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Kipo awoke from her hours of sleep with a yawn. She opened her eyes and slightly tilted her head upwards to look out of the window. Snow flakes were falling from the sky, as if in slowmotion. She smiled at the view. She could watch the snow fall all day. They distracted Kipo for a great while. So much that she almost forgot what day it was. Almost.
"It's christmas!"
She threw the blanket off of her and rushed out of her bed to wake everyone else up.
She started with Wolf, whose bedroom was right next to hers. She opened the door and walked up to Wolf's bed. The younger girl was asleep, wrapped up in a blanket as she slept curled up on her side.
Her peaceful sleepy state didn't last long though, as Kipo pulled the warm blanket off of her and shook her awake.
"Wolf, it's christmas! Wake up!" Kipo cheered, waiting for Wolf to rub at her eyes and sit up with a sleepy 'what?' before leaving her to come to her senses and moving on to the next family member.
Everyone else suffered a similar treatment, but Kipo was way too excited to notice. It was finally time to celebrate her first christmas on the surface with her entire family (minus Hugo, rest in peace) present. When she had woken everyone up, she returned to her room to get dressed.
She was already wearing her christmas themed pajamas and santa slippers, but she had a real christmas outfit waiting for her. She got dressed into a red dress that she'd been waiting to wear for the last month. She braided her hair and tied it with a red hair tie.
She left her room and found her parents, still in their pajamas. They had just decided to get out of bed. Wolf was getting dressed in her room. At least that's what Kipo figured, since her bedroom door was locked. Benson was also getting dressed in his room. Dave and Mandu, who didn't need clothes since they were mutants, were waiting on the sofa in the livingroom.
They were watching the christmas tree in awe, waiting for the rest of the family to gather around so that they could open their presents.
Kipo sat down beside them and Mandu moved over to her lap for pets.
"What do you think is in yours?" Kipo asked Dave.
"I'm not sure. Maybe a mirror so I can always see how handsome I am?" he teased and Kipo rolled her eyes but grinned at him.
He would never stop talking about how good he looked.
After a few minutes, way too many if Kipo got to say anything about it, the rest of her family emerged from their bedrooms and walked downstairs.
"Can we open our presents now?" Kipo asked, looking like an excited puppy.
"Breakfast first, darling", Lio laughed.
"But daaaaaad!"
With no further complaints, Lio got started on breakfast. Benson and Wolf joined Kipo and the mutes in the livingroom. Benson shook one of his presents. He could hear something moving inside, but he couldn't figure out what it was. Wolf stayed seated on the sofa. Why ruin the surprise by trying to figure out what her present was before even getting to open it?
It didn't take too long before Lio called for them from the kitchen, saying that the breakfast was ready. The children reluctantly pulled themselves away from their presents and joined their parents in the kitchen. Song was setting the table, adding christmas themed napkins to the side of every plate.
Lio had made PB&J sandwiches for everyone, figuring that they would be happy with a small breakfast. Everyone would forget about it when they got to open the presents anyway. Kipo almost swallowed down her sandwich, and regretted it when Lio told her that she couldn't leave the table just yet.
She participated in the conversations around the table to make the time go faster. Her siblings guessed what was in their presents and Lio and Song did their best to put on a poker face to not reveal when they guessed it right.
When they finally finished their breakfast, they put their dishes away and cleaned the table from any breadcrumbs that could have been left. When they deemed the kitchen clean, they finally got to enter the livingroom to open their gifts.
Kipo was the first one to sit down on the floor, immediately giving out one round of presents to everyone. When they all had one each, they took turns opening them. Because of Kipo's lack of patience, she got to open her present first. Her present was decent sized and not too heavy and shaped like a rectangle. She read the note on the front of the packet. It said "To Kipo, love Mom".
She unwrapped the present as fast as she could, not minding the sea of paper around her. She gasped when she revealed her present. It was a family game named Mouthful. While it wasn't a board game that Kipo knew that she had wished for, she couldn't wait to play the new game with her family. Plus, they almost had all kinds of board games at home already anyway.
"We need to play this later!" Kipo said in excitment, turning the box over to look at the instructions.
"Sure, I'll bring napkins because there's a lot of drool involved", Song said and the others chuckled.
"Thanks, mom!" Kipo said and hugged her tightly.
Next, it was Wolf's turn. She picked out the smallest packet of the bunch that she got, wanting to go from smallest to biggest. The front of the packet claimed that it was from Kipo. She unwrapped it as Kipo watched her with the biggest grin in the world. Wolf finished unwrapping it and ended up with a purple whistle in her hand.
