Ash’s POV
Alex and I were snuggled up on the couch, a blanket draped around both of us. There were five mugs of hot chocolate on the coffee table, marshmallows floating around and hot steam rising up. My dad was adding more fire to the fireplace, making the large living room heat up slowly. The curtains were closed, the sun outside already having long gone down, the windows cold to the touch. It was exactly the way I wished to spend Christmas eve. My whole family was here, Alex was here, the only thing missing was my mom, but she was always there with us somehow.

We had always celebrated Christmas, but without the whole Santa thing. Yes, we did have a large Christmas tree, one in the great hall and a ‘smaller’ one in the living room, and we did have a lot of gifts, but we always knew that the gifts didn’t come from an amazing fictional character. We would all get gifts for each other. Of course my brothers couldn’t afford anything big, so it was always something simple like some soap or a notebook, but it was the thought that counted. I was able to pay for some nicer gifts, but they still weren’t as amazing as my dad’s; he just went all out. Seriously. We didn’t get many gifts throughout the year, but when it was our birthday or when it was Christmas, it was gifts galore. He didn’t have many boundaries during those periods.

We also always gave each other the gifts during Christmas Eve rather than Christmas morning. I don’t know exactly why we still did it that way, but there was something that made giving gifts in the evening nicer than giving them when it was still light outside. My mom and dad had started doing it that way after not being able to spend their first Christmas morning together, because my mom still lived in Italy and was flying home that day. It just stuck with them. Now that she was no longer with us, even though it had been seven years ago, we still did it that way.

Nobody seemed to mind though, it was nice spending more time with my family after having a big dinner. Usually we’d go our own ways again after having dinner, occasionally watching TV together, but even then one of us was mostly off doing something else. This was one of those evenings where we just spent hours together and nobody seemed to be annoyed about it. Just because we got along well, didn’t mean that we actually liked spending all hours of the day together.

“I don’t know what happened, but we have way too many gifts this year,” My dad laughed as he nearly tripped over another one of the boxes scattered under the green Christmas tree.

“Wait, I still have one I forgot to put underneath the tree!” I shot upright, remembering that Alex’s gift had arrived a couple of days before and that I did it so I could wrap it. “Jaxon, come help me carry it in here.”

“I could help,” Alex suggested, but I quickly shook my head. I wanted this to be a surprise for him, he couldn’t know it was his until he saw the name on it before unwrapping it.

So, Jaxon and I rushed to my dad’s office/library and picked up to long heavy box. Nobody except my dad knew what was in it. I hadn’t even opened up the box to check the contents myself. I just really hoped it was the right thing Alex had been wanting for quite some time now. He had been saving up for it for a sum of months, but he was still a couple of hundred dollars short. I guess he could spend the money on something else now.

We walked back into the living room, putting down the box along with all the other packages. My dad was right, there really were a lot of gifts, way too many for the amount of people in this house. Sure, a couple of them were boxes of candy, but there were still so many if you took those away.

“I don’t know how we are ever going to open all of these before tomorrow,” I sighed, sitting back next to Alex and leaning into him again.

Dad agreed, putting up the grid in front of the fire so the sparks couldn’t fall out and we couldn’t jump in, not that anybody was thinking of doing so, “we should probably get started then.”

And so we did. We let my brothers go first. They were way too excited and hyper to have to wait for their turns, so they just went crazy, opening every gift that had their name on it. The fact that most of it was candy did not help the energy level going on in the room. They each already had one box opened, eating from it while ripping open their other gifts. Charley was super happy with the magnifying glass Alex had bought him. He was so excited to try and find new clues around the house, proving that there were in fact ghosts here. It certainly was his favourite gift, right above the beautiful metal telescope he had been wanting for a year and finally got from my dad. Kayden was ready to attack everybody with the nerf gun he had gotten, but my dad was smart enough to make strict rules about that as soon as the box was opened. And then there was Jaxon, in love with all the books he had gotten, already retreating into a corner to read one.

While they were trying to figure out how to work all their new toys, Alex, my dad, and I decided to open the remaining gifts. The size of the pile had reduced significantly, only a couple of wrapped presents lying around lonely.

“Hey, Alex, you should open your gift!” Charley told him, looking at the box next to him that was just as large as his body, “I wanna know what’s in it as well!”

“Wait, that’s mine?” Alex looked at him with shock, before turning to look at me. He wasn’t expecting anything other than some small gifts, because nobody in my family really knew him except me.

“I told you I was combining your Birthday and Christmas gift!” I laughed, urging him to go and see what it was. I really wanted to see if I got the right thing. It would be horrible if I got the wrong one and turned out to disappoint him.

“But I wasn’t expecting a huge box! I can’t--”

“Yes, you can! Go open it!” I pushed him off the couch and towards his gift.

