Thanks again for the awesome reviews. Here is a little more...hopefully I will have a longer update tonight ;)
"Liv, wake up…" Elliot leaned over, kissing her on the cheek. Her eyes fluttered open reluctantly and she yawned, "It's Christmas," he smiled.
"What time is it?" she asked, closing her eyes again.
He looked at the clock on the nightstand, "About five…"
"Five…AM? God El…" she sighed. "No one gets up at five on a holiday for crying out loud. I'm exhausted. Noah woke up three times last night."
"I know it's early…but Eli will be bouncing in here any minute demanding to open his presents," he laughed, "It's Christmas morning…no sleeping in at the Stabler house, trust me."
"I can't move," she sighed, rubbing her hand over her stomach. "The baby and I need at least another hour or two…" She looked at him and the ridiculous grin on his face let her know he wasn't going to let her go back to sleep. "Why are you looking at me like that?" she asked.
"Because…" he smiled. "I love it when you whine…"
"I don't whine," she sat up and smacked him playfully.
"Ah…you moved," he laughed. "Come on…let's go get the kids…"
"You are worse than Eli," she laughed. "He's not even up yet."
"But once he is up, he won't wait," he smiled. "Trust me on this. We need to be raring to go."
She shook her head in defeat, "Alright, I'll go wake up the little ones and get them ready." She sighed, "So for a Stabler Christmas do we all get dressed up…or go down in pajamas?"
"Oh pajamas…definitely," he smiled. "Kids at Christmas in their pjs…it's tradition."
Olivia opened the bedroom door, "What is that smell?" she asked. "Is someone cooking?"
Elliot walked to the door, "Probably Kathy. She likes to do this big Christmas morning breakfast before we open presents." He could tell she didn't look happy, "Does that upset you? I know this was supposed to be our Christmas…"
She shook her head, "No…it's just…I smell eggs…"
"Oh God," he closed the door, trying to keep the aroma of breakfast out of the room. "Please don't get sick…" He put his hand carefully on her stomach, "Come sit down and just try to settle your stomach."
"I think I'm okay," she said. "Really…I think I'm fine."
"You're fine?" he asked.
She nodded, "I haven't thrown up in four days…maybe…it's over?"
"So you're gonna go downstairs and eat the eggs?" he asked.
She cringed, "No…I wouldn't go that far…they still sound disgusting, but I think maybe everyone else can eat them and I'll survive it."
"That's progress," he smiled.
"Yeah," she agreed. "I really hope so this time. Merry Christmas to me." She opened the door again, "I'm going to go get Noah and Kate and meet you downstairs." She walked into Kate's bedroom and both of the little kids were still asleep. She hated to wake them up.
Before she could, Kate opened her groggy eyes, "Livia…I go potty…" she said in her tired voice. So Olivia took her to the bathroom and then brought her back to the bedroom so they could wake and change Noah. Kate was climbing on her, hanging her arms around her neck while Noah lay on the floor and Olivia changed him. Apparently this was going to be her life now. She felt like she was looking at someone else's life instead of her own.
"Are you two ready to go see if Santa came?" She asked as she kissed them and they both giggled.
Maureen came to the door, "Hey, you're up early." She picked up her daughter and kissed her on the cheek.
"Your dad insisted," Olivia stood up and picked up Noah. "He said the Stablers always start Christmas off early."
Maureen laughed, "Yeah…well that's a tradition I could do without." She smiled, "Are you okay? After last night?"
Olivia nodded, "I'm fine. What about Dickie and Lizzie? Are they okay?"
Maureeen nodded, "They seem to be. Come on…everyone else is already downstairs. Dad sent me to come find you."
"Of course he did," Olivia laughed and followed Maureen downstairs.
The entire family was piled around the dining room table, accept for Eli who kept running to the door and peeking into the living room. Olivia sat down next to Elliot, keeping Noah on her lap. The table was covered with every breakfast food imaginable and she looked at Kathy, "This is quite the feast," she noticed.
"I used to do this every Christmas," Kathy smiled. "When the kids were little. I figured why not start it up again? Besides, I have to leave in two hours for the airport so I wanted to do something to be part of the day."
"I looks delicious, Mom," Richard said with a smile. Then everyone began piling their plates with food and passing things around and the clanking of dishes and serving spoons was enough to sound like a busy restaurant kitchen instead of a small family dining room.
"Eli…come sit down and eat," Elliot called to his son. "The sooner you eat your breakfast, the sooner you can go open presents." The little boy reluctantly came to the table and grabbed a piece of bacon. Elliot looked at Olivia, her plate still empty, "Aren't you going to eat?"
"I don't feel very hungry," she said with a tired sigh. She put some scrambled eggs on her plate, looking at them with disgust, "I'll just feed these to Noah…" All the food, the smells, the noise…it was starting to make her feel sick, not like she'd throw up, just like she wanted to crawl back to bed and pull the blankets over her head. She put little pieces of egg on the spoon and fed them to her son, while he ate them happily and reached for more.
"He likes them," Elliot smiled.
"He's never had them before," she looked at the baby, happily eating. "I guess I'll have to get over my aversion to eggs and make them for him once in a while." Everyone was talking and laughing at the table, and Olivia looked from person to person and her head was swimming. She wasn't sure why she was having such a hard time with the big family breakfast, but it wasn't the calm, relaxing Christmas morning she had envisioned, although she should have known not to set any sort of expectations anyway. Nothing ever turned out exactly like she thought it would, and she had accepted that a long time ago.
"Can we open them now…please?" Eli pleaded, as he practically bounced out of his chair. "I'm done eating…please…"
"Okay, Eli…calm down," Kathy smiled at her youngest son and then looked at everyone else, "Is everybody else ready?"
The room once again filled with noise as chairs screeched back on the floor and utensils clinked against plates and the voices combined into one loud blur of commotion. Richard was teasing Elizabeth about something he'd bought for her for Christmas, Maureen was ticking Kate and the girl was squealing in a high pitched giggle, Kathy and Paul were laughing at Eli who was singing "Jingle Bells" over and over, pulling at them to get out of the room. Olivia stood up, Noah in her arms and she couldn't help but notice that her little boy seemed much more attentive to the chaos around them than he was to her. "Are you okay?" Elliot asked when he put his hand on her back and she startled enough to jump. "Liv…"
"Of course," she forced a smile and looked at him.
"You sure?" he asked, obvious concern on his face. "You've been awfully quiet this morning. Do you feel okay?"
"Dad…are you coming?" Eli ran back to the room and impatiently grabbed his father's hand. "There are a gazillion presents in there!"
"I'm fine, El…" Olivia promised. "Let's go open a gazillion presents," she smiled at Eli, and they followed the little boy as he ran back to the living room.