A Two In One Day

“It’s going to be a white Christmas!” exclaimed Annie’s little sister. Annie Stone and her family, which consisted of her parents, her older brother, her two younger twin sisters and her baby brother, had just moved from Florida to Michigan. “Yes, our first white Christmas!” said Mrs. Stone. Outside their ceiling-to-floor windows, the white snowflakes were falling and the full moon stood in the night sky. “Tomorrow is Christmas!” said Mrs. Stone who was baking cookies. I can’t wait! I am going to be 13 tomorrow! Annie thought. Annie’s birthday was on December 25th. She always hated celebrating on the same day but she couldn’t change her birthday. She waved goodnight to her mom and her dad and headed up the stairs for the last time as a 12 year-old.

“Wake up! It’s Christmas!” exclaimed Annie’s little sister, Grace. Annie sat up with a big smile on her face waiting for Grace’s next words. However, there was no “happy birthday!” Grace just ran into their older brother, Jackson’s room. There, Haven, Grace’s twin sister was already jumping on Jackson’s bed. “Wake up, wake up!” yelled Haven. They all waited by the stairs for their parents. Soon, Mr. and Mrs. Stone walked out of their room holding Ben, their baby brother and stopped at the stairs. Mr. Stone got his camera out ready to take pictures. “Alright guys, you can head down now!” All the kids raced down the stairs and into the family room, where the tree was glowing, sitting atop mountains of presents. There were no birthday decorations or a separate pile of presents for Annie’s birthday though. Fortunately, Annie was so consumed by all the Christmas presents, that she hadn’t thought about her birthday much. “I got a Barbie house!” exclaimed Haven. All the kids were tearing open their presents. The house was filled with laughter and happiness. Outside, snowflakes drifted onto the snowy ground. The trees were covered in snow. If you were to peer inside the window, you would think everything was perfect. Except one thing was missing. 

A while later, after all the presents had been opened, and they had had a wonderful Christmas morning, Annie began to wonder. No one has said happy birthday to me today. Have they forgotten? Although she wanted to say something, she didn’t want to ruin the Christmas mood in the house. Everyone was smiling and enjoying the snow. Lunch was roasted beets, lamb chops and roast potatoes, and Haven loved it, but Annie detested lamb and started to feel a little weird when her mom demanded that she finish her meal. During their lunch, Mrs. Stone began the conversation. “So, has everyone had a good Christmas so far?” Everyone answered at the same time with a simple “yeah!” or “yes!” except for Annie. Although she had had a good Christmas, she hadn’t had a perfect day… yet.  After lunch all the kids put on their snow gear. They put on their snow pants, gloves, hats, snow boots and their jackets before heading outside into the winter wonderland right in their backyard. It was only the kids second time ever seeing snow. The first was when they went skiing in Vermont. Mr. and Mrs. Stone stood by the door snapping, what seemed like millions, of pictures. They wanted to capture every moment. Soon, it started getting darker. Their backyard now had two snowmen, a snow pile and a couple of sleds scattered all around. “Dinner is ready! All the littles (which they called the little kids), come in! Annie, can you pick up the sleds?” Mrs. Stone asked. Without responding Annie angrily circled the whole backyard picking up the sleds and the shovels. They don’t even remember it’s my birthday, and they are making me clean up after the littles? She trudged through the thick snow and collected all the snow toys. What about Jackson. He is the oldest so why am I doing this? The sky darkened and the sun set. “This is the worst birthday ever,” said Annie out loud. 

After setting all the snow toys in the garage, she walked to the patio frowning. She stomped her boots on the concrete so that all the snow fell off. After all the snow was now on the ground instead of her boots, she opened the door and headed in. Inside, all the lights were shut off and all was quiet. Where are they? She walked into the kitchen and switched the light on. “Surprise!” yelled the family. The whole kitchen was decorated with balloons, and presents lay spread across the table. A huge cake sat on their kitchen island. “Oh my gosh!” Annie screamed as she scanned the room and saw all the work put into her surprise. I can’t believe I thought they forgot. The whole family sat down at the dinner table and Mrs. Stone brought out Annie’s favorite dinner. Mrs. Stone had cooked and prepared both a fantastic Christmas dinner and Annie’s birthday dinner. “Yum!” Annie said, licking her lips as the big plate of bow-tie pasta with marinara sauce was served to her. “Cheers to Annie’s 13th birthday… and Christmas of course!” added Mr. Stone. They dug into the delicious meal. As soon as they were finished, the whole family sat down by the fireplace to open Annie’s gifts. “Thank you so much!” Annie had to say after seeing every single one of her gifts. When all the gifts had been opened and there was a huge pile of wrapping paper all over the family room, they pulled out their favorite board game and relaxed for the rest of the night. “This is a perfect two-in-one day!” said Annie out loud.