It was finally quiet. The house was still and there was no sound. There was a giant tree twinkling invitingly in the middle of the living room. A plate of cookies was on the table, along with hot chocolate because “Santa will be thirsty! The fireplace is stuffy!” The heat was on because the kids had insisted turning up the fireplace would mean that Santa would be unable to get down.

At exactly three in the morning, Santa slowly got of bed and opened the closet door. He took out the bag of presents and glanced to where his lover was still deep in sleep. He glanced down the hallway and crept down, wincing when the fabric of the sack broke the utter silence that had settled in the house.

            Santa hoisted the sack over his shoulders and tiptoed down the stairs. There were six stockings hanging. Six because mommy and daddy get presents too. He carefully placed all the smaller gifts in the socks, six different colors, and then proceeded with the larger boxes. Each child was color coded and when he finished placing it as artfully as his missus had dictated, he stared at the plate of cookies.

            There were a dozen cookies. Each member of the family had decorated two. He smiled and reached out for the cookie with the chipped hat. Junhong, not understanding that he was supposed to eat, had taken a tiny nibble. Youngjae had screamed until the baby placed the cookie down and sprinkled blue and white powder all over. There was an artfully made snowman, sorry, Olaf. Each cookie was made with various artistic abilities and so he took a bite from every one.

            Santa downed the hot chocolate and then left a tuft of his beard on the chimney because a souvenir would be appreciated. He rubbed his stomach and then cleaned up all evidence that he was there, leaving only the beard and the presents.

            “Daddy! Mommy! Santa was here!” The pitter patter of feet across the wooden floor was the first indication that the children were awake.

            Yongguk groaned and opened one eye. He eyed the clock and felt his heart hitch in his throat. No. There was no way it was only seven. Himchan cleared his throat and threw his arm over Yongguk, snuggling in deeper, clearly not willing to wake up as well.

            “SANTA’S BEARD!” This was Daehyun and he started screaming at the top of his lungs as he discovered the intentional present Santa had left.

            “He ate all the cookies! Look! Santa was thirsty too!” At five, he was the most talkative and he was already spewing all the large vocabulary he had learned in school. “Santa must have had an exhausting trip last night.” Exhausting was the new favorite. “I would be exhausted too if I had to go up and down but at least he has food. Youngjae, you were right about the hot chocolate!”

            But Youngjae was opening the door to his parent’s room and bouncing on top of the bed. “Mommy! Santa is here!” He couldn’t quite tell his tenses apart yet.

            “Hmm,” Himchan hummed. “Tell Daddy.”

            Yongguk pinched the other’s arm. “Hey, I-”

            But before he could finish his sentence, the other man already got up. “Shh! Not in front of the kids.” Himchan turned to Youngjae and then to an equally as excited, but less vocal Jongup. “Do you want to eat breakfast first and then open the presents?”

            “Yes!” This time even Jongup clapped his hands. At three, presents were his absolute favorite, but breakfast definitely came first.

            Himchan got up and glared at his husband. “You better get ready to make your ramen pancakes. They’re anticipating it. You promised Bbang.”

            Yongguk waved his hand. “Soon.”

            To stall more time, Himchan went to pick up Junhong only to find that Daehyun and Youngjae had used their stool and together had lifted their baby brother out of his crib only to abandon him to crawling out the door when they decided he would slow down their trajectory downstairs.

            “Daehyun! Did you leave your brother on the floor?” Himchan shouted.

            “Sorry Mom!” came the response. But it was slightly muffled and when Himchan went to check, he saw that his oldest was stuffing his face with one of the bitten cookies Santa had left.

            “You’re going to ruin your appetite!”

            The little boy shook his head but stopped chewing before his mom got even angrier. Christmas was not a day to get mommy mad. He followed his mother obediently into the kitchen and climbed onto his chair to wait not so patiently.

            Yongguk came into the kitchen half an hour later when everything else was ready. Himchan whirled on him, spatula in hand and glared. “Get on that unhealthy cooking.”

