I’ll Be Home for Christmas.

Sylvie’s Point of View.

For the umpteenth time, I cried again today.

I hung up the phone. I was talking to my daughter, Luna. She whimpered, “Everything is alright here, Momma… Though we kind of have no older figures to look after us now. Well, except Aunt and Uncle—but, you know, they have their own family to deal with too.” Her voice was shaky, but I knew she was trying so hard to hold her tears. “But it’s fine, I believe we can handle this.” And as she spoke, I could hear other noises coming from the background, which obviously was the rest of my children, trying to survive at home, alone.

I thought about my decision. What on earth was I thinking? Leaving them all alone, with no one to take care of them at home? How selfish, Sylvie. Nowhere near a good mother you are. It was the only thought that had been haunting my mind for the past few weeks.

I was traumatized. No one would ever predict that incident to happen. Certainly, no one. The family had gone through a very unpleasant mishap and it hurt everyone, especially my kids. So why would I make it worse by walking out of the house?

I called Luna again.

This time, I asked her, “Luney, are your siblings with you right now?”

“Mm-hmm, Mom. They’re all here, preparing things for Christmas.”

“Could you put my voice on speaker, please?”

“Sure, Mom.” I heard her clicking. “There you go. Guys, turn it down a bit, will you? Momma’s on the phone.”

The sounds of excitement started to surround me.

“MOMMA!”

“Momma, we miss you!”

“Momma, please come back..”

I inhaled a deep breath. “Hello, children.. Yes, I am planning to go back. I promise, and swear to God, that I will look after you again. Will you be kind enough to welcome me?”

***

Of course, I didn’t go straight to home. I first stopped by at some places to bring home Christmas gifts, such as plushies and cakes. I knew they might have baked one already, but there is always a room for more desserts, right? It’s a special day, after all. The Holy jolly time of the year, and the moment I finally come back to the place I always belong.

First things first, the bakery.

Then I wandered into other shops nearby.

There’s a Buy-2-Get-1 event in this shop. Shall I get some? A little addition to their plushie collection wouldn’t hurt, right?

Oh my, there’s also a bookstore here. Some of my children love reading, so let me buy the Christmas themed books on sale.

I asked each shopkeeper to wrap up the gifts nicely. I also bought a greeting card from the bookstore, and wrote my most sincere apologies to the children of Hearst.

One last thing.

“Sorry, I have another question if you don’t mind,” I said to the bookstore staff that helped me wrapping up the books I just purchased.

“Sure, Ma’am,” she replied kindly. “How can I help you?”

The woman who worked at the bookstore seemed like she knows what she does very well, and what I mean by that, I presumed she reads a lot. She must be able to give me an answer to my next question, which was:

“If I were to book the best trip ever during this season, where do you think it’ll be?”

***

And that night, I came home with countless things on my hands.

“Momma! Welcome home!”

The children were in different places, doing different things, but they cheered in unison as I opened the front door. I saw the eldest ones, Kadenza, Sethrico, Ginger, and Eilonwy taking care of the kitchen. See, they already baked cakes! There are also other desserts such as cookies and cinnamon rolls, but when I asked did they bake it themselves, they answered with, “Oh, no, Momma. Aunt Cecilia brought it for us.”

Hugo, Jolene, and Kaia are in the corner of the room, right next to the sparkling Christmas tree, busy with their phones. I peeked at them as I was curious what were they doing, and Kaia said they were just finished putting up the Christmas tree. Hugo claimed, “I brought in the tree, Momma. I did the work the most,” when Jolene elbowed him and corrected, “He’s lying, Momma. In fact, Uncle Alakay carried the tree with him.”

Right before the tree, the youngest ones—Eithea, Abigail, and Catrice—were occupied with the ornaments for the tree. They wanted the tree to look Christmas-y, but still cute at the same time. Eithea ended up playing with Santa and nutcracker soldier shaped ornaments. Abigail tried to put up the star on top of the tree, but since she couldn’t reach it, Catrice took over the job and did it effortlessly.

Aether and Forrest were the eldest’s personal assistants. While the four were busy baking, they willingly helped them with washing the dishes, throwing away any unused items, even wiping up the surface of the cabinet. “Gingie made us do this, Momma. Scold him,” they complained.

In the middle of the room, there were Jules, Ruicii, Eirlys and Corgi, putting on Christmas karaoke songs on the TV. Ruicii was the one holding the mic and singing his lungs out on ‘Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!’ while the others were cheerfully applauding him.

Luna and Nilenia were in the back patio, recording themselves dancing to a song with joyful laughters. I reckoned that they were doing a viral TikTok challenge, which called ‘First Snow Challenge.’ As soon as I noticed they didn’t wear thick clothes, I called them out, “Both of you, it’s freezing cold out there! Put your coats on!”

And to finish this off, there were Eulalia, Genoveva and Bethanny, lying down on big couches, right ahead of the crackling fireplace. They had dozed off in their puffer jackets and beanies when I arrived, which got me questioning. Finally, Forrest explained that they just came home from Christmas shopping with Aunt Cecilia.

In the end, we gathered altogether in the main room. I showed the children the presents that I brought, asked them to open it up right away. Let me tell you, seeing your children’s pure reactions to your gifts is no doubt, the greatest feeling a mother could ever experience. It was just books, plushies and some sweet stuff, but they were so excited that the neighbors might had mistaken it for a lottery.

They just haven’t heard about the biggest one yet.

“Children,” I began to settle down the cheering session. “I might have another thing for you.”

“Which is…?” Sethrico asked.

“HUH, MOMMA, THERE’S MORE?” Ginger was in disbelief.

Jolene even got up from her seat. “TELL US WHAT IT IS, MOMMA!”

“Momma, you already brought so much…” I could see concerns in Nilenia’s eyes.

“Well, this one is, let’s say, huge. Anyone got an idea of what it might be?”

“A CRUISE SHIP!” Ruicii was bursting with thrills all of the sudden.

“Eeh, maybe smaller than that.”

“What is it, Momma? We’re moving to a new house?” Corgi guessed.

“Isn’t this house big enough already?”

Genoveva took her turn, “Barbie dolls!” and immediately got a reply from Eithea, “Or Gundam robots!”

“More books!” It was Kaia and Jules at the same time.

“The latest PS5…?” Hugo’s eyes started to get sparkly.

“Nope! This one you guys don’t have yet.”

“A Poppa.”

“AETHER!”

Gosh, I swear, there’s nothing as hilarious as these kids. They always know how to make me cackle.

“No, none of that. Not Barbie dolls, Gundams, books—I mean, I already bought you some of the new ones—nor a new Poppa. Not even a chance.”

Perhaps Eirlys was already getting fed up with all of these. “Then could you just tell us what the huge gift is, Momma?”

I smiled.

“We’re going to Switzerland!” I declared proudly, which left everyone open-mouthed. The children were too shocked they couldn’t even let out a single word. “Merry Christmas, Hearst.”