A Different Life

twenty six

The rest of December flew past. Rory and Finn attended the Morgan holiday party with little fanfare. Rory had already met Finn's parents, Finnegan and Charlotte, several times by this point. Finn had been correct his family wasn't the usual society family, they actually enjoyed being around each other.

Finn and Rory had spent a Saturday in December decorating Rory's apartment for Christmas, it was bigger than Finn's apartment, and she would be around for longer in the run up to Christmas so they had agreed to only get one tree and place it there. They hung garlands and tinsel, and placed fairy lights everywhere. Finn even lifted Rory up so she could put the star on the top of the tree. Once they were finished decorating, Finn surprised Rory by taking her ice skating at the Rockefeller centre, they then walked to the Magnolia bakery at the back of Rockerfeller plaza and each got a hot chocolate. They also got cupcakes and banana pudding to bring back to Rory's place to share. It was a perfect Christmas time date.

Finn was leaving for Australia on the twenty third with his family so they would be at their house for Christmas Day, this meant that Rory would be flying there on her own on boxing day. Rory didn't mind but Finn felt guilty for making her fly twenty hours alone. She told him she would take her jet to LA, and then fly commercial to Sydney, she had lots of reading to catch up on and she was sure she probably would have some work to do also.

The twenty second fell on a Saturday so Rory and Finn declared that their Christmas day. They woke up late, had warm cinnamon buns in bed, with peppermint mochas and whipped cream. Finn decided to put the whipped cream to other uses and that kept them in bed for a few more hours. Once they had showered and cleaned up, they happily and satiedly sat on the couch curled up together and watched Home Alone and Home Alone two. Rory ordered them chinese food to share while they watched the movies.

After the movies they had agreed to exchange gifts as they each wanted to do it in person and not after Christmas. They had also agreed not to get each other anything extravagant for Christmas, they each had money and could buy whatever they wanted so they agreed to focus on smaller, more meaningful gifts instead. They each sat in front of the Christmas tree cross legged on the floor like they were children.

"So would you like a big present or a small present to start Kitten?"

"You weren't supposed to get me lots of presents," Rory replied.

"So you mean that stack of presents you have there with my name written on them aren't for me?"

"Okay you got me there. How about we start small?"

"Then here you go Kitten," he said, handing her a gift box. The first present was a box of various popcorn seasonings for her to try over movie nights. Finn's first present was a pair of Iron Man socks. They continued exchanging gifts. Finn got Rory: a selection of chocolate bars from her favourite store, Minnie Mouse socks, Daisy duck pjs and a robe, magnetic bookmarks with book quotes on them. Rory had gotten Finn: some baby groot pj pants, a box with a variety of his favourite candy from Dylan's Candy Bar, a poster with a hundred movie bucket list where you scratched off the square of each movie as you watched it, a bag of bourbon infused coffee beans.

Finn handed Rory another gift box to open which contained a silver engraved picture frame that held two pictures- on one side it had the picture of them in front of the castle from Disneyland Paris and the other was the picture of them kissing in front of the Disneyworld Castle. It said 'Where Dreams Come True' underneath. The picture was the perfect size for her desk at work. When Rory opened it she laughed, before tearing up and handing Finn a similar sized present. She had gotten him the same thing, except she had engraved it "The Most Magical Place on Earth is in your arms." Once Finn opened his, he also teared up slightly and pulled Rory into his arms.