Sorry about the delay - but life in the real world has been crazy busy with the holidays and year end at work.

Thank you all for the reviews, the favoriting, and the alerts.

I still don't own Criminal Minds.

Happy reading and enjoy :D

Spence woke up in the same position he had fallen asleep in, with his head on JJ's belly while he had been talking to the baby. Apparently the baby thought it was time for Daddy to get up as he'd kicked him in the head.

Spence sat up while rubbing the side of his head, which mussed his unruly bedhead into further disarray. He glanced down at JJ, as she shifted and sighed while she settled into an apparently more comfortable position, and was glad to see that she was still asleep. He looked at the clock and made the decision to get up.

He ambled blearily down the hallway, the stairs, and through the house to the kitchen. He switched on the coffee pot. The only way to start any day, let alone a busy day like Christmas, was with coffee. It amazed him how his wife managed to go over two years without the blessed caffeinated beverage when she'd had Chloe almost immediately followed by Henry.

JJ stirred and reached over onto Spence's side of the bed as she prepared to snuggle closer, but when she found the other side of the bed empty, her eyes popped open and she turned to look at the clock. She pondered where her husband could be at 7 am.

No sooner had she turned back from looking at the clock, than the delightful smell of breakfast wafted its way to her nose. She smiled and sat up in bed just as the door of their bedroom opened revealing none other than her missing husband.

"Good morning." Spence said as he sat down next to JJ on her side of the bed holding a covered tray.

"Good morning baby" JJ replied leaning forward and kissing Spence softly on the lips. "I really want to know what you have there" she said nodding towards the tray in Spence's hands, "but first, I really have to pee."

Spence laughed and set the tray on the night stand and then stood up and helped JJ to her feet and watched her shuffle off to the bathroom.

"Thank you for breakfast" JJ said leaning over to kiss Spence as she finished the French toast, fruit, and bacon that he had made her for breakfast. "Mm you taste like coffee." She moaned as she pulled away from his lips.

Spence smiled. "I figured once the munchkins wake up and see what Santa brought; they'll want to play for a little bit before eating, but you should eat sooner than that." He said as he leaned over JJ and sat the tray holding the empty breakfast dishes back on the night stand, and then settled in next to his wife on the bed.

JJ smiled. "Shh listen." She whispered as she cuddled up next to Spence.

The soft sound of feet padding down the hallway could be heard. The feet stopped right outside their open bedroom door. Then a little gold curl covered head and big brown eyes peeked around the doorway.

Spence and JJ smiled at each other as they watched their three year old out of the corner of their eyes to see what she would do.

Seeing that Mommy and Daddy were awake, she stepped into the doorway. She took a half step forward, about to run over to the bed, but then remembered what Mommy and Daddy had told her about it being polite to knock before going in someone else's room.

JJ grinned at the very light tapping sound that Chloe's hand made as it slapped against their bedroom door and she looked over at where the little girl stood in the doorway. "Good morning Chloe!"

"Tan I tome in?" Chloe asked.

JJ nodded. "Come on sweetie, you can snuggle with Mommy and Daddy while we wait for Henry to wake up."

"Otay!" Chloe cheered as she trotted over to the bed.

Spence leaned over the edge of the bed and picked the little girl up when she reached the edge of the bed. "Good morning princess. Did you dream of sugar plum fairies last night?" he asked.

"No" Chloe said shaking her head as Daddy sat her down on the bed between him and Mommy.

JJ laughed as she wrapped an arm around Chloe and leaned down to kiss her on the head. "Do you know what a sugar plum fairy is?" she asked.

"No" Chloe said shaking her head as she leaned against Mommy's side.

"Then how do you know you didn't dream about them?" Spence asked as he tickled Chloe's side.

"I no know" Chloe said as she squealed in laughter and scooted closer to Mommy in an attempt to escape Daddy's 'tickle monster' hands. Then Chloe gasped at the feeling of being poked in the side and looked up at Mommy with a confused expression on her face.

JJ winced slightly when the baby kicked and then noticed the expression on Chloe's face. "Did you feel the baby kick sweetie?"

