"There's my girl's ornament," Monica said, standing next to their Christmas tree in her robe, pointing to the shiny pink bulb painted white with "Baby's First Christmas."

She sighed happily, relishing this moment alone with her baby girl on Christmas morning. Chandler, Jack and Erica had gathered up all the discarded wrapping paper, ribbons and bows from the morning gift-opening spree and taken them to the kitchen to throw away or recycle. She could hear excited conversation as each of the kids drank their peppermint hot chocolate and Chandler made more coffee for the two of them.

She ran one hand over her girl's sparse dark hair and smiled as the little one's big blue eyes danced while she looked wide-eyed at the tree. She fixed her gaze briefly to where her Mom was pointing, little colored lights reflecting in her eyes, then she turned and after a moment smiled at her beaming Momma.

"Do you like those lights? Do you like those lights?" Monica grinned and giggled as she put both hands around her six-month-old daughter's torso and lifted her above her head and back down again, giving her cheeks little kisses each time, much to the baby's delight.

Then she held her close as tears filled her eyes and she enjoyed the moment of magical silence with their little miracle.

"I love you, Ava," she whispered as she kissed her daughter's head.

Ava Elizabeth Bing was born a healthy 7 pounds, 3 ounces after 8 hours of labor right on her due date, June 30, after a relatively easy pregnancy.

"Of course she was on time," Chandler had quipped only moments after she was born as he nuzzled his newborn baby's head to his cheek. "She's your daughter."

She was the image of Monica - big blue eyes shaped like her Mom's and what hair she had was dark as night, but when she smiled she was Chandler's child. Her mouth and chin were definitely his.

Monica swayed back and forth with Ava in front of the tree as Chandler, in his robe, and the twins in their PJs walked back into the living room. Jack and Erica were wearing the same matching red and green "Big Sister" and "Big Brother" footie pajamas they had worn on Christmas last year.

A year ago they were a little too big, this year they were a little too tight, but this year Ava wore a matching set that read "Little Sister…"

Dinner was over and the Bing, Geller and Hannigan children had played hard with all the toys they'd piled up during Christmas Day at the Bing house. They'd chased around and climbed on Uncle Joey so much that he had dozed off in a chair in the corner of the living room. Ben was attached to his phone in the other corner, frantically texting friends after he and Ross had taken the Porsche for a slow spin.

Phoebe had taken her two kids - 5-year-old Nadia and baby Aidan - upstairs to change into their pajamas, and Rachel had followed her with almost 8-year-old Emma and 5-year-old Luke. They had made their way back downstairs before Monica and the twins came down.

"A Christmas Story?" Chandler asked as he looked through Christmas DVDs with Ross and Mike. Everyone hoped a movie would calm down the kids, and give the adults some time to chat uninterrupted before everyone headed home for the night.

"Uh…" Mike said with a wince. "Nadia might be a little young for that one. How about How the Grinch Stole Christmas?"

"Freaks Luke out," Ross said, shaking his head.

"Bad Santa?" Chandler said, with a grin. Ross and Mike chuckled.

"Um," Chandler said, continuing to look, "Polar Express?"

"Yeah," Mike nodded.

"That'll work," Ross agreed.

"One trip to Christmas Town coming up," Chandler said, picking out the DVD. He was getting ready to tell the kids to go back up to their playroom, aka Uncle Joey's room, to watch the movie when he caught sight of Monica, Jack and Erica at the top of the stairs. All three had huge smiles on their faces. Chandler had to swallow hard when he saw the PJs he didn't know Monica had gotten for all three of them. With tears in his eyes, he turned to the frenzy of his friends and their kids in the living room and cleared his throat.

"Ross?" he said loudly over the chaos, "would you wake up Joey? We've got one more, um…surprise for everyone."

"Takin' my life in my hands, but OK," Ross said, as he slapped Joey's knee with his hand and Joey startled awake.

"What's going on?" Rachel said as she sat with Luke on her lap on the couch next to Phoebe, who was feeding Aidan. Mike sat next to her. The kids sat on the floor at their parents' feet and were quiet, eager to see what their aunt and uncle had planned as a surprise. Ben even looked up from his phone.

Chandler turned back to the stairs.

"Jack, Erica, you can come down now," he said, with a catch in his throat.

And down the stairs flew a very excited Jack and Erica, in their "Big Brother" and "Big Sister" pajamas.

"Oh!" Phoebe and Rachel gasped at the same time as Mike and Ross looked at Chandler, surprised smiles on their faces.

"Dude!" Joey said, huge smile on his face as he came to stand next to Chandler. "You guys adopting again?"

"No," Jack said, shaking his head quickly from side to side. Erica shook her head "no," too, and started bouncing up and down.

All eyes were on Chandler, questioning him, and he couldn't speak. He looked at Monica's brother, who looked like he was going to cry, and shook his head "no," too.

Just then Monica came down the stairs in a pajama shirt and pajama pants, and on the shirt was printed "Bundle of Joy" across her stomach. She was just starting to show the hint of a baby bump.

"Mommy's having this baby in her own tummy!" Jack said, excitedly. "And we get to keep it!"

Monica wiped her eyes as she heard the nervous laughter and saw the shocked expressions on their friends' faces, then she looked adoringly at her son.

"You got it, Jack," Chandler said gently, kneeling down and hugging his son. "Some babies grow in their mommy's tummies and some in other tummies, but what's important is…"

"Where they go and how they grow!" Erica and Jack said at the same time, having heard that sentence over and over again as they grew up.

"That's right," Monica said, coming over to hug her little family, "and I can't believe you kept the secret all the way from this morning. I know that was hard to do!"

