Page 115 of A Very Naughty Christmas

Squirming, I tried to get out of his hold. I wanted to go downstairs and start to open my presents.

“Come on, Daddy. We need to go and make sure that Santa came.”

“All right, all right. Let’s get up.”

He released me and I dashed out of his arms. Before I headed downstairs, I got on my hands and knees and reached under the bed. I had hidden all of my presents for Daddy underneath here.

I let out a sigh of relief when I found that they hadn’t been disturbed by the monster that I knew lived underneath, despite what Daddy said. I had been terrified to hide them there, fearing that the monster would eat them, but I couldn’t think of any other place where they would go undiscovered.

“That’s a lot of presents, sweetie,” he commented, when I stood up with my arms full.

“They sure are,” I agreed, smiling as I walked out of our room and down the stairs to the big Christmas tree in our living room.

It was already full of presents wrapped in two kinds of paper; one was Scooby Doo, and the other was a pretty gold foil with Christmas trees on it.

Last month, we had decided that all of the presents for my little girl self would be wrapped in Scooby Doo paper, and the presents for my adult self would be in the beautiful gold paper. The same went for the gifts for my daddy. That way, I would know the difference and I could open all of my little girl presents first, then we could eat breakfast, and afterwards, I would go back to my adult self and I would open my adult presents.

Placing the gifts for my husband all around the tree, I couldn’t wait for him to open them. I hoped that he liked them.

“All right, young lady. Are you ready to open up some presents?”

“Yeah!”

We sat down by the tree and Drew handed me the first present wrapped in Scooby Doo paper. I pulled it off to reveal a stuffed horse!

“She’s perfect!!” I gave her a big hug. Now I hoped that her and my teddy bear got along. I didn’t want Teddy to be jealous because I played with another stuffed animal.

“Do you like her, sweetie?”

“Oh, yes!”

“Here’s another present to open,” he exclaimed, handing me a rectangular box.

Ripping the paper off, I discovered a new outfit. It was blue jeans and a white top with golden polka dots on it.

“I love this top. The polka dots are so shiny!”

“Somehow, I knew that you would.” He smiled as he said this, enjoying simply watching me. But Daddy needed a present too!

“It’s your turn. Open up one of mine!”

I handed him a medium-sized box, practically bouncing with impatience as he carefully peeled the paper back to reveal the pencil holder that I had made for him. I’d gone to a store in the mall where you could make an object out of clay, fry it up in the store’s kiln, then come back the next day, paint it, and take it home. I’d painted a picture of the two of us on mine.

“This will be perfect for my office, honey. Now I don’t have to worry about losing any more of my pens or pencils.”

“I’m glad that you like it!”

I opened another present for me; theFinding Dorymovie.

“Oh, this is awesome! I love baby Dory. She’s so cute!”

We had gone to see the movie when it was in theaters. It was awesome! Especially when Dory was reunited with her parents.

“Just like you are, honey,” Daddy said, pulling me into his lap and giving me a big hug as he kissed the side of my cheek.

“Stop it,” I giggled.

When he did, I handed him another present that I made for him. He opened it to discover a scrapbook. Inside, on each page, I had drawn him a picture. Some pictures were of him and me; some were of things that had happened before, like him checking underneath our bed to make sure that there weren’t any monsters living there.

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