'Twas the week before Christmas and all through the Calhoun household, no creature was stirring, excepted Forrest Calhoun climbing up the back wall. Truth be told, his curfew was 10:00 whilst he was living under his fathers rules, but sometimes that's just too early. So today he decided to sneak back in at 2:50 in the morning, totally drunk, with his drinking buddies throwing rocks at him as he climbed up the wall, trying to knock him down. He reached his window eventually, held his middle finger aloft, and almost fell of the wall again.

He managed to force the window leading onto the hall open, and clamber in. Halfway. He managed to fall asleep with his face on the floor and his feet sticking out of the window for at least a couple of hours. By the time he woke up he was just slightly tipsy. "Oh, dammit!" He muttered, as he manually lifted his feet from over the windowsill, shut it and stumbled to his bed, spewing a variety of colourful words at top volume. By the time he got to his room and climbed into bed, some of the neighbours were switching their lights on, checking out the source of the problem.

He woke up again at 8:30 fully dressed, with beer down the front of his shirt, and sand in his socks and shoes. It was typical of him to come back from a wild night out in this state, even more so around Christmas or Lent, just so he could prove he would not be able to give up alcohol, no matter what time of the year. He changed into clean clothes, a green t-shirt, brown leather aviator jacket and blue jeans. His head was throbbing, it felt like a power drill was being forced through his head. With great difficulty, he willed himself to shuffle downstairs and rifle through the medicine cabinet to find some painkillers.

Linus, like usual, hadn't gotten much sleep. Since he'd been sent to live with his uncle and cousins for the next few months, he'd been kind of out of sorts. The nine year old felt sick and sleep-deprived, but he climbed out of bed anyway, staggering exhausted and bleary-eyed into the bathroom only to bump into his 17 year old cousin Forrest, who was rummaging through the medicine cabinet. Linus overreacted to the surprise, stumbling backwards and colliding with the door.
"Aah!! S-sorry, I didn't see you! I'm sorry, Forrest! I'm sorry!" The poor kid apologized at least six or seven more times, his light brown eyes welling up with tears. He'd always been a bit overemotional, and Forrest kind of scared Linus. Linus's father, Forrest's uncle, was also an alcoholic, and Linus had a few bad experiences...

Wrapped up in a blanket, Gianna turned over to see Alex's sleepy face only inches from hers. The two had met just this last semester and she hadn't grown tired of looking at him yet. She doubt she ever could. Planting a gentle kiss on his forehead, she slipped from the bed revealing herself to be adorned in one Alex's tee-shirt's and her underwear. Her father and older brother would probably have something to say about the nights spent over at her new boyfriend's but she was excited to introduce Alex to all of them this holiday week. Making her way to the bathroom she continued to get ready with her day; taking a shower, curling her hair, and getting dressed in a light weight sweater and leggings. The south was still warm but during the winter it was chilly for the usually heat oriented girl. After getting ready she looked back to the bed where Alex had remained sleeping. Climbing up the side she leaned over him "Baaaaaby." she sang playfully to him, her petite hand shaking his shoulder gently. "We gotta get up and go over to my dad's for breakfast. I promised."

Alex had always been a heavy sleeper, but whenever Gia tried to wake him up it always seemed to work quickly. He woke up to see her beautiful face and slowly sat up. "Hey, Boo Bear." Alex stretched when after he fully sat up. "I'll take a quick shower and get ready." He stood up and gave her a big hug. He then made his way to the bathroom where he did as he said and took a quick shower. He got ready and put on some blues jeans, a t-shirt, and his leather jacket. Unlike Gia, Alex was more suited for the cold. He didn't get cold easily, and he usually only wore a jacket because it felt nice or in case she started getting cold he'd let her wear his. He went over to where Gia was and said, "I'm ready to head out. So, what is there I should prepare for when meeting them?"

Gia smiled, sitting on the bed while Alex went to go shower.

She sent a text to her father while she waited revealing her intentions of the holiday week. Sliding her small fingers across her phone she wrote:

Morning Daddy! Will be home soon. Hope you're ready to meet the boyfriend. <3

She pressed sent. She had always been a daddy's girl and her age never changed that. As Alex came out of the bathroom she got up from the bed and gave him a tight hug. "You look cute." she complimented, before starting to slip her socks on and beginning to look for her shoes. She begin to slip on a boot when Alex asked her a question. "Well, I'm not sure all who is going to be there this morning but for sure my Dad. You know how I feel about him." Gia started, she had always talked to Alex about how she admired her father, and felt that she was just like him in many ways. "Then my brothers, and my cousin are going to be there of course." she started to laugh, "You're going to have to just figure them out yourself, since they are wild cards." she laughed again, sticking her tongue out playfully. She finally had her boots on and was ready to head out. Nodding to Alex, she began to open his apartment door.

Alex put his shoes on and smiled at Gia. He was happy to finally meet her family, but also extremely nervous. He definitely didn't want to mess this up. Once outside while he was locking the door he said, "How far away is your house again? We may need to stop for gas." He looked to her with a slight smile. He also wasn't sure where exactly the house was either. He has always been terrible with directions. She most likely knew that was the real reason he asked how far the house was. He started walking towards his truck while they talked.

