****Author's note -- this chapter involves the gang celebrating Christmas. I simply never found the right time to fit it into the book. I really wanted to write it because I wanted Skylar to give everyone scrapbooks at some point, lol. I also wanted to use the whole "scrapbookertoonity" thing (if you watch Gravity Falls you know that word!) So hope you like the chapter!****

"No, no, no, put it over here! Good! That's perfect!" Storm stood back and beamed at the large evergreen tree as Logan and Stone adjusted the tree stand in order to make sure it was secured in place.

Skylar tilted her head this way and that for several seconds before speaking up. "It's leaning to the left a little bit guys."

Stone obligingly crawled beneath the lower branches of the tree and adjusted things until Skylar was satisfied. She then clapped her hands together gleefully. "Fabulous! Now let's decorate it!"

A'Cadia let loose with a groan. "Do we have to?"

Skylar sent her a glare. "Yes, we have to! Just look, I found all of these antique glass ball ornaments in the basement! Aren't they simply divine!" she gushed.

"Oh yeah. Divine," Ziva said with an eye roll that indicated she thought they were anything but.

"I wanna help!" Melissa rushed forward and snatched an ornament from a box that Skylar had already opened in order to show off the ornaments.

"Wait! Melissa, these are very, very, fragile! You have to be careful with them!" Skylar warned her in worried voice.

"Great idea, breakable ornaments and Melissa together, sounds harmless enough," A'Cadia remarked.

"Right, about as harmless as nuclear waste in the middle of downtown," Ziva muttered with a snort as she handed Craig ornaments.

"Can all of you please decorate in peace? This is the holiday season after all." Storm remarked from where she was hanging stockings on the fireplace mantel—her back to the group.

"We should get some newer ornaments from the store to mix in here. All these old ornaments are kinda just, bleh."

"No! We're using the antiques ones! No one is to go buy any new ones! Is that understood? We are going for a theme here people! You stay away from the store A'Cadia!" Skylar snapped out.

A'Cadia held up her hands. "Fine whatever Mrs. Clause."

"I wanna put the angel on the top of the tree!" Melissa went and snatched the angel out of Skylar's hands and darted over to the tree, where she began climbing it like a squirrel. Ornaments wobbled precariously on branches before several fell, crashing to the floor, and breaking. The tree dipped dangerously to one side and Melissa paused in her assent briefly.

"Damn," she cursed as the tree dipped further toward the floor.

"Melissa that's a dollar!" Storm yelled without bothering to turn around as she admonished Melissa for her cursing.

Melissa suddenly gave a loud yelp as the tree came crashing down on top of her. She groaned from beneath the branches of the tree.

Storm spun around when she heard the loud crash. "Melissa!"

"I have glass from the ordamints in places where glass from the ordamints should never be!" Melissa said with a groan.

"Melissa, are you all right!" Storm screamed at her.

"No! I'm under a giant Christmas tree! With ordamint glass stuck in my butt! Couldn't we have gotten a smaller tree? Someone get this thing off of me!"

Ziva grinned and tried hard not to laugh, despite Melissa's injuries the situation was exceedingly funny. "Well, maybe if you hadn't tried to scamper up the tree like a squirrel you wouldn't have ornament glass in your butt. Use the ladder next time."

"Craig was using it and I didn't want to wait. Get this tree off of me already and get this ordamint glass out of my butt, it hurts!"

"It's pronounced or·na·ment, not ordamint," Skylar told her.

"That's what I said!" Melissa protested.

Stone, Logan, and Craig lifted the tree off of Melissa, Skylar and Death pulled her from beneath it and hurried her off to the infirmary.

"While the dictator of decorations is gone, I'm gonna run to Target and get a bunch more decorations to replace the ones Melissa broke in her little climbing expedition. I don't care if Skylar is going for an antique theme," A'Cadia told them as she headed for the door.