"A whistle?" she asked in confusion, not knowing what it was for except making a bunch of noise - which she didn't like.
"For your dogs! I thought you could use it to train them!" Kipo explained and an instant smile was brought up on Wolf's lips when she understood the meaning of the gift.
"Thank you!" she smiled, and rolled her eyes as Kipo pulled her into a hug.
When she finally was let go, she gave the whistle a few blows to make sure it worked. Lio cringed at the loud, deafening noise.
"Well this won't get annoying", he commented and Song laughed at him.
Benson was the third one to open his gift. He chose the one from Dave, which was a pretty small present. But Dave claimed that whatever was inside had a deep meaning. He struggled slightly to open it, but it didn't take long for him to reveal a green fan, not much bigger than his hand. For the others, the fan probably seemed insignificant. But to Benson, it was very special. A fan was what had caused the war between the fanatics and the Daves, after all. Benson and Dave had been the ones to end it several years ago.
He couldn't help but tear up at the memory.
"I thought you deserved it", Dave pointed out with a grin and Benson wiped his tears with the end of his sleeve.
"You need to open that one now", Benson sniffled, pointing at one of Dave's smaller presents, similar to the shape of Benson's.
Dave did as he was suggested and opened the present, gasping at the sight of an almost identical fan, although his was blue and Benson's was green.
"We both have our own fan now!" Dave cheered and held his fan up to the air, watching as Benson did the same.
The rest of the family watched the two in adoration, finding it cute that they got the exact same gift for each other. It clearly showed their deep bond.
The moment was cut short when Dave noticed how much cooler the green fan looked, than his own blue. Green was such a better color. He was sure that Benson wouldn't mind. He didn't waste a second before he snatched the green fan out of Benson's hand, smiling at it.
"Hey! What did you do that for!?" Benson exclaimed in a sour tone.
"You can have the blue one. I like green", Dave replied, turning his back on Benson.
"But the green is mine!"
"Nu-uh. It's mine now."
But Benson didn't accept no for an answer. He threw himself at Dave who fought to fight free. He managed to run away and Benson came after him, shouting at him to return the fan.
"Dave, give it back!" Benson shouted but Dave would not budge.
The rest of the Oak's sighed, but continued to open their presents.
Mandu was next. She didn't take too long before she dragged a present from under the tree. The note read that it was from Kipo. She ripped the paper open with her teeth. She was met with two gigantic bags, filled with cheesepuffs. The bags were almost as big as her. She squealed in happiness and jumped up and down, trying to dig into the bags immediately for the tasty snack. Kipo helped her open the first bag, and Mandu buried her face in the cheesy treat. She would growl whenever Lio tried to sneak a hand into the bag to grab a cheesepuff.
As Mandu enjoyed her snack, Song decided to open her present. She picked out the biggest present of hers, reading the note where it said that it was from Lio. She carefully ripped open the wrapping paper. Four science books were stacked on top of each other. Song hadn't read them before, and she couldn't wait to dig her nose into the pages.
Benson and Dave were still running back and forth in the background. Lio ignored them as it was his turn to open his present. It claimed to be from everyone.
His family watched him closely as he unwrapped the present. It turned out to be the new cooking book that he'd been eyeing for weeks. He'd merely commented to Song in november that he was planning to buy it, but he hadn't expected to get as a christmas gift. The cooking book had several recipes that he knew already, but half of them were new ones that he would really like to try in the future.
Next, they restarted the process with the rest of their presents. Everyone had gotten one present from each family member. Their wishes had been met, and they ended up having everything that they wished for. Kipo and Song got an old telescope that Lio had been given from the Newton Wolves. They couldn't wait to get to look at the stars when the sun went down. Benson and Dave had decided to accidentally prank each other. They seemingly had the same mind, as they had given each other presents with a dozen layers, just for it to end up being empty. They weren't called the Prank Kings for nothing.
Wolf got a dog plushie to add to her bed. Everyone knew that she didn't care much for toys, but the dog was too cute to reject. Mandu was in a cheese paradise and she seemed so happy that she was almost bouncing off the place. Lio was given a ticket to a pasta buffet, where he could eat all the pasta that his heart could ever wish for.
In the end, it ended up being the best christmas ever. Nothing could ruin the day for anyone. They were enjoying their gifts in each other's company. It just couldn't get better.
While she was thankful for all the gifts that she'd been given, Kipo knew that they weren't the reason why she was so happy. It was thanks to her family. Nothing could ever make her happier than being with her family.
Not even the biggest present in the world.