Hello. Well… I hope that you read my author's notes. Then you would be reading this. But I was thinking about my name, since you probably can't pronounce Linnéa- because it's so Swedish! Well… I was wondering to make up a nickname because of that and at last I thought of that Linneaflower in English is twinflower- so I came up with Twinnie. So… if you have trouble pronouncing my name and such then… I guess Twinnie works! It's up to you though
Aiden POV
Early Christmas morning I sat in the kitchen eating our traditional Christmas breakfast when there was a knock on the door and I went to get it. Outside stood Caroline, just as beautiful as ever in a long Santa's hat with a little bell at the end that sounded when she moved and made me laugh.
"Come on in." I stepped away from the door. "Oh my God, honey! It's freezing, you must be so cold." I took her hands- cold as ice, in my bigger hands and tried to warm them up. "And it's so early… what are you doing here?" She gave me a look that said about "Shut up some time and let me speak for God's sake and I silent."
"I… I'm going to need to go home almost right away… but I wanted to give you your Christmas present first." She took a step closer and reached up, and I had barely understood what was happening before she kissed me and… damn it I had never been so in love as right now in my whole life.
"So… how was my first ever kiss as a Christmas gift?" I smiled- probably too big and sheepishly.
"Best gift ever"
Leah POV
"LEAH. JONAH. JACK. WAKE UP. IT'S CHRISTMAS" On Christmas morning we all- or all of us children woke up in Jack's room where we had been sleeping to all be together- Jonah on the bed, I and Jack on the floor and Megan who was the only one small enough to have room to stretch out in the sofa- as well as Alice who laid on the doormat next to me.
"Mhm." Jack groaned next to me and rolled over and tried to fall asleep again when I jokily slapped him across the head. "HEY!" He turned to me and seemed to remember which day it was. "Oh… merry Christmas honey." I sat up and more or less pulled him up even though he was groaning about how tired he was and then kissed him. "Oh, now I'm awake."
"Come on then. Time to open presents before Megan nags our ears off." Megan was jumping up and down by the bed while Jonah smiled and swallowed the medicines he had to take before he got up in the morning and nagging about doing it faster- oh the one who could be so little and careless again…. That would be somewhat of a Christmas present!
I stood up and pulled my Christmas sweater over the PJ's and quickly headed downstairs. Then lifted Megan down the last sets of steps and led Ariel down since she had got too heavy for me to lift while Jack was walking behind Jonah making sure nothing happened since it had gotten harder and harder for Jonah to walk in stairs the last few months- as everything else!
I forced myself not to think about that- today was Christmas, the day of joy- come on Leah!
Our parents were already sitting around the living room table and came to sit with us on the floor when we sat down by the tree and reached for each present- not really caring about reading the name tags before we took them.
"Leah, this is for you, from Jonah." Jack reached me the present he had reached for at first and reached for another one while I gave the one I had taken to Jonah because it was for him and then slowly started pulling the paper off the first one and it revealed a… nose and something big and pink made of soft fabric and I had to stand up to unfold it and glanced over it and couldn't help but laugh.
It was a big, footed, full- body pyjamas in pink, in the- fault- in- our- stars- theme with the print of the bag of a pipe and reading "Ceci n'est pas un pipe"- this is not a pipe in French. Like the T- shirt that Hazel Grace has. And also as I unfolded it something fell out that had been folded into it and couldn't help but laugh again when I saw what this was- oh Jonah!
"Underwear! The- fault- in- our- stars- Underwear!" Jonah almost choked with laugher. "For Christ's sake Jonah, grow up! And what's this nose- thingy?" I sat down on the floor and looked at it again. "A pencil sharpener that looks like a nose. Thank you Jonah." My brother just laughed at me and I put the things he had given me to the side but didn't have time reaching for another one before Megan wanted my attention.
"Leah," she held up a wrapped gift. "Look! I bought a Christmas present too, for my own money! It's for Ariel, but she can't open it herself so you can. Please open it now, please open it." I couldn't resist her puppy-dog- eyes and reached for the present she gave me and then unwrapped it as slowly as I always unwrapped present.
"Aw, a new collar" I said. "Come here Ariel, oh look it fits her perfectly." I pulled the new collar from Megan around Ariel's neck and took the old one off. "And it sparkles look. Aw that's perfect, thank you Megan." I leaned over and ruffled a bit in her hair before I, for maybe thirty seconds just sat and looked around at the others.
Jonah made a grimace to me pulling on the knitted polo from Erica- Mrs. McCall, and I could almost feel myself how itchy he thought it was and how he almost felt like he would get choked by the high neck. But he had grimaced making sure she wouldn't see and then turned to her again and thanked pretending that he liked it.
"What are these?" Jonah had unwrapped another present. "Some sort of mittens… Oh they're so soft… they're gonna be so warm. Mum I'm never going to take these mittens off again now." He pulled the thick white mittens on and tried to unwrap another present. "Okay, maybe I'll have to do that anyway." He pulled them off and lied them to the side and then unwrapped some sort of neon green gel from Jack. "Oh… so if I use this while showering will it make me a living dead?"
I snorted and shook my head at the "Zombie shower gel" that I had heard about from Sean earlier as well and then went to hug dad and get my necklace that could fit into his since he had unwrapped both. Then at last I could turn to my own presents again just as Megan jumped with joy over a learn- how- to- knit- kit from Judy and Erica.
