Author's Note: Merry Christmas, readers! ^_^


An Early Christmas Morning

Neil swore softly as the tape he was working with somehow wrapped around his finger and stuck to itself. He abandoned Grace's partially wrapped present long enough to peel the tape off and get a new one. The last flap of the Christmas-tree-and-snowman-decorated wrapping paper was quickly sealed, and Neil grabbed a red bow from the bag sitting on his and Eva's bed to stick on the newly wrapped box.

He was about to get a label for the present when he heard the door open. Neil turned to see Eva walking in, dressed in pajamas and a bathrobe and holding a mug of something steaming.

"I'd ask if that's hot chocolate," he said with a hint of a smirk, "but you'd probably be breaking out in hives if it was."

"Hilarious, Neil," Eva deadpanned. "Our diet already takes a nosedive in winter—no need to make it worse by drinking liquid sugar."

"Eva, if there's any time of the year when you can drink whatever you want and to hell with the consequences, it's Christmas."

"Is that why I haven't seen you with a single shot of alcohol five Christmases in a row?"

"I just so happen to be setting an example for our little girl." Neil grinned, then sobered after a few seconds. "So, anyway, I guess Grace is sleeping now?"

Eva nodded. "She's out like a light."

"And here I was thinking she'd be too keyed up to fall asleep before midnight."

"Not even Christmas cheer can overpower genetics." Eva took a sip of her drink, which Neil belatedly realized from the smell was tea. "Are you done with the gifts?"

"Almost—just gotta finish with Grace's."

Neil returned his attention to his daughter's present and quickly affixed a label on the front, writing To: Grace From: Santa.

"A couple more things left to do," Eva said, "and then we can go to bed."

Neil grabbed both Grace's present and his gift to Eva—a small box wrapped in gold paper—from the bed and followed his wife to the living room. He slipped Eva's present into her stocking, and she took Grace's gift from him to put under the tree, next to her present to him, a large, rectangular box wrapped in red paper and topped with a green bow.

With that done, Eva went over to the coffee table and picked up one of the Christmas M&M's cookies on a plate.

Neil raised his eyebrows. "I thought you said no sugar allowed."

"I'm willing to put up with a lot for the sake of our daughter," Eva said, taking a bite out of the cookie. "It's either this or trying to explain to Grace why Santa didn't want our cookies."

"We could tell her that Santa isn't real."

"You want to tell a five-year-old that jolly old Saint Nick doesn't exist?"

Neil paused, imagining Grace's bright green eyes filling with tears after hearing that Santa was make-believe. "Good point," he said, snatching up a cookie off the plate and cramming it into his mouth.

Soon enough, all the cookies were eaten, Neil drained the glass of milk next to the plate, and Eva finished with her tea. They returned to their room, where Eva settled herself beneath the sheets and Neil put away the gift-wrapping supplies and got ready for bed. He put his glasses on his night table and flopped down beside Eva, laying an arm around her and pulling her close. She reached up to turn the lamp off before snuggling into him.

Neil fell asleep sometime after Eva. Several hours later (though it felt like only five minutes), he was jolted awake by the sound of the door bursting open.

"Mama! Daddy!" came the loud, excited voice of his daughter. "Wake up! It's Christmas!"

Neil's only response was to grunt and close his eyes. He heard Grace jump onto the bed and felt her shake his shoulder.

"Daddy, c'mon," she urged. "Santa came! We gotta open presents now! Wake up!"

"Five more minutes," Neil mumbled, his eyes blinking open against his will. Through his blurred vision, he could see that the room was gray.

Apparently deeming him a lost cause, Grace scrambled over Neil to crawl onto Eva.

"Mama, it's Christmas! Time to wake up! Time to open presents! Come on!"

Neil vaguely heard Eva groan in her sleep as he yawned. After groping for his glasses and putting them on, he sat up and snaked an arm around Grace, pulling her off of Eva and into a hug.

"Let's let Mama sleep a little longer, yeah?"

