A child screams in the background of joyful laughter and conversation. Several other children rush past, yelling and shouting at each other, waving plastic swords. One child even held a Barbie doll.

The adults sighed, wishing for them to calm down. A few older ones laughed and parted ways for the little ones to pass.

Christmas that morning had been eventful, to say the least. Two pairs of grandparents and several of their children bringing their own children to the family house up in the mountains was a difficult task to manage. But, luckily, the families were on good terms.

Presents had been bought and some of the parents banded together to complete the strenuous task of wrapping up the gifts. The night before had been worse — marking names and placing bows, sneaking through the living room and filling the stockings — but the morning was as cheerful as always. The kids were happy with their gifts and the teenagers were content.

The rest of the day went by with too hyper children and tired parents partying. Some ornaments were broken and the tree almost tipped over multiple times. The designated cooks — Edith and Freddy — were struggling with the orders of food coming in. They may have been married for over forty years but that didn’t stop them from arguing over who was cooking the cookies and who was mashing the potatoes.

The DJ was a fifteen year old boy named Jeremy with strange taste. All the adults had asked him once or twice to change the song. But he was better than asking the ten year olds who had even worse taste; old remixes and strange child pop songs were not mixed well with Christmas Day.

The eldest of the children, at seventeen, was tasked with keeping watch of the younger ones. She had her plate full running after her younger brother who liked to hit people with new remote control car. But she had to deal with her younger cousins bickering and even the crying ones who complained about not getting what they wanted for Christmas. She was already fed up and the day was just nearing noon.

One of the mothers, Sandy, had gotten sick recently, so she had been lying down the whole time but unable to sleep because of the noise. She was happy to be included on the fun but sometimes a girl just needs some shuteye. Her husband refilled her water for her and even brought her a soft blanket (it was her dad’s new blanket that she had personally bought him; she has every right to rest with it for a day).

Hours passed and dinner had been prepared with help from many of the parents and even the children chipped in the arrange the seating and set the table. The feast was filled with turkey and potatoes, as well as a thick ham and all sorts of cheeses. There were rolls and muffins(gone in less than ten minutes). Edith had prepared three different gravies, all to satisfy everyone’s preferences. Freddy had boiled corn and cooked canned green beans. He set out olives and saw a few kids stick them on their fingers and wave around their new fingers.

Dinner went by with several kids fighting over the last roll. And everyone got a bit annoyed at Grandpa Greg’s political talk. Overall, the dinner was splendid.

The children began to pile into their makeshift floor bed, covered with all the pillows the could find, save for the ones their parents used on their own beds. Blankets piled up and soft snores were soon heard. A few kids stayed up and played card games while the rest slept while watching reruns of SpongeBob on the television.

The adults had gone off, except for Grandma Barb. She stayed to watch the last of the kids fall asleep.

And after that the day came to an end. The blissful dreams and full bellies made everyone sleep soundly after the eventful day.