True Blue Miracle: December 25th
Title: True Blue Miracle: December 25th
Rating: PG
Summary: CHRISTMAS!
Note: Axl Rose will, someday, release Chinese Democracy. Also: fic request drop box.
December 23rd
December 24th
Letting out a quiet oof at the sudden presence of his sister’s arm across his stomach blocking his path, Adrian stops and turns to Adair about to ask what, exactly, the hell she’s doing because there’s coffee downstairs and it’s wickedly early and he doesn’t care that it’s Christmas: he needs his caffeine. She simply puts a finger to her lips and shakes her head and points at the door to Addison’s room that has worked itself loose during the night and opened just wide enough to peer inside. He smiles softly and exchanges a look with Adair and they wait a few moments before barging in and proclaiming that it’s Christmas and how can you sleep in on a day like today.
A sleepy noise escapes Eden’s lips as she settles against her mother again, nestling her head on Addison’s shoulder and hugging a teddy bear to her chest. Addison unconsciously rearranges her arms and cuddles Eden closer for a little bit of warmth, the comforter pushed down around her waist.
“This has to be killing her,” he whispers, knowing that the innocent and peaceful look on Addison’s face is bound to disappear every so often once Christmas officially starts as she’s plagued with memories of Christmases with the man she loves who is no longer here. He saw her composure falter a few times during dinner and politely ignored the scattered tears that fell while they were in church and those moments were just precursors to the explosion of joy and laughter and cheer waiting downstairs.
Adair nods slowly but doesn’t voice her agreement, choosing instead to simply watch her sister be purely and blissfully happy for a few more moments. She waves her husband and two oldest sons down the stairs and rolls her eyes as her husband comments on how cute it is and she bites her tongue to keep from laughing as Adrian stands very tall with his chin tilted and pretends to be Aidan’s twin daughters, showered and dressed and in full makeup, as they walk past. As Addison sighs and settles deeper into the mattress, Adair decides that it’s truly time for her sister to get her ass out of bed and downstairs so she looks at Adrian and nods.
They push open her door just a little wider, both wincing and freezing when it squeaks. Eden’s eyes flutter open and, upon seeing her aunt and uncle poised in the doorway, her eyes widen and she grins happily. At their hushed fingers over their lips and gestures toward her still-sleeping mother, she merely whispers “Christmas!” having learned all about indoor voices in daycare. Though remaining perfectly still, she watches in fascination as they take up their separate spots - one on each side of the bed - and Adair holds up one finger, then two, then three and then nods and they both pounce on the bed shouting “Merry Christmas!” and she joins their fits of laughter as Addison nearly levitates out of bed.
Muttering that she’s going to kill them both very, very dead, Addison kisses Eden’s forehead and fakes a glare at her when she realizes that her daughter was unknowingly in on the action and concedes a laugh or two with her siblings. “I suppose we should head downstairs.”
“Please. My kids have been eyeing things since about four-thirty and I will blame you if they explode from anticipation.”
--
“Okay,” Rose says commandingly. “There will be some order to this.” Her attempt at forcing an inevitable chaos into organization fails before it can even begin as Adair’s youngest sons break free of their father’s arms and rush toward the towering pile of presents under the tree. “I give up,” she throws her arms up in the air melodramatically and sits down next to her husband to watch their ten grandchildren race for presents.
Adrian, deemed by every one to be the coolest of the aunts and uncles, gets down on his hands and knees with all of the kids under the tree and starts handing out presents. Aware that Rose often spends too much time wrapping gifts for the adults and prefers the exquisite bows and ribbons to be appreciated before cast aside, he directs the children elsewhere and offers a gift each to the parents watching their children rip into the paper in awe. Addison holds off on opening hers from Aidan, choosing instead to watch Eden tear off the red and green paper hiding a rocking horse. She smiles as her daughter’s eyes light up and Eden looks over her shoulder at Addison, a silent ask for help to get it out of the box.