            Junhong was banging his spoon against the bowl and Youngjae was singing random bursts of Christmas carols. “Tis the season to be jolly, falalalala la la la la. Deck the halls with boughs of folly-”

            “It’s holly, stupid!” Daehyun finally burst from his seat.

            “Don’t call me stupid! Holly, jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way, oh what’s fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh, hey! Deck the halls with boughs of holly lalalalalalala!”

            “You got the song wrong!” Daehyun, a singer in his kindergarten choir, was adamant that his brothers sang the right songs.

            Jongup watched his two older brothers and giggled into the palm of his hand. Junhong was getting agitated and it took Himchan’s kisses and soothing words to calm him down.

            “Boys!” Yongguk said from his place in front of the stove. “Settle down.” And because daddy was always scarier than mommy, they finally stopped arguing. But when Yongguk slid the pancake onto Daehyun’s plate, Youngjae couldn’t help but chip off a piece. 

            “Daddy!”

            “Youngjae, return that please,” Himchan said calmly. He had given up on Junhong in the baby seat and was holding him in his arms instead. He broke off the bread into pieces and dunked them into milk. “Say ah, baby.”

            Jongup had insisted on using his own spoon ever since turning two but was still struggling and when Yongguk sat down, he helped occasionally. The two older boys ate quickly, their tiny mouths chewing furiously as they tried to race each other under the tree.

            “Boys, we’re not going until all of us are done.” That stopped the contest and each of them settled back into a normal paced eating speed.

            Opening the presents were a huge ordeal. Jongup liked to do things messily and tore at the wrappings, diving into the tissue paper with glee. Junhong had Himchan help and he clapped whenever any of his brothers made a sound. Daehyun was more careful, inspecting everything by shaking them before opening. Youngjae was a meticulous opener and would get angry at anyone (namely Jongup) who caused him to rip his wrapping.

            When all the presents were distributed, Daehyun finally spoke. “I know Santa isn’t real.”

            The sudden bomb caused a moment of quiet before all three boys started protesting. “That’s not true!” Youngjae was insisting. Jongup started to cry and because Junhong always did what Uppeu-Hyung did, he started wailing too.

            “It is!” Daehyun insisted. “How can he eat all those cookies and not explode? How can he do everything all in one night? That’s exhausting! And if he did come, how did he fit in the chimney? Santa is fat! And I know that even daddy can’t fit in the chimney!”                    

            Youngjae was covering his ears and chanting, “Not true! Not true!”

            Himchan gave Yongguk a helpless look. They knew that this moment would come but not when all the boys were still barely half a decade old. The parent lies were still not formulated for this dilemma yet.

            Yongguk finally cleared his throat. “Daehyunnie, you know what magic is right?”

            “Yeah.”

            “Well, Santa is magical. He can eat all the cookies because he burns the energy the moment he goes up and down the chimney. He also has a special spell he uses to expand the chimneys. How else do you think he fits? And he does it all in one night because his reindeer have stored up all their energy for this one night.”

            Daehyun’s mouth pursed into an ‘o.’ “Oh. I guess. He left his beard too!” At this confirmation from their oldest brother, all the others slowly began to settle down.

            By now it was eleven and the kids were slowly getting tired. The crash from the excitement was hitting them and Junhong was already asleep by the time the Christmas finished. Jongup curled against Himchan and Youngjae also tilted sideways onto his brother. Himchan took a blanket and covered all of them and looked at Daehyun.

            “Daehyun, are you tired?”

            “No,” he said stubbornly even while stifling a yawn. “I’m a big boy.” But within moments, the big boy also had his chin on Youngjae’s stomach and was sleeping.

            Yongguk grinned at Himchan as he too settled down. “Man, this was the hardest Christmas yet. I’ve been up since forever.”

            “I know, get some sleep,” Himchan whispered and kissed his cheek.         

            Yongguk wrapped an arm around Himchan and closed his eyes. “Next year, you can be Santa.”

sorry I know it's no longer Christmas but I just found time to update 

Happy Holidays everyone ♥