Disclaimer: I do not own Kim Possible. She is owned by Disney and Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley. Any original characters shown or mentioned belong to me and can not be used without permission. Got it?

Chapter 2: Christmas Day

For most families the next morning would have brought kids trampling down the stairs and rushing over to the tree to begin the frenzy that is opening Christmas presents. For the Stoppable family though it was just the beginning of a long day of traditions on Kim’s side of the family. It was a little annoying for Ron and the twins, since they were always overeager to open the presents, but the time spent with the rest of the family was usually worth it. Of course that was usually offset by having to wear really stupid Christmas sweaters every year.

Or at least that’s what Conner thought and judging by how cheerful everyone else always was with them, he was the only one who had a problem. So for the good of the family he toughed it out so he wouldn’t cause any friction for the day.

Still hate these sweaters though! he thought in annoyance as he tugged at the collar while walking into the living room.

When he stopped he saw his parents and Mim standing by the tree in their traditional Christmas sweaters. Somehow his dad was able to get away with wearing a green sweater with Santa emblazoned on the front with three red “Hos” surrounding him. Conner always found it weird because he was the only one in the family that was fully Jewish so it just seemed odd to see his dad wearing anything Christmas related. Though since Santa didn’t really have anything to do with the Christian side of the holiday he guessed it was OK.

Course as far as mixed religious symbols went nothing could be weirder than Mim’s cross/Star of David necklace that was prominently on display thanks to her low collar red sweater. He never could understand why she wore it or how she could even get away with it but he never really cared that much anyway. Still the star seemed to in contrast to the large Christmas tree on her sweater. She even had a matching green frilled skit so she couldn’t look Christmassier if she tried so the Jewish symbol really seemed to throw it all out of whack.

Then again that pretty much sums up our whole family this time of year, he thought with a bemused smirk.

Unfortunately, he really had no room to talk about outlandish Christmas outfits considering the sweater he was forced to wear. It was a rather itchy green wool knit sweater with a picture of a far too happy Frosty across the front. It was not really his most favorite thing to wear but his mom really enjoyed seeing it today so he indulged her. At least he could get away with wearing regular jeans rather than any kind of matching pants or something like that.

It wasn’t that he didn’t like Christmas, in fact he loved it, just thought his parents, and grandparents for that matter, went a little overboard with it. Especially with the gaudy sweaters they had to wear every year. He was certain that his mom had that red Rudolph sweater since before he was even born. And every year she wore it. Mostly because it was a tradition and they were very important to her. Just like stuffing all the presents under the tree into a giant bag to take to his grandparent’s house was a tradition too. Though he figured that was mostly so her dad could enjoy playing Santa.

Shaking his head in amusement, he walked over to the tree and started helping his family carefully put everything into the sack. He noticed that even the new Cyberdoll thing Mia was helping out as much as she could, grabbing the lighter presents and walking them over to his mother who actually put them inside the bag.

With everyone helping out it only took a few minutes for them to load all the presents up.

“So are we sure that’s it?” Kim asked.

Mia walked around the tree base looking for something that might have missed.

“Yep that looks like all of them,” she cheerfully reported.

“Good. Then I guess we’re about ready to go then.”

“Oh yeah,” Ron said, slinging the bag over his shoulder and grunting a bit. “I know I’m reading to spread some holiday cheer.”

“I’m sure you are honey. Kids you ready?”

“Yep,” Mim replied as she placed Mia on her shoulder.

“I’m good,” Conner said.

“Then let’s start piling in the car.”

“Shotgun!” the twins each shouted.

“I said it first!” they screamed at each other, again in unison.

“No I did!” Mim insisted.

“No, it was me!” Conner countered.

Kim sighed and rubbed her forehead. “You two are way too old to be doing this. Besides we all know your father will get shotgun.”

“Aaaww man,” Mim pouted.

“Figures,” Conner muttered, crossing his arms over his shoulder.

Kim just rolled her eyes at her kids as she turned and started walking towards the front door. She held it open for Ron and the twins before walking out herself and locking the door behind them. Ron placed the bag in the trunk of the car while the rest of the family piled on in then slid into the front passenger’s seat and soon enough they were off. The drive itself was rather uneventful and fairly quick given that they just lived on the other side of Middleton from Kim’s parents. Kim knew she could really live anywhere in the world she wanted given her reputation but she just never thought of living anywhere but Middletown. It was a nice quiet town that was good to raise her kids in and had always felt like home. Plus it was a good place to come back to and relax after a long hard day of fighting madmen and women bent on taking over the world.

