The Half-Blood Mate

Chapter Forty-One

Christmas mornings were always fun when I was a kid. I didn't realize that 'magic' of Christmas happened all because mom made it happen until I was older. I almost was beginning to regret the next thing I was about to do as I stood at her bedside, watching her sleep. Her face was older, but she was still as pretty as my younger self thought. 

Going around to the other side of her bed, I climbed up. This was going to be a good reminder for her. Inhaling my breath, I began jumping as high as I could. "Get up! Get up! Get up, it's Christmas morning!" 

She jolted out of her sleep and was trying to get her balance in the midst of my jumping. “Amelia, will you knock it off for ten minutes? I swear you and Romulus have a sick obsession with cockblocking me and my sleep." 

Flopping down, I grinned at her. "Now you know how I felt all those years ago."

"It was Christmas morning and you had presents under the tree," she said while dropping her head back to her pillow. "You were taking too long to get up and I wanted to see your chubby face lit up with excitement. So sue me."

I giggled when she pulled the cover over her face. I did something similar when I was thirteen. Up until I was sixteen, she would burst into my room and pounce on my bed on Christmas morning. Reaching over the side of the bed, I grabbed the snowman wrapped gift box that I had placed there earlier. 

"Well will you come from under the covers? This gift isn't going to open itself." I sat the box between us, even though it sat partway on her. "Or I could just give it to Dad." 

She threw the covers back, glaring at me. "As if I'll let him have my Christmas gift. He can get his own." She scooped up the box, sitting it in her lap. "What'd you get me? It feels a little on the heavy side." 

It helped to be friends with Clara. With her bribing me into doing things and paying me to tutoring her, I usually had some money on me. It was how I could buy gifts on holidays and birthdays without feeling wrong if I had to use my mom's money. 

"Open it and see. Hopefully you like them." I shifted so I was sitting on my butt.

She smiled at me before tearing open the wrapping paper like a kid would. I was always that kid who would open her presents neatly and carefully much to Clara's annoyance. It was why she gave me my gifts in bags. Once I found out opening gifts slowly annoyed her, I couldn't pass up any opportunity to see that annoyed face she would make. 

Mom stared at the box for a moment. Then she held it up, a smile on her face and amusement in her eyes. "Shot glasses, huh?"

"Mad scientist themed shot glasses," I classified with a grin. 

The shot glasses were made like body parts— hands and feet. I used to go around calling mom the mad scientist after I caught her baking late one night. It didn't help that she actually looked like she had been whipping up something sinister. It wasn't until later I found out she was making me Halloween themed cupcakes for Clara and I's movie night. 

"It caused me a week worth of candy to get you to stop calling me that in public." She laughed and reached over to hug me. "Thank you so much, my Milly. I can't wait to see your dad's face when he notices them sitting around the kitchen. I'm using them as frosting tasting glasses." 

I laid down, facing her. "I can see that."

She slid her gift further down the bed. Laying down, she smiled at me. "Ok, we can get an hour more of sleep, and then we get ready. I think I want crepes for breakfast." 

"Can we have strawberry milk with it?" I knew the answer to that, but it was our routine for so long. It always amazed me how she could predict what I wanted on Christmas morning. I used to believe she was a mind reader at one point. That was until I discovered she was a well prepared person.