Eli Borrelli

45: Christmas 2.0

Eli POV.

After opening our gifts, we rushed to the kitchen and started making breakfast as another Christmas movie played in the background. We made a buffet, with eggs, bacon, toast, pancakes, waffles, and fruits. It didn't take that long, since all of us were doing something.

After breakfast, we went on a scavenger hunt. Each of us had one gift hidden in the house and we had to find it. So, we fanned out all around the house to search for our gifts.

Ida was the first to find her new phone in the poolroom. Soon after that, Lorenzo found his headphones in one of the second-floor bathrooms. Antonio was the next to find his gift, which was a gift certificate to get another tattoo or remove one, which I found hilarious. Alessandro got some slippers, that looked a lot like loafers, but were really fuzzy.

 Gabriele found his blue long coat in the game room after a long time of him complaining about the area being too big, to which I said, that it was their own fault for having a humongous house. I found a pair of dark green-checkered loose pants, with a black belt, that had my logo carved on it, the crescent and the skull, which, once again, almost made me cry. Diego found his box of jewelry in the music room and finally, Matteo found a customized apron in the kitchen. I know, so hilariously close.

After lunch, we decided to go volunteer at a soup kitchen downtown. It was actually my idea since I had been to a lot of those but on the other side of the line.

It must have been weird for them to see the biggest names in the technological market walking through their doors asking for hairnets. Someone took pictures of my brothers, but they just pretended, that it didn't happen and enjoyed our day together.

After a long while, we decided to see New York on Christmas as we rode through the city before going back home. 

As we got home, we started preparing dinner. It was really fun, all of us being in the kitchen at the same time. We blasted Christmas music through the speakers and sang along very badly to every line we could remember.

It was a bit of chaos as we were all adjusting to working together, but towards the end, it seemed to go a bit better. Well, towards the end half of the people in the kitchen retired to the couch to watch some hallmark Christmas movie. It was the one about a hard-working big city girl going back to her hometown for Christmas, but in there she meets an old school friend, that's somehow incredibly handsome even tho he looks like every other fit white man in the world, and somehow realizes the true meaning of Christmas. You know that one?

Before dinner, I turned on the sauna. I learned that to be the number one tradition in Finland, and I learned to love going to sauna while I was there. However, the sauna we had in the house could hardly be called one after seeing the saunas in Finland. Still, it was better, than nothing, and it still got pretty fucking hot.

I told my brothers about how people in Finland take a break from the sauna to go rolling in the snow and they affectionately called every Finnish person a psychopath. I still did it, and eventually, some of my brothers joined.

After the sauna, we dressed up in our best and got down for dinner. Me and my brothers were all in black suits, but I had a red dress coat, that I bought from a flea market, so I looked a bit extra. Ida was wearing a dark red dress with pearls around her neck. She actually looked really beautiful.

We had the traditional turkey and mashed potatoes with everything you could think of on the side. Mainly because we had to have something for everyone to do in the kitchen.

It was a really warm thing when we all sat around the table chatting and eating our food, dressed like we were going to church. It was one of those moments when I felt like life could turn out fine in the end. I had my family right there bickering over some stupid gingerbread-house contest, that wasn't even a contest and happened two days earlier.