AN- Ah...think back to Christmas time. Good times...This is something I wrote for a friend as a gift. It fits very nicely with 'Forever Teens' so I hope you will like it too.

Warning for language & corporal punishment. Mild, since I'm not sure how to go about it, but beware if you are not into that sort of thing. :)

TOUGH COOKIE

"Tis the season to be jolly, Fa la la la la la la la la!" Alice sang as she pranced into the Cullen's living room. She always enjoyed the holiday season. The lights, the decorations, the winter fashions, the songs, and the festive cheer were right up Alice's alley. Although, the Cullen family were immortal and thought they might possibly be damned for all of eternity, Alice thought it was nice to celebrate Christmas. If not as a religious holiday, but instead….it was a family holiday—and a time to spread love to others in the world.

Rosalie did not feel the same way as her little sister, however.

"Ergh! Enough already with the singing, Alice! You are driving me nuts with all your happiness!" Rosalie complained loudly. Her father, reading a book across the room, looked up and raised an eyebrow at his daughter and she retaliated with a rant. "She is, though! Christmas time is horrible. It is so fluffy and lovey-dovey with all the Christmas miracle hogwash! Come on people, clue in! It is a consumer holiday!"

"Wow, someone's bitter. Did Santa leave you coal in your stocking as a child, Rose?" Alice asked playfully. Rosalie glared back at her sister, making Alice questions her knowledge of the Christmas tale. "What? I hear that is what naughty children get in their stocking….Do I have the story wrong?" Alice rambled on innocently looking at Rosalie first, then her father for confirmation.

"No, that is how the story goes, dear," Carlisle informed his youngest child with a nod. Alice grinned proudly and stuck her tongue out at her sister.

"See! You're just bitter!" she chimed.

"I am not bitter! I just don't like to fake all this cheer!" Rosalie argued back.

"Who's faking? I am cheerful!" Alice chirped bounding up in the air and hurrying over to Carlisle to sit on his lap. He put his book on the end table beside him and wrapped his arms around Alice, happy to do so. "Now…All I want for Christmas, Santa…" she told her father in jest, "Is a Porsche Turbo 911!" Alice giggled merrily.

"You aren't even old enough to drive a car!" Rosalie sneered nastily. Alice pouted her bottom lip out at her father.

"Please, Daddy. I won't drive it where people can see me — only sometimes when it is safe to do so. I am a very careful driver," she pleaded. It was true…she was a good driver, like the rest of the family, but she was too small and played such a young role in the family human charade she rarely got the chance to get behind the wheel of a car. She could see the compassion building up behind her father's generous face as he began to give in to her.

"Yellow, please!" she added with a giggle.

"I will see what I can do, love. Are you sure you have been a good girl all year?" Carlisle chuckled along. Alice grinned and nodded assertively. Rosalie rolled her eyes in disgust at the affection that her sister was getting for acting, as she felt, was comparable to a five year old.

"Oh, give me a break!" The gorgeous blonde muttered under her breath. "A big, fat suck-up is what you are!"

"I am not big!" Alice responded, taking her sister literally. This was something that happened often because Alice was so naïve, being only 14 when she became immortal. That combined with the fact she had no recollection of her human life, her childhood, at all made her especially childlike. It was almost as if she was reliving her childhood years over and over for all of eternity.

"She didn't mean you were big in size, Alice dear," Carlisle explained kindly to the tiny, little vampire resting on his knee. Alice pouted and got off his lap. Rosalie was watching her haughtily from the other side of the room.

"I am not fat either!" Alice retaliated walking up to her sister and looked up to stare Rosalie straight in the eye. "You have a bigger ass than I do!" Then she poked Rosalie's bum with her finger and scooted away before Rosalie could get her back.

