The Queen of R&B

What a year

What a year, so far as the months went by Aaliyah and Marshall's relationship was great
Ever since aaliyah finished her album, her and marshall have been looking for land to buy, aaliyah found some perfect land in detroit, aaliyah knew that marshall really didn’t wanna leave his hometown so she did some research and found some good piece of land and decided to buy it
Marshall and aaliyah viewed it and loved it, it was perfect for them now that everything was going well christmas was coming up, aaliyah decided to spend christmas eve with her family so she could spend christmas day with marshall’s family,

(December *CHRISTMAS WEEK*)

“Hey babe, where is the cake that i made for the party tonight?” aaliyah asked

“I put it in the oven so it could stay warm”

“Okay thank you, are you ready to go?” Aaliyah asked
Marshall nodded and put his jacket and hat on, aaliyah put on her jacket, a beanie and some gloves on 
It was winter in detroit so it would get really cold, Tony wanted the Rivera family to spend christmas eve in galveston, so he rented a yacht for their christmas eve party
Aaliyah was wearing a long sleeved white shirt with dressy black pants, with black platform boots, she had her hair down and jamaican curly and she wore medium dark tan foundation, blue eyeshadow and dark red lipstick
Marshall wore a black long sleeve shirt with black normal pants and sneakers
It was 7:00 pm and the party started at 9:30 pm, marshall and aaliyah had to pick up nate and debbie since they were invited to the party

Everyone had a great time, even though galveston was very hot and humid surprisingly it was very windy and a little cold
All of aaliyah sisters were there, so was ray, his wife and their daughters
All of aaliyah’s sisters husbands and kids were there
Everyone ate delicious homemade mexican food, good fruity drinks, there was alcohol but only champagne they didn’t want to go overboard with the alcohol
They played music and everyone just spent time with each other, priscilla brought her camera so she took pictures most of the night, she got a lot of photos of marshall and aaliyah

The party ended at 3:00 in the morning, after the boat landed near shore, the rivera family stayed in galveston and marshall, aaliyah, nate and debbie went back to detroit, by the time they made it back to town it was almost 6am
They went to debbie’s house and decided to spend christmas there,
due to aaliyah’s religious beliefs she didn’t do presents, her and her family believed that presents would distract them from the true meaning of christmas
Marshall knew that but he completely forgot to let his family know so they all bought aaliyah presents, debbie and nate went all out for aaliyah

It was 8:30 am and marshall had woken up, aaliyah was still asleep she was so tired from the party
Marshall went into the kitchen and saw his mom cooking and nate was eating a small bowl of cereal

“Hey good morning guys, merry christmas” marshall said

“Good morning sweetheart, merry christmas” debbie said softly

“Morning big bro! Merry christmas” nate said happily
Debbie was taking the turkey out of the oven

“Where is aaliyah?” Nate asked

“She’s still asleep”

“Okay well me and nate finished wrapping her presents they’re under the tree"
Marshall choked on his coffee a little and accidentally spit some out

“Geez man, are you good?” nate asked

“I completely forgot to tell you guys! I’m such an idiot! Aaliyah doesn’t do christmas gifts it goes against her religious beliefs” marshall explained

“Okay if you want i can put them in mom’s room on her bed” nate said

“No it’s okay, i know she’s not gonna open them” marshall added

“Aw poor aaliyah i really wanted to see her open her presents, did her and family always spend christmas like that, they really did no presents?” debbie asked

“Yeah they did, they would fill the stockings but that was it, and i know, i saw this really beautiful russian egg that aaliyah likes to collect and i really wanted to buy it for her as christmas gift, i bought it but i left it back at our house”
aaliyah finally woke up and went to the kitchen
Even though aaliyah didn’t do gifts, she still bought something for marshall and his family

“Good morning! Merry christmas everyone” aaliyah cheerfully said
Marshall hugged and kissed aaliyah
Nate hugged aaliyah and debbie kissed aaliyah’s cheek
The guys sat down and played cards for a little bit while aaliyah and debbie cooked, after an hour the food was ready
Everyone sat down, marshall said grace and they started to eat, debbie took pictures every now and then

“Oooh I am stuffed!” Nate said

“Me too but the food is so good i don’t wanna stop eating” Aaliyah added

“Okay well let’s go open presents” Debbie said
So everyone went into the living room, they sat down and got comfortable
Nate sat on the floor by the tree, marshall and aaliyah sat on the couch while debbie was passing out presents

“Who’s presents are those?” Aaliyah asked, she noticed that there were at least six presents that were under the tree
Everyone exchanged looks and nate decided to speak up

“They’re yours, me and mom bought them for you we didn’t know that you didn’t do presents due to your religious beliefs” nate said kindly

“Aww you guys got me presents!?”
Aaliyah smiled widely and quickly grabbed a present and opened it, marshall was shocked that aaliyah opened the presents, in the five years they have been married he never seen her opened christmas presents but all the christmas they spent was either with aaliyah’s family or they spent it by themselves
Aaliyah ripped into the gifts like she was a little kid, she loved all of them, Nate got aaliyah a cute plastic crystal ball that had a white rose in it, the ball looked like it was glass, it was very pretty and debbie got aaliyah a cute heart locket necklace that had a picture in it, it was of marshall and aaliyah on their wedding day
So after they opened presents they all spent time together, debbie and aaliyah cleaned the kitchen, marshall and nate cleaned the living room as it was starting to get late marshall and aaliyah left to go home

Marshall gave aaliyah the russian egg, that night they stayed up, they talked and watched TV
After New Years the band had to start getting ready for the houston astrodome

Aaliyah was really excited, lately aaliyah had started to design more outfits and sent them to her designers so they could make sure that they got made, and got sold immediately, Aaliyah had to hire a new cashier, her name was Kim Scott, she knew marshall when they were in high school
Aaliyah hired her and they became friends
Gloria hasn’t called aaliyah for a while, but aaliyah has been calling her she still needed her paperwork and samples before it's too late