The Fairbourne Family

🎄 Collette's POV 🎄

Christmas is my favorite holiday, and winter is my favorite season.

Valentina and I have been running circles trying to decorate for Christmas in our house. My dad—Colton—is coming to stay with us for the holidays and we barely have the house set up.

To be fair, we've been busy, I'm working on the biggest crime scene I have ever since I started working and Zoë has been too. It's been chaotic.

And Val has her hands full with teaching, I know the job isn't easy.

But we're finding a good balance between them all. And finally our girls. They're incredible and just as naughty as ever.

Saylor a little more than usual.

Fleur is five and Saylor is two, almost four. She's the naughtier one out of the two. Like at Thanksgiving when she emptied Stella and Lottie's pot plant of its mulch, alongside Tegan, Zoë and Quinn's daughter.

Those two are as thick as thieves when it comes to trouble.

Fleur is the more serene one of them. Her sister's moral compass in a way. They're best friends who fight like hell. They argue over little things, sometimes it's a slice of bread or a strawberry that's left in a bowl, it doesn't matter they argue over it.

But moments later you can swear that they weren't arguing because it's like it never happened, they go back to playing and talking like everything is normal.

I wish they could be like that all the time and just skip the arguing parts.

I turned over slightly and felt my wife's hand run up and down my back smoothly. "Hi darling," she said softly.

We'd taken a nap earlier because we'd been waking up at crazy hours of the morning and sleeping really late. Rainnie and Emily offered to take our girls out for a little while and Val and I needed it.

We thanked them profusely and once they left we were both fast asleep until now.

"Hi baby," I smiled and turned to look at her properly as I fluttered my eyes open. "Are they back yet?" I asked Val.

"Not yet, Rainnie texted and said she'd just put Saylor down for a nap along with Lily and Fleur and Jackson has gone out to the grocery store with Emily." Valentina filled me in.

"Okay, so we've got a good few hours left," I said and rubbed my eyes.

"Yes we do baby," she kissed my forehead and smiled. "But there's still so much more to our up."

I sighed and buried my head in her neck. "Don't remind me, we barely just got the things to put up," I said.

"I know but think about it, we get to do the tree together this year which means there's less for us to do."

"I'm pretty sure our girls are gonna fight over who's putting the star on the tree," I said with a smile.

"That's why we put it up when Colton comes around, they don't fight when he's here." She smirked at me.

"That is so true," I said and smiled widely. "It's like he has some sort of grandparent superpower that just magically makes them not argue over the small stuff."

"I swear he does." She chuckled lightly. "Do you want to continue putting it all up? I could start on the staircase and you can elf on the shelf."

"My favorite part of all this." I smiled.

We've been doing Elf on the Shelf since Fleur was two. It's always my favorite part of the holidays, seeing how she reacts in the mornings to the little clues and stunts the elf pulled overnight.

It's always so exciting. Now Saylor is old enough to understand so it'll be her first year getting an elf and having her fair share of fun with it all.

"I'll start with the elves and you can do the staircase. I'll help you after I promise." I said as we both got out of bed.

"I know you will darling." She kissed me and I kissed her back softly.

We went downstairs and got started. We had limited time, the girls could see us setting all this up. If they did, they'd want to join in, and as cute as it all is, I'm worried Saylor would want to hide all the smaller ornaments.

Her latest obsession is hiding the things we need. It could be car keys, house keys, or even our dog's collars.

It's cute sometimes because she means well but it stops being cute when you're late to work.

Val and I have resorted to hiding keys from Saylor and Fleur since they do it together most of the time.

I set the elves out on the mantle above the fireplace in the lounge and started writing out each of the notes. One for Saylor and one for Fleur.

I placed a stamp on the edge of each one and placed it next to the elf with their name. I then set up the first "naughty" thing the elf does.

A cardboard-wrapped present that's supposed to be chocolate but isn't. First of many.

Once I finished I went up to help my wife finish up. Once we finished we went to sit down and drink some red wine while we waited for our girls to come home.

And then they did it was evident because a little voice spoke from the door. "I can't reach!"

"They're home," Val said and I smiled.

"There you go," Rainnie said as she opened our door.

"Mommy!" Both our girls ran up to us. Saylor made a beeline for my arms while Fleur ran into Valentina's.

"Hi bear," I smiled and picked her up, planting a kiss on her cheek while she giggled. "Thank you so much Rainnie," I thanked her.

"No worries, it's the least we could do, plus me and Em love having them around." She said softly.

"I hope they weren't too much trouble," Val said.

"Nope, not at all, actually they were both very well-behaved." She said.

"Thank you so much again Rainnie, we really needed it today," Valentina said softly while she held onto Fleur's hand.

"Always," Rainnie hugged Val, "it's why we've been friends for so long, plus this is the least I could do for all the years we lived together." She smiled and so did my wife. "We'll see you guys soon, bye girls."

"Bye Aunty Rainnie," they both waved.