"Alice!" Esme gasped as she entered the room from outside. She carried in a few bags of Christmas decorations she had just bought from the Wal-Mart that Alice had requested she 'absolutely needed' to decorate the Cullen Mansion for the holiday. "I do not know in what context you are speaking, but I do not approve of your language choice!" She reprimanded her youngest daughter for the use of the word 'ass'. She put the bags she was carrying on the floor and placed her hands on her hips, turning to her husband for support. Rosalie was smirking at Alice, pleased with herself for teaching Alice that word over the years.

"But Mom…" Alice complained, "…Rose called me fat!"

"It was a misunderstanding, Alice," Carlisle said gently, "However; your mother and I would like you to watch your language please. And Rosalie... your attitude this evening is not well appreciated. I urge you to bite your tongue the next time you have something unkind to say to your sister. Do you understand me?"

"Whatever!" Rosalie mumbled, looking at the floor rudely. Esme was by her daughter's side in an instant.

"Your father asked you a question, young lady. I suggest you respond to him or else you can go to your room and I will deal with you in private! And I can assure you, I am not a gentle as your father when it comes to handing out punishments."

"I understand," Rosalie said blandly. She was not impressed about being scolded. Alice seemed too smug for her liking, but she bit her tongue like suggested to avoid a confrontation with her mother.

"Good girl!" Esme praised and then immediately shifted tunes. "So, my lovelies—what are you two up to this evening?"

"You did buy more of the white LED strings, didn't you, Mom?" Alice sang. "I still need to finish putting up lights on the trees outside!"

"I got you what was on the list, dear. Go to town!" Esme cheered, handing over the bags of Christmas decorations to her youngest.

"Go. To. Town?" Alice stuttered confusingly at her mother's odd statement. It was another human expression she did not know of. "I thought you went to town already—to buy the lights? You just said you did. Why do I need to go into town?"

Rosalie chocked on her muffled laughter. Sometimes she found Alice so naïve it was ridiculous.

"Oh no, dear — it's an expression. 'Go to town' means 'go for it' or 'proceed' or 'have fun'! I didn't mean it literally," Esme explained kindly.

"Oh." Alice made note of this in her mind for the next time.

"You're so dumb," Rosalie let slip in her fit of laughter. Alice pouted, though she was not really hurt. She was used to her sister making fun of her.

"Rosalie…last chance!" Esme warned. Rosalie smirked and nodded in agreement. She didn't plan to listen to her mother for long. She and Alice were constantly bickering whether or not their parents were near to overhear. She would resume taunting her little sister when the coast was clear. For now she complied with her mother's wishes.

"I will be back in a bit, okay?" Alice said. She was bright and chipper again as she grabbed the bags full of brand new LED lights and hurried out of the room to go outside to put them up in the trees.

"Don't hurry," Rosalie mumbled under her breath. She thought she heard her mother sigh.

About an hour passed and Rosalie was contently reading a fashion magazine. She had the whole upstairs living room to herself—just as she liked it. Alice was busy outside hanging lights, Carlisle and Esme went out to the movies on a date, and the boys were off on a hunting trip in Canada.

The peace and quiet didn't last long. A black and white blur whizzed into the room passed Rosalie and it settled in the kitchen. Then it was back, standing in front of Rosalie holding a note. Alice smiled merrily at her sister and handed her the note that was signed by their mother.

*****

Alice & Rosalie,

While we are out I need you both to work together to complete the list of baked goods I have promised to make for my garden club's Christmas charity bake sale tomorrow. I was going to do this myself, but you father and I have not been out on a date for months so I am asking a favor from you two. Please do not let me down, girls. Work together and I am sure you will succeed. I am expecting this chore to be complete by the time we return from the movie.

Be good.

Love you,

Mom

*****

"What?" Rosalie blurted out, standing up and waving the note at Alice, who had predicted this from their mother the moment Esme had decided to leave the note. Alice shrugged, but a smile lurked on her impish face.

"It will be fun!"

"No. No way! She can't force us to do her dirty work! I will not touch human food!"

"Oh, come on, Rose!" Alice whined. "It's for charity. The money that the bake sale makes will go to buy presents and food for families who can't afford to have a nice Christmas!"