As they pulled into her parents’ driveway, Kim barely had time to put the car in park before Ron popped the trunk then jumped out to get the bag of presents. Kim couldn’t help but giggle at her husband. It wasn’t his faith or his holiday but even a blind man could see he loved Christmas with all his heart. She followed him up to the door with the twins close behind her and watched as he enthusiastically rang the bell. By the time they reached the door they were all greeted by a warm smile from the gray haired Mrs. Possible.

“Hey Mrs. Dr. P! Someone order a big bag of presents?” Ron asked with a smirk.

“Of course Ron just like every year,” she greeted as she leaned forward and gave him a hug. “How are you?”

“Good. I’ll be better when I get to set this down.”

“Right. You know where it goes.”

“Righto!” he said as he quickly stepped inside and went for the tree in the living room.

Kim shook her head again as she stepped inside and gave her mother a hug.

“Every year he insists on carrying that thing by himself,” she mused. “Just don’t know why.”

“Oh he’s just getting into the spirit of things,” Ann replied as she pulled back from the hug. “Just make sure he stops doing it before it really starts hurting his back.”

“Gotcha,” Kim nodded as went over to help her husband.

That left the twins open to get a big hug from their grandmother. Conner’s face scrunched up a bit in embarrassment but he still returned the hug, he just pulled away from it rather quickly. When Ann moved to hug Mim she stopped when she saw the green and black clad figure sitting on her granddaughter’s shoulder.

“And who or what is that?” she asked, pointing to the tiny woman.

“Oh this is Mia, she’s a Cyberdoll,” Mim explained casually. “It was the present Aunts Kimila and Shego gave me for Chanukah.”

“Pleased to meet you!” Mia greeted cheerfully as she held out a small hand.

Ann looked a little unsure of the action but shrugged and grabbed the tiny hand with her thumb and first two fingers and shook it as best she could. When she pulled her hand back she held a finger to her chin in thought.

“Cyberdoll...Cyberdoll...” she repeated softly as if she was trying to figure the word out. “Why does that sound so familiar?”

“It’s the name of the new android maids out there,” Mim explained.

“Of course!” Ann remarked, snapping her fingers. “I was even looking into maybe getting one. God I hope I’m not going senile.”

“I’m sure you’re fine Grandma,” the blonde girl said with a light chuckle.

“Hopefully,” Ann replied half heartedly as they walked into the living room.

There they ran into the rest of the family who were all engaged in the latest rounds of hugs. Except of course Jim and Tim who were fake punching Conner in the arm, which he happily returned. In keeping with family tradition almost everyone was dressed in a Christmas themed sweater with the exception of Ron’s parents and Tim’s girlfriend Gwen who got away with wearing a light blue long sleeved shirt, blue jeans and her usual cat face belt buckle. She was the latest one to get caught in the hugging frenzy as Kim held her in a friendly embrace.

“So how are you doing Gwen?” Kim asked the other redhead.

“Oh life’s hectic as always. You know how it is,” Gwen replied.

“Yeah, it can be tiring keeping the world safe. So where’s Ben this year?”

“Supposedly with his parents and grandpa but I’m sure he’s also zipping around trying to take down as many aliens as he can.”

“He never stops, huh?”

“When you can move as fast as he can, you don’t really have to. I’m just a little worried about him.”

“Oh?”

“Well I’m happy he’s finally taking the whole hero thing seriously I just think it might be taking too seriously.”

“Well when you’re out there trying to keep the world safe you can get lost in the job a bit. I know that from personal experience. I could talk to him if you want me to.”

“Nah,” Gwen gave a dismissive wave. “I’ll talk to him later. After all, no reason he has to ruin our Christmas.”

“True,” Kim smirked, and then her expression grew serious. “Now I understand you and Tim have some kind of ‘surprise’ for me?”

“Oh yeah! Wait til you see it!”

“You’ll understand if I’m a little nervous. Usually a surprise coming my way from those two requires me to get padding or a trip to the dry cleaners.”

“Trust me, this is a good surprise,” Gwen smiled as she held up her left hand.

