[CONTENTID1]Chapter 61[/CONTENTID1]

[CONTENTID2]Christmas Eve Dinner[/CONTENTID2]

[CONTENTID3]

"Jie jie, wake up," a voice whined.

Groaning, Mei Li lowered her blanket to see who it was. "What do you need, Anne?"

"Mom invited EXO-M over for dinner," Anne explained. "Apparently it was part of their deal; mom wouldn't move in with Ayi without splitting some of the chores, bills, and what not. And mom specifically wanted Christmas Eve dinner as her gift to the EXO oppas."

Mei Li glanced over at the clock on the bedside table next to her, barely making out the time. "But it's only 10am, why do I have to wake up now?"

"Mom and Ayi are going, so I thought we should decorate the house!" she grinned. "Ayi has a box full of decorations. And she said she also ordered a Christmas tree!"

Her hands were clasped together and she was so excited that Mei Li couldn't say no. "Alright, I'm coming."

"Yay!" she exclaimed, going to the door. "Oh yeah, are the oppas', Ayi's, and mom's gift in your closet still?"

"Yea," Mei Li answered, rubbing her eyes as she got out of bed.

"We should wrap those too while we're at it," Anne noted.

"Oh yea," Mei Li murmured. I'm so out of it today.

"But that can wait! Hurry up, jie jie!" Anne shouted as she left Mei Li’s room.

Mei Li was completely tuckered out from unpacking and organizing her room yesterday, that she completely forgot it was Christmas Eve. Boy, did the year go by fast.

After taking a quick shower and brushing her teeth, she put on her pancoat hoodie and sweats and tied her hair into a bun. She went out of her room and was surprised to see that Anne had already decorated the staircase. When Anne's excited, boy is she fast.

"Jie jie, over here!" Anne called as her sister came down.

Mei Li went into the living room and sat down on the carpet with her. "I'm trying to figure out where we can put all of this," Anne said, tapping the box full of Christmas ornaments and decorations.

"Do whatever you think will look good, you're always the best at these kind of things," Mei Li stated, playing around with a tiny Santa doll.

After a few hours of Mei Li organizing the decorations and Anne running around the house to put them up, Mei Li started to smell something sweet. "What's that?"

"Probably Ayi and mom baking something," Anne replied, "let's go see!"

They got up and went to the kitchen to find a table filled with an assortment of baked goods. Ayi was at the stove cooking something while Mei Li’s mom put icing on some cupcakes. "Good morning, girls," Ayi smiled while stirring a pot.

"Morning, Ayi," Anne smiled.

"How's the decorating going?" her mother asked.

"We're almost done the inside of the house! We still have the Christmas tree and outside though," Anne replied.

"Already?" Ayi exclaimed, "my oh my, you two are fast."

Anne chuckled and Mei Li shrugged, "It's mainly Anne's doing."

"Mei Li, remember not to let Anne do anything too dangerous," her mom stated, refering to using a ladder to put decorations up in high spots. When Anne was nine, she had fallen and fractured her knee when she tried to put the star up on top of the Christmas tree.

"I know, mom," Mei Li nodded.

"What's going to happen for lunch?" Anne asked.

"I'll bring some snacks up to your room soon," Ayi answered, "I'm afraid we'll be preparing dinner for a while."

"That's fine, Ayi," Anne grinned, "snacks are awesome!"

"Anne!" her mother narrowed her eyes at her.

Anne shrugged and grinned. "Well we have to fill our tummies with something!" She pulled Mei Li’s arm, "let's go, jie jie!"

After they finished the interior of the house, they put on their jackets and boots and went outside. Mei Li did whatever Anne told her to do, and soon she found herself gaping at the exterior of the house. "Whoa..."

"Hehe, see! Worth all the hard work, right?" Anne giggled.

Mei Li smiled and nodded. The house looks beautiful.

Ever since her father died, they never bothered decorating the house for Christmas anymore. Their father used to do that with them, and it would be the one thing they looked forward to, even more than presents. This was the first time in years where they decided to decorate the house again, and it was unbelievable.