"Daddy!" Grace whined, squirming impatiently in Neil's arms. "We can't open presents without Mama!"

"We won't, I promise. But the presents—"

Won't be going anywhere, was what he was going to say, but Grace cut him off with a stubborn, "Gotta be opened!"

It didn't take much longer before Neil let her go (he blamed it on still being tired). Grace once again crawled onto Eva and shook her shoulder.

"C'mon, Mama," she said, her voice only a little quieter than before. "Santa got me a present. Don't you wanna see what I got?"

Eva groaned again, and Grace stopped shaking her shoulder to lie down and curl herself up on her mother. Neil watched as Eva stirred from sleep, mumbling incoherently, which Grace took as her cue to lift her head and kiss her mother's cheek.

"Yay, you're up!" Grace kissed Eva's cheek again. "Now we can get to the presents!"

Eva let out a sleepy hum, and Neil quickly pulled Grace off of her again as his wife rolled onto her back and stretched her arms upward.

"It's Christmas now?" Eva slurred, yawning and sluggishly sitting up. She looked around before settling her gaze on Neil and Grace. "It's still dark."

"Grace really wanted to wake us up," Neil told her. "I tried to stop her, but..."

Grace wiggled out of Neil's grasp and hopped down from the bed. "Daddy, Mama, come on!" she exclaimed, jumping from foot to foot. "I wanna know what Santa brought me!"

"Mama needs coffee," Eva mumbled as she wiped at her eyes.

"Sorry, hun," Neil said, smiling apologetically at Grace. "You're gonna have to wait some more."

He got out of bed, took his pouting daughter by the hand, and led her out of the room. Eva staggered behind them, pulling on her robe. Neil didn't let go of Grace's hand until they were in the kitchen, where he made coffee for Eva and himself. With this done, Grace raced out of the kitchen, into the living room, and over to the tree. Neil and Eva followed after her and sat on the couch, their mugs in hand.

"Daddy, look!" Grace cried. "It's for me! It says To Grace, From Santa! See?"

"I see it, Gracie," Neil said, taking a gulp of his coffee.

"Can I open it now?"

"Sure," Eva said through a yawn, blowing on her coffee before sipping at it.

Within seconds, Grace had torn into her present.

"The Easy-Bake Oven!" she squealed. "This was at the top of my wish list to Santa!"

"He knew you were a good girl all year," Eva told her, "so he made sure you'd start with the present you wanted most."

"Mm-hmm!" Grace agreed, clutching the Easy-Bake box to her chest and hurrying to her parents to climb up onto the couch between them. "But Christmas isn't over yet, right, Mama?"

"That's right, Grace," Eva said, stroking the little girl's hair. "I wrote to Santa saying we'd be going to Aunt Traci and Uncle Aaron's house on Christmas, and he promised to send the rest of your presents there."

Neil had to force himself to choke down the last of his coffee at Eva's words. Aw, damn it, he thought as he put his empty mug on one of the coasters on the coffee table. I was hoping she'd forget. Spending Christmas Day anywhere that wasn't at home with his wife and daughter was not something he liked doing, but Eva always insisted that they saw her family from time to time. "From time to time" included Christmas, which meant he'd have to spend the day keeping his complaints and snarky comments to a minimum. That was always the hardest thing to do.

Grace, quite oblivious to what was going through her father's head, hummed happily, hugging her Easy-Bake box tighter. A few moments later, she was asleep, and Eva smiled, pressed a kiss to Grace's temple, and placed her half-empty mug on another coaster before slowly extracting the box from Grace's arms and setting it on the coffee table. Eva resettled on the couch, then frowned upon noticing Neil's sulky expression.

"What?" she asked.

"Can't we just skip the family visit this year?" he wanted to know.

"Neil."

"You can call Traci and say I've come down with the plague."

Eva rolled her eyes. "You know you're not getting out of this."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Still worth a shot."

Eva just hummed in reply. She eyed the still unopened present under the tree and asked, "So, are you going to open that?"

"I already know what it is," Neil reminded her.

