Chapter 278:

Jeremy rolled over, stretched his long thin body and began to wake up, his eyes still a bit fuzzy as he wiped the sleep away. All of a sudden his eyes opened wide and he sat straight up in his bed.

"It's Christmas." he said out loud and then looked over to see if he'd woken Sammy up in his excitement.

When he was sure that Sammy was still sound asleep, he slipped out of bed and quietly opened the door to their room. He poked his head out into the hallway and listened for any sign of someone else being awake. He didn't hear anything so he left the bedroom and shut the door as quietly as he could.

As he moved down the hall towards the stairs, he stopped first at the girls' room and then at Mama and Papa's room to listen for anyone stirring. All was quiet so he kept going, stepping lightly, trying to avoid the places in the floor that creaked. In this silence those sounds would be magnified.

He reached the stairs and went down to the bottom. He looked out the window next to the door. He knew Papa said it was highly unlikely that it would snow but he still hoped it would. He liked all of the pictures he'd always seen of Christmas with snow and sleigh rides. That seemed like it would be lots of fun.

He turned and headed for the room with the Christmas tree. That's where the presents should be. He knew he told that Santa the other day that he didn't want or need anything but that wasn't entirely true.

He meant what he'd said about not needing anything now that he and Holly had a home and a Mom and Dad so they could stay together but, he couldn't help hoping there were just a couple of gifts for him. He wanted there to be lots of gifts for Holly. Like him, she'd been so happy since they moved to Clearwater and not only gained a Mom and Dad but a brother and sisters too.

He hadn't liked having to get himself into trouble all of those other times, but it had been the only way for him to make sure they weren't separated. He did things that made the people mad enough that they would send him back to the orphanage, saying that they couldn't deal with such a disobedient child.

When he was younger, he decided that that was why Santa hadn't brought them any gifts. Santa didn't bring gifts to naughty children, or so he'd been told. As he got older and decided that Santa wasn't even real, he had just tried to ignore Christmas and pretend it was just another day. But Holly was upset at Christmas the past couple of years, once she was old enough to know that most kids got presents at Christmas and she was just a little kid and didn't understand yet that all they'd had was each other.

It was so different now. He'd finally stopped thinking he was going to wake up and find it had all been a dream. He had been so afraid since coming home with the Izambards that something would happen that would send them back to the orphanage. Only this time he knew that if that happened there was no way he and Holly would stay together. The orphanage where they had lived for several years was closed forever, all of the children split up into other places and he'd heard that among the older children, the boys and girls would go to separate places. He was so afraid if they were separated that he would never see his sister again.

But Papa had promised that as soon as it was possible, he and Holly would get adopted just like Sammy, Kayti and Lauren had been. And that would mean they were really a part of the family forever and would never have to leave.

Before he even got to the room, Jeremy saw the reflection of the lights on the tree shining in the window since it wasn't quite daylight yet.

When he reached the doorway he stopped short gasping at the sight in front of him. He covered his mouth, hoping he hadn't been loud enough to wake anyone else.

The tree lights were indeed on and the floor around it was totally covered with so many brightly colored packages, some large and some smaller, some with bows and others without.

He took a few more steps closer and looked around at the packages and saw that they had stickers on them with peoples names. He knew he probably shouldn't but he couldn't help himself and he looked closer trying to read the names on them.

One of the larger ones had a big bow on it and he reached out a tentative finger and lightly pushed the edge of the bow aside so he could read what the sticker said. When he saw his name written in rather large letters, he drew his hand back as if he'd been burned. But then he leaned over to read it again just to be sure it really had said his name.

There it was, JEREMY, in big bold letters and he giggled with the joy he felt. He didn't even stop to wonder what was inside the package. He was just so overcome that there was something there with his name on it.

He looked at a few more packages wanting to be sure there were some for Holly too. He found packages that held the names of each one of the children, and even some for Mama and Papa. But he felt relief when he found several with Holly's name on them.

He finally turned and tiptoed out of the room heading back up the stairs, stopping at the girls' door. He tested the doorknob to see if he could turn it without making too much noise. He wanted to see if Holly was awake but he knew he didn't want Kayti to wake up yet. She would wake the whole house up. She didn't know how to be quiet very well yet.

He stepped into the room and looked at both girls and saw that they were still sound asleep. He sat on the edge of Holly's bed and leaned down to whisper in her ear.

"Holly.....Holly wake up. It's Christmas and Santa came. He really came."

"What?" Holly said waking up and startled at seeing her brother sitting there.

"Shhhh, you have to be quiet. No one else is awake yet. It's Christmas and Santa came. I saw all of the presents he brought, even for us. I saw our names on some of the presents. Do you want to see?"

Holly didn't need to be asked twice and she quickly got out of bed and put her slippers on. Jeremy reminded her again to be quiet as they left the room. He peeked in once more as he shut the door, wanting to be sure they hadn't woken Kayti up.