Grinning, Addison sets her present on her seat and walks over and kisses Eden’s temple. Part of her knows that it rightfully should have been To: Eden; From: Daddy but she pushes away the sadness as she wrestles the box open and lifts out the rocking horse. In searching through Derek’s office one night looking for the phone number of their lawyer so someone else could take care of all the legalities of transferring absolutely everything over to her name, she found a scrap of paper with ages and Christmas gifts. She had curled up in his desk chair and laughed and cried: he was always the type to plan ahead, but he’d never have the chance to put his plans into action. The list stopped at age five, but next to three was a neatly-printed rocking horse.
Halfway wondering whether her brother actually remembers what he gets her from year to year or even what she likes, Addison places the set of kitchen knives aside with a mental note for them to go right next to the frying pan from last year - in Mark’s apartment. Her eyes widen in astonishment as she unwraps her gift from Adrian. “How did you…?” She turns the copy of Chinese Democracy over in her hands if she can’t believe it. “This isn’t even supposed to be released yet.”
Recognizing the logo on the front, Eden points and smiles. “Axl!”
“Good girl,” Addison grins and kisses her daughter’s cheek and then Adrian’s and thanks him sincerely and doesn’t ask him what kind of “connections” he has. She ignores her mother’s grumbles about musical tastes that shouldn’t be introduced to children under fourteen, quite okay with Eden growing up with Guns ‘n’ Roses and The Clash and bypassing songs like “Big Rock Candy Mountain.”
--
“I have never seen so much wrapping paper,” Addison says in amazement with her eyes wide as she tries to comprehend the massive pile of ripped and torn wrapping paper covering the entire family room floor and spreading out into the dining room. Though they all tried their best, she knows they’ll have to be careful when cleaning up to keep from accidentally tossing any gifts. “Oh, thanks,” she smiles at Adair handing her a glass of champagne with strawberries in it, a tradition since she can remember. She scoots over on the couch and makes room for Eden when the girl tires of trying to get her male cousins to include her in their castle-building with new blocks. Lifting an arm up, she waits for Eden to get settled against her side before resting her arm around her daughter’s shoulders and she whispers a promise to help her build the best snow fort ever later and the sparkling smile on Eden’s face is worth the hours of cold she’ll be forced to endure. The castle soon topples and Eden giggles.
Rose announces that lunch is ready and rolls her eyes at the teasing she receives from her children about it being so much work to take everything out of the fridge and stick it on a plate and Addison takes her cue to hand Eden off to Adrian and make a quiet exit upstairs to grab a warm sweatshirt and her phone and then slip out onto the porch unnoticed.
“Addie!”
Addison pulls the phone away from her ear and laughs as Nancy’s excited shriek of her name nearly pierces through her eardrum. “Merry Christmas, Nance.”
“You too. Hey, Mom’s giving me the evil eye so just make sure she puts me back on when she’s done convincing you to come here next year, okay?”
Laughing, Addison tugs her sweatshirt tighter around her and listens to the scuffle as her mother-in-law makes her way to the phone. “Merry Christmas, Katherine,” she grins when she hears things steady out.
“Merry Christmas, Addie. And Merry Christmas to Eden, too.”
She nods and says she’ll pass on the message and then the series of thank you and oh, what goofy gift did you get from so-and-so commences and she tries her best to remember what she got from everyone that she doesn’t have any intention of regifting at some point. While she loves her family dearly, they aren’t always the best at getting things that are either useful, attractive or somewhat applicable to her personality. “How are you holding up?” She asks the obligatory Derek question softly.
“Better than in the past. You?”
Addison shrugs as she hears the other woman’s quiet sigh. “Same.”
“It does get easier, Addie. Doesn’t ever stop, but it gets easier.”
“Thanks,” she says with a soft smile at the advice she’s been given every time she sounds a little sad on the phone with Derek’s mother. She sometimes forgets that Katherine’s season was Christmas and she lost her husband, too.
“Mommy?” Eden pokes her head out of the porch door. Addison hadn’t quite shut it all the way so all she had to do was push it. “Lunch!” She shivers a little and crawls quickly into Addison’s lap.
Addison laughs. “Hey. You want to talk to Grandma Katie?”
