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Growing up, Ilya dreaded Christmas. He hated the fact that his family had to pretend to love each other, and later he hated the reminder of never having another holiday with his mother. He hated the disappointment, he hated the arguing, and most he hated the grief. Then he moved to America and stopped celebrating Christmas, that was until he and Shane started dating. Each year since they got together Yuna and David have graciously hosted the two of them for Christmas, and those have been the best holidays of his life.
This year was different though, not only was it Shane and Ilya’s first time hosting Christmas, but it was their first Christmas as parents. Ilya had been a dad for almost a year at this point and he was determined to be the loving father he never had, and that meant giving his daughter the best Christmas of her 2 ½ years of life… even if she probably won’t remember it.
They had decided to host their first Christmas at the cottage and drove up a few days early to decorate and get everything ready. Shane may have been going a bit overboard trying to impress his parents, but Ilya found it endearing. The cottage was beautiful this time of year, the three of them had spent the last few nights sitting in the living room with the fireplace on, and watching the snow fall outside. They would listen to music, play games, watch movies or just talk, enjoying each other's company. Tonight was Christmas eve and as much as they wanted to stay up all night watching movies with their daughter, they knew it was long past her bedtime.
“Phoebe we’ve already read the book to you in 3 languages, English, French and Russian, we don’t know anymore languages.” Shane informs Phoebe as she’s begging Shane and Ilya to read her ‘The Night Before Christmas’ one more time.
“But I don’t want to go to sleep.” Phoebe whines, she's wearing a matching pajama set that Rose gave her as an early Christmas gift. The set was red and covered in a pattern of hockey-playing penguins, Phoebe never wanted to take them off. Rose also gifted Shane and Ilya pajama pants with the same pattern, so they could match with Phoebe of course.
“But Phoebe if you don’t sleep Santa won’t come and bring you lots of gifts.” Ilya reminds her.
“Will Santa know we are here?” Phoebe asks laying down.
“Yes of course Phoebe, Santa never gets lost.” Shane persists.
“You promise?” She says sticking out her pinky.
“I promise.” Shane says interlocking their pinkies before giving her a small kiss on the forehead. “Bonne nuit, je t'aime”
Shane stands up and Ilya moves next to Phoebe tucking her bed sheets tightly around her, also leaving a small kiss on her forehead. “Спокойной ночи, я тебя люблю.”
“Goodnight dada and papa, I love you” Phoebe responds before closing her eyes and squirming deeper into her beadsheets.
Ilya turns off her light and closes the door to her room.
Shane stands on his toes and places a soft kiss on Ilya’s lips, “Not so bad right?” Shane says after.
“Yes we make a good team.” Ilya responds placing his arm around Shane’s back as they walk towards the living room.
“Took us long enough” Shane returns.
Once they reach the living room Shane sits down on the couch and Ilya joins him laying down on his lap. Shane starts to run his fingers through Ilya’s long curls, Ilya loves it when Shane does this.
“I really can’t wait for Phoebe to open her gifts.” Shane says softly.
“Yes she will be so excited.” Ilya says smiling.
“And to think this time last year we were freaking out about our adoption paperwork, and trying to get everything ready for her.” Shane says this and looks down towards Ilya who’s smiling. “What?”
“I remember when we were trying to build her crib, you spent hours trying to build it on your own before you let me help.” Ilya replies.
“All it turns out I had just left half the instructions in the box.” Shane laughs.
“Where you never would have looked if I hadn’t brought it up.” Ilya points out. “Admit it, you need me.”
“I do need you. I’ve always needed you.” Shane says, then moves to give Ilya a kiss.
Ilya deepens the kiss then puts his arms under Shane’s shirt and wraps them around his warm torso. Ilya finally lets go of the kiss and whispers a small ‘thank you’ to Shane.
“This is nice, but we have to put the gifts under the tree.” Shane says, encouraging Ilya off his lap so he can get them from the closet where he hid them a week ago. He told Phoebe that he was going up to the cottage just to drop off decorations but he was dropping off much more than just decorations.