"Why he kick me? That not nice." Chloe said confused. She knew it wasn't nice to kick; she'd gotten in a bit of trouble herself a few weeks ago when she'd kicked Henry because he'd slapped her when they'd been fighting over something. Mommy had made them both say they were sorry and hug.

JJ chuckled. "The baby didn't mean to kick you sweetie. He can't see us, but he can hear our voices and so kicking right now is his way of saying hi."

Chloe smiled at that and patted Mommy's tummy. "Hi baby!"

Spence smiled at JJ over the top of Chloe's head and then stood up from the bed when he heard Henry stirring down the hall. A few minutes later he reappeared with the small boy on his back, giving him a piggy back.

"Hi Mama! Hi Cwoe!" He said in a bright chipper baby boy voice.

"Hi Henry!" Chloe answered as he slid off Daddy's back and down onto the bed.

"Good morning Henry." JJ said. "Did you sleep well?" she asked as Henry crawled across the covers and over to her.

"Uh huh" he said as he snuggled up on Mommy's other side while she leaned down and kissed him on the head.

"Do you guys remember what today is?" JJ asked as she held Chloe and Henry close.

Henry and Chloe both had thoughtful expressions on their face as they tried to remember what today was. It was all JJ could do not to laugh as it was the very same expression that Spence always had on his face when he stood in front of an evidence board or a map while he attempted to figure out what was missing.

After a moment, JJ tried to remind them. "Did we leave cookies and milk out for someone last night before we went to bed?"

Chloe's eyes got big. "Santa!"

"Should we go see if he came while we were sleeping?" Spence asked as he smiled watching his wife and children cuddle together.

"Wudowph?" Henry asked.

"Yep" Spence replied. "Rudolph too. Who else would guide Santa's sleigh?" Spence asked as he stood up beside the bed and scooped first Henry and then Chloe up and set them down on the floor. Then he helped JJ up and then the family headed downstairs to find out if Santa and Rudolph had visited them.

Elle sat laughing as Will held Billy in his lap attempting to encourage their son to rip open the wrapping paper on his gifts. Billy however was far more interested in the white ball dangling in front of him that was attached to the Santa hat that his Daddy was wearing.

"Cher" Will said as he held Billy out towards Elle. "Why don't you see if you have better luck?"

Elle leaned forward and kissed Will as she took Billy from him. "Don't you want to see what Abuela got you?" Elle asked as she gave a sidelong glance to her mother, who was visiting for Christmas, and the baby boy now seated in her lap. Then she shook the present.

Will turned on the video camera to capture the moment.

The sound of the rattling paper combined with the sound of whatever was inside the package rattling grabbed Billy's attention. He kicked his legs and wiggled anxiously, becoming more excited as his Mommy shook the package again. This time when the package was placed in his lap, with a little help from Mommy, he managed to tear of the wrapping paper.

Will laughed as once the present was unwrapped and revealed to be a brightly colored shape sorting toy, it was the wrapping paper and the empty box that Billy wanted to play with.

Billy sat crunching the wrapping paper between his fingers and banging his hands on the side of the empty box with a large grin on his cherubic little baby face.

Fran Morgan smiled as she sat sipping her coffee watching Sarah and Desiree playing with Jake on the floor with his new toys that he'd gotten for Christmas. He laughed and giggled as they played. She wasn't sure but she suspected that Derek wasn't so much 'helping' Penelope in the kitchen as he was stealing a moment alone with her, after all, she'd seen him reach up and snag the mistletoe from the arch of the living room doorway as he walked past.

"Mm" Penelope moaned as her husband's lips pulled away from hers. "that was divine, my hunk of burning love."

Derek laughed. "Just wait until later baby girl." He replied wiggling his eyebrows.

"Do we have to wait until later?" Penelope whined as she felt her chocolate god of a husband's hands running up and down her body as she leaned against him, recuperating from their make out session in the kitchen.

Derek chuckled. "Sorry Mama, but as entertained as Jake is playing with Sarah and Desiree, he is going to be hungry soon and I know my Mom is going to insist on helping us."

