AN: This is for Joni, Augus10, and Nonna99 who have all requested an update for this story.

Christmas Morning

"Mama, Papi!" Kathryn yelled as she ran into her parents room.

"Santa came!" Marisol exclaimed as she ran in behind her sister.

"He did?" Calleigh asked. "How do you know that?"

"Went downstairs," Mari responded. "There's big socks full of stuff on the fireplace."

"Mari we wasn't supposed to be downstairs," Kathryn reminded her sister. "Why's you tell them we already went down?"

"A'cause I forgotted," Mari said sheepishly.

"Well I guess we should get Isabel and go see what is in those big socks," Eric told his girls with a smile. He was too amused by Marisol's description of the stockings to scold the girls for going downstairs on their own.

Kate and Mari went downstairs with Eric while Calleigh went to wake Isabel up. "Good morning baby girl. Do you want to go down and open presents?" Calleigh asked her youngest daughter.

"Psents!" Isabel proclaimed. At two, she didn't quite understand Christmas but Kate and Mari seemed really excited about it.

"Yes, presents," Calleigh replied as they reached the main floor of their home.

"Daddy!" Isabel screamed as soon as she saw her dad.

"Good morning princesa!" Eric greeted his baby girl. "Are you ready for presents?"

"Psents!" she exclaimed. Kate, Mari, you psents too?" she asked her big sisters.

"Yeah, Isa we have presents too," Kate told her.

"What would you guys like to open first? The stockings from Santa or the presents from Mama and Daddy?" Calleigh asked her daughters.

Calleigh and Eric had blended Cuban and American Christmas traditions to create a unique Christmas celebration for their girls. Santa brought stockings on Christmas day andnd the girls had presents from Eric and Calleigh under the Christmas tree. Next to the tree was a life-sized nativity scene. Each day between Christmas and Epiphany, the three wise men would be moved closer to baby Jesus in the manger. Then on Epiphany, they would receive presents from Los Reyos Magos or The Three Wise Men. Marisol, Kathryn and Isabel were still too little to fully understand the meaning behind these traditions but Eric and Calleigh celebrated anyway.

"Stockings," yelled Mari.

"Yeah stockings!" Kate agreed.

"Sockies sockies sockies," Isabel cheered as Eric grabbed the three stockings from the mantle.

"Okay girls, here you go," Eric said as he handed each girl their stocking. Calleigh had wrapped each gift before putting it in the stocking, so it took the a while to go through the assortment of gifts in their stockings. Kate was thrilled to discover that she had new Hot Wheels cars and Mari was equally excited about the bracelets and barettes that she had received.

After they had unwrapped and played with the toys in their stockings, it was time for breakfast. Calleigh had made French Toast bake the night before and had put it in the oven while the girls played with their new toys so breakfast was cooked and ready to be eaten. After breakfast the girls were ready to open the presents from Eric and Calleigh that were under the tree. Once each child a had gift, the girls were allowed to open the gift.

"Mama look!" Isabel exclaimed joyfully as she unwrapped a new baby doll. "So pretty!"

"She is pretty," Calleigh agreed. "What is that Mari?"

"It's a tea set just like the one Graciana has! Thank you so much!" Mari told her parents.

"Look Papi it's the train set I wanted," Kate said as she showed off the wooden train set.

The girls spent the next hour unwrapping the rest of their gifts. In addtion to the train set, Kate also had an easel, a roll of paper, and lots of crayons and markers. Mari received a set of wooden dress up dolls, and several new dress up outfits. Isabel's other gifts included a foam alphabet play mat and a stroller and car seat for her new baby doll. Each girl also received two new outfits and new pajamas.

Finally it was time for Eric and Calleigh to open their gifts. Eric opened his first gift, which was a collection of framed photos of Calleigh and the girls. Calleigh's first gift was a flashlight for her Sig Sauer. They continued to open gifts which included a selection of movies, CD's and clothes for each of them. Before long Eric and Calleigh had opened all of their gifts. They didn't receive gifts for each day of the twelve days of Christmas but each would receive one last gift on Epiphany.

After spending the morning opening gifts and playing with their new toys, it was naptime for three little girls. While the girls napped, Calleigh worked on getting everything ready for dinner with her dad later in the day.

AN: I hope you guys enjoyed reading this chapter. I definitely enjoyed writing it. Before writing this chapter, I did a bit of research (aka a quick Google search) about Cuban Christmas traditions. Here's a quick overview of the various Cuban traditions mentioned in the story: Epiphany (celebrated on January 6th) is a celebration of the day when the three wise men presented their gifts to baby Jesus. Cubans traditionally celebrate Epiphany and receive presents from The Three Wise Men instead of from getting gifts from Santa on Dec 25th.