Ilya finally got up, after a few more kisses, and followed Shane to the closet full of gifts. All of the gifts were very neatly wrapped, courtesy of Shane, except for the ones addressed to Shane, those had been wrapped not so neatly by Ilya. Ilya had tried his best, he just never really got the hang of it, but who cares how it’s wrapped, what really mattered was what was on the inside. As they brought all the gifts over to the tree Ilya slowly began to realize just how overboard they went on gifts for Phoebe, she was absolutely spoiled, but Ilya wouldn’t have it any other way. The tree was surrounded by boxes covered in sparkling wrapping paper and the stocking that hung from the mantel labeled with a P overflowed and the two labeled with an S and I were both properly stuffed as well. Shane and Ilya had shopped for Phoebe’s stocking stuffers together but they had each gone out separately to pick out items for each other’s stocking.
“Well it looks like Santa came.” Ilya said standing in front of the tree admiring all the gifts. He had his arm wrapped around Shane's waist and Shane was leaning into him.
“Seems like it” Shane replies.
“There is one gift I think Santa forgot to put under the tree though.” Ilya says cheekily, turning towards Shane.
“Oh ya what's that?” Shane asks, and quickly gets an answer when Ilya begins to pull Shane's shirt up and off. Ilya then pulls shirtless Shane into him and kisses him deeply.
Shane let go first and looked up at Ilya, “We made a rule Ilya, no sex when Phoebe is here.”
“Aww but it is Christmas” Ilya whines and takes his own shirt off.
“I’ll ask my parents to watch her later this week, then we can have all the sex you want.” Shane smiles and kisses Ilya before turning and walking away towards their bedroom.
Once again Shane has won, but Ilya will hold him to that promise. He follows Shane to their bedroom, both of them deciding not to put their shirts back on. They climb into bed and cuddle up together. Ilya can feel Shane's warm back up against his stomach.
“I love you Ilya.” Shane says quietly.
“I love you too” Ilya replies and closes his eyes. He can hear Shane’s shallow breathing and in this moment, there is no place Ilya would rather be.
The next morning Shane and Ilya were woken up by a very excited toddler crawling into bed with them.
“Papa, Dada! Santa came, wake up!” Phoebe said happily.
Ilya opened his eyes but stayed comfortably in bed. Shane on the other hand, was sat up with Phoebe now in his lap.
“Ok, let's get Papa up so we can go see!’ Shane says excitedly.
Phoebe grabs Ilya’s hand and pulls him upright, “C’mon Papa, we have to see what Santa brought!”
“Yes, yes lets go see” Ilya says sleepily. He rolls out of bed and follows Phoebe to the living room.
“Look at all the gifts!” Phoebe says happily. “Can we open them?”
“You can open your stocking, but we have to wait for grandma and grandpa to come to open gifts.” Shane explains.
“When are they coming?” Phoebe asks.
“In a little bit, now go open your stocking and see what Santa brought you.” Shane tells her.
“Okay!” She says then runs over to her stocking.
Ilya takes the stocking down and hands it over to Phoebe. He also grabs Shane and his so they can all sit and open them together. Ilya loved watching Phoebe pull out all the new toys and knick-knacks they had found for her, nothing made him happier than her smile. One thing that did compare though was the smile on Shane's face as he opened his stocking. Ilya had gotten him some cologne, his favorite socks, a new planner for the year + his favorite pens to go with it, along with a few other small things, but what Ilya was most excited about was the trading card at the bottom of the stocking.
“Ilya, did you really get me a trading card of you from our rookie season?” Shane says holding it up to face Ilya.
“Don’t you want to remember the player you fell in love with?” Ilya asks with a massive grin across his face.
“I don’t need a card, he’s sitting right in front next to our daughter.” Shane quips back.
“Well you can put it in your wallet, you know for when I am away at war or something,” Ilya responds.
“Where did you even find this?” Shane asks.
“On Ebay, I had to fight in a bidding war. It was difficult.” Ilya says dramatically.
“Oh wow, I can’t believe you would go through all that trouble for me.” Shane says mockingly.
