AN: The song is 'Christmas to Remember' and it's a continuation of last night's chapter - now it's Christmas morning for Sam, Artie, and the kids. And incidentally, a Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everyone who's reading this!
They had given the kids strict instructions to not go out into the living room until they were told to. This apparently meant that as soon as they were awake, they had to wake their parents up so they could go into the living room. Sam and Artie were greeted by two rambunctious kids bouncing on their bed the next morning, demanding that they wake up so that they could go open presents. Sam got up pretty quickly while Artie tried to hide under the covers and go back to sleep. The kids were having none of this though. John started bouncing on top of him, trying to get him up, while Susan squirmed under the covers by him.
"Daddy, can we go see what Santa brought us?" she asked, giving him a wide-eyed expression of innocence. She was close enough that he could see her clearly without his glasses, which meant that the cute factor was on an overload. One look into her big brown eyes and he was a goner. Sighing, he sat up and pushed the covers aside.
"Fine, I'm up," he said dramatically, causing the kids to bounce up and down and cheer. Sam wrestled with them for a few minutes to distract them while Artie got himself into the living room and set up with the video camera. He called out that they could come out and soon his two kids came around the corner. Their eyes grew wide as they saw the pile of presents under the tree. Susan was practically bouncing up and down in place as she took in everything, while John just stared open mouthed at everything, glancing between his sister and his parents as though he couldn't believe they were for them.
"Hey look, Santa ate some of your cookies," Sam said, directing their attention toward the coffee table. The two dashed over to take a look.
"He gave the carrots to the reindeer!" Susan squawked. "And he ate some of the cookie but left the rest for us!"
"He took our letters too!" John chimed in. "So he knows what we want."
Artie and Sam had figured that they wouldn't want to wait until after breakfast to open presents so they had the kids sit down in front of the tree so they could get started. Artie got the camera set up on a tripod so he could interact with them. He lowered himself onto the floor next to Susan as Sam handed them each a present.
The rest of the morning was filled with squeals of delight and wrapping paper flying everywhere. The kids were overjoyed with their presents and having the time of their lives. Once they were done with presents, Sam made them pancakes and bacon for breakfast. The rest of the day resulted in them opening boxes and putting toys together for the kids.
That night, the two kids were collapsed on the couch, watching the cartoon version of The Grinch. Artie and Sam watched them from the doorway. Sam reached down and gave Artie's hand a squeeze.
"Merry Christmas Artie."
"Merry Christmas Sam."