Downstairs, Josh found Laura and Rob sitting at the kitchen table, chatting quietly, both in their pyjamas and Laura holding a mug of coffee while Rob was enjoying a can of Coke out of the fridge.

“Are the others awake?” Laura asked with a smile, looking up at him, “Rob’s been telling me about Christmasses with his Grandma. She was a big one for family board games too, apparently!”

“I like the sound of her already!” Josh grinned, hoping it was the right thing to say, relieved to see that it seemed to make his new son happy. “Bet you’ve got lots of stories to tell us about her?” Rob nodded happily. “Yup, everyone’s awake upstairs!” Josh confirmed, pouring himself a coffee into his Christmas mug that matched Laura’s. “It’s kind of a tradition with us that Sam opens her stocking in our room,” he explained to Rob, “then we all come downstairs and open the big presents. Are you okay with that?” A glance over at the sofa confirmed that the boy’s well-packed stocking remained untouched.

“Sure!” Rob grinned, slurping the last dribbles of cola from his can and dropping it into the recycling bin that Laura pointed out for him. He collected his stocking and headed up the stairs, closely followed by Josh and Laura who paused to grab the camera from the table by the bottom of the stairs. It was, after all, their last Christmas morning with their biological daughter and first with their new adopted children, as well as the only one ever that they would celebrate as a blended family, and she wanted to document it.

Flinging open the door to the master bedroom happily, Rob stopped in his tracks and looked a little alarmed. Coming up behind him seconds later, his new parents realised what had startled him and both did their very best not to laugh, realising that they should probably not have expected any different from this particular trio!

For once, Samantha was the most decent of all of them, sitting up in bed, still wearing Josh’s pyjama top, her stocking resting on the lump under the duvet that was likely her folded legs, while Amelia and Amanda sat cross-legged on top of the covers at either side of the foot of the bed, Amanda in only the bottom half of her pyjamas, as Laura had seen her sleeping earlier, and Amelia completely naked!

“In you go!” Laura encouraged her new son gently with a light push on the shoulder. “Don’t mind them! I’ll be back in a moment!” Josh followed the boy in and slipped back into his side of the bed, Samantha shifting closer to make room for her mum on the other side, while Rob sat cross-legged half way up the bed next to his topless sister.

“Where did Mummy go?” Samantha asked, a little puzzled. Josh was about to admit he didn’t know when the question was answered by Laura coming back into the room with a bundle of pyjamas in her arms.

“Sorry to seem like an old stick-in-the-mud,” she chuckled, “but I really would like to get some nice, cute, family pictures this morning. So if you could, if only for a few minutes, all put these on I’d be very grateful!” She dropped the bundle into the middle of the bed and Samantha pulled off Josh’s top to return to him while he wriggled out of his robe and the other girls began to sort through the pyjamas pieces to find their own.

“Maybe I should just stay naked?” Samantha suggested as Amanda, now with her top back on, tried to hand her pyjamas to her. “Since I’m the turkey?”

“How about a compromise?” Laura suggested, not wanting even a small argument to spoil the morning. “Two versions of each picture? You come sit on the pillow like you usually do with your stocking now and I’ll take a picture with you in your turkey suit, then you put the pyjamas on and we do another? Then, once everyone’s opened their presents, we do the pyjama picture then you can strip off again if you want?”

“Does that go for all of us?” Amelia asked brightly before winking at Josh.

“I guess so!” Laura sighed and chuckled. “As long as you don’t mind putting them back on again for under the tree!”

Agreeing to the compromise, Samantha wriggled out from under the duvet and sat naked on the pillows in between her mum’s side and her dad’s, legs stretched out in front of her and hugging her stocking. Directed by Laura, Amanda moved up the bed to sit beside and just in front of her while Amelia sat more or less on Josh’s lap but with the duvet between them. Finally, Rob turned around so that everyone was facing the same direction, all the children holding their bulging stockings, and grinned at the camera. Laura took the picture she wanted and, while Samantha somewhat reluctantly put her clothes back on, Josh got out of bed and swapped with her so that she could be in at least one of the pictures. With the “safe for work” version of their Christmas morning picture taken, the children spread out over the bed again and both parents got back under the duvet, sipping their coffee, ready for the unwrapping to commence.

“How do you like to do this?” Amanda asked, aware that different families tended to have their own tradition. “Do you want us to go one at a time or everyone all at once?”

“That’s actually a good question!” Laura chuckled. “This is the first time there’s ever actually been more than just Sammie Christmas morning! We do like to take it in turns downstairs but I think for now you can all just dig in! Tip them out if you want, or pull them out one at a time, it doesn’t really matter! Just toss the paper on the floor, we can clean it up later.

Happily, Amanda and Rob began to shake the contents of their stockings out onto the section of bed in front of them but Amelia paused.

“Wait a second!” she put her hand out. “I want to see what Sam’s got!”

“Oh yeah!” Amanda agreed. “What’s that tube in the top?” Samantha was also incredible curious and had been trying to peek into the stocking since she woke up but all she had been able to learn was that, unlike the colourful patterned paper everyone else’s gifts were wrapped in, hers were wrapped in quite plain green packing paper and tied with red ribbons, giving them quite a rustic appearance. “Go on!” her new sister urged. “Do yours first!”

