Updated oct 27 2017
EPOV
Christmas Eve was not a family event for me as I had a lot of appearances to make because of my title. I liked some of the events but a few of them just drove me nuts because of the women that attended just to try and catch my eye (not that any of them did) and the men who wanted me to a.) meet some young female from their family and or b.) invest in some crazy business idea they had.
"Sorry gentlemen but Edward has a prior commitment to get to. You will have to catch him at some other time." Alice said.
"Oh thank you for that Alice. Mr. Jennings was on his third attempt at getting me to take his daughter out."
"You should know it goes with the title Edward." Alice said. "Grandmother said Grandfather had to deal with it even after they became engaged and for several years after they had been married."
"Okay, so where are we headed to next?" I asked.
"Home," Alice said. "From this point until New Year's you are off duty unless there is an emergency and you are called in."
Alice then preceded to put me into a cab and send me home. Which I was all too happy to do. I could not wait for tomorrow to come. A day with family and good food is just what I needed after the last few days.
"Mr. Cullen we are here." The driver said when he pulled to a stop.
I thanked the driver, tipped him and climbed out of the cab. I watched as he drove off and then turned to walk in the house. I went to my bedroom and got ready for bed. I called my mother to let her know that I made it home safe and sound. She wished me an early Happy Christmas and bid me goodnight.
I set my alarm for an early time since I knew Alice and my mother would be arriving early to set up dinner and the gift opening. I did not fall asleep right away. I lied awake for hours thinking about everything that has happened the past couple of days. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't get my mind to slow down enough for me to fall asleep.
I got so frustrated that I climbed back out of bed and walked over to my bathroom and dug up my rarely used sleeping pills and swallowed two of them down. I quickly climbed back into my bed and settled in… again.
I woke up the next morning to the sounds of my mother knocking on the door of my bedroom. I didn't answer her calls as my mouth was dry from the sleeping pills I took the night before. I slipped out of bed and walked over to the door and opened it.
"Oh my poor baby." My mother said taking in my sleep deprived appearance. "Did you sleep at all last night?"
"Only after I took two sleeping pills." I replied. "And now my mouth is dry because of them."
"There are scrambled eggs and juice in the kitchen for you. Now get dressed so you can eat and help us set up." My mother said. "Now hurry you know how Alice can get with something like this going on."
"Yeah do not remind me. She will be the worse whenever she gets married." I replied.
"No doubt she would. Now go get dressed." She replied.
She walked away and I closed my door. I grabbed a pair of jeans a T-shirt and changed in to them. I ate my breakfast and then went to work helping my mother and Alice set ups for Christmas dinner and gift opening (they wanted the gifts set up a certain way).
The rest of Christmas Day seem to pass by faster than I wanted it to. One moment we were sitting down to dinner and the next I was saying goodbye to everyone and locking up the house for the night before I had even thought about climbing into bed.
My bed time routine was very much the same as it had been the night before. I showered and slipped into my pajamas, took one sleeping pill instead of two and climbed into bed. My mind running like it did the night before but I fell asleep much easier than I had the previous night.
Bpov I woke up on Christmas morning to the smell of bacon frying, I rolled out of bed only because I wanted some of the bacon and knew it would be gone if I stayed in bed any longer. I changed in to jeans and a T-shirt before heading into the kitchen.
Mrs. Boscastle was at the stove making frying bacon when I walked in. She had made no movement of any kind to say she knew I was there. That didn't surprise me.
"Oh Bella I didn't see you there."
"I didn't scare you did I?" I asked her.
"Oh I'm fine, usually no one is up until after I am completely done cooking breakfast. What has you up and about so early?" Mrs. Boscastle asked.
"I could not sleep any longer after the smell of bacon frying reached my nose." I replied.
"Sounds like Peter when he was younger."
An hour later everyone was up and sitting around the table eating the meal Mrs. Boscastle had worked on all morning.
"Okay once you are finished eating join me in the family room so we can open the rest of the gifts."
Twenty minutes later we were all sitting around the family room. I was sitting in between my dad and Jasper on the Boscastle's large sectional couch. Mr. and Mrs. Boscastle sat on the other side of the couch next to my dad and Peter and Charlotte sat down on a love-seat. Mrs. Boscastle went to work sorting the gifts and soon we all had a pile of gifts in front of us. Since we all had the same amount of gifts we opened one and only one until each person and opened one and continued to do it that way until all the gifts were opened.
My dad ended up with things for fishing or about police procedure. I ended up with another journal, a couple of gift certificates, a box set of Jane Austen's complete works and I also got a gift certificate for a tour of the places that inspired Jane Austen to write her books and I could not wait to go on it.
"You have a good Christmas?" My dad asked.
"One of my best." I replied. "So when do you go home?"
"The twenty eighth," he replied.
"So in a couple of days?"
"Unfortunately yes." He replied. "But we'll continue to skype and whatever else until you come home."
"Originally I was supposed to leave on the one-year anniversary after I arrived here but that isn't going to happen. I signed up to leave a month earlier so I can get settled in college much quicker."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah dad. I've got most of what I wanted to do here done." I replied. "Plus I want to get college over and done with. It's only the kids that like to get wasted that want college to last forever but that's not me. I can't wait to get out into the world and support myself." I paused. "I can't live with you forever."
"Well you may not be able to live with me forever but you can take your time with school I don't want you to stress yourself out."
"I'll be okay dad. I've decided to limit five classes a semester." I replied "but that's only if I can take certain classes."
Tpov I didn't wake up until after noon. The gifts from my parents were set at the foot of my bed on a bench. I ripped into them like a kid on their first Christmas. I had ten gifts in all. I got three scarfs (gross), a dress from Chanel (pretty basic), a gift card to a book store (like I ever read), two complete makeup kits (actually useful), a set of pajamas, a certificate for a free spa day (love those) and a picture in a frame (so lame).
"Tanya wake up; we have church today."
"Why do I have to go you know I don't believe." I replied throwing the covers off of me.
"Because we have to keep up appearances." Mum said walking into my room. "You were up long enough to open your gifts. You can stay up a little longer to attend a short service in our lord's name."
"I told you that I have no lord." I replied. "I'm more of a Buddhist."
"And that is a bold face lie dear. Now put on that Chanel and do your hair we leave in thirty minutes."
"Whatever." I said as I rolled my eyes. "I don't care."