From my position on our living room couch, I’ve been laughing the whole time watching Yong-unnie being covered in flour. It’s cute to see her so focused on her tasks and yet so clumsy in all of them. She’s trying to be accurate like how she normally is but that clumsy side would always show up. And it’s very, very funny.

She’s covered with flour. Her hair has flour. Her apron is covered in flour. There’s flour on her shirt. And she walked around the kitchen before and I saw that there’s flour on her pants too.

It’s Christmas and we’re spending our holidays with my parents. Our fur babies are with us. As usual, Ggomo is judging everyone, especially her Mommy Yong, while Yongkeey is concerned for the safety of her Mommy Yong and the wellness of our kitchen.

“Ya! Why are you not helping her?” Mom scolded.

“She said she wants to do it by herself”

I glanced at Yong-unnie again and started giggling. She now has flour on her nose. How did that even happen? I just talked to Mom.

“Hey, babe?”

I stopped laughing at unnie’s call. “Unnie?”

“Can you help me with the other pans?”

I stood up from the couch, wondering why she needed help. That’s when I saw about three pans of apple pie waiting to be cooked on the dining table.

“Why did you make so many?” I opened the oven for her before grabbing the last pan. “There’s only four of us. No need to make three pies, unnie”

“One’s for us. The other one is for your grandparents. I also made one for Jinnie and Byulyi”

“Oh…” As we closed the oven, I scanned my eyes all over her. “Is that why you’re covered with flour, unnie?” I asked, smirking to .

She pointed at me as she said, “You’re covered in flour too”

“What!?” I hurriedly assessed myself but ended up pouting when I’m squeaky clean of flour. “What are you ta—Ah! Unnie!”

She engulfed me in a tight hug and rubbed her flour-filled face on mine.

“Unnie!” I pushed her away while she’s the one laughing at me. “That’s not funny!”

“Oh, it is! That’s my revenge for laughing at me the whole time”

I could only pout at her because I was guilty of these accusations.

There was so much glint in her eyes that it shone like a bright light. She really loves teasing me.

She cupped my cheeks and gave my pout loud kisses.

And then she loves to make up by kissing my pout. Maybe she only loves my pout. Yeah, I think she mentioned that she likes it. Let’s just say she loves it. She did say she loves me and my pout is part of myself.

“And since we’re both covered with flour, it’s time to shower together!”

I smacked her arm. I wasn’t able to even hold back and smacked her forcefully. “Yongsunnie! Not in front of my parents!”

She seemed unaffected with both my strike and my scolding as she held her tummy and held onto the countertop, laughing to the point of having a hard time breathing.

I crossed my arms in front of me and glared at her until she stopped laughing.

She wiped the corners of her eyes and brought me to her in a hug. I never resisted this time and just molded myself into her arms, even snuggled my face on her neck. Aside from covering me with flour, she covered me with kisses to make up for teasing me once again. Gentle and slow kisses this time.

“Can you watch over the pies while I shower? I set up a timer already. Pull them up once the timer sets off”

“Okay…”

“Enough time for them to cool off while you and your Mom prepare dinner before Jihoon, Yonghee-unnie, Jinnie and Byulyi join us”

“Yup. It’s also about time for the babies’ dinner”

“I’ll feed them once I’m done” she said, already reading my mind. She smiled down at me as she wiped the flour off my face and dusted them off my clothes. “Don’t forget about the pies.” She softly pinched my cheek before leaving to go take her shower.

She has already cleaned up so Mom and I was already set to make dinner for Christmas Eve. We’ll be cooking a very traditional Korean Christmas dinner of bulgogi, sweet potato noodles, and of course, kimchi. Although this year, there’s a bit of an American twist because of Yong-unnie and some of our guests.

Jihoon and Yonghee-unnie will be staying with us for a few days to spend Christmas here in Jeonju. Raven was already on its way back after picking them up from the train station. Although Yonghee-unnie knows how to drive and Raven’s such an intelligent system, Yongsunnie didn’t want to risk with how far the drive is.

Jen was supposed to be here too but with the holiday, delays are even more frequent now. She wasn’t able to leave earlier due to work but she’ll be here to join us tomorrow.

Just as Yongsun-unnie finished showering, her phone notified of Raven’s arrival. She and Dad went out to help Yonghee-unnie and Jihoon.

“Auntie Wheenie!”

I immediately brought down the knife I was holding and stopped slicing ingredients to greet the handsome young boy. I welcomed him with a tight hug and lots of kisses on his cheeks. It’s hard to imagine that Jihoon was just once a toddler when I met him and now he looks like a big boy already.