Everyone watched as Samantha carefully removed the rolled-up sheet of parchment and set it aside, putting it on her dad’s lap for safe-keeping, then shook out the rest of the packages onto the bed. Laura and Josh both had broad grins on their faces as they watched her pick up one of the packages which was lumpy, about seven or eight inches long and somehow solid and floppy at the same time. There was no tape on these packages, in keeping with the style, so Samantha untied the ribbon and unfolded the paper, which was brown on the inside.

“Onions?” she giggled, as puzzled as she was amused, picking up the net bag of three red onions that she had unwrapped. “Why have I got onions in my stocking?”

“Are you sure they’re onions?” Rob joked. “Maybe they’re very small ogres!”

“Maybe!” Samantha laughed, getting the reference immediately. “But that still doesn’t explain what they’re doing in my stocking!”

“Why don’t you look at the paper?” Laura suggested, still playing along with the idea that these were indeed gifts from Santa Claus. “Maybe that will explain it?” Taking the hint, Samantha picked up the roll of parchment paper, untied the ribbon and carefully smoothed it out. The text on the paper had clearly been printed on the computer but in a font and style designed to look like a medieval manuscript.

“MRS CLAUS’ FAMOUS WALNUT AND CRANBERRY ELF STUFFING RECIPE” the title red in bold red letters across the top, under which, in green, was written “Suitable for One Large Elf or Medium-Sized Human Turkey”. Samantha giggled as she red the heading out loud then looked at the rest of the page. What was printed beneath was a list of ingredients then instructions on how to prepare the stuffing. Setting the paper aside, understanding now what the individual packages were likely to be and why Laura had been so evasive when she had asked about stuffing, Samantha began to open the rest of the gifts that had been in her stocking, finding a pack of three cloves of garlic, a bundle of dried sage, a packet of dried cranberries, a packet of ready-shelled walnuts, two packets of instant mashed potato and a large bag of breadcrumbs as well as a packet of peppercorns and a packet of salt.

“Well, that’s handy!” Josh grinned as Samantha looked through her small pile of unwrapped presents with delight. “We just so happen to be planning on cooking a medium-sized human turkey this afternoon!”

“Guess that works out pretty well then, huh?” Samantha giggled. “Thanks Santa!” she called up towards the sky just as Amanda had done when thanking Emily for the hat and boots. “Can you help me make it later?” she asked Josh, “While Mummy goes back for the others?”

“Well, these instructions seem to be fairly clear.” Josh observed, taking the parchment from her and reading it briefly. “I’m sure even I can’t go far wrong with these!”

With the mystery of Samantha’s stocking solved, the other three began to excitedly open their far more conventional selection, finding a mixture of small novelties, toiletries, stationary, Christmas socks and other little trinkets and gadgets as well as assorted sweets and chocolate bars. When all the gifts had been opened, the adults got out of the bed and let the children sit in a row just in front of the pillows, grinning with their spoils laid out in front of them.

“Don’t forget, you promised!” Samantha reminded her mum once she had taken a few pictures of the festive tableaux, undoing the first few buttons of her pyjama top so that she could pull it over her head. Amelia quickly began to undress too but beginning by tugging off her bottoms. Shrugging and remembering that everyone in the room had already seen her naked anyway, Amelia decided to do likewise.

“I think I might sit this one out!” Rob chuckled a little awkwardly, getting up off the bed and walking over to his new parents and the three now-naked girls posed together on the bed, Samantha sitting in the middle with the other two reclining either side of her, heads on her shoulders.

“Why don’t you go kneel behind them?” Josh suggested to his rather embarrassed new son. “We can get it printed as a poster to hang above your bed to make your friends jealous when they come over!”

“He’d kidding about the poster!” Laura assured the blushing boy. “But that picture does sound like a nice idea!” Wanting to make his lovely new parents happy and honestly not un-keen on the idea of being so close to three naked girls even if one of them was his sister! Two of them, technically speaking! He climbed up onto the bed, still fully clothed in his pyjamas of course, and knelt on the pillows, leaning forward so that his grinning head hovered just above Samantha’s, putting his hands on the other girls’ bare shoulders. “Perfect!” Laura grinned, taking more snaps. “Okay everyone, I happen to have some handy bags here with your names on,” she handed them out, “so you can put all your stocking bits in there and bring them down with you. Do we want to do presents first?” she asked, “Or breakfast?”

“Presents!” came the unanimous response from all four children, the newly-welcomed siblings relaxing into being part of the family and very much caught up in the holiday spirit.

“Presents it is!” Laura chuckled. “But pyjamas first!” Samantha’s face contorted itself into the familiar pre-whine configuration. “All except the turkey, that is!” Laura added quickly. “Turkeys don’t wear clothes, after all! Especially on the day they cook!” Josh chuckled, amused at how indulgent his wife, who was normally the stricter of the pair, could be at times. Still, she had got her nice Christmas morning photo and at this point they probably had more photographs of Samantha naked than clothed, recent ones for sure! A few more certainly weren’t going to make any difference!


To be continued...