Reid raced around his apartment making sure everything was in order. He was hosting the annual Christmas party for the BAU at his house. He checked the snack bowls, set out the beverages, turned on the fairy lights which were strewn around his house, and counted all the presents under the tree, making sure there was one for each person.
It felt like hours before he heard a knock at the door --he was always anxious about having people over at his house-- he swung it open to reveal his best friend, Jennifer Jareau.
"JJ!" He smiled pulling her into a quick hug before motioning for her to step in.
"Wow Spence, you put a lot of work into the decorations," the blonde noted "I like them."
"Yeah. Thanks," The boy stated awkwardly. It took him a second to realize the absence of the girls family "Wait a second... Where are the boys?"
"Oh, I left the gifts at home," JJ blushed "They dropped me off and went to get them."
Reid broke into laughter with JJ soon joining in. The two's laughing fit was cut short by a knock at the door.
The brunette pulled open the door revealing two more people. Reid stared at one person in particular in shock before shouting "Emily!" And running into her arms "You said you couldn't come!"
"I lied" Emily Prentiss stated simply, returning the hug she was being given.
"What about me Pretty Boy?" Derek Morgan asked after a few seconds.
Reid pulled away from Emily, "You can put the gifts under the tree," Reid responded, motioning to the Christmas tree in the corner of the room.
Morgan scoffed, making his way over to the tree. Prentiss laughed, greeting JJ with a hug as well.
"Your gift is already in the mail. You should have told me you were coming!" JJ said the raven haired girl in front of her.
"It's fine. I'm sure that's true for the rest of the team too."
"Not me," Morgan interjected.
"Hm. Could that be because you knew I was coming?"
"Maybe." Morgan laughed.
The rest of the team arrived shortly after that with pizza closely following that. They spent the next few hours hanging out, telling stories, and watching a cheesy Christmas movie Jack and Henry picked out.
"Can we open presents now?" Henry asked asked as soon as the credits started rolling.
"Please?" Jack added.
The team looked at Reid expectantly, "Of course."
The two boys raced to the tree the adults tailing close behind. "How are we going to do this?" Aaron Hotchner asked, "We could go in age order or-"
"Does it matter?" Penelope Garcia cut in, "Let's just dive in!"
"How about we hand everyone their gifts and go from there," David Rossi recommended.
The group agreed and organized the colored packages into piles. "We could do 'eeny meeny miney mo' for who goes first," suggested Henry.
"Or bubblegum bubblegum," argued.
"Oh yeah. That one," Henry agreed.
Nobody saw a point in arguing with them so they each put a foot in a circle and watched as one by one Jack ruled each person out.
"Bubblegum bubblegum in a dish how many pieces do you wish?" Jack asked landing on his fathers foot. It was only Hotch and Kate Callahan left in the circle, "Remember dad, you can't pick one."
"Three," Hotch smiled shrugging his shoulders shamelessly at Callahan.
"Rude." Callahan responded sarcastically.
"Dad wins!" The child informed the group.
"Okay. Which one should I open first buddy?" Hotch asked his overly-excited son.
"That one."
"Ah, the big one."
"Of corse," laughed JJ.
The older profiler pulled the brightly colored wrapping paper off the gift in question to find a bright pink envelope tapped to an electric hand-mixer. The note read "To: Bossman Love: Penelope" in purple ink.
"When I babysat Jack last month we wanted to bake a cake but you didn't have a mixer. I couldn't believe you had been living without one so I had to buy you your own," Garcia explained enthusiastically.
"Wow... Thanks Garcia."
"No problem Bossman!"
Hotch continued opening his gifts receiving gifts which he hadn't expected but completely loved. Next up was the host himself, Spencer Reid.
"Open mine first!" Morgan exclaimed excitedly.
"You sound like a child who got their mother a Lego set in hopes she'd give it to you," Reid joked.
"Do I sound like that Henry?" Morgan turned to the blonde child sitting next to him.
"Nuh uah," Henry shook his head.
There was a ruffle of laughter in the room interrupted by Reid asking "This one's your right?" He was holding a long cylinder which looked like Morgan had just given Reid the tube of wrapping paper and sloppily tapped the paper over the ends to cover it up.
"Yep, now open it," the darker skinned man smirked while Garcia tried desperately to cover up a giggle.
"Why is she laughing?" The boy questioned desperately.
"Just open it Reid."
The brunette did as he told, skeptically ripping off the paper to find a cardboard tube capped on either end, like the box a poster would be wrapped in. He opened one end to find that it was in fact a poster. He looked at Morgan with a confused smile before unrolling the paper. He burst into laughter as soon as he read the title "Proper chopstick educate."
"Really?" He giggled turning the poster around to show everyone else.
"Maybe one day you won't need JJ to come to the rescue and tie your chopsticks together," Hotch laughed.
"Ha. Ha. Very funny," Reid said trying to keep a straight face.
Callahan looked over to Rossi and Prentiss with a confused look on her face. Prentiss shrugged her shoulders giving the other girl a look that said "it was before my time."
"I know just where you can put it," JJ said motioning to Reid to hand her the poster. The brunette reluctantly handed over the paper and followed as the girl walked into his kitchen.
"Perfect," JJ stated placing the poster against the stone wall "anyone have tape?"
"I brought some just for this," Garcia pulled a roll of poster tape from her pocket.
"So you knew?" Reid questioned.
"I helped make it."