"Okay" Penelope sighed. "But, I am holding you to your promise about later, tall, dark, and sexy." She responded, her hands running over his chest.

Aaron grinned as he answered the door with Avery in his arms. "Merry Christmas!" he said as he opened the door revealing Haley and Jack.

"Hi Daddy!" Jack greeted cheerfully. "Mommy said Santa stopped here so that I could be with you and Emily and Mommy and Avery and Seth all together!" Jack said without pausing to take a break.

"He did huh?" Aaron said with a smile and a wink over Jack's head at Haley. "Well, we'll have to go take a look, because Avery and Seth wanted to wait for you."

"Hi Avery!" Jack said waving to his sister in Daddy's arms.

"Yack!" Avery exclaimed reaching out from Daddy's arms towards her big brother.

Aaron set Avery down on her feet and watched as she toddled over to Jack and gave him a hug, which Jack of course returned. Then Jack held Avery's hand and turned to look up towards Daddy with pleading eyes.

"Why don't we head into the living room and see what Santa left for us?" Aaron said as he looked down at Jack and Avery. Then he and Haley watched for a moment as Jack and Avery headed for the living room before following behind them.

With Aaron and Haley alternating every other year who had Jack on Christmas Eve and who had Jack on Christmas Day, it had been determined that it was best to have Santa visit where ever Jack would be spending Christmas Day. That way when he was dropped off, both parents got to see his reaction to Santa's gifts.

"Hi Emily!" Jack said greeting his step-mom cheerfully as he and Avery entered the living room.

"Hi Jack" Emily replied with a smile as she pulled the bottle away from Seth and rubbed his back while she sat on his lap, causing him to burb.

"Hi Seth" Jack said as he sat down next to Emily on the couch facing his baby brother.

Emily smiled. Jack and Seth had hit it off from their very first meeting. Having a much older sibling was extremely entertaining to Seth. He'd enjoyed watching Jack playing at the park. In turn of course, Jack had enjoyed pushing Seth in the baby swings, just as he enjoyed playing with Avery. "Seth, baby, do you want to sit with Jack?" Emily asked as she glanced at Jack who held out his hands.

Seth glanced up at Mommy and then leaned forward and reached out to Jack. Emily shifted Seth into Jack's lap and smiled as Seth patted Jack on the shoulder and then baby babbled at him.

Dave smiled as he took in the sight of his family opening presents. Everybody was taking turns, unwrapping one gift at a time so that everyone could see what everyone else got and so that the gifts could be appreciated. And while he was able to appreciate that Ashley, Courtney, and Tim were at an age where they could truly appreciate the gifts they received, there was a part of him that was sad that he had missed out on their younger years, were Christmas was truly a magical time, when being a parent meant a 6 am Christmas wake-up call due to kids wanting to see what Santa had brought.

As he sat watching he wondered how his teammates and their families were spending their Christmas mornings. Then he began to wonder what he could do to witness a little bit of young childhood age Christmas magic… then Erin was elbowing him because it was his turn to open a gift.

JJ smiled as she sat with Elle, Emily, and Penelope watching the kids playing together. They'd gotten together so that the kids could have a play date, which also worked out as a play date of sorts for the adults as well as the guys and girls got to hang out together as well.

Chloe and Jack were, as always when they got together for play dates, attached at the hip and playing with a variety of toys. Henry and Jake were playing with trucks. Billy and Seth were occupied with a baby activity center that had more than captured the 9 month and 7 month olds' attention.

Avery pushed herself up off the floor from where she sat watching with her doll and toddled over to where Mommy sat on the couch.

"Mama" Avery said holding her arms up to be picked up.

"What's wrong sweetie? Don't you want to play with Henry and Jake?" Emily asked as she settled Avery in her lap and the little girl cuddled up against her.

"You know, I never noticed before this just how out-numbered Avery and Chloe are as the only two girls out of seven kids." Elle replied.

"And you really aren't helping their numbers peaches." Penelope said teasingly as she turned to JJ.

"Hey, mine is not the sole uterus sitting here. Any one of you could step up and make an attempt at help even out the boy-girl ratio." JJ replied with a laugh.

