Another quick chapter in the lead up to Christmas, hope you all enjoy it. As always don't forget to donate to nifty to keep reading these stories. https://donate.nifty.org/
Part 3
After an agonising wait for the kids we finally all settled down in the living room to see what Santa had brought us this year. All three children sat on the floor in the centre of the room with a small mountain of presents between them while the adults sat around the edge. We always let the kids open theirs first as it was great to see their reactions. Our twins got mostly clothes from Josh's side of the family as both his mum and gramps knew how quickly they'd ruin their existing ones over the year ahead, they even had a few sizes bigger in case they suddenly started to grow more than we anticipated. Benny had some designer clothes too as well as a few posters of his favourite sports stars and some Playstation games he'd been begging for.
One thing we always liked to do for our twins was to give them things to help with their increasing strength. Josh always emphasised that they needed to learn how to control their strength rather than just being able to show off how strong they were. This year we decided to buy them things to help with their hand eye coordination like juggling balls, Rubik's cubes and even a boxing speedbag. We made the mistake one year of buying them model kits but soon found out that super strength and tubes of glue really don't mix, especially with a frustrated little girl who kept breaking bits off the models. My parents learned from our mistakes and brought them Lego sets this year so at least they could build things that wouldn't require adhesives.
They finally came to their last gift which was from my parents and it was a huge bucket of Lego bricks. Lucas popped the lid off and peered in with a look of confusion on his face. He swirled his hand around in them a couple of times and then, before we could say anything, he dumped the whole lot on the floor. I could see why he was confused though as every brick was the same 2x2 size, just different colours. I looked over at my dad who had a huge grin on his face.
"Ok, what's with the bricks?" I asked.
"When I bought those Lego sets it reminded me of the ones you had when you were younger, and how there were always bricks lying around on the floor." He started. "Do you remember what it was like to tread on the damn things?"
"Yeah I did that once, it hurt like a motherf..." Luke trailed off when he saw me glare at him. "Errr...I mean I remember how much they hurt."
"Well that got me thinking about how unforgiving they were so I looked online and found that these little bricks can actually support about 950lbs before they start to warp."
"Wow, 950lbs?" Josh said, arching his eyebrows. "That's..."
"430 Kilos!!" Sammie shouted.
"I was going to say that's pretty impressive but well done anyway." Josh smiled as Sammie blushed.
"So yeah, there's about 500 there and I'm sure these two can find plenty of different ways to mangle them." I reached down to grab one of the bricks and held it between my thumb and forefinger. It was quite strange to feel so much resistance from something so small as I applied a little pressure.
"Try it between your thumb and little finger." Josh said, holding his own brick. Sure enough it was a lot tougher to do with the less powerful digit but after applying more pressure it finally started to yield. Sammie was studying one in her hand as well, while Lucas had pulled his sock off and was trying to cram one between his toes to give himself more of a challenge. It's amazing how the simplest present is usually the one that can keep them entertained for hours. While all this was going on I saw Benny pick up a brick and try squeezing it in his hand, then with a look of disappointment he threw it back into the pile.
"Ok, now you need to put all these away so no one treads on them." I said.
"Awww..." Lucas moaned as he started shovelling them all back into the bucket. Meanwhile it was the adult's turn to open their presents. We mostly all got toiletries and clothes but Josh and I had our own unique gifts for everyone. I'd painted a portrait of our whole family which I was going to give to Bryan and Lauren on their anniversary, but as we knew she didn't have much time left I'd shown her the rough draft of it and she asked me to finish it for Christmas. Josh had also recreated the picture as a marble sculpture which would be big enough to sit on the mantelpiece for all to see. Bryan looked absolutely amazed when he saw them and hugged us both with tears in his eyes. We finally finished opening everything but something seemed a little off. I looked over at Sam and saw the mischievous glint in his eye.
"You've done it again haven't you?" I said.
"I don't know what you mean." He replied looking shocked.
"Come on, let's have it." I already had a smile on my face as I knew what was coming.
"Oh yeah, I forgot, there's one more present in the car." He suddenly went outside and returned pretty quickly with a box about the size of a microwave.
"Really?" I asked in mock exasperation. He set the box down and I decided that rather than tear the wrapping paper off I'd just tear the box open, knowing that I wouldn't damage the contents. As soon as I pulled the box apart I instantly regretted it as tons of packing peanuts came spilling out all over the floor and after a quick rummage around I found the prize. "Every bloody year!! Where do you keep finding these things? They were discontinued years ago." I held up the familiar pack of underwear with an equally familiar, and if I dare say, gorgeous body on the front.
"I bought hundreds of them when they first came out so you're going to be getting them until one of us dies." He replied as Josh and Luke were giggling away like school boys. I looked at the body on the packaging again. My one and only modelling job I'd done before the twins were born and Sam had been taking the piss ever since. Every year he'd wrap them up in different ways so I'd almost think he'd forgotten about them, but there they were again. In truth I could've done a lot more modelling work but everyone would always want to know what my workout routine or diet was. I gave it up pretty quickly though otherwise I'd have to try to explain how I could get a body most men would die for by just wanting it.
Once the presents were all unwrapped we set about clearing up all the wrapping paper and debris so the kids had room to build their new Lego sets, with the help/hindrance of my dad. The rest of the adults retired to the kitchen where we could talk -- and swear in Luke's case -- out of earshot of the kids while we finished off cooking the food. After a few minutes I noticed movement out the corner of my eye and when I looked out the window I saw Benny wandering over to the stables on his own.