“Put my granddaughter on the phone this instant, Addison Montgomery-Shepherd.”
Laughing even harder, Addison nods. “Tell everyone else I said hi, okay? Here you go,” she hands Eden the phone and makes sure she has it tightly in her grip before lifting her into her arms and carrying her inside.
--
Adair shivers and breathes out a deep frosty breath. “I don’t think it’s really fair. Aidan’s got five kids and they’re all on his team.”
Addison looks up from teaching Eden how to form a snowball. “They have the same number of people as we do. And we have mostly boys. Now breathe on it just a little. There you go.”
Ever the feminist, Adair puffs up her chest and glares. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“Energy. Inherent aptitude for throwing stuff. Tendency to actively despise anything without a Y-chromosome.”
She cogitates on that for a moment while finishing her stockpile of snowballs. “Fair enough. When do we start this thing?”
“Whenever we want,” Aidan’s deep voice from behind the tree causes the entire team to turn around and duck as they’re assaulted with snowballs and cackles.
--
After a brief stint on Uncle Adrian’s lap and deeming him comfy but not Mommy-comfy, Eden hops up into Addison’s lap and waits patiently for Addison to get to a good stopping spot with her book before she gets settled. She wriggles around as Addison lifts up the blanket and cuddles underneath it and curls into her mother’s warm arms and shakes her head no with a yawn when Addison asks if she’s tired. The fire pops and she jumps a little, easily soothed by Addison’s hand on her back. Content to just cuddle, she closes her eyes and hugs her new stuffed cat to her and rests her head on Addison’s chest.
Addison idly tunes out her brothers arguing about the best way to restoke the fire, entirely unsurprised when her father sternly tells both of them that they’re inept and have no idea what they’re doing and takes over, and gently runs her fingers through Eden’s hair as she turns another page in her new book. She looks up over her glasses after a few minutes to discover her daughter sound asleep with the blanket gripped tight in her fists. Smiling, she decides that Eden looks too sweet and comfortable where she is to be nudged awake and carried upstairs so she waves to her sister that she’d like a refill on her coffee and points to her sleeping daughter as reason for why she can’t get up and do it herself.
“Alright, kiddo,” Addison says once she herself has yawned too many times and nearly fallen asleep twice. “Bedtime for us.” Most of her family has already gone upstairs with lasting wishes of Merry Christmas, leaving only her, Robert and Adair and her husband to enjoy the slowly-dying fire.
“‘m not tired,” she protests through a sleepy yawn and circles her arms around Addison’s neck once she’s lifted into the air. She waves goodnight at everyone and gives her grandfather a kiss on his cheek and falls back asleep on Addison’s shoulder before her mother has whispered the last Merry Christmas, you guys.
Pajamas, normally a lengthy debate between one cartoon animal or another, is an easy decision ending in brand new matching pants and shirt with unicorns courtesy of Adair (who, Addison had learned in total confidence, had always wanted girls). Despite Eden’s cries about being too tired to brush her teeth, Addison lifts her up onto the stool and makes her do it anyway with a whisper of two minutes now being much better than thirty minutes of drilling years later.
They both tumble exhaustedly into bed and Addison barely finds enough energy to reach over and click off the lamp. Eden crawls around for a moment trying to find the best spot and eventually settles down with her head resting on her mother’s shoulder and curled up against her side.
“Did you have a good Christmas?” Addison kisses Eden’s forehead in the dark and smiles when she feels the girl nod. “Good.”
“Did you?” She pipes up sleepily.
Though she’s always going to wish that Derek were there to experience it with her and it’s always going to hurt when she wakes up Christmas morning without his arms around her, Addison nods. “Yeah. I did.”
“Good,” she mumbles. “Sweet dreams, Mommy.”
Feeling Eden quickly fall asleep in her arms, Addison smiles softly. “Merry Christmas, Eden.” She brings her other arm up to circle around her sleeping daughter and closes her eyes and cuddles deeper into the slightly-squeaky mattress, wishing that Derek could be right there with her but beginning to believe that maybe, just maybe, she’ll be able to do this on her own.