“How was the trip, Jihoon? Are you tired? Hungry? Your Auntie made apple pies”

He giggled as he poked his finger on my dimple. “That’s too many questions, Auntie Wheenie. But Mommy and I are fine. We had snacks on our way here”

I playfully ruffled his hair, making him giggle again. “That’s nice. Would you like to meet my mother?”

“Your Mommy?”

His childlike behavior is still preserved in the way his eyes brighten when something makes him curious. Technically, he is still a child but with how fast he’s growing, his height is more than half of mine already, and his boyish looks slowly fading away, there are times I forget that he’s still seven.

I held his hand and maneuvered us around the kitchen table to get to my mother. I let him stand in front of me while I held his shoulders and smiled down at him.

“Jihoon-ah… Meet my Mommy”

With his arms tucked on his sides, he gave my mother a respectful bow, making her chuckle. She already loves Jihoon by the sound of her laugh and how wide her smile is.

“Hello… I’m Jihoon. Nice to meet you”

My mother cood. Me too. I could also hear my father's amused giggle somewhere behind me. Jihoon already swooned my entire family with just his introduction.

“Nice to meet you too, Jihoon-ah. You can call me your Grandma, okay?”

“Grandma? I never had a grandma” Jihoon innocently said, which erupted into another round of coos.

“Well, good news! You have one now!” Mom opened her arms wide, waiting for Jihoon’s hug. “Me!”

“Go ahead, Jihoon”

With a nudge, Jihoon shyly walked forward and received my mother’s hug. He then walked to my father, who he’ll call his Grandpa now. He was showered with love and was already spoiled with treats by my father. He deserved it for being such a good boy.

Yonghee-unnie was already teary-eyed when she greeted my parents. She’s very thankful that my parents were kind and loving enough to offer a warm home to her and Jihoon. She’s even more delighted that they’re offering familial love towards his son.

My Squirtle shell was attached to my back as we watched my parents, Yonghee-unnie, and Jihoon talk amongst each other. Makes everything that’s happening in front of us warmer.

Yonghee-unnie pushed me aside and volunteered to help Mom and Jihoon left later to play with our furbabies.

“Thank you” Yongsunnie whispered.

This made me glance at her. “What for?”

“For this.” She squeezed me in her arms. She then tipped her head towards the kitchen where everyone was. “For that. And for everything, Whee”

“It doesn’t stop here, right?”

She smiled wider and nodded in response. “No, it won’t”

We shared a quick kiss before I went to help set up the table while she went to watch over Jihoon with my father.

“Cheers!”

Everyone raised up their glass with their choice of drinks before we clink our glasses.

Byulyi-unnie and Hyejin came soon after Yonghee-unnie and Jihoon’s arrival. With all of us, I couldn’t see any way we could all fit in our home but we somehow managed with everyone gathered around the table. Drinks in hand and plates filled with food.

Jihoon obviously has soda in his glass. The rest of us have soju except for Yonghee-unnie and Yongsunnie. Yonghee-unnie didn’t want one because of Jihoon while Yongsunnie is… Well, she simply can’t handle liquor. They had soda like Jihoon too.

The house has never been this loud and joyful. I don’t even think we had this many people for as long as I can remember.

“Jihoon-ah, do you want more apple pies?” Mom asked.

He shook his head. “No, thank you, Grandma”

It makes Mom blush. It makes everyone blush. Everyone on this table loves him.

“How about more soda?” my father asked.

He grinned this time and handed his glass over to my father. Dad filled his glass before returning it to Jihoon.

“Thanks, Grandpa,” Jihoon said before taking a sip.

Everyone blushed and cood once more, most especially my parents. There’s a different shine in their eyes when they talk to Jihoon. Their smiles are different too. It seems that Ggomo and Yongkeey are not enough grandchildren for them.

Right after dinner, we moved to exchanging gifts. Jihoon, being the center of attention since he stepped into this house, gets to open his gifts first.

Yongsun-unnie immediately grabbed our gift for Jihoon and excitedly handed our gift to him. “Open this first, Jihoon-ah! Your Auntie Wheenie and I prepared it for you”

Byulyi-unnie was on her camera and she captured every moment of it. I’d have to ask her for copies of Yong-unnie’s pictures later. Though it will take a lot of convincing because she’ll only give me the bad shots. I might never see clearly how her face turned so innocent and childlike with excitement.

After dropping our gift to Jihoon, she then stood in front of him and waited in anticipation. Her enthusiasm is palpable and infectious. I couldn’t suppress giggling as I watched her. I think Yonghee-unnie thinks so too with how she’s smiling down at the two.

“Open it”

Jihoon carefully peeled off the tape to open the paper bag. He pulled the many crumpled papers Yongsunnie dumped inside before he got a view of the box. It was a little heavy so Yongsun-unnie had to help him pull it out of the paper bag.

“Oh, shoes!”

“Yes bu