"Then they should get jobs. It is called 'working for a living'!" Rosalie snapped unreasonably. Alice gasped and her mouth dropped in shook at her sister's lack of Christmas spirit.

"Shame on you! We have so much. It is the right thing to do — especially at this time of year!"

"Oh boo-hoo, Alice, we're dead! We don't owe people anything. So get a life and stop with your 'We Are the World' load of shit and LEAVE ME ALONE!" Rosalie yelled and she ran too her room and slammed the door.

Alice was frozen in disbelief. How could her sister be so cold and so heartless? She wondered. She shook off Rosalie's harsh words and heaved a loud sigh—loud enough that Rosalie could hear it from the 2nds story of the house. Then Alice went to work in the kitchen to do as her mother requested of her.

"Cup of sugar," Alice read out the first ingredient for making sugar cookies. "Okay! That seems obvious enough." She took a mug out from the cupboard—the ones they used whenever they had human guests in the house—and filled it with sugar and dumped it into a mixing bowl that Esme had set out on the counter already.

Alice added all the ingredients to the bowl and mixed it with the hand mixer, not knowing that she had accidently missed a few steps—as in creaming the butter and sugar together before adding the dry ingredients. The mixer turned on and a thick cloud of flour filled the air around her, soaking her and entire area around her. Alice shrugged. She figured that was supposed to happen. She had never baked anything in her vampire life and she didn't remember her human life either. Usually, when human cooking needed to be done, Esme took care of it.

"Flatten dough to a quarter inch thick with a rolling pin and cut out shapes with cookie cutters…" she read, "Oh, fun!" Alice did as she read, but didn't notice the side note suggesting she flour the counter before hand to avoid the dough sticking to the counter top.

A few minutes later, Alice realized that the shapes she was cutting out were not lifting off the counter properly so she decided to make her own shapes—a heart, a star, a candy cane and some squares—which she though she could decorate later to look like presents.

When the cookie sheet was filled with all of her shapes she put them in the oven and turned it on. The recipe said to bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes so Alice did just that. She let them back for 10 minutes and then she hand mixed a batch of muffin batter like the next recipe told her to do. Only, it was still so lumpy, so Alice thought the hand mixer would be better and she pureed the muffin batter for a few minutes before pouring spoonfuls of it into each slot of the muffin tins.

Alice didn't see why she should wait on the cookies to be done before putting in the muffins. After all, there were 3 racks in the oven. She loaded the two trays of muffins into the oven and closed the door. The time went off for the cookies, but they were not finished yet, so she put them back in for 15 more minutes and she went on to the next recipe.

Halfway into making gingersnap cookie dough, she smelt something burning….

There was smoke starting to come out of the top of the oven and she could see that the fire alarm was about to go off if she could not stop the smoke in time. She dropped the hand mixer into the cake batter, leaving it plugged into the wall so it accidentally turned on when the button hit the side of the bowl. It flicked dough around the room and she hurried to the oven and pulled out the crisp, blackened cookies and set the whole pan on the stove top.

The smoke was billowing out in a cloud so she took a towel and began to wave it frantically to sway the smoke in the opposite direction of the smoke detector. She was hopeful when the future showed no fire trucks coming to their house. That would have been bad!

"What the hell are you doing? Are you trying to burn down the whole fucking house?" Rosalie snapped as she appeared suddenly in the kitchen and surveyed the mess. She turned off the mix by yanking the cord from the wall socket. "Holy shit! Mom is going to kill you!"

Rosalie's language was generally filtered around the parents or when she was in public with humans, but when it was just she and her siblings she let her rough, New York attitude slip out. Alice didn't mind and didn't usually take Rosalie's crude words to heart…unless they were directed at her personally.

"Us! She is going to kill us!" Alice corrected hastily as she flapped the towel around to dissipate the smoke in the air.

"Not me. You did this!" Rosalie corrected harshly. Alice shook her head and threw the towel down on the counter.

