"Shh, we need to be practically silent." I hiss to Peeta.
Him and I both know that the kids are not asleep, and since all of them think Santa is real, we have to be practically silent.
Peeta and I haven't wrapped a single gift and we have over a hundred.
Everyone is sleeping upstairs, all the kids are in Kilee's room.
We haven't gotten the puppy yet, and we found a 24 hour puppy mill. I called and begged them for six hours the other day that thy would be open till at least 3 on Christmas Eve.
"Do you want help wrapping?" Mama asks.
"Please! We have to go out." I whisper.
"Okay, we'll help." Mama whispers. All the adults move downstairs and start to wrap everything. Peeta and I run off to the puppy mill.
"Are you the people that were on the phone for six hours, begging us to open on Christmas eve?" The lady asks when we walk in. I sigh.
"Yeah, we have five kids and they don't know about Santa and we can't hide a puppy in the house because they're brilliant and rambunctious and they'll find the dog." I sigh.
"Wow…well we have one dog that is absolutely perfect for kids. He's a golden retriever. He's only two months old, so he'll need training, but he doesn't pee inside anymore…"
"Let's see him." Peeta says. The lady leads us to the back to a room.
I see many adorable puppies, but I fall in love with the one the lady is showing us. It's just like any golden retriever, golden. It's eyes make you melt. It licks me cheek the second it sees me. Peeta kneels down beside me and it laps at his cheek too.
"Oh my god Peeta, he's it." I say.
"Agreed,"
"You want him?" the lady asks.
"Yes."

….a…..

It takes three hours to finalize papers, we get home at four because we had to stop at the store for puppy stuff and go in through the basement.
They're only halfway done. The dog is so tired that it falls asleep in the box. Peeta and I dive in and start putting stickers on the boxes of the gifts which have sticky notes of what they are on them. We join on wrapping and then carry the gifts upstairs silently and set them under the tree. The living room is full and there is no room for walking. We leave the puppy downstairs asleep and the guys shoves the cookies down their throat and then Haymitch chugs the milk. We sneak upstairs and I peek my head into Kilee's bedroom to see everyone asleep.

…..a…..

"WAKE UP! WAKE UP! WAKE UP ITS CHRISTMAS WAKE UP!" the kids scream, jumping on our bed, shouting and squealing. I look at the clock to see it's five thirty.
We've been asleep for ten minutes.
"No." Peeta says.
"BUT DADDY! IT'S CHRISTMAS WAKE UP PLEASE DADDY JUST SO WE CAN OPEN THEN YOU GO BACK TO SLEEP PLEASE! PLEASE!" They scream. I drag my exhausted butt out of bed and push Peeta off the bed. He groans and stands up.
"Alright, let's go." He says, waving our five children and myself downstairs. I get down first, and hop my way to the open space that I purposely left. I already have the video on before the kids come down. Their faces are priceless.
"Be careful now, don't step on anything." I smile. Kilee looks like she's about ready to pass out. Peeta puts his hand on her shoulder.
"Okay?" he asks. She nods numbly. Everyone else starts coming downstairs and I get all the kids faces. The adults move to my tiny space.
"We can't even get to our stockings!" Chase exclaims excitedly. Prim smiles at her son.
"Sure you can," I say.
"No Mama, we really can't." Hallie says.
I hand Peeta the camera and step carefully on my tiptoes in the tiny spaces until I make it to the fireplace.
"Chase, this is yours." I balances on my top toes on my left foot and hand it to him. "Kilee," I hand it to Chase and he hands it to her.
I continue passing out stockings and then jump my way back to Peeta and take the camera.
"Just stack some of them and then sit down on the floor." I suggest.
They move quickly stacking the gifts to get them out of the way.
"Can we open, Mom?" Chase begs Prim, who smiles.
"Go ahead." Prim smiles.
Paper starts flying everywhere. There is the squeal of excitement as the kids run around the living room, grabbing gifts and ripping them open. Peeta elbows me gently in the ribs and nods at Kilee. I look at her to see her staring blankly at something in her lap.
"What is it Kilee?" I speak up. She looks up at Peeta and blankly holds up the iPod.
We wrote 'From Mama and Daddy' on the sticker. She looks down at the iPod again and back up at Peeta and I, and both of us are just grinning like idiots.
Then she flies up, crying and runs to both of us. She hugs me first, and then Peeta, chanting 'thank you, thank you, thank you' over and over again."
We see all the kids sitting on the floor now, talking about their gifts, all of them done opening.
"Wait, there's one more for our five." I speak up. Peeta goes downstairs and comes up with the box with the puppy in it, it's closed and wrapped. "This is for all five of you." I say. "From Daddy and I."
Peeta sets the box down in front of them. Together, they carefully unwrap it, and Kilee helps Tristen pull the top off.
"A puppy!" Bailee squeals. It leaps out of the box at the kids and all five of them turn frantic.

