Chapter 19
Due to their rearranged sleeping quarters, Sydney had the most unfortunate pleasure of sharing a bed with Grace come Christmas morning. Of course, she had been the one to choose this, thinking how nice it would be to give Michael a few minutes extra sleep, even if it was only the two minutes it took Grace to wake Sydney up and then run across the hall. However, come six fifty-seven am on December 25th, Sydney was seriously regretting that decision.
“Wake up! Wake up Sydney its Christmas! WAKE UP!” Grace repeated as she bounced up and down on the bed. Sydney moaned and crammed her head down under her pillow, trying to ignore the little girl, but of course Grace would not stand for this. She yanked the pillow away and landed with a painful thump on Sydney’s back. “Sydney come on!! It’s Christmas.”
“Which is why you should sleep…it can be your present to me,” Sydney mumbled.
“Nooo!! We have to get up!” Grace exclaimed. Then she leapt off the bed and charged across the hall. Hoping she was gone for at least a little while, Sydney curled back up and tried to fall back to sleep, but her peace was short lived. Only three minutes after Grace left, she came barreling back into the room and dove up onto the bed, shaking it once more. “You’re not up Sydney!! Daddy make Sydney get up!” Grace said.
“Oh trust me,” Michael paused to yawn, “I will.” Feeling rather vindictive, Michael yanked all the blankets off Sydney’s balled-up form. She squirmed and tried to tuck all her limbs further into her body, shivering from the sudden cold. “Five seconds until I dump the mattress. Five. Four. Three. Two-”
“Alright I’m up, I’m up,” Sydney grumbled as she pushed her body up into a sitting position.
“Let’s go!” Grace exclaimed, grabbing her by the hand and attempting to drag her from the room. Of course with their vast size differences this did not work at all, but Grace was trying her hardest so Sydney slowly slid from the bed, grabbed her robe and made her way downstairs with Michael, who was looking equally zombie-like.
“Ah, the joys of young children on Christmas morning,” he said with a fake grin. Sydney grumbled at him before muttering something about the joy of sleeping under her breath.
“Can we open presents now Daddy?!” Grace asked as she danced around the foyer, trying to get the sleepy adults to hurry up.
“No you have to wait for Sydney’s parents, but!” he caught her just as she was about to charge back up the stairs, “you can’t wake them up.”
“Why not!” she whined.
“Yeah I think we should let her,” Sydney said very seriously. Forcing them to get up at sunrise was a very nice form a payback for the critique she would inevitably receive from them before the holiday was over.
“No,” Michael said firmly, directing his daughter towards the kitchen. Grace made a face before stomping her feet all the way to the back of the house.
Since it was Christmas morning, Consuela had the day off, which gave Michael the task of making breakfast for the whole family. He did not mind, though; he enjoyed cooking. That particular morning he made waffles and chocolate chip pancakes from scratch while Sydney and Grace watched and practically drooled.
“Seriously, you amaze me,” Sydney sighed.
“What!? Why? Because I can make pancakes?” Michael laughed in disbelief.
“No, because you can make pancakes and make it look easy,” she told him.
“It is easy. I bet you could do it,” he told her. She shook her head. “Yes you could!”
“Well, maybe I could mix the dough-”
“Batter,” he corrected.
“Whatever, but if I tried to cook it I’d burn it,” she sighed sadly.
“Oh,” Michael laughed softly.
Only another half hour passed before the elder Bristow’s arrived in the kitchen and shared the breakfast Michael created. When they found out (via Sydney) he made the entire thing from scratch, they praised him highly, at which Sydney noticed Michael was blushing softly. Once they were finished eating, Grace finally got her wish of being able to open presents, for which she was incredibly excited.
The five of them sat around Sydney’s Christmas tree in the family room area and passed presents around between them. From Sydney, Grace received the game she asked for along with a sweater, and from her father she received a nice winter jacket (since hers was rather tattered) and new shoes, since she had almost grown out of her old ones. Much to her surprise, Sydney received a present from Michael as well.
“You didn’t have to get me anything,” she told him seriously, holding the wrapped box in her hand.
“It’s just a thank you for everything you’ve done… I mean, no item could be enough to express how grateful I am, but this is just a little something,” he said with a slight shrug. Sydney gave him a soft smile before unwrapping the box quickly. Inside, she found two plastic zip-lock bags filled with what appeared to be two different kinds of cookies.
“Did you make these?!” Sydney asked excitedly. Michael nodded and Sydney let out a squeal of happiness. “This is the best gift ever!” she exclaimed before digging into one of the bags. After pulling out what appeared to be an ordinary chocolate chip cookie, she bit into it and exclaimed, “MM! My god these are the best cookies ever!”
“Well its my own recipe…,” Michael said casually.
“They’re so good!” she gushed before cramming the rest of the cookie into her mouth and reaching for another, not even caring that she was still rather full from her pancake breakfast.
Just as the present opening was wearing down, Sydney flashed her father a secretive look and he disappeared from the family room. The previous evening, she had enlisted him to help with Grace’s special puppy surprise. A minute after he left, he returned holding a square box very gingerly. “Grace, I believe this is for you,” he said simply before setting the box down in front of her gently.
“What does it say?” Michael asked, referring to the card atop the box.
“It says, ‘To Sydney and Grace, from Santa’…who would give us something?!” Grace asked Sydney with confusion. Sydney shrugged innocently and encouraged her to open the box. Grace whipped the top off quickly and gasped upon seeing its contents. Never in her life had Sydney seen a more touched and purely excited look on anyone’s face than she saw on Grace’s face in that moment. Her look alone was worth more than a million presents every day for the rest of her life; it made her feel wonderful.
“A puppy!” Grace said in disbelief for, looking up to her from the box was a tan colored ball of fur with a tiny little tail. “Daddy it’s a puppy!” she said almost tearfully. Then she reached out to scoop the puppy into her lap and Michael warned,
“Be careful Grace.”
Grace said nothing as she picked up the puppy around its waist and pulled it into her lap. She then lifted the puppy up and nuzzled her face into its soft fur before giving its head a gentle kiss. “Is it a girl puppy or a boy puppy?” Grace asked.
“Looks like a little girl,” Sydney, who of course knew the gender of the puppy she purchased, said. “Why don’t you name her,” she suggested.
“Okay… Sydney. I want to name her Sydney,” Grace said after only a moment’s thought.
With this announcement, all the adults laughed softly. “Honey, you can’t name the puppy Sydney,” Michael told her. “Why don’t you pick another name?”
“Okay,” Grace said with a slight groan. After thinking another minute and stoking the puppy’s fur she said, “Santa. We can call her Santa ‘cause we can’t tell Santa thank you so this will be like thanking him!”
Michael glanced over at Sydney, who gave a rather helpless shrug. “Alright…Santa it is then,” he laughed softly.
“YAY!” Grace cheered. Then she scooped up the puppy once more and looked her in the eye. “Hi Santa! You’re gonna like it here I promise!”
