When we first met - MerDer In College

16.

No One's POV

"Meredif, Meredif" Lilly's small finger pokes into Meredith's side. Meredith stirs in her sleep and her eyes flutter open.

"Lilly? What are you doing here?"

"I slept with you and Uncle Derbear in you bed!" Lilly exclaims excitedly. She is now standing straight up in bed.

"Quiet Lilly. Your uncle is still asleep" Meredith giggles and pulls Lilly back down.

"Okey. I can be very quiet" Lilly says in a loud whisper.

"That's good. Did you sleep well?"

"The best!" Lilly exclaims loudly again but remembers she has to stay quiet so she repeats "The best" is a loud whisper.

"That's good. So what do you say? Should we wake your uncle up?"

"Yes!" Lilly jumps up and jumps over Meredith, landing on Derek. His hands are still wrapped around Meredith's body and his face is nuzzled up in her neck but as soon as the impact of Lilly jumping on him hits him his body shoots up. His eyes open widely and he looks confused.

"Oh, Lilly. Good morning" He says groggily.

Both Lilly and Meredith are giggling loudly. Lilly moves back and sits in Meredith's lap.

"Good morning Mer. Merry Christmas" Derek smiles and leans up to give Meredith a kiss.

"Iewl" Lilly cringes.

"Merry Christmas" Meredith whispers back.

Derek grins. "What, this?" he asks Lilly and kisses Meredith again.

"Yes stoppp" Lilly giggles and pushes Derek's face away.

"Did you sleep all this time?" Derek asks his niece. He saw it was already 9am.

"No I was up wayyyyyy before and I tried to wake you or Meredif up but I couldn't" She sighs dramatically.

Derek chuckles. "Do you want to go downstairs. I think almost everybody is already there"

"Yesss!!!! Presents!!!" Lilly yells and crawls over Meredith and Derek out of bed.

They quickly follow and before they know it they are downstairs surrounded by the rest of the family.

"Mommy!" Lilly yells and runs into the open arms of Kathleen.

"Lilly! Where have you been?" She asks confused.

"I was sleeping in uncle Derbear's and Meredif's bed!" She says happily.

Kath shoots Derek a confused look but he just nods and raises his shoulders. He laughs and so does Meredith. Kath laughs along with them and before they know it they are all called towards the living room for presents.

---------------------------------------------------

Within the blink of an eye all the kids opened all of their presents. Wrapping paper is scattered throughout the entire living room and the kids are happily playing with their newest toys. The adults also opened a few present. Carolyn got everybody a new set of socks and underwear and some warm house socks. She also got everybody a warm sweater and a hat.

"Thank's mom" "Thank you Carolyn" Everybody said when they opened their gifts.

"No problem my dears. Merry Christmas everyone" Carolyn smiles widely. She always lights up when the family is around.

"Come one kids. We have to thank Santa." Kathleen says loudly so everybody can hear her.

Meredith looks at Derek confused. "Thank Santa?" She whispers.

"It's a Shepherd's tradition. After all the gifts are opened we stand by the open door and windows and thank Santa." Derek smiles. He grabs Meredith's hand and leads her to one of the windows at the front of the house. All kids and adults gather in front of the windows or front door and they get opened.

"THANK YOU SANTA" Everybody screams through the windows while looking up at the sky. The kids al cheer and clap their hands while the adults look at them with joy.

"Who is ready for the annual Shepherd cup?!" Mark announces. Everybody's eyes go wide and they all sprint to their rooms. Derek pulls Meredith towards his room and quickly starts changing clothes.

"Der. What's going on? What is the Shepherd Cup?" She asks confused, taking a seat on the bed.

"What?" Derek asks in a haste. "Ohhh." He smiles. "It's our our own winter games. We form teams and all play games out in the snow. The winner gets to keep the challenge cup and can pick tonights desert."

"Games? Outside? In the snow...? But it's cold!" Meredith exclaims, not looking forward to the cold snow at all.

"Come one Mer. It will be amazing!"

"Okey fine but can I at least wear one of your warm sweaters?"

"Of course baby" Derek whispers and smiles lovingly. He pulls one of his sweaters out of his closet and pulls it over Meredith's head. He pulls her arms through the sleeves as well and embraces her in a hug. "We don't want you to ged cold now do we?"

---------------------------------------------------------

Everybody is outside in the backyard. They are wrapped up in layers of warm clothing and are wearing their new hats. The kids are running around wildly and have started a snowball fight.

"Alright everybody. First we have to make teams. We are with 18 participants so we are going to have 3 teams of 6. Mom will be the judge and Derek, Amelia and I will be the team captains." Mark speaks loudly.

Everybody gathers around and Derek, Amelia and Mark pick their teammates. Amelia ends up with Kathleen, Tom (Nancy's husband), Jeremy (Lizzy's oldest son) and the twins (Sophie and Melanie, Kathleen's kids).

Mark ends up with Nancy, Nick (Lizzy's husband), Megan (Lizzy's youngest), Arlo (Nancy's son) and Simon (Lizzy's son)

Derek ends up with Meredith, Lizzy, Pete (Kathleen's husband), Lilly and Ava (Nancy's daughter).

Everybody is happy with the teams, especially Meredith. She is still new into this family and is thankful she ended up with Derek.

They all gather around and the first game can start. The first thing the teams have to do is build a snowman. They get 10 minutes to do so and the team with the highest snowman wins. Mark explains the rules and of they go. After 10 minutes of hard work three beautiful snowman stand tall. Carolyn carefully measures each snowman and points to the tallest one. Mark's team jumps up in the air. "Let's Go! Good job guys!" They chant.

The next game is sledging. The Shepherd family has a huge sledge. The entire team can fit on it easily. The goal is to get as far as possible. Nobody is allowed to use their feet and if one falls off it doesn't count. Each team takes their turn and after every team went down the hill twice the winner is announced. This time it is Derek's team.

After a few more games the score is 2 points for Mark, 1 for Amelia and 3 for Derek. This is the final game so if Derek's team wins they win the cup this year. The final game is a snowball fight. If you get hit by a snowball you're out. The team of the last man standing wins.

After a few minutes almost everybody got hit. Only Mark and Derek remain. The game becomes intense very quickly and snowball fly everywhere. Mark is camps behind a bench while Derek camps behind a tree. Mark makes the mistake of peeking over the bench and a snowball hits him right in the forehead.

"Shit!" He yells and Derek jumps up. His team runs towards him and Meredith jumps in his strong arms.

"We won! We won!" they cheer and jump up and down.

"Let's go inside everyone. You must all be freezing to death" Carolyn smiles and leads the crowd inside.

After a much needed hot shower the Shepherds all come down and hot coco is waiting for them. They gather around the tv and a sappy Christmas movie gets turned on. Everybody watches in silence, enjoying each other's company.