Heading towards the truck Gia began to pull out the address for her house. "It's not too far from here." Gia had been attending college and didn't want to be too far from home in case of emergency. With that, she wiggled her phone at Alex. "Just got to listen to good old GPS here." she gleamed, handing him her phone so he could take a look at the directions and place it at a safe place for their travels. It was no more than 45 minutes away. Climbing into the truck, she buckled her seat belt and settled in for the drive home. "You don't have to be nervous by the way." she mentioned, squeezing his hand.

Alex took the phone and when he got in he placed it in the cup holder in a way he could hear it. When she grabbed his hand he squeezed back leaning over to her and giving her a kiss. "I know, but how could I not be. I just don't wanna mess this up." He buckled himself up and started the truck. He gave one last smile to Gia before driving off.

"Do you have to go?" Allison questioned as she turned the corner of the room and entered the home's main hallway. Jay stopped, attentive of her abruptness and turned with haste. A look of disappointment weighted on his brow, eyes glaring into the heart of his beloved. He could see the worry that befell her, taking proper steps to reach her proximity in attempt to aid her concern. Her chin tilted upward as her eyes met his, teeth biting her lower lip in thought.

"Yeah. Don't worry, I got this," Jay responded, hands placed on her shoulders - preventing her body from trembling more than it already was. Allison was uncertain of Jay's ability to remain leveled around his family. She knew how substantial his bitterness was towards some of his family members and feared what could happen in her absence. In addition, it would have been their third Christmas together, but every year Jay ended up in the Calhoun household with his family - Allison visiting her own. He has never even mentioned he had a girlfriend, let alone a fiance. This bothered Allison substantially, but Jay's actions to uphold his relationship information from his family was understandable. They lived a private life and preferred to keep it that way if the latter meant suffering from a disquieting affinity.

To ease any hidden tensions, a hug was administered in addition to a kiss. Jay held her by the cheeks and granted her a smile. "I love you. I'll see you when I get back," he added, heading out the door as she watched him reach his small black Tacoma. He waved out the window as the cold air struck him upon acceleration. No music played from his radio as most local stations shut down for the holidays, enjoying the weekend with their families. On his way to the house, memories of his own festivities clouded his senses. Attempting to remain positive, joyful memories came to mind. Though as they started to become exhausted, a collection of obscure concepts troubled him. The journey home couldn't get any better

Forrest was interrupted in his painkiller search by his annoying little cousin. Forrest never really cared for little Linus, and it would make no difference if he was around or if he was not. He chuckled slightly at the small boy's overreaction to seeing him. Linus always acted like he was scared of Forrest, which he both enjoyed and was confused by. To capitalise on the fear tactics he used to gain dominance over the boy he snapped his head around, narrowing his eyes.

"What the hell are you talking about, kiddo? Of course you're sorry. I have a goddam splitting headache and I don't need some clumsy kid slamming into doorways and making it worse! You got that, small fry?" He rolled his eyes as his father intervened, telling Linus not to worry and asking him to help laying the table because Jay and Gianna were coming over... Oh, damn. Jay and Gianna were coming home, and he'd completely forgotten. He hated Jay with a passion, and the feeling was mutual, and he was like an overprotective parent to Gianna, not that he would let on that he cares about her.

He listened to his fathers lecture, but it was nothing new. You couldn't get drunk and not have a hangover, and you wouldn't be able to sleep with half of the girls in Blackpoint if you weren't so drunk you could barely see what they looked like. In Forrests opinion, being drunk was the easiest way to have fun. "I would make myself look more 'decent' pops!" He yelled after his father as he disappeared upstairs "But! All my other shirts are covered in blood, beer, motor oil or other... things." It was times like these when he wanted to put on his overalls, drive up to the local garage and help fix up that white Cadillac Eldoarado he'd has his eye one. Engineering was his great passion, and he dreamt of going to the Georgia Institute of Technology, then owning his own garage. He huffed, pushing some rouge strands of hair out of his eyes, and putting some glasses and a jug of orange juice on the table.

Linus scurried out of the bathroom as soon as his uncle gave him an excuse to leave. He ran downstairs to the kitchen and started hurriedly setting enough places at the table to accommodate everyone. The morning was already off to a bad start, but he was going to do all he could to salvage it. Namely not bothering Forrest any more. Really, the 17 year old scared the crap out of Linus. He didn't even remember why he came into the bathroom, anyway...

Still feeling nervous and a bit sick, he finished up setting the table and dashed out of the kitchen so he wouldn't be in the same room as Forrest anymore. Once he was out in the living room, he had remembered what he wanted with the bathroom, and tried to carefully sneak upstairs to go back and use it, hoping Forrest would stay in the kitchen at least until breakfast.

It didn't take very long to get to Gia's house. When he grabbed her phone to hand back to her he quickly looked to see about how far his family was. His childhood home was about five hours away so it would probably be a stretch to get his and Gia's family together at some point during the holidays. He handed the phone to her and said, "So, any last minute advice?" Once she responded he got out of the truck and walked towards the door with Gia. He turned to her and said, "So, here goes nothing." Alex knocked on the door and waited for someone to answer.