"Ohmigawsh! Max, it's Christmas Eve!" Nudge exclaimed.
"Yes, Nudge, we all know." Fang said.
"I wasn't talking to you all, I was talking to Max." Nudge said.
"You told me 84 times Nudge, it's Christmas Eve, I know. And stop saying 'ohmigawsh', it's tacky." I said.
"Kids," Mom called from the living room, "come in here please." Fang, Nudge, and I got up and ran into the living room to join the others. "Sit down." Mom instructed. She was in the armchair in front of the love seat that they call a couch. I sat down by the arm and Fang sat next to me(insert Iggy saying something about lovebirds on the loveseat here), and Angel sat in his lap. Gazzy sat next to the other arm. Iggy sat in the floor leaning on the arm of the loveseat and Ella sat beside him at my feet. Nudge sat in front of Gazzy, the poor girl. I curled my feet up beside of my to give Ella some room to sit without squishing my feet. Total jumped up into my lap and curled up into a little ball. "Everyone comfy?" Mom asked after we shifted around in our seats for a good 15 minutes.
"Yep!" We all shouted in unison, except Fang of course. I looked over at him. He had his arms around Angel's waist and rested his chin on her head. Angel placed her elbows on Fang's arms and propped her head up on her fists. Total shifted again in my lap, sliding off and into the little space between my thighs and the arm. I looked beyond Fang and Angel to Gazzy. He sat in lotus position, leaning forward on his elbows, which were on his thighs. I looked down at Nudge below him. She sat with her legs together in front of her, leaning back on the loveseat. Below me, Ella sat the same way I was, holding herself up on one arm, resting her head on Iggy's shoulder. Iggy was sitting like Nudge, only he had an arm around Ella. Total stayed in the space that he fell in with his little black head poking out and resting on my knee.
"Okay, have any of you ever heard the poem, 'The Night Before Christmas'? Besides Ella." Mom asked. We all shook our heads. "Well, it's a Martinez family tradition that every Christmas Eve we recite 'The Night Before Christmas'. So, since you all are now Martinez's, that's just what we'll do. Now, when we recite it, everyone reads one stanza, which is like a paragraph in a poem. So, I'll go get the book and we'll pass it around. Anyone want hot chocolate?" We all nodded. She got up and went to the kitchen.
"What's 'The Night Before Christmas'?" Iggy whispered to Ella.
"It's a really awesome poem. You'll see." Ella answered. "I mean that metaphorically." She added. I laughed. Iggy gave me a sour look. Mom came back in with a tray of hot chocolate and a book. She passed out the hot chocolate, sat back down, opened the book and said, "I'll start." She cleared her throat. I took a sip of my hot chocolate. "T'was the night before Christmas."
"Ow! That's hot!" I exclaimed. Everyone started laughing. Mom did, then put her serious face back on.
"Ok, T'was the night before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse, the stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there." She passed the book to Ella.
"The children were nestled all snug in their beds," she recited without looking at the book, "while visions of sugar plums danced in their heads; and mama in her 'kerchief and I in my cap, had just settled our brains for a long winter nap; when out on the lawn there arose such a clatter, I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter." She looked up.
"Now who?" She asked. Mom pointed to me. Ella handed the book up to me. "Read to the period." She said.
I looked down at the book.
"Away to the window I flew like a flash," I read, "tore open the shutters and threw up the shash." I looked up and Mom pointed to Fang. I passed the book over. He let go of
Angel and held the book above her head to read.
"The moon, on the breast of the new fallen snow, gave a luster of midday to objects below," he read, quietly, of course, "when, what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer, with a little old driver so lively and quick, I knew in a moment it must be Saint Nick." He looked up and then put the book down in front of Angel. He pointed out where she was supposed to start reading.
"M-more rapid then e-eagles," she stuttered, saying it slowly as she sounded out the words before saying them, I tapped Fang on the shoulder and he looked over at me. I mouthed the words, "think it" and he nodded and looked at the book. "His coursers they came," Angel read more confindently, "and he whistled and shouted and called them by name: "Now Dasher! Now, Dancer! Now Prancer and Vixen! On Comet! On Cupid! On Donner and Blitzen! To the top of the porch, to the top of the wall, now, dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!"" Fang handed the book to Gazzy.
"As dry leaves that before the hurricane fly, when they meet with an obstacle mount to the sky, so up to the housetop the coursers they flew, with the sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas, too." He read. He handed it down to Nudge.
"And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof the prancing and pawing of each little hoof." Nudge said and passed the book over to Ella who gave it to Iggy and placed his finger on the text(he can read text by touching it).
"As I threw in my head and was turning around, down the chimeny St. Nicholas came with a bound." He quoted and passed the book up. I put it in front of Total.
"Uh, he was dressed all in fur," He recited and then let out a low growl, then continued, "from his head to his foot, and his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot; a bundle of toys he had flung on his back, and he looked like a peddler just opening his pack." I gave the book back to Mom.
"His eyes--how they twinkled! his dimples--how merry! His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry. His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow, and the beard on his chin was as white as the snow." She handed the book to Ella and the cycle started again.
"The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth, and the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath."
"SANTA SMOKES?!" Angel exclaimed. "No wonder he's so fat." We all laughed at that and continued. I was next.
"He had a broad face and a little round belly that shook when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly."
Fang: "He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf, and I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself."
"Sounds like something you'd do Fang." I commented. He narrowed his eyes at me and placed the book in front of Angel and she read, "A wink of his eye and a twist of his head soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread."
Gazzy: "He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work, and filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk, and laying his finger aside of his nose, and giving a nod, up the chimney he rose."
Nudge: "He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle, and away they all flew like the down of a thistle." Mom extended her hand to take the book.
"Now, I'm gonna read the next line, when I point to you I want you to say what Ella and I say, 'kay?" We all nodded. "But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight," she pointed to us, and Angel had told us what to say so, in unison, we, well, pretty much screamed, "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a goodnight!" We all got back into our comfy positions.
"So, how'd ya like it?" Mom asked.
"It was awesome." We all said.
"Now, who wants to watch Rudolph?" All the little kids' hands shot up, and mine and Ella's. Fang and Iggy laughed at us. I punched them both. We watched Rudolph. All the kids were in the floor, Ella, Iggy, Fang and I squeezed onto the loveseat. Ella was mostly on Iggy's lap, next to the arm. Fang was next to the other arm(he stole my seat) and I was laying him. Iggy was on my feet. Halfway through the movie Fang brought his arm up and put it around me. The little kids ended up falling asleep pretty close to the end, Mom brought in a blanket and laid it over them. Ella volunteered to get in the floor with them, and Iggy followed. Fang and I stayed on the loveseat(insert one of Iggy's jokes again here). Fang sorta laid down a little with his legs swinging over the right arm, I laid the opposite way with my head in front of his with my legs swinging over the left arm. Mom gave us both blankets, turned out the light, and fell asleep in the chair. I woke up in the middle of the night. I looked at the clock, 11:59. I turned my head to where it was facing Fang's, he was awake, too. Our faces were mere inches away. The clock beeped 12 times. It was midnight. Fang lightly touched his lips to mine and whispered, "Merry Christmas, Max." I smiled and soon we both fell back asleep.
Yes I'm aware some of my description is really babble and it gets confusing. Sorry about taht. I wrote this last christmas when I was still starting out, and I might re-do it. Not sure.
Fang: I like it.
Me: Nah, duh, you and Max kiss in it.
Fang: Nah, well, I like that too, but I just like your writing.
Me: Aww! Thank you!! -huggles Fang-
Fang: Get off me...
Me: You brought this torture upon yourself.