*

Jeremy had thought he'd been undetected when he was first downstairs but he didn't know that Grandmere had spent the night in the one small bedroom that was downstairs. She had gotten up to start some early preparations for breakfast and had heard someone on the stairs. She had stood silently and unnoticed in the other doorway as she had watched him in front of the tree.

His look of disbelief and unbridled joy had been almost unbearable to watch. Seb had told her that Jeremy and Holly had never had a real Christmas, at least not one that they could remember.

Even when things hadn't been going so well for them when Seb was young, she'd always tried her best with what little she had to make Christmas special. She knew that Sebastien and Lisa didn't want to spoil the children but they wanted them to have a Christmas they would never forget.

She heard sounds again and peeked out and saw Jeremy again, only this time Holly was with him, both of them trying to be quiet as they came downstairs. She went into the dining room where she had seen Lisa leave the video camera last night. She'd used it a few times so she got it turned on and tried not to let them hear her.

*

Jeremy held Holly's hand as they entered the room. She had the same look on her face that Jeremy had as they stared at the tree and all of the gifts piled underneath. Neither one spoke for several moments. They just took in the unbelievable scene in front of them, still holding onto each other's hand.

"Can you believe it, Holly? Santa really came."

"Can we open them?"

"No, I think we have to wait for Mama and Papa to wake up."

They went to the sofa and climbed up, sitting close together just happy to look at the bounty of gifts in front of them.

Marlene paused the video after a couple of moments and tiptoed back to the kitchen, trying to gain control of her emotions. If they found her awake, she didn't want them to see her upset.

When she peeked back in on them, she smiled when she saw that they had fallen back to sleep snuggled together in the center of the sofa. She went back and got the camera and took a few moments of video of them before going back to the kitchen.

*

It was nearly an hour later that the others in the house began to stir. Jessica started it by announcing very loudly that she was wet and hungry. Lauren woke next since they were all in the same room and Seb and Lisa dragged themselves sleepily out of the bed. They had gotten to bed quite late after making sure everything was perfect under the tree and then going upstairs to celebrate Christmas a bit early.

"Joyeaux Noel , Seb" Lisa said and kissed him.

"Merry Christmas, Ma Cherie. I'm so excited to see the children's faces when they go downstairs."

"

Seb took care of changing the girls while Lisa went to the restroom and got ready to feed Jessica. Once Lisa was settled in the chair with Jessica at her breast, he set Lauren on the floor with some toys and stepped out of the room to see if anyone else was up.

He heard Kayti in her room calling for him. When he went in, he immediately noticed that Holly wasn't there.

"Merry Christmas, Ma Petite. Where's Holly?"

Kayti lifted both hands and shrugged her shoulders. "I dunno"

"Well lets go find out."

After letting Kayti make a pit stop in the bathroom, they went to the boys' room and found Sammy just waking up. He was sitting up in his bed rubbing his eyes.

"Hi Papa."

"Hi Buddy. Merry Christmas."

"Oh Boy. It's Christmas. I forgot."

Sammy untangled himself from his blankets as quickly as he could and slid off the bed.

"Can we go see if Santa came? I hope he did find us here in France, cuz I wrote my letter at our Florida house."

"I think Santa knew exactly where you were."

Seb didn't want to take the children downstairs until Lisa was ready so he took Sammy and Kayti to say good morning to Lisa, then he headed back out alone to find Jeremy and Holly.

Marlene heard him on the stairs and met him at the bottom.

"Good Morning Maman. Joyeaux Noel."

"Good morning, Seb"

"Have you seen Holly and Jeremy?"

She gestured for him to be quiet and to follow her.

They were still cuddled together, holding hands on the sofa, facing the tree.

"How long have they been down here?"

"Just over an hour. I'll show you the video I took. They just couldn't believe that there were really gifts for them. The looks on their faces were priceless."

"I'll let them sleep until Lisa finishes feeding Jessica. Then we will all be down. The rest of the children are awake.

*

Holly and Jeremy woke when they heard everyone else coming downstairs. Sammy and Kayti were wide awake and anxious to get to the Christmas tree. Kayti wasn't quite sure about everything yet. But she knew that if her brother was excited, then she should be too.

Jeremy stood in front of Seb, looking up at him, waiting to see if he and Holly would be in trouble for coming down before everyone else.

"Merry Christmas, Son. What did you think when you saw all of this?"

"Santa really came. I didn't think he would come. But he did. I wish I could have stayed awake and seen him, cuz I would have said Thank You."

"Well, you can write him a letter to thank him."

"Look Mommy, Santa ate his cookies and drank his milk. He even took the hay and carrots for the reindeers to eat." Sammy said holding the empty plate that had held the cookies.

Seb had to keep from laughing as he thought of he and Lisa sharing the cookies and milk after they were sure the children had gone to sleep. They had stuffed the hay back in the bag with the leftover hay and Maman had cut up the carrots and added them to the bowl of carrots that would be cooked for dinner later on this afternoon.