"Great, now Skylar will be in a rather bad mood when she comes back," Craig grumbled as he and Stone put the tree to rights.

"Well she'll simply have to live with it," Ziva remarked as she began fixing the tree.

They moved steadily around the tree, hanging ornaments, adding the ornaments that A'Cadia bought when she returned from Target. Time passed and the tree filled up with both the antique and the new ornaments.

"No! Nixon don't eat that!" Ziva tried to grab back the glass ball, but she wasn't nearly fast enough and the dog crunched down on the delicate glass ball before she could get it back from him. She winced as he happily chewed the ornament, finished it, and looked up at her, bloody tongue lolling from his mouth.

"Wow, not too bright is he?" Craig remarked with a shake of his head.

"No he isn't. Move the ornaments off the bottom branches out of reach of the dogs." She grabbed Nixon's collar.

Stone grinned and moved over to pick up Nixon. "I'll take him down to get looked at. Probably be faster if I carry him down there."

Ziva sighed. "Thanks Stone."

"No problem. Come on Nixon, let's go get you checked out big guy." Stone left the room carrying Nixon in his arms.

He passed Skylar and Death as they came back into the room. Skylar scowled at the tree. "What did you do to my tree?"

"Improved it. And since when is it your tree?" A'Cadia asked her.

"You ruined it! Where on Earth did you get these gaudy ornaments from? They're so ... so ... tacky." She poked at one of the Target glass balls that A'Cadia had purchased.

A'Cadia folded her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes on Skylar. "I bought them."

"Oh. Well then, I suppose they could stay, but you see here, you've put two blue ones next to each other." She moved one of the blue ones to another spot. "See! Sooooo much better! We just need to move a few of them around a bit and the tree will be perfect!"

"Right. Perfect," A'Cadia said in a monotone voice.

Melissa returned back upstairs in time for dinner. The doctors had given her an all clear to return, besides the removal of glass from her bum; she only had a few bumps, bruises and a couple of cuts from the tree's branches. 

Upon her return, Craig assisted her up the ladder so that she could place the angel on top of the tree. Then they gathered for Christmas Eve dinner—prepared by Craig, of course.

"This stuffing is awesome Craig," Stone told him as he crammed a forkful in his face.

"What is this green stuff and why is it on my plate? I don' want it 'cause it looks really gross," Melissa complained as she poked at it with her fork.

"It's green bean casserole, Melissa. Just eat it, it's really good," Craig told her.

"Ewww! Green beans are vegetables! I do not eat vegetables! Why is it slimy? And what are these crunchy things? I thought you knew how to cook Craig?" She gave him a skeptical look.

He rolled his eyes at her. "I do know how to cook. The green beans are not slimy, they're mixed with cream of mushroom soup, and the crunchy things are French's onion strings. It's part of the recipe. Try it Melissa, you might like it."

"No way in hell am I eating this crap! It looks like something Nixon puked up!"

"Melissa that's two dollars!" Storm shouted across the table at her.

"Man you can't even give me a break on Christmas, can you Storm?"

"No, I can't."

Melissa continued to grumble as conversation turned to other things. Once she noticed that the attention was no longer focused on her, Melissa began feeding her green bean casserole to the dogs under the table. All of them except Nixon, who now wore a cone and had his tongue wrapped in gauze. When he barked it came out a pitiful sort of muffled wuuuuuf and Melissa had a squeeze bottle of water so she could pour water directly into his mouth.

Skylar drew everyone's attention when she announced excitedly, "I cannot wait to give you guys your gifts. They are so great! You're all simply going to die when you see them!"

Ziva shot A'Cadia a skeptical look.

A'Cadia sent her a similar one back, adding in a commentary, "If it's a scrapbook, she's right I will die. I'll have a coronary over the sheer lameness of it all."

Ziva swallowed back a laugh at A'Cadia's whispered comment, even though she felt the same way. The truth was she didn't want to upset Skylar. Skylar lived for stupid stuff like her scrapbooks, even if everyone else thought they were the height of lameness.

