The lights of the Honda minivan lit up the white driveway on the frigid night of December 24th. 

“Thanks for picking me up from the shop” Angie said, grabbing Johnny’s hand.

“You’re welcome honey, ” replied Johnny, “I know work has been hard and you wanted to be home before Eve went to bed.”

As soon as the front door swung open, Eve and Leo’s heads popped up from the kitchen chairs to look at their parents. 

“Mom and dad are home!” exclaimed Leo. The kids ran quickly across the floor to greet their parents. 

“Merry Christmas! What have you guys been up to?” Angie asked, hugging the kids.

“Making cookies with grandma” Eve replied as she pointed to Grandma Myra covered in flour in the kitchen with a warm smile across her face. 

“And grandpa’s watching football again,” Leo sighed “he didn’t want to make them with us.” 

“C’mon dad it's Christmas Eve, spend some time with the kids before they go to sleep.” Johnny said resting his hand on his father’s shoulder.

Grandpa Daniel had a very grinch-like personality, he seemed to wake up on the wrong side of the bed every morning, and even when he woke up on the right side of the bed, it didn’t last very long. 

“No I'm okay, Myra is in the kitchen with them, and the Ravens are playing.” Daniel said frowning with his eyes still glued to the TV screen. 

After finishing the cookies with their grandma, Eve and Leo set up a glass of milk and their fresh baked cookies for Santa to eat when he came to their house. 

“Eve and Leo, it's time for bed” Angie said.

“But we’re not tired yet” Eve and Leo said while yawning. 

“You guys, Santa will be here soon, and remember that he can’t bring you presents until you’re asleep.” Johnny bent down to say to the kids.

“Okayyy, but only for Santa” the kids said as they ran off to get ready for bed.

After tucking Eve and Leo into bed and saying goodnight, Angie and Johnny celebrated Christmas Eve themselves, making coquito while talking to Grandma Myra. 

“How has work been for the both of you?” Grandma Myra asked.

“Very tiring this month, those extra shifts are extremely busy” Angie said.

“Mines aren’t too fun either,” Johnny said taking a sip of his spiked drink “but at least we bought Eve and Leo some good presents this year.”

“I wish we could have gotten some more to be from Santa though,” Angie frowned, “I don’t want them to be disappointed.”

“Don’t worry Angie, they’ll be really happy with their presents this year” Johnny said, hugging his wife.

“There’s no doubt about it!” Grandma Myra smiled at Angie. “But you do have to wrap them first.”

After a while of talking to Myra while sipping the coquito, she went to bed and Angie and Johnny got to work on the kids’ Christmas presents. 

Although they were drained from working so hard to support their family’s Christmas, Johnny and Angie were laughing and smiling together like they were on cloud 9. That was until their happiness was interrupted by a large bang on the roof.

“What was that!?” Angie exclaimed. 

“I have no idea” Johnny said standing up from their carpeted floor.

Then, faint sounds of bells tinkling were heard followed by footsteps, all coming from above their heads. 

“You don’t think it could be..?” Johnny listened in disbelief.

“It can’t be, that's not possible” Angie replied.

After hearing more noises come from the roof, Angie and Johnny grabbed their coats and ran out the door to check their roof. 

“I don’t see anything Johnny,” Angie said “ do you?

“No, I don’t think there’s anything up there honey” replied Johnny.

“It’s getting really cold out here though, maybe we should just go back in?” Angie said.

When Angie and Johnny walked back into their living room, they saw nothing was out of the ordinary, except for the cookies and milk that Eve and Leo left out for Santa. There were only crumbs left on the plate. 

“How is that possible?” Angie asked in confusion “Santa isn’t real.” 

The couple inspected the plate of crumbs and empty glass, but still had no idea what had happened. Then more footsteps and tinkling came from the roof.

“What is happening?” Angie said, resting her face on her palm.

“I don’t know Ange, but we’re gonna get to the bottom of this” said Johnny as he grabbed his coat again.  

They walked back outside, motivated to find the reason for the noises on their roof. This time however, Johnny grabbed a ladder and set it against the house. 

“Be careful Jon” said Angie, as she watched him climb up.

When Johnny made it up the ladder, he was speechless. The roof was completely empty, not a sleigh or reindeer in sight. 

“What is it?” Angie asked curiously.

“There’s nothing up here” Johnny said, still confused about where the noises were coming from.

“Come down from there Jon, it's freezing out here” Angie said while intensely shivering.

After they both made it back inside, still concerned about what had happened, they looked at their small Christmas tree in the corner of the room. There were new Christmas presents stacked up a mile high underneath the tree! Ones for Eve and Leo, Myra and Daniel, and even presents for themselves. 

“How did all of this happen?” They both wondered and exclaimed.

They took a seat on the couch, still in disbelief over the amount of presents under their tree. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next thing they knew, it was Christmas morning and they were woken up with little laughs and excited giggles coming from around them.

“Mom and Dad wake up!” shouted Eve and Leo “it’s Christmas!”

“What happened last night?” Angie asked Johnny.

“I have no clue at all, but the presents are all still there” replied Johnny.

The huge stack of presents had now been knocked over by Eve and Leo, to form a huge pile of Christmas gifts. 

“How did you guys do all of this?” wondered grandma Myra staring at the pile. “Santa really picked up his game this year”.

“I guess he did.” joked Angie and Johnny.

“Look grandpa, you got gifts too!” exclaimed Leo.

“I did!” shouted grandpa Daniel in a cheerful tone.

The whole family spent Christmas enjoying their gifts, and also enjoying each other’s company. Grandpa Daniel smiled the whole day, and didn’t turn on the TV once. Angie and Johnny were able to bring Eve and Leo happiness with their Christmas gifts, and even got happiness of their own, and Grandma Myra spent the whole day with her cheerful smile spreading across her face because her family had an amazing Christmas, almost as if she knew what had happened the night before…