"Girls, you've been out here for two hours. Come in before you catch a cold!" Ayi called them, standing at the door.

"Ayi, come here and look at the house!" Anne exclaimed, rushing over to her.

"I'm not wearing boots or—"

Before Ayi could protest, Anne dragged her over to the fence in her slippers. Ayi looked up and her eyes widened. "It's..."

"What's taking you girls so long?" Mei Li’s mom asked, going over to them.

Mei Li grabbed her arm and pointed to the house. She looked up and her jaw dropped. "Gorgeous." She finished Ayi's statement.

"You girls have really out done yourselves," Ayi smiled, "I knew moving here with you was a great idea. I don't have to spend Christmas alone anymore, and the house actually looks festive now!"

Anne grinned, "I'm glad you like it!"

"Let's go inside now, you two aren't wearing jackets," Mei Li said to them, noticing that her mother and Ayi were slightly shivering.

They went inside and her mother and Ayi went back to cooking and baking. Anne and Mei Li found some wrapping paper from the basement and snuck it up to Mei Li’s room to start wrapping all the presents. For Anne's small keychains, they placed them in tiny gift bags and wrote names on each.

Mei Li was currently wrapping the last present – Luhan's. It was just a simple royal blue tie, but she had really felt like it fit him perfectly, so she bought it.

"Are we just going to give these to them when they get here?" Anne asked as she finished writing down everyone's names on their gifts.

"That's too soon, we'll give it to them before they leave or something," Mei Li replied. "Okay, so is that everything?"

"I think so?" Anne said, looking around at all the bags and boxes.

"Finally," Mei Li fell backwards, exhausted.

Anne laughed and slapped Mei Li’s elbow. "Come on, EXO-M's going to be here soon. Change out of your sweats and hoodie!"

"But it's just a house party," Mei Li groaned, cringing at the thought of having to dress up.

"At least wear like, jeans or something, don't wear sweats!" Anne scolded her.

Mei Li rolled her eyes. "Fine." At times like this, we'd always switch the older sister and younger sister role.

"Alright, good work guys!" EXO’s manager turned off the stereo as they stopped dancing. "That's it for tonight!"

The boys sighed in relief and grabbed their water bottles, chugging down the remains as they fanned themelves. "Finally," Xiumin groaned, dropping to the floor.

"Hurry up guys, we have to leave quickly if we're going to make it to Mei Li's on time," Kris stated, grabbing his bag, "we still have to go back to the dorm, change, and grab all the presents."

Once they made it to their dorm, all of them took quick showers and changed into casual clothes. Luhan grabbed Mei Li's and Anne's present, as well as the gift he bought for their mother. I hope the other Ayi doesn't get mad that I didn't buy an extra gift for her.

"Luhan...what's this?" Xiumin asked.

Luhan turned around to see him holding up a stuffed panda by the ear. Huh? "Oh!" he suddenly remembered, "that's Mei Li's."

"You're giving her a stuffed panda?" Kris raised his eyebrow at Luhan. "That was your big plan?"

"No, she bought that for Anne but I was hiding it for her," Luhan explained, "I forgot she didn't take it back."

"Geez, what's up with Anne and pandas?" Xiumin exclaimed, "Lay and Chen kept going on about how she apparently loves pandas so we all bought her things with pandas on them."

"Lay and Chen..." Luhan slapped his forehead, "I swear, those two."

"Yea, if she doesn't like pandas, we're blaming you," Kris smirked.

Luhan sighed. "You'll find out eventually."

"By the way, you should probably put that thing in a bag then and bring it along, Mei Li probably didn't realize she forgot it," Kris said, "and if we're giving out gifts tonight, it'll be awkward if she doesn't have anything for Anne."

"Blah blah blabbity blah, can we go now? I'm hungry!" Xiumin complained.

"You're probably right," Luhan told Kris, stuffing the panda into another gift bag. "Now let's go before baozi kills us."

Their manager drove them to Mei Li's house and they got off after thanking him. "Merry Christmas, guys!"

"You too,