Christmas Eve on Sesame Street :: True Blue Miracle
Rating: PG
Summary: CHRISTMAS!
Note: Axl Rose will, someday, release Chinese Democracy. Also: fic request drop box.
December 23rd
December 24th
Letting out a quiet oof at the sudden presence of his sister’s arm across his stomach blocking his path, Adrian stops and turns to Adair about to ask what, exactly, the hell she’s doing because there’s coffee downstairs and it’s wickedly early and he doesn’t care that it’s Christmas: he needs his caffeine. She simply puts a finger to her lips and shakes her head and points at the door to Addison’s room that has worked itself loose during the night and opened just wide enough to peer inside. He smiles softly and exchanges a look with Adair and they wait a few moments before barging in and proclaiming that it’s Christmas and how can you sleep in on a day like today.
A sleepy noise escapes Eden’s lips as she settles against her mother again, nestling her head on Addison’s shoulder and hugging a teddy bear to her chest. Addison unconsciously rearranges her arms and cuddles Eden closer for a little bit of warmth, the comforter pushed down around her waist.
“This has to be killing her,” he whispers, knowing that the innocent and peaceful look on Addison’s face is bound to disappear every so often once Christmas officially starts as she’s plagued with memories of Christmases with the man she loves who is no longer here. He saw her composure falter a few times during dinner and politely ignored the scattered tears that fell while they were in church and those moments were just precursors to the explosion of joy and laughter and cheer waiting downstairs.
Adair nods slowly but doesn’t voice her agreement, choosing instead to simply watch her sister be purely and blissfully happy for a few more moments. She waves her husband and two oldest sons down the stairs and rolls her eyes as her husband comments on how cute it is and she bites her tongue to keep from laughing as Adrian stands very tall with his chin tilted and pretends to be Aidan’s twin daughters, showered and dressed and in full makeup, as they walk past. As Addison sighs and settles deeper into the mattress, Adair decides that it’s truly time for her sister to get her ass out of bed and downstairs so she looks at Adrian and nods.
They push open her door just a little wider, both wincing and freezing when it squeaks. Eden’s eyes flutter open and, upon seeing her aunt and uncle poised in the doorway, her eyes widen and she grins happily. At their hushed fingers over their lips and gestures toward her still-sleeping mother, she merely whispers “Christmas!” having learned all about indoor voices in daycare. Though remaining perfectly still, she watches in fascination as they take up their separate spots - one on each side of the bed - and Adair holds up one finger, then two, then three and then nods and they both pounce on the bed shouting “Merry Christmas!” and she joins their fits of laughter as Addison nearly levitates out of bed.
Muttering that she’s going to kill them both very, very dead, Addison kisses Eden’s forehead and fakes a glare at her when she realizes that her daughter was unknowingly in on the action and concedes a laugh or two with her siblings. “I suppose we should head downstairs.”
“Please. My kids have been eyeing things since about four-thirty and I will blame you if they explode from anticipation.”
--
“Okay,” Rose says commandingly. “There will be some order to this.” Her attempt at forcing an inevitable chaos into organization fails before it can even begin as Adair’s youngest sons break free of their father’s arms and rush toward the towering pile of presents under the tree. “I give up,” she throws her arms up in the air melodramatically and sits down next to her husband to watch their ten grandchildren race for presents.
Adrian, deemed by every one to be the coolest of the aunts and uncles, gets down on his hands and knees with all of the kids under the tree and starts handing out presents. Aware that Rose often spends too much time wrapping gifts for the adults and prefers the exquisite bows and ribbons to be appreciated before cast aside, he directs the children elsewhere and offers a gift each to the parents watching their children rip into the paper in awe. Addison holds off on opening hers from Aidan, choosing instead to watch Eden tear off the red and green paper hiding a rocking horse. She smiles as her daughter’s eyes light up and Eden looks over her shoulder at Addison, a silent ask for help to get it out of the box.