Kim’s jaw dropped and her eyes nearly bugged out of their sockets when she saw the gold band on the other woman’s ring finger and more importantly the fairly substantial diamond sticking up from it. She had to admit she never would have imagined this! She knew Gwen and Tim had been dating since they met in their senior year of college but he had always seemed too reluctant about making any kind of commitment. In fact the last she heard they just celebrated their five-year anniversary in some special way.

Guess that was it, she mused internally. Aloud she said, “Oh Gwen I’m so happy for you!”

The exclamation was followed up with another, much more emotional, hug that Gwen happily returned with a wide smile on her face.

“Oh I’m happy for me too,” she joked.

“I guess I don’t have anything else to say other than welcome to the family,” Kim said as she pulled back then look over to her younger brother. “Oh I do have something to say to you,” she remarked then slapped him as hard as she could across the arm. “It’s about time!”

“Ow!” Tim cried out, rubbing his now sore arm. “Hey don’t treat me like the bad guy! I was just trying to wait til things were a little more calm is all!”

“Uh huh,” Kim and Gwen both muttered sounding unconvinced.

“I was!” he cried out desperately then looked over to Jim. “Come on bro help me out here!”

“Sorry bro, but you’re on your own,” Jim remarked, taking a step back.

“So much for family loyalty. Ron, you’ll back me up on this, right?”

“Yeah...sorry Tim but I gotta agree with the women folk here. Cause, you know, I want to keep my wife,” Ron replied.

Kim gave a small smirk of satisfaction at Ron’s statement and tossed a look towards Gwen that seemed to say, “See how well I trained him?” Gwen smirked back at her soon-to-be sister-in-law and already started to form plans on how she could train Tim so well. They were derailed of the moment, however, when Anne got everyone’s attention.

“Well if everyone’s all set we can start our annual Possible/Stoppable Christmas Day the usual way by gathering up all the women to help get dinner ready. And of course Ron,” she stated.

“Hey mom you think maybe this year I could help with dinner?” Kim asked.

It was an innocent question in and of itself, but it was one that caused everyone to stop dead in their tracks. Had their been a record playing, they were sure they would have heard the needle give off a horrible scratching sound. Everyone looked around nervously at each other while Kim grew more and more annoyed.

“Oh come on!” she finally erupted. “I’m not that bad! Anymore.”

“That’s true honey,” Ron started carefully. “But you’ve still got a long, long, long way to go before you’ll be able to make anything that’s considered edible. And not set half the kitchen on fire.”

“One time that happened! One time!”

“Regardless Kimmie, I’m sure you’ll understand if we don’t want to take that chance,” Ann pleaded. “There are too many things here we don’t want to loose.”

“But...but...” Kim stammered as the others started to walk towards the kitchen.

“Sorry mom maybe next year. Or...within the next five years,” Mim tried to cheer her mom up.

“Hey what about her!” Kim cried out pointing to Mia. “She really can’t do anything to help so why does she get to go in there?!”

“Well she could probably help pick up spices and small things, right Mia?” Mim asked the Cyberdoll.

“I’ll give it my best!” she replied excited.

“See?”

Kim muttered something and kicked the carpet as she stomped over to the couch and flopped down onto it.

“This is so unfair!” she cried out to everyone leaving the living room.

“Oh don’t worry about Kimmie Cub, this will give us some to catch up on everything that’s been happening recently,” James said as he placed an arm around his daughter and hugged her close.

“Yeah that’s great,” Kim grumbled.

While Kim sulked in the living room with the men, most of the other woman, plus Ron, already started on preparing Christmas dinner. They all knew it was a little old fashioned, maybe even outdated, but it was an tradition that went back years into the Possible family and Ann liked to uphold them just as much as her daughter. It was in fact were Kim got her honor for tradition just as Ann had gotten it from James’ mother. It also allowed them to engage in some “girl talk” or at least as much as they could get way with while Ron was around.

Still with so many people working together, prepping dinner was a breeze and a fun activity rather than a chore. It was something they could all enjoy and helped them get into the spirit of things even more. So much so that their girl talk did sometimes go into areas Ron would rather not hear his mom, or baby sister, and definitely not his daughter talk about. He tried to tune it all out and focus on his portion of the meal but a few things still slipped by and he knew he’d probably have some disturbing dreams tonight.

