"I'm kinda disappointed you don't believe anymore Lucy" Fiona told me. "I kind of knew last year but Frank and Monica's Santa thing proved it" I said. "Don't remind me" Fi said with a sigh. "I still have flash backs of those pants falling down then frank tripping over them and pulling Monica to the ground. Both of them rolling around, Monica's big pregnant belly bursting the buttons on her Mrs Claus top" Lip said and grimaced. "You forgot the boobs popping out too. It took them so long to get up" I added. "At least we got all those awesome presents" Carl added. "Which we had to hide for over a month as the theft was all over the news" Lip said. "I was hoping you two wouldn't remember so much" Fiona said. "How can Debs not know after that? I don't want to pretend for her, it's stupid" Carl whined. "It's Debbie" I told him. "Be nice to her, this will be the last year she believes. Plus it will be nice for Liam too" Fi said. "Liam doesn't even know it's Christmas" Carl said. "Have you got your present sorted?" Lip asked. "Yes" I sighed. "Have you got the tree yet?" Carl asked him. "I've got my eye on one. I'll get it after we look at the lights tonight" lip said. "Go help Debbie with the decorations" Fi told us.
"I don't have the present yet" Carl whispered to me as we walked into the lounge room. "Loser" I chuckled. "Help me" he said. "You mean pay for it?" He smirked. "What are you two whispering about?" Debbie asked us. "Carl hasn't got his present yet" I said. "It's 2 days until Christmas" Debbie said. "I wanted to get water guns but there aren't any around" Carl said. "Yeah it's winter and that's not a house present anyway, no toys remember" Debbie said. Carl sighed. "Then what do I get?" "You got to think carl, anything the whole family can use" I said. "What did you break this year? Get that" "there's to much shit" he complained.
"There's nothing good here" Carl complained again. "Because you left it too late" Debbie said as she searched through the shelves. "I got something!" Cue yelled out and held up a bag. "Not fair!" Carl yelled. "Fiona said you didn't have to" Debbie reminded him. "No way I'm going to sit there when everyone shares their presents and not have anything" he said. Carl groaned "I'm just going to do what I did last year" he said and left the thrift shop. "Great another Carl picture on the wall" Debbie said as she walked over to me. I nodded then tried to peak into Cues bag. He pulled it away "you can't see it, the lady wrapped it up" cue said. "Oh, I could have done that. I love wrapping presents" Debbie sighed. "She really does" I told Cue.
The Christmas lights reflected in Liam's eyes, he cooed from the stroller as he watched the mechanical Santa move. "This is so amazing!" Debbie said again. It really was, Christmas carols blared from a speaker, the light blinked in time (well for most of the songs, on one they were a bit slow). There was Christmas trees decorated with tinsel, reindeer statues and elves. The next house had a candy cane tunnel and were handing them out as well, another had icicles and a big snow globe you could go into, then there were houses with lights everywhere that flashed along to Christmas carols. "This is so amazing!" Debbie said one last time at the last house.
We all jogged on the spot as we tried to keep warm while waiting for the bus. "Lee do you want to stay the night?" Fi asked him. "Not if I have to share the couch with Cue and his stinky feet" Lee joked. "Hey, I had a shower today. They will smell better then yours" cue said. "Wow, how long has it been since that happened. A month?" Kev joked. Cue playfully punched Kev in the side, Kev began to spar with him and they boxed for a bit. "How many you having for Christmas?" V whispered to Fi. "Just these two, hopefully" Fi said. "Anyway, shelias having us for lunch so I won't have to feed them" she added. "You're actually going through with that?" V asked. "Debs has organised it all" Fi sighed. "Damn, I'm freezing my nuts off. Where is Lip and Ian?" Kev said and wrapped his arms around V.
I soon spotted Kevs truck coming down the street. Lip pulled up next to us and got out. "Finally!" Kev said and jumped in the drivers seat. "You sure you don't want a lift home?"Lip said as he went around to the passenger side. "Nah, it's already too late. Just go" Fi said. They headed off to get the tree.
Debbie rushed ahead of us "they aren't here yet!" she yelled out as we took of all our winter gear. "Maybe we should just decorate it in the morning" Fiona said as she tried to settle a fussy Liam. "No! We always decorate it as soon as they bring it back" Debbie whined as she took off her coat. Lee headed into the kitchen, "anyone want some pop?" He asked. I nodded. "I wouldn't mind a beer" Carl joked, Lee flipped him off while V playfully slapped his head. "Grab me a beer though" she yelled out. "Ok, we will give them 30min to show up. I'm going to put Liam down" Fi said as she headed upstairs. "Put the heater on and warm up in front of it" she yelled from upstairs. Carl turned it on, cue joined him in front of it while V and I sat on the couch. "Let's listen to some carols" Debbie said as she turned the stereo on. We all sighed "aren't you caroled out yet?" V asked. "As if that will ever happen" I replied as Debbie started signing and dancing around.