"You were supposed to help! This was a job for the both of us. She will be mad when she finds out you left me to do the baking alone. Obviously, I suck at it!" she retaliated, pointing around to the huge mess she had made.

"No shit! What the hell did you do?" Rosalie questioned her sister without patience.

"I don't know, but I burnt the cookies and the muffins aren't puffing up like the picture shows. I used all the right amounts and everything," Alice sighed, her voice wary.

"Well, you fucked something up, that is for sure! When Mom made these for her book club meeting a few months ago they turned out like the picture and everyone raved about how good they were. People are not going to eat those things!" Rosalie stated as she stared into the oven at the flat muffins that were browning on the top, but not showing signs of rising.

Alice heaved a sigh and leaned against the counter, defeated. "What the fuck are we going to do?" she asked desperately.

"We?" Rosalie inquired, her eyebrow raised and a faint smile came to her pretty face. "And whoa, Alice…nice language. I didn't think you had it in you!" She was slightly touched that Alice was picking up some of her bad habits. Alice glared at Rosalie for a moment.

"Yes, we…because if I tell Mom that I was the only one baking she will be mad at you for not help me and she will be mad at me for nearly burning down the house!" Alice shrieked hysterically. "And I used up most of the ingredients on the first few tries and there isn't enough to start over!"

Rosalie was staring non-blinking at her sister—like watching a train wreck—and then Alice checked her watch with a twitch.

"Gosh, darn it! They will be home in 15 minutes! There is no time to go to the store, buy more ingredients, and then make it back in time to make and bake all these recipes before they return so we are in deep shit anyway we handle this!" Alice ranted frantically.

"Fuck this we talk! I don't care if I get pinned for not helping you. You made this mess. You are on your own!" Rosalie said haughtily and then she turned away. "I am going out for a while." Alice opened her mouth to argue, but Rosalie was gone in a flash.

The time went by too fast for Alice. She decided to put the gingersnaps in the oven to try to, at least, make one of the recipes turn out. The dough was the right consistency this time and the oven was preheated so it seemed like she was doing a fairly good job of them so far.

When the cookies were baking she hurriedly began to tidy of the kitchen. She wiped down the counters first so the flour and dough bits would fall on the floor. Then she got out the broom from the closet and she swept up the crumbs and through them into the trash.

The door opened and Alice scanned the kitchen quickly as her mother and father came in. She smiled sweetly at them as they paused in the kitchen doorway.

"Hey Mommy. Hey Daddy. How was the movie?" she asked with a big smile on her face to try to hide her nerves.

"What happened in here?" Esme asked straight out, stepping into the room and gazing around in horror.

"What do you mean? We were baking for the charity bake sale…like you asked us to do," Alice replied in a high voice. Carlisle raised an eyebrow at his daughter and then looked at his wife.

"It smells like carbon. Did you burn something?" Esme asked, not angry, just curious. She didn't expect perfection from her children—just that they tried their best and did as they were told.

Alice didn't have to answer. Esme found the black and white sugar cookies in the garbage bin and she picked on up and examined it with narrowed eyes and a furrowed brow.

"What happened to this?" she asked, slightly amused, but she was sure that something was up. Rosalie had grown up with a mother who loved to bake and two brothers so she was well aware that her eldest daughter knew how to bake something as simple as sugar cookies.

"Uh…well, they were a little bit over done," Alice replied honestly, though 'little bit' was not entirely the truth. The cookies were, indeed, burnt!

"I can see that, Alice. How did that happen?"

"Well…" Alice said slowly. She cracked under pressure and she felt her mother's eyes on her so she spilled the beans in a rush of words. "The dough kept sticking to the counter so I had to make my own shapes and I guess they were not the right shapes because they didn't bake like they were supposed to. They were not ready when the muffin batter was done so I left them in the oven with the muffins and they just burnt! Then the muffins didn't rise and I tried to make the smoke go away because I didn't want the firemen to come!"