“Yes, remember that when you complain our clothes aren't folded properly.” Ilya tells him, still looking through his own stocking. Shane had also gotten him some socks and slippers to go along with them as well as his favorite coffee, some Russian candy and a couple luxury car magazines.
“Do you like it?” Shane asks.
“It’s perfect.” Ilya responds already opening the candy to try, he hadn’t had this kind in so long. “How did you get the candy?”
“I asked Svetlana to bring me some last time she went to Russia.” Shane tells him.
“Seems like we both planned in advance.” Ilya says.
“Seems like it.” Shane replies.
“Papa, Dada, look Santa brought me a lamb!” Phoebe stumbles over to sit in Ilya’s lap so she can show him her new stuffed animal.
“Aww it is so cute.” Ilya says then looks up at Shane who’s smiling.
“Grandma and Grandpa are on their way, do you want to go get dressed Phoebe?” Shane asks, standing up from his spot in the rug.
“Yes! I want my dress!” Phoebe says, hopping up off Ilya’s lap and running to her room, her little hand still tightly gripping her new stuffed lamb.
Shane follows Phoebe into her bedroom and Ilya takes this as his opportunity to get dressed as well. He put on a dark green sweater and some jeans then ran a little bit of product through his hair so his curls weren’t quite as crazy as they had been prior. He hears little footsteps coming towards his room and he looks over to see Phoebe wearing a little red dress with white frilly sock and her dark hair in two buns with little bows on each.
“Ahh you look so beautiful Phoebe, can you do a spin?” Ilya asks.
Phoebe does a little twirl before leaving the room probably to go play with all the things she got in her stocking.
Shane walks into the room and gives Ilya a small kiss. “You look good.” Shane tells him.
“So do you.” Ilya smirks.
“I’m not even dressed.” Shane says confused.
“Exactly.” Ilya says before kissing him again.
“Go make sure our daughter isn’t prematurely opening all her gifts in the living room.” Shane says walking over to their closet.
“Okay.” Ilya leaves the room and walks into the living room to see Phoebe quietly playing with her stocking stuffers. How did they get this great of a kid? Ilya grabs a cup of coffee then sits down next to Phoebe. “Do you want to help papa make some breakfast?”
“Ya!” She says dropping her toys and jumping up off her spot on the ground.
Ilya and Phoebe wash their hands and start cooking pancakes, Shane also joins in once he finishes getting dressed in a beige quarter zip and jeans. They finish cooking breakfast just as there's a knock at the door.
“That must be my parents.” Shane says and finishes wiping off his freshly washed hands. The three of them walk over to the door to greet them.
“Grandma, Grandpa!” Phoebe shouts happily as Yuna and David walk in.
“Hey Pheebs” David says, bending over to pick her.
“You look so pretty Phoebe.” Yuna tells her. Then turns to hug Ilya and Shane. “Merry Christmas my boys.”
“Merry Christmas mom, you had perfect timing, we just finished breakfast.” Shane tells her.
“Oh perfect. We have a few gifts in the car we just need to go grab.” Yuna replies.
“I can go grab them, you two go ahead and get some food.” Ilya tells her.
“Thank you dear.” Yuna says.
Ilya grabs the gifts from David’s car and puts them under the tree with all the other gifts before joining the rest of the family at the table. Phoebe is sat at the head of the table with Shane on one side of her and Yuna on the other. David is sat next to Yuna so Ilya takes the seat next to Shane who is cutting up Phoebe’s very syrupy pancakes.
“The house looks beautiful, you guys did a great job on the decorations.” Yuna says, glancing around.
“That was all my doing.” Shane shares proudly.
“No not true, me and Phoebe worked very hard putting the ornaments on the tree.” Ilya says looking over at Phoebe.
“Ya!” Phoebe says with a mouth full of pancake.
“Well all three of you did a great job.” David adds.
The family ate and talked, well Phoebe did most of the talking because she had to tell David and Yuna everything Santa put in her stocking. Ilya loved every moment of it, the day had just begun and this was already the best Christmas of his life. Once they all finished eating they quickly cleaned up breakfast because Phoebe did not want to wait any longer to open gifts and she was very vocal about it.