….a…..

I'm bounced awake again at eight by my children. "It's time for the snowball fight!" Hallie exclaims. I sit up.

This is my favorite part of Christmas, aside from the looks on the kids faces. Oh, and the same with Thanksgiving.

I get up and pull on my white clothing.

"You guys need to change." I say.

I help the kids get in all white, and then help Peeta, and we all go downstairs.

The only one not in white is Tristen because he can't play.

"I'll watch him." Mama takes Tristen off my hip.

"Alright…" Haymitch says when we're all in the backyard. I start to tug my gloves on.

I win every year, but last year, I let the kids win.

"I say…I say we do Everdeen's against Mellark's and then the Marshal's spilt up. Katniss, you get to chose who's team your one since you Katniss Joy Everdeen Mellark."

I hesistate.

If I go with the Mellark's, I'm with my kids and Peeta and Rye and Graham, but if I go with the Everdeen's, I'm with my nieces and nephews, and Prim and Alex and Johanna and Haymitch.

They're all silent, waiting for me to make my decision. Then I back up, onto the Mellark side. I get a round of cheers from their side, and a round of groans from the Everdeen side.

"Alright, choose your captains." Haymitch says.

Everyone points at me.

"Alright," I march away from everyone else and they don't hesitate to follow me.

"What do you we, captain?" Peeta asks with a grin.

Shit. Johanna is the captain.

This is not good. I test how deep the snow is.

Not deep enough for me to hide under.

I mentally swear and look around for a hiding place.

"ARE YOU READY YET!" Johanna screams.

"NO!" I scream back. "Alright…hide. Get as many snowballs as you can and hide."

"That's it?" Mr. Mellark asks wearily.

"Yes." I say. "Now…lets win." I say, high fiving everyone.

I know my kids are going to follow me.

I know where I'm going.

Our house is on a hill overlooking Lake Memphremagog.

I'm going partly down the hill to hide, and when I'm sure I'm alone, I'm going to strike.

"READY?" Johanna screams.

"YEAH!" I shout.

We move to the center field to shake hands and then back up.

"Okay…ready…set…GO!" Haymitch screams. I take off, my four kids following me as I bullet down the hill halfway before stopping and hiding behind a bush.

"What are we doing?" Kilee whispers.

"Shhh! No noises." I whisper. "Wait till everyone does the dirty work for us."

PEETA'S POV

Katniss, Bailee, Brennan, Kilee and Hallie disappeared.

I fight till the end, and Haymitch, being the last left gets out.

Haymitch against my kids and Katniss.

KATNISS'S POV

"Okay…this is going to be nearly impossible. I want you guys to go and get out." I whisper. 'Don't tell him where I am." I say.

I watch the kids till they're atop the hill and then run east of where I'm currently standing, silent on the floor.

I creep to the top of the hill and lay down, thankful for my ski mask. The kids are with Peeta, and everyone is calmly waiting.

I get a snowball and fling it at the tree branch above Haymitch. Snow falls on him, but even if he fell, it wouldn't count. It has to be the snowball that gets him out, not the damage done by the snowball.

That's enough to startle him. I load up on snowballs and wait.

"Sweetheart, I'm not moving! You might as well show yourself!"

I fling a snowball at his back and he doesn't fall, but now he knows my position. I stand up, and he looks right at me and doesn't even see me. I fling on right in his face and he doesn't fall, instead, he smirks.

"Gonna get me out, uncle?" I tease.

"Yes. But I'm not moving." He says.

"Oh…" I turn around and run down the hill.

He's going to come after me. We all know it.

I dive in a bush and wait till he's past me, and then I run to the top of the hill.

Just as he turns, I throw a snowball at him.

He doesn't even stumble.

"Are you wearing cleats?" I demand.

All he does is smirks and walks up the hill. I start to back up and he creeps closer and closer to me till we're neck and neck.

"You know how easily I could get you out right now?" he hisses.

"Maybe…" I run off, going in a zigzag motion so he can't hit me.

I dive in a pile of snow and crawl through it as he digs through it, and then I dive right behind him and peg three at his back, knocking him forwards into the snow pile.

I hear cheers behind me and then I'm tackled in Mellarks.

Next chapter Peeta leaves for a year.