(Taylor)

"Santa came! Santa came!" An excited shriek jarred me from my peaceful sleep. I groaned and rolled over, staring out the window. Light snowflakes drifted from above and came to rest on the window sill.

"Ike!" I exclaimed, sitting up quickly and whacking my head on the bunk above me. "Owwww!"

"What?" He grunted from his position above me.

"It snowed!" I said, jumping out of bed and running to the window. There was no movement, except for a red VW Bug truckin' down the street.

"Oh goody." Zac mumbled sarcastically from underneath his blankets.

I sighed before walking to both their beds, ripping their blankets off and throwing them into a pile on the floor.

"Go away you idiot!" Ike yelled at me, shivering in the cold.

"Alright, I'm up, I'm up!" Zac grunted, forcing himself up.

"You WILL be paying for this later." Ike finally conceded.

"Whatever." I opened the bedroom door and (literally!) jumped down the stairs and into the living room where the rest of our family was up. A few minutes later, we sat down at the table and had French toast my mom made for breakfast.

Finally, the anticipated words were spoken.

 "Ok kids." My dad grinned. "Let's go open presents!"

"Yessss!" I cheered, sitting down next to the Christmas tree. As usual, we separated our gifts and took turns opening them.

I got some pretty good ones! A certificate for the Gap from Isaac, a video camera from my parents, a Ken doll from Zac (thanx alot!), a jar of raisins from Jess and Avery (because they know I hate 'em!), and a keyboard stand from Mackie and Avery (but I suspected they had some help buying it).

Finally, we were at the last present. My mom handed Avery a small box, which she promptly ripped to shreds. She lifted out some sort of a vial by a chain it was on.

"It's a wishing necklace." My mom explained, removing the top and pulling out a tiny slip of paper all rolled up. "You write your wish on here and it will come true!"

"Cool!" Avery exclaimed, taking the paper from my mom. She thought for a minute before carefully writing down her wish, placing it back in the vile, and attaching it around her neck.

"What did you wish for?" I asked.

"I wished that this Christmas would last forever!" Her eyes shone.

It WAS a nice Christmas with the snow and being on a break from recording and all, but I still snickered. "I don't think that's possibly, Avery."

"Yeah it is!" She said stubbornly. "If I wished it, it'll happen."

"Whatever" I replied.

"Clean-up time!" My mom announced brightly. We all groaned, including my dad. By the time the wrapping was cleaned up and the breakfast dished washed and put away, it was one o'clock.

We dressed in warm clothes and went out into the snow. Before long, we were wrapped up in the art of snowman making.

"Tay, can you get some rocks for the eyes?" Ike asked me.

"Where?"

"From underneath the hedges." I nodded and grabbed a handful. When our snowman was done, my dad ran out with a camera and took a quick picture.

He had just gone inside when Scott Wilson and Deanna Barlow walked up, arm in arm.

"Well, well, well!" Scott scoffed. "If it isn't the Hanson girls! Having fun in the snow?"

Isaac whipped a snowball at Scott, which hit him smack in the middle of the face. Ike smirked. "I am now."

I was too busy looking at Deanna to notice much. She was, like, one of the most gorgeous chicks in town. She had long blond hair and bright blue eyes, and was 16, like me. Unfortunately, she was also Scott Wilson's girlfriend, the champion wrestler at Tulsa High.

"You...you..." Scott sputtered at Isaac, wiping snow out of his eyes. "You're not worth my time! Come on, Deanna!" He grabbed her hand and stomped away.

Deanna looked at me apologetically before walking off with him. I was still staring after them when Zac nailed me in the back of the head with a snowball. Before I knew what was happening, I was in the middle of a full fledged snowball fight.

It didn't stop snowing until 7 o'clock that night, when we had about 2 feet. We hung around home that evening. My dad rented some movies and we stayed up until about 11 o'clock. My parents and little brothers and sisters were already in bed, with the exception of Zac, who had fallen asleep on the couch.

Isaac and I were too tired and lazy at the moment to go all the way upstairs. He threw me a blanket off the couch he was on and grabbed one for himself. I squirmed and tried to get comfortable on the floor.

"Nite Tay." Ike's voice drifted from the darkness.

"Nite Ike."

"Santa came! Santa came!" An excited shriek jarred me from my peaceful sleep. I groaned and rolled over, staring out the window. Light snowflakes drifted from above and came to rest on the window sill.

"Wait a minute!" I thought. "Didn't she say that yesterday!?"

I jumped out of bed and threw open the window. A red VW Bug went truckin' down the road.

"Oh my God!" I exclaimed to myself as realization dawned on me. "Avery's wish... it came true!"