Again, I don't know if this will be 1000 words or 2000 (or more...). We'll just have to see.

Enjoy! :)

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Everyone was super excited when they read the article that Tony sent them. Since they're going to get together New Year's Eve, they want to talk about it then.

David's busy New Year's Eve. He will be spending New Year's with Jack, though.

But for New Year's Eve, it will be just the six of them.

And finally, finally, they'll find out who they were.

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However, they do have to get through the days leading up to December 31st, though.

On the Solstice, Jack and David went on their date. They didn't want to wait any longer to go from on a date to dating: they are now officially boyfriends. And neither remembers ever being this happy.

December 22nd and 23rd, Nick (now eighteen himself) took Louis to another part of the city, staying in a hotel for the night, seeing all the fun touristy Christmas-y things that there are.

Sean and Tony spend Christmas Eve together. They exchange (most of their) Christmas gifts then. They have fun. They mean so much to the other. They really are meant for each other.

And then the next big day before the New Year: December 25th.

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MERRY CHRISTMAS!! is sent to everyone from everyone. It's a great way to start the morning.

And play the game of guessing how many hours of sleep everyone got judging from when they first sent the text in the morning.

Throughout the day, everyone is going to keep texting, saying how their day is going, and how they can't wait to see everyone again.

Nick and Louis spend Christmas together at Louis's house. They exchange gifts, bake gingerbread cookies, but mostly spend the day cuddling on the couch watching Christmas movies.

They were going to have a big Christmas dinner...but they've been snacking all day.

Louis's parents are spending Christmas together elsewhere. So here and now, it's just the two of them.

And that's exactly how they like it.

And now they've had time to talk. Talk about college, talk about life after high school.

They decide that no matter what, they don't want to lose the other.

Going to the same college would be ideal. If it doesn't work out that way, they'll make a long distance relationship work. As in; see each other as much as possible and FaceTime daily when they're apart.

They don't know much of what the future holds.

Just that they know that they want to spend it together.

Charlie loves white Christmases. He's always the one who says that this year is going to be the year that it's a White Christmas.

And this year, much to his glee, it snowed. It genuinely snowed.

Which is why Charlie is making his family watch White Christmas.

And why he's taking a picture of the snow covered ground and sending it to his friends with the caption Told ya.

The stars are out that night too. Between the tree lights and the stars, all the light is just so beautiful.

Time with family, the presents, the food, the White Christmas...

It's been a really good day for Charlie.

David and Sarah invited Jack and Kathryn over for Christmas dinner. Their parents were all too happy to meet these people that their kids have been saying so much about.

Jack and Kathryn weren't exactly expecting to see each other, but they have fun anyway.

And, finally, once and for all, David comes out to his parents.

"This is Jack my boyfriend," he told them all in one breath.

Neither parent was fazed. They had just seen Sarah's girlfriend for the first time.

And they greet him just like they greeted Kathryn: with a warm welcoming, saying that they were glad that they could finally meet.

It's going better than David ever thought it would.

Kathryn and Sarah give each other more books. What can they say? It's just been their thing, ever since they first met months ago looking at books.

Jack and David give each other little things that they thought the other would like.

Anyone can see the chemistry they have. Same with the chemistry Kathryn and Sarah have.

Kathryn and Jack stay with them for awhile after dinner and after all the presents are opened. Kathryn and Sarah go to Sarah's room to just talk and hang out, Jack and David go to David's room to just talk and hang out.

Not that their parents will know, but there was kissing in both rooms.

Sarah had put mistletoe in David's room. His revenge was doing the same thing for her.

Except it wasn't necessarily a bad thing for the one receiving the mistletoe.

Because the four of them are happy.

This is the best Christmas any of them have had. Ever. They wish it could never end.

Tony wakes up Christmas morning the earliest. He doesn't know what it is, but he just always wakes up early on Christmas.

"Buon Natale!" he shouts, parading around his grandparents' house like he's a little kid and not like he's old enough to drive. "Buon Natale! Time to get up!"

Nonno and Nonna both told him that it was way too early. 

And so he had to just grumble and sigh and go back to his room to wait for a reasonable hour to come back out again.

