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Christmas with Browns is never usual. Something always goes wrong, someone always gives an unusual gift. Clara loves the eccentricness, but she wishes to have a normal Christmas evening dinner. Without food setting on fire, without a board game parts being thrown.
This year is different. Browns moved to 1991 very recently, and so it's the first Christmas with Marty. And so far everything is peaceful and normal. Scrabble game had gone without very long and crazy words. Cooked food was not burned.
It bothered Clara.
But when everyone sat down to eat. Emmett and Marty could not sit in one place. Clara has not known Marty for that long, and how it looks like when he and Emmett plan something. But that must be it. They must have planned something. But maybe they are just happy to celebrate together after this long while.
They are, but when Marty felt Doc lightly kick his leg, he passed the salad to Emmett and stood up:
"I'll excuse myself" He looked at Emmett with a specific exedration and went to the bathroom.
Meanwhile, Emmett explained how this exact salad is made by a classic Lithuanian recipe. A white vegetable salad with mayonnaise. If Lithuanians could, they would eat it daily, so Emmett was interested in why that was.
Even if Browns have no relations to Lithuania, it does not hurt to try out the salad. In this case, it did. While Emmett was putting the salad onto his plate he dropped his fork onto his shirt, staining it.
"Damn! " Emmett cursed and put the salad down. "I'll go change," he said with an exsederaded sigh. He went upstairs, nearly running.
The bedroom door got shut, and then Clara heard the bedroom window open. She was left without words. They are planning something. And she dreads to know what that is.
Minutes passed and Verne asked:
"Maybe Marty slipped and hit his head in the bathroom?"
"Martin is not that stupid" Jules argued.
Further conversations were cut short when they heard a commotion outside. Whoever was outside tried staying silent. But then they knocked on the door.
Clara went to open the door and Verne ran behind her. She she opened the door she could not believe what she saw. Santa and an elf.
Who was the elf, it was obvious, that he had no mask. He was wearing tights and green shorts with a green vest. But with Santa, it was more interesting. He had a pillow hidden in the red coat, he also had an obviously fake beard and a hat. Santa could not see much, but from his eyes, Clara realizes who he is.
When the duo walked in Jules could not help but laugh at Elf's outfit. But Verne was so happy and excited.
Clara could not help but hold in a laugh when the boy clung to Santa who barely held up.
Without a word, the elf gave Santa the red bag.
"Ho Ho Ho," Santa said swinging his hands up, not realizing he hit the elf in the face, who made an exaggerated scoff.
"We heard you kids were good this year" Santa continued not even attempting to help the elf, which honestly made Jules laugh. The Santa does not sound that familiar, he must have changed up the voice!
The youngest boy nodded enthusiastically. He waited all year for this.
And so Santa began to give out the gifts. To Clara, to Verne, to Jules... But they all agreed to open them the next day.
"I will go tell Marty!" Verne jumped when Santa read his name.
"Don't!" His older brother stopped him. "Martin is ehh... very busy."
Verne blinked in surprise. What could have taken him that long?
Then he wanted to call his father to come downstairs. But no! Jules insists that he is still looking for the perfect Christmas shirt, maybe even a sweater.
Jules doesn't believe in Santa for a while now, but he won't ruin the magic for his younger brother.
It was all fun and games, but the food got cold, and Verne and Jules went to bed. The duo of the Elf and Santa could relax.
Emmett took the Santa hat off and tried using it as a hand fan.
"These tights are humiliating" Marty whined.
"But you picked them" Doc argued and pulled the fake beard down.
"Next year I'll be Santa"
Pause.
"No" without a second thought, Emmett answered.
"Red suits Emmett better" Clara admitted. It left Marty dumbfounded.
And while Marty was arguing, Clara kissed Emmett and wrapped her hands around him.
For a moment the duo was out of character. And for a moment Marty looked away, and at that exact moment, Verne appeared. The kid looked at the couple.
"Mom? Santa!?" Verne's little voice trembled.
Santa quickly fixed his beard and pulled away from Clara, clearing his throat.
"How can I buy your silence," Santa asked
"I want you to stay away from my mom," Verne said with a straight face.
"uhm..." The bearded man looked around, at Clara, at his elf, and asked him.
"give me your wallet"
"My what?"
"Your wallet"
"You only pay me in candy canes"
"What part did you not understand?" Santa asked with a serious tone, staying in character. Elf handed him a bag from which the bearded man took out 2 candy canes, and handed them to the boy. Who in return glared at the Santa, spun on his heel, and went back to bed.
"Alright, Santa, we must go" Elf sighed and opened the front door. Since Santa cannot see elf has to guide him where to go. "Be careful, there's a step here" He explained when they were outside.
"Step there?" Santa made sure he heard it right.
"yes step here"
And so Santa did. He slipped on the ice and fell back. Elf is a simple man,
"Mam," Elf took off his hat for a moment saying fare well to Clara. He took Santa by the legs and dragged the man away. It was pretty easy, seeing how everything was covered in ice.
Clara shut the door. How did she get so lucky? She had a while to figure it out because her bedroom window shut after like half an hour, so Marty got out of the bathroom.
"You know you could have walked back through the door?" Clara asked the duo.
The friends looked at each other. "We thought it was locked..."
They knew it was unlocked.
But they are very extra.
The next morning it snowed lightly. A true Christmas morning spirit. The first thing the kids did was to open the presents. Jules got a few newly re-released Jules Verne books. Even if it's the same as old ones, the cover is the only difference. But Jules really wanted his own, so he could annotate them.
Verne got a Lego set from the future. But it had a note:
'Don't leave the blocks on the floor. -Santa'
The boy has a plan for next year when Santa comes. He will leave Lego all over the floor out of spite.
Legends have it, next year instead of an elf there will be a Grinch, and he and the Santa will have a fight. How much are we willing to bet Verne will be on Grinch's side?