Nevertheless, they all continued on, aided by the two new sets of hands this year. While Gwen admitted she wasn’t the world’s best cook, she was still more than happy to help in anyway that she could. Just as long as no one asked her to share her grandpa’s recipes cause she knew no one wanted to try those.

The other helper came in the form of the foot tall android Mia. Although her size did limit what she could do, she still did her best to help out. They others couldn’t help but admire her tenacity and positive attitude. Of course the most she could do was run spice jars and other small items to each person but it did help speed things along. She also had an interesting way of cracking eggs, which mainly consisted of head butting them until they were soft enough for her to split open.

As the moment she was walking some pepper across the counter to Ann when she tripped over the rolling pin. The peppershaker launched from her hands as she flailed about to try and keep her balance. She let out a terrified scream as she fell off the counter but was thankfully spared a rather painful landing when Mim caught her by the end of her skirt.

“Gotcha!” the blonde called out.

“Thanks,” Mia sighed in relief as she dangled upside down.

The peaceful moment was short lived was another scream instantly tore through the air. Every looked to see Ron stepping back from the skillet which now had a large flame shooting out of it. It seemed the peppershaker Mia had thrown knocked over a bottle of cooking oil that hit the stove and caused the flames to jump up nearly a foot. Everyone backed away as the flames looked to start burning out of control. Thankfully Gwen stepped forward before that could happen.

“Flamus Extinguisha!” she called out, waving a glowing hand towards the fire.

As if heading her call, the fired flared up for a second before quickly receding harmlessly back down into the stove. The others stood pensively as if they waited for something else to happen but relaxed when it looked to be safe. Ron stepped back over to the stove to carefully picked up the skillet and looked in dismay at the black lumps lying inside.

“Well guess the satiated vegetables are off the menu for tonight,” he sighed.

“Sorry about that,” Mia said sheepishly as she placed back on the counter.

“Nah it’s cool,” Ron reassured her scooping the blanked vegetables into the trashcan. “Guess I’ll just start working on something else.”

“You can help me with the glaze for the ham if you want,” Mrs. Stoppable suggested.

“Sure Mom.”

“Thank you for putting the fire out Gwen,” Ann said.

“Oh it was nothing,” Gwen waved off.

“Don’t be so modest. You’re getting really good at that magic stuff.”

“It’s not so tricky once you get the hang of it.”

“Still it was pretty impressive.”

Gwen smiled gentled as a soft blush came to her cheeks from the praise from her soon-to-be mother-in-law. She went back to work on making the rolls while Ann moved up to help her granddaughter with the stuffing and catch up a little with her.

“So Mim how are you classes going?” she asked, picking up a knife to start cutting the celery.

“Top of the class as always,” Mim proclaimed proudly. “And I was just voted president of the school’s Anime Club.”

“Oh that’s nice,” Ann replied, not quite sure how to respond to the last part. “At least you’re maintaining your grades.”

“Yep! My girl’s keeping up with the straight ‘A’s,” Ron spoke up, sounding just as proud as Mim.

“Which already tops your entire school record bro,” Hana smirked.

“Hey!” he shouted indignantly. “Now I admit I got a gentlemen’s ‘C’, and a couple of ‘D’s, in some of my classes but I still think I did alright in school.”

“Don’t even try that, I’ve seen your old report cards.”

“Sorry Dad, but she’s right, you weren’t that good in school,” Mim agreed.

“Why is everyone against me?!”

“Oh calm down bro, we’re just teasing,” Hana insisted.

“Well how are you doing in school?!” Ron shot back.

“Great! Not only doing good in my classes, but I’m the head of the Upperton U martial arts club.”

“Well you should be after spending last summer at Yamanouchi.”

“Yeah, Sensei Yori’s a great teacher.”

“That she is,” Ron said wistfully.

There was an uncomfortable silence following that statement. Particularly the almost wishful tone it was delivered in. The rather…unique relationship between Ron and Yori was hardly a secret, it made the ladies a little tense whenever it was brought up. Especially if Kim was around when he spoke rather fondly of the ninja woman.

“So how’s everything else going in school dear?” Ann asked Mim again, hoping to break the tension.

“Eh, pretty good. Save for having to deal with that stupid Bonita. Dumb, stuck up cheerleaders,” Mim muttered.