"So, what's for dessert?" Melissa asked hopefully.

"Aren't you full?" Stone asked her.

She gave him a 'duh' look. "Am I ever?"

"Right, stupid question."

"Sorry Melissa, I figured everyone would be too full for dessert so I didn't make any." Craig shrugged and began clearing the dishes from the table.

"Man this stinks!" She followed him into the kitchen, still complaining as she did. She came to a stop when she spotted a plate piled high with cookies on the counter. "Hey, what about these?"

Craig looked up from where he was piling dishes into the dishwasher. "Do not touch those! Those are for Santa!"

"Why does the fat man get an entire plate of cookies and I can't even have one?"

"Because he's Santa and I said so! Now, go in the living room and wait with everyone else while I clean up, and then we'll open presents."

"Fine, but only because gifts are involved, otherwise you and I would be having a serious debate over the whole cookie issue Mr. De Loray."

"Whatever Melissa." He turned to leave and go get some more dishes from the table.

Before she left the kitchen, she snagged four cookies from the plate. Served Craig right for not making dessert. And really, she thought, there were so many on the plate Craig wouldn't miss four.

She slipped from the room as she crammed the cookies in her mouth and chewed quickly. After all, she didn't want to share with anyone. She dusted crumbs from her face as she entered the living room to find Skylar cheerfully handing out packages.

"All right, this one is for Ziva and Craig. Here Ziva you hang on to it until Craig gets here."

"Can't I just open it? The anticipation is killing me." Her tone implied the exact opposite was, in fact, true.

"No! Everyone has to wait! I want you all to open them at once!" She turned away and grabbed two packages off the pile. "Okay, this first one is for A'Cadia and Stone and the second one is for A'Cadia and Logan. I know it doesn't seem fair that A'Cadia gets two gifts, but that's simply the way it worked out!" She handed the first package to A'Cadia and the second to Logan, neither looked exactly thrilled to get them.

Skylar hummed as she grabbed a few more packages from the pile. "Moving along, here Stevie this one is for you. Melissa this one is yours. And Angela this one in the pink paper is for you. Oh and Storm this one is for you."

With a slight blush, she picked up the final package and handed it to Death.

Craig wandered in and took a place beside Ziva on the couch. Ziva looked at Skylar. "Craig is here; can we open the gifts now?"

Skylar waved absently at her because she was much too busy staring at Death.

Ziva took the wave as a yes and tore the paper off the gift box Skylar had given her. She flipped the lid off and stared into the box.

Inside was a scrapbook, just as A'Cadia had predicted. On the cover was printed, 'Ziva and Craig's first memories.'

Ziva groaned as Craig reached over and lifted the book out of the box. "Cool, thanks Skylar!"

Ziva sent him a glare for that comment, but he was too busy flipping through the book to notice it. She did notice some of the pictures as he flipped pages and frowned at them, like the one of their first kiss. That one had been on their first date, Skylar hadn't been there, only the two of them had.

"Skylar, how did you get some of these pictures? You weren't even with us for some of these!"

"I have my ways," she answered evasively.

"That's not an answer," Ziva said with a frown.

"Who cares Ziva; this is a great scrapbook full of memories." Craig smiled at her warmly as he continued to flip pages.

She let out a long sigh. "Yeah, fine it is."

He leaned in and gave her a kiss.

Skylar squealed and snapped a picture. "First Christmas together! That was soooooo a scrapbookertoonity moment!"

"Can I break her camera?" Ziva asked no one in particular.

"If you don't, I will," A'Cadia offered.

"It's fine, I have backups!" Skylar told them with a wide smile.

A'Cadia grumbled as Stone oohd and aaahd over their scrapbook and Logan muttered over how there were way too many pictures of him and A'Cadia hugging in the one Skylar had handed him.