"What difference does that make? It still needs to be unwrapped."

"It's also not a surprise. But since you're the one who stinks at gifting, that's a good thing."

Eva scoffed. "You're just full of jokes this holiday season, aren't you?"

"Aren't I always?" Nonetheless, Neil eased himself off the couch, careful to not disturb Grace, and went over to the tree. He grabbed his present and returned to the couch, where he peeled off the bow and the wrapping paper.

Neil pretended to gasp. "Holy moly, the latest Nvidia graphics card!" He grinned cheekily at Eva. "Never would've guessed."

She reached across Grace to pick the bow up from the couch and stick it on his cheek. Neil scowled, scraping the bow off and flicking it across the living room.

"Y'know, Eva," he said dryly, "I have half a mind to say that Santa left coal in your stocking."

Eva snorted at that. "Santa only gives coal to bad kids, and I haven't been a kid in ages."

"He could've change his policies since then."

"I wouldn't bet on it."

Neil gave a casual shrug. "Guess there's only one way to find out." He set the Nvidia box on top of Grace's Easy-Bake box and got up from the couch again. He took Eva's stocking off the fireplace mantel and brought it over to her.

Eva pressed her fingers to the toe end of the stocking. "It doesn't feel like coal to me."

"Unless Santa just wants you to think it's a normal present," Neil quipped as he sat back down.

Without another word, Eva tipped the stocking over, the gift landing in her open hand. A couple of seconds passed as she tore through the paper to reveal a white box.

Eva gasped slightly once she opened the box's lid, lifting a necklace from the bedding. Dangling from a thin silver chain was a single amethyst set in silver.

"This is Grace's birthstone," she said.

"Exactly," Neil said, all banter forgotten for the moment. "Look at the back."

Eva turned the pendant over. There, engraved into the silver surface, was 2/21—Grace's birthday.

"Whaddya think?" he asked.

She lowered the hand that was clutching the necklace and looked at him. Smiling softly, she leaned over Grace to kiss Neil on the lips.

"I think it's beautiful," she said after pulling away. "Thanks."

"No problem," he answered as he watched her open the clasp and bend her neck so she could put the necklace on. "At least now I don't have to go back to the jeweller and explain why I'm returning it."

Eva sighed, her smile fading. "A simple 'you're welcome' would've sufficed."

"Sorry, dumpling—couldn't resist."

He put an arm around her shoulders, and she didn't try to shrug him off, so he considered that a win. For a while, they sat together in comfortable silence.

"So what now?" Neil asked at length. "You want to get started on breakfast or take a Christmas nap?"

"Honestly," Eva replied, "getting two or three more hours of sleep sounds pretty good."

She stood up from the couch, grabbed their coffee mugs, and headed to the kitchen. He stood as well, leaning down to pick Grace up. She didn't so much as grunt as he shifted her so that her head rested on his shoulder. Eva soon returned without the mugs, and they went down the hall.

Rather than take Grace to her room, Neil brought her back into his and Eva's and laid her down in the middle of their bed. There came a moment in every kid's life when they decided they had outgrown cuddling with their parents, and Neil knew he'd have to savor these moments while he still could.

Eva made no objection to Grace being in bed with them as she slipped out of her robe. She got into bed and kissed their daughter on her cheek. As Neil climbed in on the other side, Eva rose up on her elbow and reached over towards him. He took her hand and kissed the pads of her fingers.

"Fifty bucks says we'll wake up to find there's been a blizzard and we'll have to stay home," Neil said.

"No betting on Christmas, Neil," Eva told him.

"Can't I at least hope for a Christmas miracle?"

She checked to see if Grace was still fast asleep before leaning in and slowly brushing her lips against his. When she next spoke, it was in a whisper.

"How about this? If you can spend the day at my sister's house without any whining, I just might have something else you can unwrap tonight."

"Are you bribing me?"

"So what if I am?"

It only took a split second for Neil to respond. "Okay, it's a deal."

Eva gave him a slight, amused smile. "Just remember to hold up your end of that deal."