Despite Bianca's assurances that she could manage, she let Reese lead her back to the Parlour. Tad was overseeing a game of Charades that seemed to be getting out of hand. Adam, Brooke, Stuart, Marion and Scott had all arrived in her absence and Stuart, dressed in a Santa suit, was upfront miming away. He was flapping on the floor like a fish, and people were shouting 'fish', 'flop', 'snake', 'worm, 'fit', 'wobble', 'writhe' and various suggestion on the same themes.

Bianca spotted Marissa on the couch with Gabby and negotiated her way over to them.

"So it is a book or a film?" Bianca asked as she took a seat.

"It's a film." said Marissa. "Three words. This is the first word."

Gabby scooted from Marissa's lap onto her mommy's and snuggled against her. Bianca gave her daughter a squoosh and then noticed that AJ and Miranda were absent from the room.

"Where are the Birthday-Twins? Didn't they want to play?"

"They hadn't finished there project." Marissa explained. "All this fun and games was distracting them so they are working in the den."

Bianca nodded and then she and Marissa paused, sharing a look and a smile, and then a perfect little kiss.

Gabby's wriggling and moaning about being squashed stopped the kiss from being anything more than a brief peck on the lips. Bianca had no choice but to turn her attention back to the game. She watched Stuart for a moment and then joined in, shouting out,

"Dreaming... um... Nightmare?"

Stuart stopped and pointed. She got the word.

"Nightmare on Elm Street!" called Kendall.

"That's four words." teased Griffin.

"Nightmare Before Christmas!" Marissa called out instead.

"That's it." said Stuart happy to get up from the floor. "Nightmare Before Christmas."

"Looks like it's your turn." said Bianca.

Marissa got up from the couch to take to the floor, but not before she stole another kiss. This one lingered a little longer than the first and was followed by wolf whistles and cat calls from the boisterous guests.

"Put her down." Jackson called with a laugh, "Of you'll miss your turn."

Marissa grinned at Bianca as if to say, she wouldn't mind that at all, but she dutifully took to the floor and pulled a clue from the hat. She read her slip of paper and gave a laugh of dismay.

"This is impossible." she gasped.

She mimed 'book and film', and then 'seven words'… Then she stood for a moment trying to work out how to do 'Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban'.

…

AJ and Miranda were hard at work in the den. AJ had realised, while opening all their presents, that there had been nothing for Binks. Miranda agreed that her mommy should have something for Christmas, so AJ was making her the best Christmas card ever using every one of his pens and glitter! Miranda was making the present, a voucher for one kiss and one cuddle for every day for a year. The only trouble was Miranda's spellings. It took her three attempts to spell 'voucher' right on the front and then she smudged the ink when she rubbed out the pencil.

"It's fine." said AJ, when Miranda groan at another mistake on her fifth attempt.

"But I missed a 'd' in 'cuddle'."

AJ peered at her handy work.

"You can squeeze it in." he suggested.

"But it has to be perfect!" insisted Miranda. "It such a silly little present. She should be getting more."

"Don't be so fussy." said AJ. "Binks will love it. And we will miss Christmas if this takes any longer."

He could hear the laughter coming from the other room and wanted to know what he was missing.

"One more try." said Miranda, screwing up her bit of paper and reaching for a new one. "This time there is not going to be any mistakes!"

…