Meanwhile, Melissa had gathered the dogs around her and was sharing her scrapbook with them. She became excited over the pictures of the cooooouch and the pictures of the day they'd given the dogs a bath.

The dogs growled a little over some of the pictures of their first visit to the vet. They hadn't much cared for that day.

Stevie enjoyed his scrapbook, especially since Skylar—being Skylar—had befriended most of his magical creatures in the attic. She spent one afternoon a month up there having high tea with them. So she'd included pictures from several afternoons spent in the attic in his scrapbook. As well as, Logan's video game tournaments with the Yinkschnaunks and the Elves, which seemed to have become habitual.

Angel's book contained page after page of all the little impromptu dance recitals that she was always putting on for everyone. Including, the interpretive dance piece that she'd written herself called The Death of a Sparrow. Based on the bestselling children's picture book called, Baby Sparrow Doesn't Learn to Fly—or as it's known in some other countries, Poor Baby Sparrow.

A'Cadia had threatened numerous times to burn the picture book. In her own words, she'd said many times, "I hate that stupid book. Who writes a children's book about a baby bird that can't learn to fly and goes splat?" (Everyone else tended to agree that a dead baby bird wasn't a good idea for a children's book. No one knew how it had become a best seller)

The book Skylar had given to Death contained mostly pictures from the concerts that she had attended before she and Death had actually started dating. As well as, some pictures from after they had gotten together.

Melissa stood and stretched. "I'll be right back; I'm gonna go feed the doggies." She led the dogs out of the living room and to the kitchen, where she fed each of the dogs, and snagged some more cookies, convinced that no one would notice any were missing. She also had to feed Nixon a liquid diet since he couldn't chew.

Leaning back against the cabinets, she poured food down Nixon's throat, while calmly chewing her cookies and waiting for the dogs to finish their dinner. When they were all done, she picked up their bowls, grabbed another cookie as she put the bowls away.

Took the dogs out so they could "do their business", grabbed yet some more cookies on her way out the door. On the way back in, she snagged what she decided would be her last cookie, and realized that it had to be the last one because she had devoured the entire plate of cookies.

"Oopsie!" She shrugged, finished the cookie since she'd already taken a bite out of it, and headed back to the living room.

Storm stood as she came back into the room. "Come on Melissa, it's late and you, Angela, and Stevie need to get some sleep."

"Awww, do we hafta?"

"Yes, you do. Now come on."

"But it's only ten. Can't we stay up for a little longer?" she begged.

While Melissa had been arguing with Storm, Craig had gone to the kitchen to fetch the plate of cookies for Santa. He came back into the room with the fancy plate filled with crumbs. "Who ate all the cookies for Santa?" Even though he asked the question of the entire room, his gaze was fixed on Melissa.

She immediately affected a huge yawn and blinked sleepily. "Actually, I'm suddenly really, really, tired Storm. So bed sounds awesome right about now."

Craig watched as she scurried out of the room. "Great, just great."

"That's what you get for not hiding them from her, American Pie. You should know better," A'Cadia told him with a laugh.

He gave her a little nod of agreement. "Poor Santa is going to be stuck with Oreos this year."

"Most interesting Christmas I've had in years," Ziva said with a bright smile.

Skylar threw her arms around her and gave her a tight hug. "I'm glad you enjoyed it!"

Ziva shoved her away. "I said interesting, not enjoyable."

Skylar's lower lip trembled like a two year olds and her eyes glistened with tears.

Ziva's shoulders slumped in defeat. "It was fun, Skylar. All right? Except for Melissa getting flattened by the tree and all."

A'Cadia snorted. "Speak for yourself; I thought the sight of her scampering up the tree like a chipmunk was hysterical."

"Fine, it was funny until she had to have ornament glass picked out of her posterior."

"Okay, fine agreed. Let's get some sleep; you know the brats will be up at dawn to see what Santa brought them."

After nods of agreement from everyone, they all drifted off to their respective beds.