Alice was panicked as she stopped to see how much trouble she was in. Esme frowned, but didn't speak. She had no words. She had really thought that this was a simple task for her two daughters to do, but clearly they could not handle such responsibility.

Carlisle picked up a lump of cookie from the trash and smirked at it. "What kind of Christmas shape is this, Alice?" he asked amused.

"A candy cane," she mumbled. He chuckled and held it up to show Esme who couldn't help but smiled when she saw the phallic shape that the cookie had merged into. Alice didn't see it; she was too upset.

"Well, no harm done, I suppose," Esme sighed. Then she looked up for some reason and her mouth dropped open. There was batter droplets stuck up on ceiling, threatening to drip down on whoever walked underneath it. "What in God's name did you two get into for there to be food on my kitchen ceiling?"

"Uh…" Alice hummed, thinking.

"Come to speak of it…where is your sister?" Carlisle asked, looking around. Alice's eyes grew two times larger then their normal huge size, indicating that she was holding back the truth. Esme stepped up to her tiny daughter and glared at her until Alice cracked.

"She is out! She didn't want to help so I tried to do it all by myself and I have never done this before and so I fucked it all up and I am so sorry!" Alice said so fast Carlisle missed her word choice. Esme caught it, though.

"Alice!" she gasped. Alice smacked her hand over her mouth. "Turn around!" she demanded of her daughter firmly. Alice's eyes saddened and she let her hand fall away from her mouth, but she did as he mother told her. She turned around and a few seconds later she felt a sharp sting as her mother's hand smacked her behind. She yelped and instinctively put her hand on her bum to rub the sore spot.

"Now, go to your room and you think about your behavior, young lady."

"Yes, Mom. I am sorry, Mom," Alice agreed, and she hurried out of the room.

Esme sighed and placed her hand on the kitchen counter. Carlisle wrapped his arm around her and held her. "Was I too harsh with, Alice?"

"She swore when she knows we do not allow that sort of language in our home. She deliberately withheld information about how this mess happened. I would say she deserved a little reminder about obedience," he replied.

"She is so innocent, though. I sometimes feel like it is unfair to punish her when her heart is so often in the right place. She only kept the truth from us tonight because she was protecting her sister. I have no doubt in my mind that is whom she picked that word up from as well."

"Yes. I believe you are right about that one, my dear," Carlisle agreed with his beautiful wife. She turned to face him, fiddling with his tie, as she looked him in the eye. "You did the right thing. Alice made a mistake. You corrected her. That is what a responsible, caring parent does for their child."

"And Rosalie?" Esme asked.

"She will need to be taught a lesson as well, I am afraid," Carlisle answered honestly. Seeing his wife's dismay he offered to deal with their eldest. "Shall I find Rosalie and have a talk with her about her attitude?"

"No. I am the one who gave an order. She disobeyed me tonight. I will deal with her."

And with that, Esme kissed her husband lightly and released him call her daughter's cell phone. The line rang and rang until Rosalie's voice mail message turned on.

"Hey! This is Rosalie! If I didn't answer your call it is because I am screening and you didn't make the cut. Better luck next time, loser! Beep."

"Rosalie Lillian Cullen! You had better pick up your phone or you will be in a world of trouble when you get home! Call me back immediately or come home immediately! It's your choice!" Esme shouted into the phone, not pleased to have received her daughters recording. She knew that Rosalie always had her phone on her. She was constantly text-messaging Emmett, so it was most likely Rosalie was, in fact, screening her mother's call. Not…a smart move!

The timer on the oven beeped and both Esme and Carlisle looked at each other and then to the oven. Esme opened the door and pulled out the cookie sheet of gingersnaps and scoffed a laugh. Carlisle covered his mouth with his hand, but his eyes smiled, giving his amusement away. All the cookies had merged together to form one, giant cookie. It was a complete disaster.

"Let's not tell Alice about this, shall we?" Esme told Carlisle lovingly. "After all, her heart was in the right place. She tried her best." Carlisle nodded and flicked off the oven, chuckling to himself as Esme dumped the tray of cookies into the sink to cool before she would dump them out completely.

