Hi everyone, happy holidays to you. Hope you are having a nice holiday season, spending time with family and friends.

So this one is Christmas based, AU, where Emma and Ruby are just best friends, supporting each other raising their kids.

I do not own OUAT or its characters, just my imagination.

Chapter 7: Christmas traditions anew

Emma's eyes flicker open as the sun beams through the little slits of her window shades, she lets out a groan as she stretches out. And she is immediately hears the distinct sound of her son, best friend, and her best friend's daughter giggling. Emma chuckles as she sits up, she looks at the clock seeing it was 10 am. She was grateful that Ruby kept the kids busy so she could sleep in. It was Christmas eve today, so last night, was her last night to work, having today and the next off. She gets out of bed, slipping a sweatshirt on over her t-shirt, that went with her Christmas themed pajama pants. Emma slides her feet into slippers, then heads to the bathroom quick. Once done, then she out to the kitchen/ living room. She soon can here Christmas music softly playing, with giggles along with it. She rounds the corner "Morning guys…"

Henry looks up from the counter, and grins widely, getting off the stool, running to him mom, to hug her. At seven, he was still very much a hugger, at least to mom and Aunt Ruby. "Hey mom…"

Emma wraps her arms around him, dropping a kiss to the top of his head "Morning kiddo." When she looks up, she sees four-year-old Luna grinning. She pulls away from Henry, and scoops up Luna, kissing her cheek "Morning Luna bear…"

Luna giggles hugging her back "Morning auntie Emma."

Emma smiles, moving the girl to sit on her hip, as she walks around to the counter "What we got going here head elf Ruby?" she teasing asks her friend.

Ruby laughs "Morning Em… well I thought I'd get the cookie dough going for those special Christmas cookies we found."

"Ah…" Emma hums "did you tell the kiddo what they are for?"

"No…" Henry whines "Aunt Ruby said we had to wait for you mom."

Emma chuckles, ruffling his hair "Well guys" she then looks at Luna, bopping her nose with her finger "we are making special cookies, that we will decorate. Once we are done… we will pick two to leave out for Santa tonight, then the others, will be our dessert after dinner tonight."

Henry smiles widely "Oh cool. And we get to decorate them too?"

"You bet pup" Ruby smiles "I got decorating frosting we get to use."

"Yay, cookies" Luna giggles, the girl loved her cookies.

Emma laughs, moving to sit Luna down on the other stool "So how can I help?"

"Want to get out the cookie cutters and frosting?"

Emma nods, doing so as Ruby gets the dough out the mixer.

Ruby starts working the dough to flatten it out for the cutters "this will be a fun tradition to do every year."

Emma nods, setting the stuff on the counter "it will be, maybe we can have the cookies with my special hot chocolate."

Ruby hums "That's even better, your crock pot hot chocolate is the best. Huh pups?"

Henry and Luna both nod, with wide smiles.

Emma smiles "You guys sure know how to make a girl feel loved."

Ruby then looks at the kids "Okay guys, pick out which cutters to use for Santa's cookies.

They both look at the choices "This one" Henry smiles, handing her a stocking shaped one.

"I make dis one" Luna smiles, showing her a present shaped cutter.

"Great choices" Emma smiles proudly. "I want to do a snowman" she grins taking the snowman one.

"Alright" Ruby smiles, as she finishes flatting out the dough.

A little while later, the four are sitting at the table. The cookies had been baked, and cooled, now it was time to decorate. Christmas music still playing softly.

"Me wants the red please" Luna asks, making grabby hands at the red frosting.

"Here you go Luna, remember this one is for Santa, then you get to do yours for after dinner okay?" Ruby says softly, as she gets the red tube ready for her.

"Okay mama" Luna nods.

"I'm making my stocking red and green striped" Henry smiles, as he carefully decorates.

"Very nice kid" Emma smiles, ruffling his hair, then goes back to spreading the white frosting on the snow man.

"That is a really nice stocking Henry" Ruby nods, as she starts on her tree cookie.

Henry grins "Thanks. I like this, can we do this every year?"

Emma chuckles "We will definitely try."

"Yes!" Henry cheers.

After the cookies are done, the moms put on Frosty the snowman for the kids, while they clean up the mess left from decorating the cookies. "Our first Christmas here…" Emma smiles to her friend.

Ruby nods "It sure beats the old apartment, we definitely outgrew that one."

Emma chuckles "We did. Plus, now we can afford more."

"Yeah, we have come a long way. I'm not looking forward to the day though, when we no longer live together though. Especially, holidays."

"Same. But I don't see it happening anytime soon though" Emma shrugs "Even when it does, we can still do Christmas together."

Ruby nods, as she finishes wiping off the counter "For sure. Speaking of, what time did you tell your parents and Granny to be here tomorrow?"

"Um…" Emma bites her lip thinking as she washes the dishes "I told them two, that way no one needs to rush here, and we won't have to wait as long either to eat."

"That sounds good, cause I'm sure the kids will be up early, and will be tired."

"Always, it's like a rite of passage or something when you become a parent."

Ruby laughs "I guess you're right, we did it to our parents…"

"Every year, even when I got older, I had a hard time sleeping in on Christmas" Emma chuckles, as she dries her hands.

"Granny always made me wait till at least seven to come wake her up" Ruby chuckles, as she puts the cookies into a container, so they had them nice and fresh still later.

Emma chuckles "Granny always did like sleeping in when the diner was closed didn't, she?"

Ruby nods "Oh yeah" she laughs "she may have loved having the diner, but she hated always being up so early all the time."

Emma nods "I am with her there…"

Ruby laughs "We know…"

It was now, that night. The kids where tucked into bed, the cookies where out with milk for Santa. And the mom's where now putting out the gifts from them and Santa.

Emma smiles, setting the bear for Luna in the princess chair she was getting "She is going to love this chair."

Ruby laughs "Yeah, she will. Especially since Jasmine on it."

"She does love that one…" Emma grins, as she sets a couple other gifts around.

Ruby gives her a smile back as she fills the stockings "And I hope Henry likes his surprises in his stocking, he's getting tougher to shop for."

Emma nods "He is… so I appreciate the help."

"No problem, what are friends for right?"

Emma chuckles, "Very true…"

Ruby puts the last thing in Luna's stocking "Well… I think that's it… we just need to do the cookies, so it looks like he was truly here…"

Emma grins "The things we do for those two huh?"

"Yeah, but their worth it."

"Oh… we need to do the carrots too… for the reindeer" Emma says "I promised Henry I'd get carrots out for them…"

"Look at you mom" Ruby laughs, taking the carrot from Emma, and gnawing on it.

Emma smiles, then she looks over at the clock, seeing it was now midnight "Merry Christmas Rubes."

"Merry Christmas Emma" Ruby smiles back.

Hey everyone, hope you are having a great holiday season. Thoughts, Ideas?