“Hey! There will be no putting down of cheerleaders here!” Ron scolded. “Remember you mom was a bon diggty cheerleader as well.”

“Yeah, yeah I know,” the younger Stoppable sighed. “I still can’t believe she wanted me to be one.”

“Well why not?” Ann asked.

“Well first of all I don’t think we could afford the lobotomy I’d need to get down to their level of intelligence.”

“Hey!” Ron repeated.

Mim rolled her eyes. “Secondly, I’d have to cheer Connor on and there’s no way I could do that,” she said with a smirk. “And thirdly…well I just couldn’t stand to be around Bonita that much. I’d probably get suspended for hitting her or something.”

“Is she really that bad?” Ann remarked.

“Well she is a Rockwaller,” Ron mused. “Actually technically she’s a Senior, but still she’s got a very Rockwaller attitude about her. Guess it’s a ‘like mother like daughter’ type thing.”

“What I don’t get is with all the money the family has, why don’t they send her to some private school?”

“Probably cause they want Bonita to try to run the school like Bonnie did.”

“Whatever it is, that girl just annoys me.”

“Yeah I know, but try not to let her get to you. She’s not worth it.”

Mim chuckled. “That’s funny, Mom told me the same thing.”

“So I’m starting to sound like Kim?” Ron asked with an arched eyebrow. “I’m not sure how to feel about that.”

The ladies in the kitchen laughed at the remark, save for Mia who seemed just as confused as Ron. Once the laughing fit died down, they all went back to preparing the meal and continuing their idle gossip.

By the time dinner made its way onto the table, the boys were so hungry they almost didn’t wait for everyone else to sit down before digging in. Fortunately, Ann was able to hold them all back long enough for the others to get settled. Of course once they were ready to eat, the food began to fly. In between shoveling mounds of food into their mouths, the family members began the usual chatter of what they had been up to over the year and any new developments in their lives.

At some point the conversation turned from the present, to the past and the adventures some of them had. Of course Kim and Ron led the conversation, but Gwen was more than happy to share some of the adventures, or rather misadventures, she shared with her cousin when they were younger. Even though they had grown to respect each other more since then, Gwen still took great delight in mocking Ben even when he wasn’t there.

One such story helped to put a positive spin on what was generally considered one of the darkest sitchs Kim, and the world for that matter, had to face; the Warlordian invasion. It turned out while Kim and Ron and Drakken’s crew were up in space trying to destroy the mother ship, Gwen and Ben were on the ground fighting off the invading horde the old fashion way. Or at least as old fashion as magic and alien heroes could be. And it seemed that while protecting humanity was a top priority, Ben had something else he wanted to accomplish as well.

“I’m telling you, Ben spent nearly an hour trying to get one of those Warlordians to at least scratch the watch so he could absorb their DNA! You should have seen the look on his face. It was priceless!” Gwen recounted with a snicker.

“Yeah that sounds like Ben from what I remember of him,” Kim agreed.

“So did he ever get the DNA?” Mim asked, seemingly enthralled with the story.

“Eventually yeah,” the redhead continued after taking a sip of water. “And I’ll admit he did use their power pretty well. As well as he could at least. Though I think he caused more damage then they did.”

“Some how I doubt that,” Kim muttered. “Those Warlordians did a lot of damage.”

“Yeah but, hey, we got through it alright, didn’t we?” Ron asked as he gently stroked her hand in a reassuring manner.

“Yeah, it’s just…that was one of the hardest sitchs I’ve ever had to deal with. I was so afraid…” she stopped and shook her head to clear the though. “Sorry everyone didn’t mean to bring the mood down.”

“It’s alright dear, it was a rough time on all of us,” Ann said softly.

“I’m just glad everyone made it through safely,” Kim said with a gentle smile. “There were times when I wasn’t sure if that was going to happen.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to bring up any bad memories,” Gwen apologized.

Kim waved it off. “It’s alright. It’s just when I think about it I can’t help but remember how…well scared I felt during that whole thing,” she admitted with a light sigh. Her face then scrunched up in annoyance. “Plus mad at how quickly Kimila sold me out! I still can’t believe she did that!”

“Kim she was evil back then. How could you not expect that?!” Ron asked in amazement.

