apologize for this along with the next chapter being after the holidays, but I have learned that Mountain Dew does not like computers. It was a struggle typing out this chapter and the one after this. It was also the holidays, and I hope everyone had a wonderful one. In other news, I was also accepted to the college I wanted to go to, which is a great weight lifted off my shoulders. Anyway, hope you enjoy.