"Oh fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" Rosalie swore when she saw her mother was calling her. She went to open her flip phone, but she hesitated in fear. She was a tough cookie to break, but deep down she was soft and the one thing that scared Rosalie was her mother's wrath. She shoved the phone deep into her purse and pretended it was not ringing.

Then she got back into her car—that she had parked outside the Auto Supply Store—and she speed back towards her home, not bothering to pick up the things she had gone out to purchase.

When she arrived home in the driveway her mother was on the front steps, tapping her foot on the cement with her arms folded across her chest. Rosalie gulped and then got proudly out of her car and walked boldly towards her mother. She hated to show weakness, even with her own mother.

"You had better start talking, missy!"

"I don't know what you mean," Rosalie said innocently…too innocently.

"I called you. You didn't pick up."

"I didn't realize it was you, mother."

"Like Hell, you didn't! You tell me the truth right now, or you won't be seeing that phone for a while!" Esme threatened. Rosalie's face twisted up and she glared at her mother as Esme held the door open for her. She stormed inside ahead of her mother and they both placed themselves in the middle of the living room. No one else was around, but Carlisle and Alice—upstairs—could hear every loud word.

"I asked a favor of you tonight, Rosalie! One tiny favor and you blew it off like it meant nothing to you!"

"It didn't mean anything to me! I don't know your friends! Why should I have to bake for their silly bake sale?" Rosalie yelled back. Esme could not believe her daughter's attitude at the moment.

"Because it the loving thing to do! To give onto others…as you would have them do onto you! Have you never thought about those less fortunate then yourself, Rosalie? You must know how truly blessed you are to have all that you do? There are others out there who are not so fortunate, you realize!"

"I know that!"

"Really? Because your actions do not speak as prominently as your words suggest. I don't see compassion from you when you behave like you have this evening—leaving Alice alone to bake when she had no experience and no recollection of how it is done. She nearly burnt down the house tonight because you were too self-involved to lend a hand!"

"Okay! I get it. I am a bitch! Just tell me my punishment and be done with it!" Rosalie snapped. Esme was at her daughter's backside in a flash and she smack it once, shocking Rosalie completely.

"There is more where that came from and if you don't simmer down I will strike your cheeks until they crack!"

Rosalie gawked at her mother. It had been a while since she had received any corporal punishment from either one of her parents. They never meant to hurt them when they did this, but it was more of a harsh blow to the ego to be humiliated in that manner.

"Do you understand me, Rosalie? I want you to calm down and tell me why you didn't help Alice tonight. Can you do that without all your sass backing?" Esme questioned. Rosalie nodded quickly, ashamed. She was sure if she were still alive she would be blushing. "Good. Now take a seat on the sofa. We will discuss this rationally."

Rosalie followed her mother's instructions, not wanting any more disgrace. Being spanked made her feel so young and so foolish. She didn't like it one bit!

"Now…" Esme began after the both got comfortable in the living room and a few minutes had passed between them both. She took her daughter's hand in hers and stroked it as she spoke. "Tell me why you are having such a hard time getting on with your sister. I know she can be energetic, but Alice has a big heart and she is naïve in ways none of us can truly understand considering where she came from and her inability to recall her past life,"

"Oh, ya? What about my past life?" Rosalie blurted out. "Don't I get to use my free pass? I was raped and beaten to death before coming into yours and Dad's lives. I don't feel the same warmth towards all mankind as Alice does. She doesn't remember how cruel they can be! Even around the holiday — they drink too much, act out, and kill each other! I don't get why everyone is so intent on ignoring this fact and pretending that love is what makes up the world!"

"Oh, Rose, darling," Esme cooed, pulling Rosalie into her arms and squeezing her tightly. It was an expression of love and hope, but also of pity and regret. What Rosalie said of humanity was true…sometimes. Humans could be cruel and destructive. However, Rosalie was so blinded by her past she sometimes missed out on seeing the good in others.