Grinning, Addison sets her present on her seat and walks over and kisses Eden’s temple. Part of her knows that it rightfully should have been To: Eden; From: Daddy but she pushes away the sadness as she wrestles the box open and lifts out the rocking horse. In searching through Derek’s office one night looking for the phone number of their lawyer so someone else could take care of all the legalities of transferring absolutely everything over to her name, she found a scrap of paper with ages and Christmas gifts. She had curled up in his desk chair and laughed and cried: he was always the type to plan ahead, but he’d never have the chance to put his plans into action. The list stopped at age five, but next to three was a neatly-printed rocking horse.
Halfway wondering whether her brother actually remembers what he gets her from year to year or even what she likes, Addison places the set of kitchen knives aside with a mental note for them to go right next to the frying pan from last year - in Mark’s apartment. Her eyes widen in astonishment as she unwraps her gift from Adrian. “How did you…?” She turns the copy of Chinese Democracy over in her hands if she can’t believe it. “This isn’t even supposed to be released yet.”
Recognizing the logo on the front, Eden points and smiles. “Axl!”
“Good girl,” Addison grins and kisses her daughter’s cheek and then Adrian’s and thanks him sincerely and doesn’t ask him what kind of “connections” he has. She ignores her mother’s grumbles about musical tastes that shouldn’t be introduced to children under fourteen, quite okay with Eden growing up with Guns ‘n’ Roses and The Clash and bypassing songs like “Big Rock Candy Mountain.”
--
“I have never seen so much wrapping paper,” Addison says in amazement with her eyes wide as she tries to comprehend the massive pile of ripped and torn wrapping paper covering the entire family room floor and spreading out into the dining room. Though they all tried their best, she knows they’ll have to be careful when cleaning up to keep from accidentally tossing any gifts. “Oh, thanks,” she smiles at Adair handing her a glass of champagne with strawberries in it, a tradition since she can remember. She scoots over on the couch and makes room for Eden when the girl tires of trying to get her male cousins to include her in their castle-building with new blocks. Lifting an arm up, she waits for Eden to get settled against her side before resting her arm around her daughter’s shoulders and she whispers a promise to help her build the best snow fort ever later and the sparkling smile on Eden’s face is worth the hours of cold she’ll be forced to endure. The castle soon topples and Eden giggles.
Rose announces that lunch is ready and rolls her eyes at the teasing she receives from her children about it being so much work to take everything out of the fridge and stick it on a plate and Addison takes her cue to hand Eden off to Adrian and make a quiet exit upstairs to grab a warm sweatshirt and her phone and then slip out onto the porch unnoticed.
“Addie!”
Addison pulls the phone away from her ear and laughs as Nancy’s excited shriek of her name nearly pierces through her eardrum. “Merry Christmas, Nance.”
“You too. Hey, Mom’s giving me the evil eye so just make sure she puts me back on when she’s done convincing you to come here next year, okay?”
Laughing, Addison tugs her sweatshirt tighter around her and listens to the scuffle as her mother-in-law makes her way to the phone. “Merry Christmas, Katherine,” she grins when she hears things steady out.
“Merry Christmas, Addie. And Merry Christmas to Eden, too.”
She nods and says she’ll pass on the message and then the series of thank you and oh, what goofy gift did you get from so-and-so commences and she tries her best to remember what she got from everyone that she doesn’t have any intention of regifting at some point. While she loves her family dearly, they aren’t always the best at getting things that are either useful, attractive or somewhat applicable to her personality. “How are you holding up?” She asks the obligatory Derek question softly.
“Better than in the past. You?”
Addison shrugs as she hears the other woman’s quiet sigh. “Same.”
“It does get easier, Addie. Doesn’t ever stop, but it gets easier.”
“Thanks,” she says with a soft smile at the advice she’s been given every time she sounds a little sad on the phone with Derek’s mother. She sometimes forgets that Katherine’s season was Christmas and she lost her husband, too.
“Mommy?” Eden pokes her head out of the porch door. Addison hadn’t quite shut it all the way so all she had to do was push it. “Lunch!” She shivers a little and crawls quickly into Addison’s lap.
Addison laughs. “Hey. You want to talk to Grandma Katie?”
“Put my granddaughter on the phone this instant, Addison Montgomery-Shepherd.”