"Not it." Elle and Emily said in unison.

"You know PG" Emily said "if you and Morgan got to work now, Jake would be about two and a half or maybe three when the baby got here. Think of what a good big brother he'd make."

"And you know a little girl would have Morgan wrapped around her finger." Elle replied joining in on the teasing.

"Actually, I think Spence and Morgan would make a pact to help each other dig the tranches." JJ replied thoughtfully.

"Trenches?" Elle asked.

"For the moats." Emily replied.

Penelope smiled and tipped her head in thought as she imagined a baby girl with a combination of her and her dark chocolate knight's best traits. Oh, they'd be having a discussion about this later. Maybe it was time there to be a baby Morgan number 2.

While the girls continued talking, JJ noticed the expression on Spence's face with some concern.

Spence winced slightly at the noise and the bright December sunlight shining through the window's at Hotch and Emily's condo while he sat half listening to Morgan, Will, and Hotch discussing football and the likelihood of which teams would end up in the Super Bowl and concentrating on willing his headache to go away.

"You don't have any statistics to add pretty boy? Usually you are all about the statistics, probabilities, and point spreads." Morgan said knowing how good Reid had gotten at being able to discuss football over the course of the last few years with JJ's influence and love of the sport.

"Hm what?" Reid replied distractedly as he turned to look at Morgan.

"Happy New Years!" Dave said as he greeted the team at the doorway of the cabin, which to most people would be considered a mansion – it just happened to be in a heavily wooded area on Little Creek Reservoir.

Erin smiled watching Dave's teammates and their families come in. She'd been looking forward to this evening. It was always such a joy to be around toddlers and babies, but give the age of her own children, she was in no rush to be a grandmother.

"So are your kids off at a party tonight?" Elle asked as she glanced about seeing no signs of a teenage presence.

"No" Erin replied smiling as she continued hanging up small coats. "David and I agreed to let them have a small party here with some of their closest friends. We felt that on a night like tonight it would be safer. We made them promise no alcohol, and I suppose one or two of their friends might have attempted to smuggle some in anyway, but at least none of them will be driving. And they are being supervised. Right now I believe they're playing…rock band?"

"Ah" Elle replied with a nod.

"Uncle Dave?" Jack asked looking up at Dave.

"Yes Jack?" Dave asked.

"Do you have any toys?" Jack asked.

"Jack, you packed your own toys, remember?" Hotch scolded, mortified at Jack's manners, which were usually impeccable.

"It's fine Aaron." Dave replied waving his protests off. "Actually Tim helped me set up something extra special for you guys. Do you want to see it?"

Jack eyes got big at the thought of a surprise and he nodded his head. "Uh huh"

"Alright. Who else wants to see a surprise? Chloe you don't like surprises do you? How about you Henry? Jake do you like surprises?" Dave said as one by one he asked the older toddlers about if they wanted to see the surprise.

Each of the children nodded and became excited at the prospect of a surprise.

"Well okay, let's go see it then!" Dave said leading the kids and their confused parents to the room that had been used for his and Erin's wedding two years ago. He paused with his hands on the door knob and looked down at the kids with a twinkle in his eye. "Is everybody ready?"

A chorus of nods, yeses, and uh huhs were the answer he received.

Dave smiled and opened the door to the room and revealed the train sets that he and Tim had spent the better part of the last two day setting up. The train tracks looped around the room on a platform that was about two feet off the floor. There was a town with shops, and houses, a mountain, trees, snow, people, and of course multiple trains and sets of tracks that took up one side of the room. Dave reached down and turned on a switch and the lights in the town came on and the trains all started to move.

"Wow!" Jack exclaimed as he watched the trains in awe.

"Choo choo mama!" Jake exclaimed pointing at the train.

"I see baby!" Penelope replied as she marveled at the set up before her.

"You know Dave; I never knew you were a model train buff." Hotch said as he stood next to Dave watching the joy on all the little ones faces as they watched the trains.

"I wouldn't exactly say 'buff', but when Tim was 12 and Erin and I had first gotten back together this and model airplanes were a great way for us to bond." Dave replied with a smile as he picked up the controls for the trains and pressed a button to blow one of the train whistles and a puff of smoke came out of the smoke stack of said train.