Erica and Jack grinned proudly as their aunts and uncles congratulated them on their restraint and on becoming big sibs. Their cousins were excited, for a couple moments, then started to get antsy again.

"Ready to watch the Polar Express?" Mike said, to a chorus of "yays" all around. "OK, let's go."

He walked over to Chandler and took the movie from him, making eye contact with Monica and smiling as he patted Chandler on the back. He led all the kids but little Aidan up to Joey's room, Ben bringing up the rear. The teen hugged both Monica and Chandler then followed his little cousins up the stairs.

"Oh, Monica, oh!" Rachel said jumping up and putting her arms around her friend as tears started to fall all around. Phoebe wiped her eyes with Aidan's burp cloth and joined the hug, adjusting her hold on her son.

"How far along are you?" Rachel asked, breathless.

"Almost 12 weeks," Monica beamed through her tears.

"How long have you known?!" Rachel said.

"Only a couple of weeks," Monica said, shaking her head. "I found out when I went to Dr. Long's office!"

"You're kidding!" Rachel said with a little laugh.

"How do you feel?" Phoebe asked, patting Monica's stomach.

"Wonderful," she said, glancing over at Chandler, who was flanked by Joey and Ross, all three faces red from smiling and trying not to cry.

She looked back at her girlfriends.

"Absolutely wonderful," she said, her eyes dancing.

Joey clapped his hand on Chandler's shoulder.

"Wow, man, just…wow," he said, grinning broadly. "I can't believe it."

"I know," Chandler said, not able to keep the smile off his face. "I know it."

Ross clapped his other shoulder and pulled him into a hug as Joey stepped back a moment.

"I could not be happier for you, brother," he whispered, his voice thick. "Nobody deserves it more."

Chandler hugged him back and looked over at his wife, who was answering a million questions with a bright smile on her face.

"I agree," he said, with tears in his eyes as he pulled away from Ross then nodded toward his wife. "Nobody deserves it more…"

Ross looked at Monica and smiled as the six friends pulled each other into a hug to congratulate the Bings.

"Ava, Ava," Erica said in a sing-song voice, patting her sister on the back as Monica wrapped an arm around her 7 year old.

Ava caught sight of her big sister and reached out to "pat" her on the face. Erica giggled. Chandler grinned. He loved seeing his girls together.

"Dad, can you finish putting my track together?"

"Sure, son," Chandler said, placing the coffee mugs on coasters on an end table and kneeling next to Jack, who was randomly putting pieces together.

"Wait," he said, taking the next part of the track Jack was trying to slam together out of his hands. "I'm sure the Jolly Old Elf left directions somewhere."

Jack hopped up to look in the Hot Wheels box and pulled out the directions. He knelt next to Chandler as they hovered over them. Monica smiled at the look of concentration on her boys' faces.

She, Erica and Ava made their way over to the couch and she sat down, Ava sitting on her lap facing out as Erica knelt before her.

Monica couldn't stop smiling. She held Ava snuggled close to her as Erica started to play peak-a-boo with her baby sister, sending Ava into little fits of giggles every time. Her gaze moved to Jack, who was bouncing on the balls of his feet now, just like his father, anxious for Chandler to finish setting up his new Hot Wheels race track.

"There you go," Chandler said, snapping the last piece into place. "You gotta keep the cars up and away from Ava, OK? She can't play with them."

"OK, Dad," Jack said, already setting up the duel racers at the starting gate.

Chandler tussled his son's hair, grabbed the coffee mugs and walked over to sit next to Monica and Ava on the couch. Ava was still giggling.

"Mom, she is so funny!" Erica said with a big smile, hiding her face once again. Then… "Boo!"

The sweetest little cascade of new giggles came out of Ava, making Chandler and Monica both chuckle. He put down the drinks on the coffee table a safe distance from the kids and ran his hand over Ava's little leg. She briefly turned her smiling face to his before focusing on her sister again.

Monica turned to look at her husband, smile still firmly in place, with tears in her eyes.

"Merry Christmas," she whispered.

"Happy Hanukkah," he said, with his little grin.

Ava reached her arms out to Erica, who smiled brightly, lifting her sister off her mother's lap. She sat on the floor with Ava in her lap and gave the six-month-old a gentle hug.

Monica took a deep breath, laying back against Chandler on the couch. He put his hand over her shoulder and she laced her fingers with his. She took a good look around at her family before she tilted her head to look up into his eyes.

"Thank you," she whispered softly, overwhelmed by the happiness in her heart, overwhelmed with her love for him. "Thank you for everything."

"Ah…" he said, his cheeks turning a little pink and his heart suddenly pounding.

He pulled her closer to him and she ducked her head against his chest. He rested his chin on the top of her head and closed his eyes.

"Oh, baby…" he whispered, his voice low and soft, as he opened his eyes and looked heavenward for just a moment.

Then he grinned and kissed the top of her hair as his gaze fell on their children.

"You're welcome."

THE END.

NOTE: Just dawned on me that I had a couple elements of "It's a Wonderful Life" in this fic. Oh well, 'tis the season, right? Hope you enjoyed these little mushy Mondler moments, with nary a hint of angst from me. That's a Christmas miracle in and of itself! ;)

Oh, and in case anyone is curious about how these other FRIENDS kids came to be, well, they are in my one-shot "Batman vs. Spider-Man." And I'm gonna say Monica's appointment was the week after "Iced Cold Cocoa." ;) I suppose I should keep my little post-series universe, such as it is, somewhat intact.

Thank you all for your reviews, and as my friend Meg has said, all of us writers certainly love the feedback you give us. It is so sweet and appreciated, you have no idea :) We love this fictional couple and this fandom - and you all hold special place in our hearts.

Have a safe and joyous holiday season!