To be fair, it is before seven am.

So he's the first one to text MERRY CHRISTMAS!! to everyone. It takes awhile before he gets any response.

Since his grandparents deemed 8:00 am the reasonable hour, Tony does a mixture of three things: listen to Italian Christmas music (mostly Luciano Pavarotti and Andrea Bocelli), try to find other sources that aren't Wikipedia for the newsies' strike, and spam Sean until he wakes up.

Sean's coming over for Christmas dinner.

Tony is so excited.

Nonna prepared Tony's favorite food: struffoli.

The first present Tony receives today is a card from Nonno. He opens the envelope to find a card with a single line: Buon Natale, bambino accompanied by a piece of paper that says that January 22nd, the two of them will watch the live horse races that are at the same place that they see on TV all the time. Tony must have asked a million times is this real?! and after a million times being told yes, yes it is he throws his arms around his grandfather and exclaims, grazie mille, Nonno! To say he's excited is an understatement.

Tony's so glad that he's here, and that his parents decided to spend a week...he's already forgotten where. He just knows that for seven whole days, he gets to stay with his grandparents, and he won't see his parents until the next calendar year. He's so happy.

Sean doesn't start answering texts until it's nearly 11:00 am. Someone had to be the last one to wake up.

Tony and his grandparents have a big Christmas lunch together, very Italian, very delicious food.

He couldn't believe it when it snowed. He started playing Andrea Bocelli's White Christmas and Rita Pavone's Bianco Natale and any other Italian version of White Christmas that he could find on repeat.

Sean comes over at 5:00.

And just like lunch, just like in Italy, the Christmas dinner is huge. And full of delicious food.

Afterwards, that's when gifts are being opened.

A lot of gifts get passed around right there and then.

The one Tony will never forget is when he opens the one he Sean gave him today and found a binder inside.

An actual binder.

Sean smiles as Tony's face lights up brighter than the Christmas tree.

That's what Sean had to ask Tony's grandmother at Tony's birthday. He was determined to get Tony a binder for Christmas, and needed details and help from his grandmother. Both are so glad at the result.

Tony rushes upstairs to change. He got a warm sweater from Sean yesterday too. He comes back down the stairs, grinning ear to ear, wearing the sweater, with a flat chest.

Some people will never get why it's so important for gender-non-conforming people to have these things to help them reflect on the outside how they feel on the inside.

Those people will never know the joy Sean feels as he sees Tony filled with the most gender euphoria he's ever experienced.

Sean's not gonna lie, it was not a cheap gift.

But it was worth it. Worth it a hundred times over.

And so the night goes on.

Sean and Tony kiss under the mistletoe when they're alone.

Finally, much later, under a night full of stars (and Tony would spend all night naming all of them gladly if it weren't so cold), Sean has to leave.

"Amazing Christmas?" his grandparents ask after he closes the door.

He turns around to face them, smile on his face. "The best."

No matter where all of them were, or what they did today...

...They all felt the same exact way.

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I really liked that.

I really, really, liked that.

This is probably the shortest Christmas chapter I've ever written haha.

Speaking of Christmas chapters, don't mind me rereading chapters from other stories I've written with Christmas in them...

Can you tell that I spend A LOT of time thinking about and developing Race/Tony? He's just my favorite, okay? And I really liked writing his story this chapter.

The thing is my grandfather watches horse racing all the time, and then for Father's Day one year, my mom took him and me and my sibling to watch the horse races in person, and it was really cool.

There was this one time where I got to spend a whole week at my grandparents' house because my mom and my dad + my sibling were in other states. It was an amazing week.

Just. Tony and his grandparents. I loved writing that so, so much.

I was soooo happy writing about Sean giving him a binder it was the sweetest thing ever.

David came out finally! :)

This was so wholesome and fun to write.

This is the last chapter you receive before Christmas. Don't worry: I will write again soon!!

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Happy Holidays! <3

Please, no homophobia or transphobia, profanities, hate etc in the comment section.

Best,

~Your Beloved Author (who is going to go to their grandparents' house in a few hours for Christmas Eve)