"Aden, aden, do it aden Unca Dave!" Henry cheered.

Erin chuckled as she watched Dave enjoy playing with the little ones. She knew how much he wished that he hadn't missed out on Ashley, Courtney, and Tim's young years. Looking back, if she had known then what she knew now, she would have done things differently, but that wasn't an option. She was just glad that he and Tim had formed a father-son bond now, as well as Ashley and Courtney having accepted him as a second father figure. She supposed it helped that he had opportunities like this to play with little ones. Who knew in ten or fifteen years there might be grandchildren… although that thought did cause her to almost stop in her tracks and make her feel old since it had only been ten to fifteen years ago that her children had been Jack's age. How time flew. She shook her head to clear her thoughts. "You know dears, if you trust David to watch the children, we set up an area for the adults over there." She said nodding her head to the other side of the room where there was a bar, a table holding a variety of snacks and treats. "Can I get anyone anything to drink" Erin asked as she played the role of hostess.

The men stayed with Dave and the kids, almost as mesmerized with the trains as the kids were.

Emily took in the sight of Erin playing hostess as she and the girls walked across the room to relax for a few moments. It was hard to believe that this was the same dragon lady who had wanted her to gather dirt on Aaron and bring an end to his career. She'd never be best friends with the women due to their history, but she could certainly more than tolerate her for a few hours every once in a while. Emily could see how happy the woman made Dave… and also how hard she was trying to make amends and atone for what she'd put the team through in the past.

JJ, Emily, Elle, Penelope, and Erin sat chatting and laughing as they discussed a variety of different things and just enjoyed having some time together. Occasionally one of the kids would wander over from the other side of the room looking for a snack, or a drink, or a cuddle from Mommy.

An outsider looking in on the other side of the room would really wonder who the children were and who the adults were. In addition to loaning his model trains to entertain the kids, Tim had also loaned some remote control cars and other fun gizmos and gadgets that the adult boys were having all too much fun entertaining their children with.

"See this is forward and backwards… and this is right and left." Hotch explained as he showed Jack how to operate one of the remote control cars, but lingered in giving the remote control to Jack as he was having fun operating the car.

"Daddy, now can I try?" Jack asked as he looked up at Daddy.

"Oh… yeah. Here you go buddy." Hotch replied handing the remote to Jack, who sat down next to Chloe who was mesmerized watching all of the action going on in the room. There were the trains and the remote control cars, not to mention all of the toys that had been unpacked for the younger ones to play with. It was like a toys store gone wild.

JJ laughed and smiled as she sat talking with Emily, Elle, Penelope, and Erin. Then she noticed it, just like she had a few days ago at Emily and Hotch's. Spence winced as if he was in a great deal of pain. "I think I need to stretch my legs a little bit. I'm just going to go see what the guys are up to." She said with a nod of her head to the other side of the room.

"Hey you" JJ said softly as she walked up next to Spence and wrapped her arm around his waist. "Are you okay?"

"Hm?" Spence mumbled "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Baby, I saw you wince. Please tell me what's wrong." JJ whispered in his ear.

Spence closed his eyes and sighed in defeat. "I have a headache." he whispered back.

JJ nodded and ran her hand lightly up and down his back. "Did you have a headache at Emily and Hotch's the other day too?"

Spence nodded, not wanting to talk as the sound of his own voice inside his head just increased the throbbing.

"Do you want to take something for it?" she asked hoping that he would agree to some over the counter pain killers as she could tell he was in a great deal of pain and trying to brush it off so that he wouldn't ruin anyone else fun on New Year's.

Spence closed his eyes, attempting to will away the pain. His wish that the pain would just go away however; was not granted. He sighed and shook his head.

JJ threaded her fingers through Spence's and squeezed his hand. "Do you want to go home? If you don't feel well we can."

Spence shook his head again. "I'll be okay. I don't want to ruin Chloe and Henry's fun. They're having a good time playing." he said as he attempted to force a smile onto his face.