"So, there are two presents left now." Dad stood up a bit later and grabbed a box along with mum at the same time as Erica took a big, wrapped present. "And this one is for Leah." Dad reached me the present. "But… it's heavy." He put it in front of me where I sat instead. "So you just unwrap this, and I think you're going to like it."
"And this one is for Jack." Erica reached the other present to Jack. "And they're a bit on the same theme these two. I really hope you both like them and I'm pretty sure you will."
I let go of unwrapping slowly and just ripped the paper of the big box, and then pulled it open. Although it seemed like the first thing both I and Jack found was each envelope- his from my parents- and my from Judy and Erica, and we started with opening them and found… train tickets- turned out Jack would come to Lima the twenty ninth to the third January, and I would be coming to Benton Harbor again in February over Valentine's day.
"OH MY GOD THIS IS AWESOME!" Jack shouted and we grabbed each other's hands and started dancing around the living room. "This is awesome! Oh we're going to be together on New year, and on Valentine's day YAY." He sat down again and reached for the rest of his presents- a bunch of McDonald's- themed things from his parents.
"Oh come on now Leah." Dad turned to me. "Take a check of what's in yours."" I sat down on the floor again and looked down in the box- and my chin dropped more and more as I pulled up one thing after the other- all with prints and themed in the fault in our stars- oh and this gift was so me!
"…And a pillow, and another pillow, and another pillow. And a T- shirt, and another T- shirt, and a pair of jeans…" I laughed at the turquoise jeans with each of those "Okay" clouds on the back pockets. "And a notebook, and an agenda, and pins, and a box of tissues and that's good because I'm about to cry with joy."
"No don't cry Leah." Jonah looked like a sad puppy. "No don't cry. Don't cry." I continued to pull more and more things out of the box that was wrapped in the- fault- in- our-stars- paper. "Oh here comes the best part."
I had pulled up a set with all of the books John Green had written, and now I pulled up another copy of the fault in our stars and opened it, not really for any reason. And that's when I saw what Jonah meant about the best part- because when I saw what was written on the inside I was about to faint.
Merry Christmas Leah, hope you continue to enjoy this book as much as before.
-John Green
"Haha, I bet she's gonna faint!" Jonah couldn't help but laugh while I looked up from the autograph and around and to my dad who just nodded to Jonah and I looked questioning to him. How had he succeeded with this? "Forget it Leah, a magician never reveals his secrets!" I looked down at the book again and as Jonah had stated I almost felt dizzy.
"I'm not ever getting out of this pyjamas!" I stated a while later wearing the bodysuit from Jonah. "Never, ever. I'll go to school in it! It's too comfy to take off!" Dad chuckled and mum just shook her head. But when dad looked to his watch I knew exactly what it meant- presents and breakfast was over and it was starting to draw closer to the Christmas mass.
"You'll have to get out of it now anyway Leigh." He told me. "Come on you guys, it's almost time to head for church."
Luckily- in some way I had managed to find a boyfriend whose family was also protestants- not too bad in a Catholic country! So we were all going to the protestant church in Benton harbor this Christmas and dad had somehow managed to get so he would be speaking during the mass- don't ask me how he had managed though!
"First we listen to the bells' ringing." Dad said first, like always and then silent for everyone to listen to the bells outside. About when the bell's stopped ringing was about when I stopped listening to what was happening during the mass- I didn't find it more exciting than anyone else did just because I was the priest's daughter. And instead I'd sit and think about ideas to poems and school and a bit of everything except for what was happening in the mass.
So also this time, and I smiled away to Jonah when I saw he had almost fallen asleep in the bench- we had both heard this like a thousand times before- and it might have been rude. And mum might be quite ashamed of us at this but hey… say one who think Christmas mass are exciting? Told you so!
"And so at last." Dad said in the end and I started pushing myself up. "For the postludium (Can anyone tell me what the music at the last part of the mass is called in English please?) today, my children. Leah and Jonah will come up and play a song for us. They have told me earlier that they will not do a typical Christian song but, that is up to every one of you to decide what you think. Come on up kids."
Mum's chin dropped, she didn't know this as it was something I and Jonah had come up with and secretly planned with dad as a bit of a Christmas gift for mum as I and Jonah stood up and we walked together up the small stairs to where dad had placed one chair, one guitar and two microphones, Jonah sat down with the guitar and then we started singing.
I had never been singing a solo in church before- believe it or not! So I had been quite nervous with the crowded church and everything but it really couldn't have gone any better, from the first tone to the last everything just seemed to fit perfectly, but I couldn't help but feel kind of sad as I looked to Jonah by the end of the number.
Face the fact! This would be Jonah's last Christmas! And… I couldn't imagine what anything would be like without him here and Christmas the least! I felt kind of ashamed of thinking like that and… so I shook the thoughts off and decided to just have the best Christmas I could and not think about that anything- even as it said in the poem I wrote later that day. It was far from the best I'd written, but it would do.
I love you
I love all of you
I love this
And that I got to share today with you
Today
That turned out to be
The best Christmas of my life
Best Christmas ever
So…. The chapter is kind of short but… I didn't have many ideas for the Christmas chapter. Except for that present with all the fault in our stars things- what an awesome present to get huh? Anyway… next chapter will be set in the days in between Christmas and new year, and possibly over new year so… see you then.