"I am sorry, Mom. I should have helped tonight. I know that you do all that charity because it is a nice thing to do, but I just didn't feel like it. I didn't want to think about all the people out there that are suffering,"

"I am sorry you felt this way, Rosalie, but you do realize that if more people contribute to helping those in need, there would be less people left to suffer?" Esme offered the idea to her daughter. Rosalie smushed her face into her mother's shoulder and wept.

"I'm sorry, Momma. I know! I know I am selfish and awful!" she cried. Esme rubbed her back softly, hushing her gently.

"You are not, my darling. You are a wonderful girl. You just need to remember that not everyone is cruel and unjust. Just like there are those people who will bring havoc to the world, there are those who want to make it a better place for all to live."

"Live?" Rosalie mumbled softly, questioning her mother's words choice.

"Yes, live. Our hearts may not beat, love, but as your father has preached to us…our souls live on. That is where we must find the strength to be better then we believe we are. Always!"

"Okay, Momma."

"Okay, baby girl. I love you, you know that, don't' you?"

"I know, I love you too, Mom," Rosalie sighed, holding onto her mother tighter, feeling safe, whole…and loved. They remained silent and still in each other's arms for a long time. Neither one of them wanted the perfect moment to end.

Suddenly, Alice came flying into the room and she wrapped herself around the pair of them. She squealed joyously. "Daddy said I could come out of my room now"! Her eyes were shut tightly as she held onto her mother and sister with all her might.

"That sounds like your father. He is such a soft-hearted man," Esme smiled fondly.

Alice grinned wildly, knowing it was true—she had her father wrapped around her little finger when it came to getting out of punishments—and hugged Rosalie even tighter.

"Okay. Okay. Enough of the mushy stuff!" Rosalie huffed, standing up, leaving Alice on the sofa with their mother. Both of them looked curiously at Rosalie, wondering if she had already slipped back into her frosty composure. Rosalie continued, "We'd better get a move on if we are going to get to the store and back in time to bake all those items for the bake sale tomorrow!"

"That's my girl!" Esme said proudly, standing up to stroke Rosalie's hair lovingly.

"Yay!" Alice cheered and squishing into between her mother and sister. "I am in charge of frosting!"

"You are absolutely not allowed to touch the oven again, that's for sure!" Rosalie replied. All three of them laughed.

"Oooo…goody. We shall have an entourage this evening!" Alice cheered as she saw the near future.

"Hey hey!" Emmet belted out, bursting into the room. The boys had come home from their hunting trip early to spend more time with the family.

"Hey, baby!" Rosalie beamed, happy to see her mate.

"Edward says there is some 'Good Will to Man' rubbish that you ladies are doing tonight! Thought we would come lend a hand!" he shared as her planted a kiss on Rosalie's lips.

"If you would like some assistance, that is?" Jasper offered more politely, sitting on the end of the couch armrest. Edward nodded, having just suggested they help out when he over heard some of the thoughts in his mother's and sister's heads a moment early as they approached their family home.

"We'll all help!" Carlisle insisted with a smile, joining the family in the living room. The family gathered and Jasper nearly fell backwards off his seat from all the emotions that warped through the room. Alice jumped onto him and hugged him tightly.

"God Bless us, everyone!" she said in a tiny, yet powerful, voice. Rosalie leaned back and rolled her eyes at her baby sister.

"Thanks for that, tiny Tim! Got any other cheesy sentiments to ruin the moment?" she quipped teasingly.

Alice grinned wildly again and said, "Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!"

THE END

Well, tell me what you think. Did you enjoy a little bit of Christmas in March? Hehehe. Rosalie is starting to be one of my favorite Characters. She is just too much fun to write! If you like AH stories --and Rosalie-- please check out my latest story, Thorns. It is based on Rosalie joining the, seemly perfect, Cullen family for the summer as foster child. It is AU/AH...Check it out if you think you might be interested. :)

Thank you for reading.