"Christmas isn't a season. It's a feeling." ~Edna Ferber

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The next morning, I'm woken up by Zola and Nolan charging into my room and jumping onto my bed. But as if that wasn't enough, they had to scream loudly into my ear, practically bursting my eardrums.

"WAKE UP WAKE UP!" Yells Zola.

"IT'S CHRISTMAS!" Adds Nolan.

I grumble from their sudden outburst but push off my covers and give them tight hugs.

"Come on Keziah! Everyone's waiting for you!" Nolan pulls out of my hold to start tugging me off my bed.

"Why are you being so loud?" I groan to him.

"Because it's Christmas silly! And I get to have presents!" Zola claps her hands together in excitement making me smile.

"Fine I'm coming." Begrudgingly, I get out of bed and quickly head to the bathroom to freshen up. As soon as I'm done, I'm dragged down the stairs by Zola and Nolan to meet everyone in the living room.

"It's about time you joined us Keziah!" My dad says with a chuckle.

"Yeah, even I'm awake and I'm old!" Grams gripes.

Everyone except me laughs at this while I roll my eyes. I don't remember when loving sleep became such a big issue.

I take a seat on the floor with Zola and Nolan who are all too eager to get their hands on their gifts.

As I expected, my mum turns on the camcorder and places it on the stand closer to the back of the room to capture this whole morning. She says that one day, we'll appreciate all the videos she's taken and look back on all the happy moments we shared. It's not like I can argue with that; she's probably right.

The presents are removed from under the tree and passed round to the correct person; once that's been done, we all take turns opening our gifts starting with Zola first since she obviously can't wait that long.

Zola rips the wrapping paper off with high pitched squeals, hugging each item she receives. One of those things is that toy kitchen set she's been begging for; you know the one that every child has? I already know she's going to be spending her whole day with that thing.

Nolan on the other hand, gets a new basketball kit and a Lego set that builds various vehicles. He's really into building those things and even loves it almost as much as dinosaurs.

This continues on until it reaches to me; I open a box to find a pair of high heeled black boots that I've been dying over but were too expensive for me to get. I immediately look towards my mum with knowing eyes since she's the only I brought it up to. I open the rest of my gifts to find things like perfume, bath sets, clothes and jewellery. Overall, I'm pretty happy with what I got knowing I can put them all to good use.

Once we're all done, we start clearing up the mess that has been made and dump all the rubbish into the bin.

"Keziah, Marcel, Nikita, Andre and Tobias!" My mum yells. "Come help me with breakfast!"

All four of us head into the kitchen to find mum making many pancakes. "I need you guys to toast the scones and spread them with butter and jam." On Christmas, it's tradition for us to always eat scones with jam and sometimes even whipped cream. It's definitely a family favourite but we've decided to add pancakes simply because of how many of us there are.

While we're sorting this out, I start talking to Tobias who I haven't heard much from lately. "How have you been lately Tobs?"

Tobias pauses what he's doing for a second to give me a small smile. "Not bad Kez, just the usual stuff." He replies gently.

"And how's basketball going?"

Tobias is actually the one that influenced Nolan to join basketball; he started at a similar age and I guess Nolan just looks up to him.

My question brings out a big smile from Tobias showing his true love of the sport, "Amazing. There's nothing I love more."

"Except me of course." Marcel jumps in.

I roll my eyes and shove him away, "I wasn't talking to you so your comments aren't needed."

"You got told bro." Andre says with a laugh.

Marcel glares at him for a second before speaking. "Just because I'm speaking the truth."

I ignore him and focus on Tobias once again, "Good, I'm glad. Maybe I'll come watch one of your games one day. I'm sure Nolan would love to as well."

Out of all my cousins and siblings, Tobias is 100% the nicest and most thoughtful. He's extremely tall already standing at 6ft2 and is bulkier than what you would expect a basketball player to be like. Despite all of that, he has a heart of gold and is basically a big teddy bear. Not sure he'd like that if I told him though.

Tobias agrees with me and goes to set the table. For today, we had to buy an extra table and more chairs in order to fit everyone in. Luckily, our dining room has enough space for us to accompany everyone.

Nikita starts to grill me on Abel and if I gave him a gift yesterday.

"Oh no! I forgot! Ugh, he's going to think I don't care about him."

"I highly doubt that's the case Kez, it was a very busy night so I'm sure he'll understand."

"But come to think of it, he didn't exactly give me one either. It's fine, I'll see him soon and give it to him then." With a firm nod, Nikita and I leave the kitchen to go and eat with everyone else.

Breakfast passes simply with some amusing comments from my grandparents and excited babble from the little ones. Once we've eaten, my mum forces all of us to change into the matching tops that she bought along with various Christmas headbands. Zola and Nolan have reindeer ones, Omari and Zuri have snowmen, Marcel, Andre, Nikita, Tobias and me have mini presents leaving the adults with the Santa hats. Our tops have silly reindeer faces with snowflakes and our names personalised onto them.

We all gather around the camera which has a timer on before collectively shouting 'Elves!' just as the flash goes off.

After this, we all head upstairs to get ready for today and let me tell you, having 18 people and only 3 bathrooms really isn't that great but we've had to make do.

Once I've practically fought the boys for the bathroom, I dress up into a red culotte jumpsuit that has a silver belt and thin straps. I pair this with my silver heels and quickly apply my make up for the day.

For this holiday and when we return to school, I got my hair done into short black box braids with grey mixed into it. I style it with half of the braids into two space buns while keeping the rest down. Pair my fresh looking hair with my outfit and I can't deny that Abel would salivate at the sight of me.

Since it's Christmas, I decide to add glitter onto my eyelids and on my chest; I even add a little bit of glitter lipstick. What can I say? I love getting into the Christmas spirit. Nikita then walks into my room and sees me applying my make up.

"Are you putting glitter on your face?" She asks.

"Yes, as a matter of fact I am. I think it's very Christmassy." I hold out the little bottle of glitter for her to take allowing her to apply it in a similar way to me. Once she's done, we take a few selfies together and then on our own to document the day. Photos are always important, especially when you look this good.

Eventually, we leave my room to find Zola and Zuri in their own dresses and the boys in jeans or slacks with shirts tucked in making them look more mature but just as handsome.

The rest of the day passes in a blur of dancing, games, food and even drunk adults. We play endless Christmas songs but also add in our African music that gets everybody moving. The younger ones are constantly jumping up and down or running around expressing the joy they are feeling throughout the day.

Marcel even acts less annoying for today and that my friends, is truly a Christmas miracle.

I take turns dancing with my uncles, gramps and dad laughing at all their typical jokes. Afterwards, I take a seat and look around at everyone in my family; Marcel joking with Andre, Nikita and Tobias throwing Nolan and Zola in the air eliciting giggles from them, Zuri dancing on her dads' feet while the adults toast to a wonderful day. All I can think about is how lucky and blessed I am to be here right now, around everyone who I love and loves me back. What else could I possibly need?

That thought takes me to Abel and how I haven't had the chance to talk to him today. I make a note to call or text him tonight, excited to hear how his day went and just to hear his voice.

I'm pulled away from my thoughts by Zola who drags my hand to come and dance with her. And that's simply how the rest of the night went; me spending time with those all around me.
                                
                               • • •
A/N:
I absolutely love it when my family comes down for Christmas. There's so many of us and it just makes it more special. Do any of you have any Christmas traditions that you love or even hate?

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