V poked me in the side "you want to dance to" she whispered. "I don't" I told her. "Yes you do" she teased. "You want to" I replied "yeah right" she said and tickled me, I tickled her back. Lee came back into the lounge room with a glass of pop and a beer for V, "there's more pop in the kitchen" he said and pointedly look at me. I got up and helped him bring the other cups in. "Get some beer for the boys when they get back" v said as we put the cups and a beer for Fiona on the table. Lee ran back into the kitchen to get them just as the front door opened.
The tree was taller than Kevin "wow, good work babe" V said as they carried the tree inside. The trunk was too big to fit in the hole in the concrete stand so they had to get the axe and make it smaller. Eventually they managed to get it in. Debbie danced around it then pulled out the boxes of decorations. "Start with the lights" fi told her as she sat down next to me. Lee handed her a beer. We all just sat there and watched Debbie do all the work. She pulled out the tinsel next "that's seen better days" V said to Fi. Fiona just shrugged. Once that was on Debbie stopped and stared at us. "I'm not doing it all by myself" she said. Fiona pushed me off the couch and waved Carl and Cue over to the tree too. We put the homemade decorations on while Fi, V, Kev and Lip smoked some pot, I noticed Ian take a couple of puffs too.
Kev and Lip dragged the tree into the corner and then Kev lifted Debbie up so she could place the angel on top. "I didn't know angels wore red" Cue said. "Not really sure it's actually an angel" Lip told him. "Definitely don't look at its eyes" Ian added. "Well that's done now, off to bed everyone!" Fi said. "I haven't turned the lights on" Debbie said and rushed over to the power point. We stared at it for a couple of seconds before Fi hurried us to bed.
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"Can we listen to Christmas carols?" Cindi asked. "No" me, Lee and Cue said. Cindi pouted for a bit. "Ok hold up your bags and on the count of 3 tip them out" Lee said, we all did as told. "1…2…3" he counted then we tipped our bags onto the table. candy, chocolate, little toys, tattoos, stamps and other little presents piled out. We rushed to grab what we wanted the most then shared what was left. Some of the candy was left on the table for us to enjoy while we watched a movie. "Do you like the tree?" Debbie asked as she walked into the lounge room. "It's really pretty" Cindi said. "Way better then mine, we couldn't find three of the branches" Lolly added. "Mines pretty good, and dad hasn't knocked it over yet" Jav said. "Would you like some candy?" Lee offered. "Oh really? Thanks" Debbie said and helped herself. "We're about to watch a movie, want to join?" I asked her. "Oh cool, I'll grab us all a drink" she said and hurried off to the kitchen. "That was weird" cue mumbled. "Christmas does weird things to her" I explained. Liam started crying from his cot upstairs. "I'll get him" Lee said and rushed off. "Let's start the movie" Jav said and put it in the dvd player.
By the time the dvd player over heated and needed it's 15min rest Fiona, Lip and Carl had also joined us. "Let's put those tattoos and stamps on" I suggested. Everyone reached into their bags and retrieved them, Cindi also pulled out some Christmas earrings. "I'm going to put these on" she said and hurried off to the bathroom "bring back a wet cloth for the tattoos" I told her. "Where did all this come from?" Lip asked. We all just stared at him. "Ok, forget I asked" he said and held up his hands. We started to stamp our arms, Carl and Debbie joined in too and I managed to get Fi and Lip. Then we set to work with the tattoos. "While you're doing that, I got you all a little something too" Fiona said as she headed upstairs. "Really?" Lee asked as he looked at me, I shrugged I had no idea. Fiona came back with a bunch of wrapped presents, "I wrapped them" Debbie said. "It's so good!" Cindi said. Lee carefully unwrapped his while the rest of us ripped into them. We each got a small photo album, I looked inside mine. It had a few photos of all my friends in it, a group photo from when I first met them which included Big W, Dan and Possum who had all moved away, there was some photos of just me and Lee, and me and Cue then a few more group photos including a Halloween one plus some Fiona must have taken when we were just hanging out. "Thank you" Lee said and got up and hugged Fiona. "Thanks" the rest of us mumbled. "Let's get another photo now" Debbie suggested. "With the Christmas hats?" Cue said. "Yes, I'll get them" Debbie said and rushed off. We all put on the hats, there was Santa ones, a snowman one, a couple of reindeer antlers and a weird Christmas tree one that Cue wanted to wear. We got a few photos, including a couple with my family then went back to watching the movie.
"Lucy" Debbie asked very sweetly. I just stared at her. "Want to play some carols on the piano?" she continued. "Really?" I said and looked at Fi, she just shrugged. Debbie never wanted me to play the piano. "Umm, ok" I said and jumped up. I found a book of carols which had a little lyric book as well, I gave that to Debbie. "It's going to be just like on tv when the nice families sing together" Debbie said, she was really excited.
We watched another Christmas movie before bed. Debbie left out some whiskey and homemade cookies for Santa. Once Debbie was asleep Fiona sneaked into our room and gave me a cookie. "Thank you" I whispered.