Phoebe quickly opened her gifts from Santa and was very happy about all the toys and books she received, along with her gifts from Santa she got more toys and some clothes from David and Yuna. Shane and Ilya had decided their gifts to Phoebe would be saved till last because of the nature of them. From Shane and Ilya David received lots of new kitchen items along with a Russian cook book, not that Ilya was trying to drop any hints or anything. They also got him his yearly subscription to the New York Times along with some nice new shirts and sweaters. Yuna received some perfumes, fancy skincare, and some very expensive jewelry that the boys just couldn’t resist. In return Shane’s parents were also very generous with their gifts to their sons, this also included them agreeing to watch Phoebe during a weekend of Shane and Ilya’s choosing so they could have little weekend getaway just the two of them, Ilya was extremely pleased.
When it came to getting gifts for each other the two had agreed on one big gift for each other since they get each other gifts just because all the time. Ilya’s gift to Shane was a beautiful one of a kind Rolex with their wedding date engraved on the bottom of the face. This watch came with a note on top that said ‘It may have taken us forever to get here, but here’s a reminder that I'm in it for the long game. -I ’. Ilya watched as Shane opened it and he swore he saw a small tear fall down Shane's cheek as he read the note.
Once Shane finished admiring his new watch and gathered himself he gave Ilya his gift. When Ilya opened it he was also greeted by a note on top that said, ‘The only I will ever let you win is my heart. -S’ Ilya chuckled a little at this. He moved the note and opened the small box underneath. Shane had gotten him a gold signet right with three small gemstones embedded into it, an emerald with two moonstones on either side of it.
“It’s mine, yours, and Phoebe’s birthstones.” Shane says finally speaking up.
Great, now Ilya wanted to cry, “It’s perfect.” Ilya placed it on his pinky and it fit just right. Ilya placed a small kiss on Shane’s cheek and whispered an ‘I love you’ into his ear.
“Ok I think it's finally time for Phoebe to open her gift from us.” Shane says standing up and walking over to the tree. There were two gifts left, a long skinny box and a smaller square box. He grabs the long skinny box and hands it to Phoebe to open.
Phoebe tears into the wrapping quickly and opens the box. “A hockey stick! Just like Dada and Papa’s!” She says excitedly. She stands up and starts playing pretend hockey with her tiny toddler sized hockey stick.
“Yes and we have one more gift.” Ilya says, handing her the small square box.
Phoebe puts the stick down and eagerly unwraps the box. Inside there was a pair of very small hockey skates. “Skates! Can I go try!?” Phoebe says already trying to put them on.
“How about you go with Papa and change into something warmer and then we can go skate.” Shane tells her as he's picking up the wrapping paper that’s been scattered across the floor and shoving it into a trashbag.
“Ok!” Phoebe agrees and runs towards her room.
Ilya follows behind her and helps her change into her ‘snow clothes’ and makes sure to grab her the thickest socks he can find so she doesn’t get blisters. Once she’s all dressed he sends her back to the living and goes to his and Shane's room so he can grab their jackets and skates.
When he joins the others in the living room he sees that Shane’s parents had also put their jackets on. He hands Shane his jacket and skates and they all head down to the lake which is completely frozen over this time of year and perfect for skating. Shane helped Phoebe put on her brand new skates and the three of them slowly stepped out onto the ice. Shane skated on one side of Phoebe holding her and Ilya was on the other doing the same.
Phoebe was definitely a bit wobbly at first but Ilya was surprised at how quickly she got the hang of it. “You are a natural.” Ilya tells her as they start to skate a little faster.
“I’m gonna be a hockey player just like you!” She responds happily.
The 5 of them stayed outside and skated for hours, Phoebe was on cloud 9. David and Yuna cheered and took pictures as Phoebe skated back and forth increasingly longer distances between Shane and Ilya. She was definitely going to have a few bruises later, but regardless of that, Ilya knew that this Christmas would be one to remember, and these were memories that he would cherish forever.