"Uhhh! I can't do this." Penny exclaimed from the kitchen table where she had been for hours staring a textbooks and papers.
"What's the matter?" Kurt asked.
"She's studying for orgy." Lucy told her father. Kurt's eyes could have rivaled a deer in headlights in that moment.
"I'm studying for orgo, you know, organic chemistry." Penny told him.
"Well then what does orgy mean?" Lucy asked.
"Nothing." Kurt immediately replied. That was a conversation that he was not going to have with his six year old. "Anyway, what's the problem Pen?"
"There's just so much material and I feel like my brain isn't absorbing anything. This is the final exam. And, I can't afford to fail this exam...because then I could fail the class and then fail out of school." Kurt could easily see the signs of a panic attack rising in his daughter.
"Lucy honey, go play in your room." he told her. The six year nodded and left the kitchen table with her homework in tow. Kurt went and sat next to Penny. "Deep breaths honey." Penny compiled as tears rolled down her cheeks. "You're just stressed out. Honey, you are so smart and I know that you'll make it through this class."
"I just don't know why I thought taking this class as a winter term class would be a good idea." Penny cried. "It's just making me miserable."
"I know exactly what you need." Kurt said. He placed a hand on his daughter's knee. "A break! And I know exactly what to do." He got up from the table and walked to the hallway where all their bedrooms were. "All Anderson-Hummels come to the kitchen!" Bedroom doors began to open and the remaining four Anderson-Hummel kids and Blaine filtered into the kitchen,
"Can someone tell me how far away Christmas is?" Kurt asked.
"Twelve days." Andrew replied almost immediately. It was clear that he was counting.
"Exactly. And we don't have a Christmas tree. That is practically a crime against Christmas!" Kurt exclaimed.
"Kurt, you never want to get a real tree. You say they're dirty and a pain in the butt." Blaine interjected. "That's why we always put a fake one up."
"Well, I changed my mind! I want a real tree and we're all going to get it as a family." Kurt announced. "You all have fifteen minutes to put on warm clothes and then we're leaving. The kids rolled their eyes. They knew better than to argue with Kurt when he got an idea in his head.
Not too much later all the kids were dressed in hats, coats, scarves and gloves and piled into the car. Penny got in last with books in her hands. "Nope. Take those books back in the house. You're taking a break."
"But Papa! I need to study." she whined.
"No." Kurt repeated. Penny groaned and put her stuff back in the house before getting back in the car. They drove to a nearby Christmas tree farm and parked in the gravel lot. It was pretty crowded but being that it was twelve days before Christmas it wasn't surprising. The first step on their journey was getting into a big hayride that would take them to the field where the Christmas trees were. It was especially hard to get their however because it had snowed the night before.
"This is cool!" Lucy exclaimed from where she was sitting on Blaine's lap. The tractor moved down the road, hitting every bump on the way. Eventually, they made it to the field and all seven of them got off and stepped into the fresh white snow.
"Okay, let's find our Christmas tree." Kurt said enthusiastically, even though at this point he was faking it. It was really cold. He should have just gone with the fake tree again this year.
"What about his one?" Andrew replied pointing to a tinier tree that was a little patchy in Kurt's opinion.
"That is the saddest tree I have ever seen." Charlie retorted. "It's as bald as Grandpa Burt." Kurt and Blaine could barely hold in their laughter.
"It's a good start bud. But maybe we should keep looking." Blaine offered. After walking for a little, Caleb pointed to a tree.
"What about this one?" he asked.
"I'm not positive, but I don't think that'll fit through our doorway." Penny told him. "It's way to big." The rest of the family had to agree. Suddenly Kurt saw it. The tree was a little bit bigger than him and had no bald patches and looked great.
"How about this one!" he exclaimed.
"Fine with me." Blaine said. "Everyone else?" All the kids nodded. Blaine and Caleb went to work on cutting down the tree. There was no way that Kurt or any of the girls were going to lay down in the snow to do it. While they were standing there, Kurt noticed Penny on her phone and she was mouthing out different formulas, most likely for her class. That girl did not know how to relax. Kurt picked up a handful of snow and formed it into a snowball. When no one was looking, he chucked it over and hit Penny right in the arm.
"Hey! Who did that?" the girl yelled as she brushed the snow off her arm. "Charlie?"
"Hey it wasn't me!" Charlie yelled.
"Yeah right!" Penny replied. She put her phone in her pocket and made a snowball of her own and threw it right at her sisters back.
"What the hell?"
"How do you like it?" Penny retorted.
"Girls…" Kurt began hesitantly, knowing he had started this. But, it was too late. Before he knew it there was a full blown snowball fight occurring between his kids. Even Blaine and Caleb stopped sawing the tree and joined. By the end of it, they were all soaked, their faces bright pink and freezing. They finished sawing their Christmas tree down and took it home.
When they got home, they all took showers and put on pajamas. Blaine even started a fire in their fireplace to keep them warm. Then it was time to decorate the tree. They put on Christmas music and danced around as they put ornaments, lights and tinsel on the tree. The last step was the star. Blaine put Lucy on his shoulders and she placed it on the top. The tree really did look beautiful and it was a wonderful night for them as a family.
The next morning, Kurt was up early working on some sketches for Vogue. Penny came in with her laptop. Her hair was in a messy bun and she had her glasses on. Kurt couldn't get over how much she looked Blaine. Neither one of them saw how much they looked alike but Kurt definitely did. "What are you doing up so early?" he asked.
"I took my exam…" she said hesitantly.
"And what did you get?" Kurt asked.
"I don't know. I'm too afraid to hit submit." Penny confessed. "Papa, you have to do it for me." She brought her laptop over to him on the couch and sat down. Her hands were shaking.
"Okay, are you ready?" he asked.
"Just do it." Kurt submitted the exam and it came back instantly. He scrolled down to the bottom and in big black letters was the grade, 95%.
"You got a 95%!" Kurt said excitedly.
"What? Are you serious?" Penny exclaimed. She took her computer back and looked at it. "Holy shit! That means I got an A- in the class!"
"Oh honey, I'm so proud of you." Kurt exclaimed.
"I have to go text my friend Sara and see how she did!" Penny replied before hurrying off to her room. The break must have really been what Penny needed. Kurt was glad she was done with that class both for his daughter's sanity and the fact that he would not have to tell his six year old what an orgy was. That was a conversation Kurt would never be ready to have.