He glared at me before sitting next to Charley and ripping the minimal wrapping paper off. He frowned at the now naked box, still not understanding what it was. I had painted over all the logos and names, making sure he wouldn't know what was in it until he actually opened it. When he looked at me, I nodded, telling him to keep going. He slowly lifted to long rectangular lid, his eyes going wide when he saw the contents.

“What the-- how? What? Huh? I-- what?” He stuttered, removing the lid fully, exposing the Fender Telecaster I had bought him. It was pretty expensive, especially since I had bought it in Germany, meaning that I had payed around 1000 dollars. As soon as he had started saving up for it, so did I. I was just lucky to have a dad that gave me way too much money and that I had not been spending all of it since I went to America.

“Is it the right one?” I asked carefully, hoping his reaction was a good one.

“The right one!? It’s amazing! I would have been ok with some socks or something!” He gasped, looking over the guitar and carefully letting his fingers run over the glossy paint.

“Well, I thought you wanted it for a while and since you guys have to finish that demo pretty soon, why not record with a new guitar?” I grinned, relieved and happy to see him so excited.

“Dude, this is officially the best gift somebody has given me. I swear to god, I’m going to be playing this guitar for the rest of my life!” He rushed back over to me, putting both his hands on my cheek before leaning in to kiss me.

Charley and Kayden made some really disgusted noises while Jaxon was too busy with his book to realise. I rolled my eyes and slowly pushed Alex away just so my brothers wouldn’t have to endure anymore. We could always continue when we went to bed.

“I’m excited to give you my gift right now,” Alex continued, rushing back to the tree and picking up a much smaller box, “I was like ‘should I spend my money on a guitar or my girlfriend, guitar, girlfriend’, but I chose you of course. So I really hope you like it.”

“Well I’m glad I got you the guitar then,” I told him, carefully taking the small gift in my hands.

“I wouldn’t have cared, because I really did not expect that.”

I pulled the ribbon, undoing the bow on top, trying to take out the knot as well. When that was finally off, I carefully started taking off the thick expertly wrapped paper, telling me he had probably let this done in store. It was a white flat cardboard box, also with a lid for me to take off. Inside was a delicate silver charm bracelet. There was already an ‘A’ and a detailed leaf hanging off it. I stared at it in amazement and couldn’t help but smile brightly. Alex took it out of the box and helped me put it on. This time it was my turn to kiss him, thanking him for the gift he got me.

But it wasn’t finished yet, by dad had gotten me another charm to add to it. The fact that they had coordinated the gifts really made me ecstatic. It meant they had to have had some sort of contact beforehand, because my dad would never have gotten me a charm without a bracelet otherwise. I added the small golden treble clef and stared at my bracelet. It really was beautiful and already meant so much to me.

When we finished off opening our gifts, my two younger brothers started getting very tired, almost falling asleep on the floor. Normally my dad would have sent them off the bed by now, but he kept them downstairs for a little while longer. He even told them they would just have to stay awake for a bit more, that there was still one gift that he had accidentally left in his bedroom.

It seemed strange to all of us. We didn’t know what would be important enough to keep us from sleep even longer. But then he came back downstairs with a box wrapped in colorful paper, holes cut into the side and the top open. There was some scurrying inside of it, the sound of nails hitting the cardboard excitedly. When my dad placed the box in front of my brothers, Kayden immediately pulled out the small brown puppy. It started jumping around excitedly, licking everybody’s hands as soon as they were in reach.

“Is she ours?” Kayden asked my dad with big hopeful eyes.

“Of course she is.” My dad grinned, enjoying their excitement.

“Can we call her Spooky?” Charley immediately suggested, trying to pet the Labrador puppy while my other brothers were as well.

“If nobody has any other suggestions.”

Both Jaxon and Kayden thought for a while before shaking their head no, that Spooky was fine. Part of me said that Jaxon had many other ideas since he had always wanted a dog, but he also wanted to make his brother happy. It would be a funny thing to embarrass Charley with when he was older.

And that’s how our family officially expanded from five to seven.

Notes

Just six more chapters and an epilogue to go! Still haven't figured out what to do after this story finishes. I still have the sequel option, the time travel option, the new high school story (with the mysterious death), however I also have a new option. I don't think many of you know, but I have two more stories on here, one fairly 'new'. I haven't been able to write for it because I'm so busy. You can also choose for me to continue writing that, or one of the previous options, however that would lead to me putting that story on hold.
So, it's either this story, or put that on hold and do one of the new ideas. It's really up to you guys.
If I don't figure this out, I'll probably just leave it all and only work on Hospital Beds and Memories . So, if you really like one of my other ideas, please tell me.
The only problem is that you guys might not like the sequel after the epilogue comes out. The story really changes a lot, so you might not enjoy it anymore.