I sit in front of the tree, opening each bag and placing the presents underneath in no particular order at all. I don’t want an organised Christmas tree. Some people do that, but I want it to be all fun, all higgledy-piggley. I love the array of the different sizes, shapes and colors of the gifts. Jenny is sitting on the sofa, passing me bits from the other bags. I don’t want her sitting on the floor, because I imagine her getting stuck down there. She turned off the film a while ago. “Why is every music channel playing Christmas songs?” she asks.

“I don’t know, but it’s really annoying. I wish they wouldn’t. Mark did say that 77 isn’t playing Christmas ones.”

Jenny quickly reaches for the silver remote and changes the channel to 77. “Yeah,” she says. “Normal music.” We sit there laughing as she begins singing along, doing a silly little chair dance. Oh, I love our crazy time. I jump up from the floor and move the empty bags into a pile on the sofa. Then, I push the small, glass coffee table out of the way for a makeshift dance floor.

“Come on, girl. Here is the dance floor,” I say, pointing to the floor.

Jenny jumps up off the sofa, placing the music on a little louder before grabbing my hands and starting to dance. Thankfully, no one can see us. We must look like right idiots. I suddenly stop. “Jenny, do you hear that?” I ask.

“What?”

“Bells,” I say, walking over to the window and opening the burgundy-lined curtains. I lift the blind to see outside.

“Oh my! Jenny, come here now.”

Jenny rushes over and looks through the blind with me. “I bet this has something to do with the boys.”

There in front of the house is a sleigh with reindeer and everything, just like you see in the books. I can’t believe my eyes. Snow begins to fall from the sky as we stand there looking at it in amazement.

“I’ll go get Kate,” I say.

Running up the stairs, I head straight into Kate’s room, bend down at the side of the bed and shake her. “Kate.”

She groggily opens her eyes. “Come with me. I have something to show you.” I pick her up and place her on my hip. I dash over the landing and pick up Lucy who has just started to stir. I place her on my other hip and wander down the stairs.

“Shall we open the door?” Jenny asks.

“Yes,” I say, setting Kate on the floor and slowly opening the door. “Stay there, Kate.”

“ARGH!” Kate screams as she jumps up and down. “It’s him. He’s really here.”

Jenny takes Lucy from me and wraps the blanket around her tighter. I reach over, picking up Kate’s red cardigan. “Place this on,” I state, helping her before lifting her and taking a step out of the house. I can’t help but smile. I walk along the freshly fallen snow towards the sleigh. I’m glad it’s not slippery, because I’m wearing my pink fluffy slippers.

“Hi,” I say. What do you say to him?

“Hello, Kate, Lucy, Jenny and Megan,” he responds in a big animated voice. It’s a voice I don’t recognize. Who is it?

“Come here,” he says to Kate. I pass Kate over to him as he sits in his sleigh.

“What would you like for Christmas, little one?” he asks pleasantly.

“A teddy,” she says as she looks at him with pure astonishment. “Is this real?” she asks as her eyes shift to his beard, and she begins rubbing her hand along the bottom of it.

“Yes, it’s real, my child.” He pauses. “Turn around.” He points to his side.

“A teddy!” she shouts, picking it up and enfolding it into a close hug.

“Merry Christmas, Kate,” he says as he gives her back to me.

“This is for little Lucy.” He hands me a smaller teddy, identical to the brown one that Kate received with the exception of a different coloured bow. It has one pink and one purple bow. Kate’s teddy has only a purple bow. She has told me that purple is her favorite colour since the first time I met her.

“For you, Jenny.” He grins, passing her two little bags. She thanks him before opening them. One has a pearl necklace inside, and the other contains a blue bib that reads “Created in 2013- Born in 2014.”

“Now for you, Megan, the special lady,” he says as I walk over to him, but he never looks up at me. He just passes a bag to me. I open it to find a bracelet with a little pink diamond in the middle encased in two interlocked hearts. It looks so pretty.

“Thank you,” I say.

“You best get in and go to sleep, so I can drop off the rest of your presents. Goodnight, girls,” he says matter-of-factly.

We walk back into the house and close the door behind us. We quickly run up the stairs into Kate’s room. I tuck her into bed with her teddy in her arms.

“Read to me, Megan,” she says sleepily.

I sit on the edge of the bed near Kate, and Jenny sits on the other side with Lucy in the crook of her arm. I pass the book to Kate because I remember it from my childhood and know all the words by heart. It’s such a fascinating, memorable story. I sit there reciting it as they follow along with the book and look at the pictures.

“The end,” I say. Jenny creeps out of the room, taking Lucy to her cot. I place a little kiss on Kate’s head and turn on the little nightlight and leave her sleeping. I knew she would fall asleep before the end of the story.