Laughing even harder, Addison nods. “Tell everyone else I said hi, okay? Here you go,” she hands Eden the phone and makes sure she has it tightly in her grip before lifting her into her arms and carrying her inside.
--
Adair shivers and breathes out a deep frosty breath. “I don’t think it’s really fair. Aidan’s got five kids and they’re all on his team.”
Addison looks up from teaching Eden how to form a snowball. “They have the same number of people as we do. And we have mostly boys. Now breathe on it just a little. There you go.”
Ever the feminist, Adair puffs up her chest and glares. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“Energy. Inherent aptitude for throwing stuff. Tendency to actively despise anything without a Y-chromosome.”
She cogitates on that for a moment while finishing her stockpile of snowballs. “Fair enough. When do we start this thing?”
“Whenever we want,” Aidan’s deep voice from behind the tree causes the entire team to turn around and duck as they’re assaulted with snowballs and cackles.
--
After a brief stint on Uncle Adrian’s lap and deeming him comfy but not Mommy-comfy, Eden hops up into Addison’s lap and waits patiently for Addison to get to a good stopping spot with her book before she gets settled. She wriggles around as Addison lifts up the blanket and cuddles underneath it and curls into her mother’s warm arms and shakes her head no with a yawn when Addison asks if she’s tired. The fire pops and she jumps a little, easily soothed by Addison’s hand on her back. Content to just cuddle, she closes her eyes and hugs her new stuffed cat to her and rests her head on Addison’s chest.
Addison idly tunes out her brothers arguing about the best way to restoke the fire, entirely unsurprised when her father sternly tells both of them that they’re inept and have no idea what they’re doing and takes over, and gently runs her fingers through Eden’s hair as she turns another page in her new book. She looks up over her glasses after a few minutes to discover her daughter sound asleep with the blanket gripped tight in her fists. Smiling, she decides that Eden looks too sweet and comfortable where she is to be nudged awake and carried upstairs so she waves to her sister that she’d like a refill on her coffee and points to her sleeping daughter as reason for why she can’t get up and do it herself.
“Alright, kiddo,” Addison says once she herself has yawned too many times and nearly fallen asleep twice. “Bedtime for us.” Most of her family has already gone upstairs with lasting wishes of Merry Christmas, leaving only her, Robert and Adair and her husband to enjoy the slowly-dying fire.
“‘m not tired,” she protests through a sleepy yawn and circles her arms around Addison’s neck once she’s lifted into the air. She waves goodnight at everyone and gives her grandfather a kiss on his cheek and falls back asleep on Addison’s shoulder before her mother has whispered the last Merry Christmas, you guys.
Pajamas, normally a lengthy debate between one cartoon animal or another, is an easy decision ending in brand new matching pants and shirt with unicorns courtesy of Adair (who, Addison had learned in total confidence, had always wanted girls). Despite Eden’s cries about being too tired to brush her teeth, Addison lifts her up onto the stool and makes her do it anyway with a whisper of two minutes now being much better than thirty minutes of drilling years later.
They both tumble exhaustedly into bed and Addison barely finds enough energy to reach over and click off the lamp. Eden crawls around for a moment trying to find the best spot and eventually settles down with her head resting on her mother’s shoulder and curled up against her side.
“Did you have a good Christmas?” Addison kisses Eden’s forehead in the dark and smiles when she feels the girl nod. “Good.”
“Did you?” She pipes up sleepily.
Though she’s always going to wish that Derek were there to experience it with her and it’s always going to hurt when she wakes up Christmas morning without his arms around her, Addison nods. “Yeah. I did.”
“Good,” she mumbles. “Sweet dreams, Mommy.”
Feeling Eden quickly fall asleep in her arms, Addison smiles softly. “Merry Christmas, Eden.” She brings her other arm up to circle around her sleeping daughter and closes her eyes and cuddles deeper into the slightly-squeaky mattress, wishing that Derek could be right there with her but beginning to believe that maybe, just maybe, she’ll be able to do this on her own.
Christmas Eve on Sesame Street :: True Blue Miracle