"Well, all families start to come together. We always get together at Christmas. Yeah, life would just pass in a blur if it wasn't for times like this."

~A Muppet Family Christmas

~~~~~~

 "Ethan," Kelsey said measuredly, "please tell me you're joking."

Ethan clacked a pair of tongs from the other side of the kitchen. "Look, I'm a crab."

"I said the blue rubber ones," she explained, clamoring down from the cabinet, glass pie pan cradled in her arm.

Ethan looked down at the utensil in his hand. "They're exactly the same, this one is just red."

"But I said the blue ones!"

"Okay, okay!" Ethan put the red tongs back into the drawer and pulled out the blue ones. "Since when did you become the kitchen dictator?"

Kelsey huffed in frustration. Her mind was a whirl of planning. To-do's crowded her thoughts to the point where they were getting congested in their flow.

Ethan's family had won three tickets to go on a Disney cruise for Christmas, so Ethan was accompanying Kelsey to her family's Christmas in Idaho.

Becca hadn't done anything for Christmas for the five years that she and Jordan Mack had been married and she'd been at a loss deciding what to do, so she was coming as well.

Thus, Kelsey was now committed to taking her two mega-famous best friends from L.A. to her Filipino family's Christmas...and was in charge of dinner. The Christmas feast was the biggest meal of the year for the Mendoza's, which was her mom's side of the family.

Kelsey tossed a package of Cajun seasoning into her suitcase.

"Are we having ham on the bayou?" Ethan asked, nodding towards the seasoning.

"It's just in case," Kelsey muttered. She suddenly straightened, her eyes darting wildly around the kitchen. "Where's my rolling pin?! Grandma Rosamie gave it to me when I was twelve, if I don't have it, she'll string me up by my hair."

She whirled around the kitchen, throwing open drawers and cabinets in search of the rolling pin.

Ethan crossed over the floor and put his hands on Kelsey's shoulders to make her stay still. "Hey, talk to me," he said. "You've practically packed up your entire kitchen, and there's no signs of you stopping. We're going to go have fun with your family. We have a plane to catch. It's Christmas. Remember?" His eyebrows quirked in pity. "Kelsey, you may not realize this, but Becca is already on her way to the airport. Becca. Who thinks being late is a virtue. And I'm pretty sure she packed her whole closet."

Kelsey sighed and buried her head into his chest. "I'm sorry. I've just never been in charge of Christmas dinner and I'm super stressed about seeing Mom."

"You guys have talked almost every week since your accident," Ethan said, wrapping his arms around her.

"I know, it's just..." she bit her lip. "She and Dad got divorced and this is our first year apart. We always spend Christmas together and it's going to be so awkward if things don't go perfectly."

"Jacob's coming, though," Ethan encouraged.

"So the only one we're missing is Dad," Kelsey murmured. "I guess he'll be happy on his fishing trip with Uncle Ernesto...but who will carve the ham? Who will complain about bringing more wood inside when Aunt Josephine keeps pestering him about it being too cold? Who will hang the magic goose on the Christmas tree?"

"The magic goose?"

"He won it from a scratch ticket at the county fair."

Ethan held her at arm's length. "Look. You've catered almost fifteen parties since Chef Romano promoted you last month. Everyone thinks you can cook better than the ghost of Julia Child combined with Rosanna Pansino. You'll be fine for Christmas dinner."

Kelsey patted his hand on her shoulder. "I'm impressed you remembered their names."

"You've only made me watch two thousand YouTube videos."

Kelsey turned towards the mess in her kitchen. "So, maybe not two suitcases full of cooking utensils?"

~~~~

"Here, let me carry it!" Ethan cried as Kelsey began lagging behind. "We have to hurry!"

They sprinted through the airport, dodging other Christmas travelers, eager holiday tourists coming to L.A. wearing Hawaiian printed shirts, and obstinate children who were obviously not going to be put on the nice list.

Kelsey was out of breath as she came up to the waiting area for flight 398 to Idaho. She handed her tickets to the clerk, inhaling slowly through her nose, before making her way down the jetway, Ethan close at her heels.

She shoved her way through the congested aisle of people trying to stuff carry-ons into the compartments above and trying not to be blinded by the bright red Christmas sweater that the man ahead of her was wearing.

She didn't even have to scan each label to find her seat. She saw Becca sitting at the window, her black hair in large curls that surrounded a bright pink tulle headband that had a silver glittered "Merry Christmas!" pop-up on the top.

Her face, however, didn't reflect the holiday merriment that her headdress conveyed. She wore a scowl that creased her purple lipstick.

"Wow, you look...festive," Kelsey commented, allowing Ethan to shove her carry-on into the compartment above them.

"Just spreading some Christmas cheer," Becca muttered. "I don't understand why we had to fly economy. It's literally like everyone who got rejected from every other Christmas flight got put onto this plane. What could possibly be so amazing about Idaho?!" She rolled her eyes and scoffed at a woman walking by, who was wearing felt reindeer antlers and a tinsel-clad sweater. "I mean, what are these people even wearing?! They're hideous."

Kelsey and Ethan both looked up at Becca's outrageous headband.

Kelsey nodded slowly. "Huh. Crazy."

Becca sighed and settled into her seat. "We could've flown first class."

"Well, unlike the two famous movie stars here, I make a normal amount of money, and am therefore broke. Besides, we checked first class, remember? It was all booked."

Before Becca could argue any further, a young woman slowed to a halt in the middle of the aisle.

She gaped at the three of them, her eyes bouncing from Ethan, to Kelsey, to Becca.

She pointed at Ethan first. "You're..." Then Kelsey. "And you're his..." Then Becca. "And you're..."

She was suddenly swept away by the crowd that had amassed behind her before she could form a coherent sentence.

Kelsey looked away when Ethan glanced at her. She still wasn't used to getting recognized by complete strangers just because she was dating Ethan Glenn.

As the safety video began to play, she looked around Becca at the window. A cotton-candy sky stretched out above the green signs hanging over the road. She loved L.A.. She loved the endless summer, the quirky people, the insane amount of food trucks. She loved her job. She loved her friends. She loved Ethan.

But she was happy to get a break from it all. To leave the fame and status behind for a while.

She couldn't count how many times she and Ethan would be on a date and at least three people would recognize them and ask for an autograph. She understood why (if she saw Ed Sheeran in the wild, she wasn't sure she could resist interrupting him for an autograph), but to be in a place where no one would recognize them for the holidays was going to be heavenly.

That is, if her family doesn't prove to be worse than flocks of adoring fans...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hey guys! Long time no...chat? Reading? Writing? I don't know. Anyway. MERRY CHRISTMAS!! Were you surprised by this little "Last Flight to L.A." story? Because I was. I had no intentions of writing anymore after NaNo ended a few days ago...yet here I am.

Hopefully I'll be posting at least twice a week, if not three times, depending!

~Are you happy to revisit the lives of Kelsey, Ethan, and Becca?

~How do you predict things will go in Idaho?

Thanks so much for reading! I'm excited to start this little adventure with you!