“I don’t know. I guess I was hoping for some kind of family loyalty,” she huffed and rested her head on her hand. “At least she’s on our side now.”

“Or at least as much as she can by as a hired mercenary,” Ron corrected.

“Speaking of Kimila, how is she doing? We hear so little from her these days,” Ann remarked sadly.

“Honestly we here about the same. But she did send us some pictures of her, Shego and their girls. They look so beautiful in the dresses they’re wearing.”

“Oh that sounds cute,” Ann swooned. “Did you happen to bring it with you?”

“No, sorry. But I could e-mail you a copy.”

“Please and thank you.”

Kim smiled at her mother’s use of one of her “catch phrases”. “Oh the best part is that Cassie finally has her mask off.”

“Good! She rather seems to take it off around other people. In fact I think every time I’ve seen her she’s worn it. I still can’t imagine where she got an idea to wear such a dreary looking costume that covers up that pretty face of hers.”

“Dusk, from ‘Slingers’,” Mim stated quickly, drawing looks from the others at the table. “What?”

“You’re such a geek,” Conner scoffed with a shake of his head.

“Better than being a dumb jock.”

“Yeah cause keeping a good B-average makes me a ‘dumb jock’.”

“But keeping a straight A-average makes you broader line genius.”

“Or to put it simply: a geek,” Conner retorted with a triumphant smirk.

Mim scrunched her face up and stuck her tongue out at him.

“Alright, alright let’s settle down,” Ann spoke up, hoping to break up another sibling fight. “I just wish Kimila would come visit more often. I haven’t seen her or my other grandchildren in such a long time.”

“You can blame Miss Sore Winner her for that one,” Conner said, pointing his thumb towards Mim.

“I am not a sore winner! Elle’s just a sore loser!” Mim insisted. “Plus we were, like, ten!”

“And we haven’t really seen much of them since then, huh?”

“It’s really no one’s fault, sometimes these things just happen in families,” Ann said gently.

“She’s right. There were a few years I didn’t talk to Ben cause he was acting like such a jerk,” Gwen commented. “But eventually we patched things up. After I made him apologize,” she added under her breath and with a small smile.

“Eh, I’m sure the next get together we have you two will be able to work things out,” Ron said cheerfully. “I’m still amazed that Shego and Kimila actually have kids.”

“They’ve had them for about sixteen years,” Kim remarked.

“I know that, it’s just that I can’t believe an idea of Drakken’s actually worked.”

“Well it was a Drakken from a different reality so maybe that factors into it,” she mused, pressing a fingertip to her chin. “Still it is rather surprising that any version of Drakken has a successful plan.”

“No kidding,” Ron agreed. “But what I really can’t believe is you and Shego together. I mean, yeah I can kinda, maybe, see the clone thing but you you? How does that even work?!”

“I’m not sure I want to know. I guess the baby does change things after all. In fact I know it,” she said as she looked at her own children. She then turned her attention back to Ron. “Now if we want to talk about unbelievable things, I can’t believe what happened to you in that reality.”

“Yeah that didn’t look like any fun at all. I mean I like that I could fine tune some awesome ninja fighting moves, but the whole face…thing?” Ron asked and cringed a bit. “Not a fan of that.”

“I also can’t believe you ended up with Bonnie of all people.”

“Now that part I liked! Especially in the outfit she was wearing. Rwor!”

Kim’s eyes narrowed as she let out a growl of her own, though it was more out of annoyance then playfulness like Ron’s. Familiar with that particular look and sound the blond tried to do all he could to make it up to his wife.

“Not that you aren’t a million times more hot than Bonnie will ever be!” he said hastily.

“Oooh man Dad. Two times in two days. Going for a new record, huh?” Conner joked.

“You stay out of this! Unless of course you want to be grounded,” Ron warned.

“What?! You can’t ground me just cause you’re the one that’s in trouble!”

“I can too! That’s how parenting works!”

“No it’s not,” Kim countered.

“Well sometimes it is,” James mumbled from his end of the table.

“James!” Ann admonished him.

“Welcome to the family,” Tim whispered sarcastically to Gwen.

“Trust me, this is still ten times better than my family,” she whispered back.

After the post dinner clean up, everyone migrated to the living room where they continued the annual Christmas tradition of acting out the Possible family history. With so many people visiting this year, the play was actually fairly elaborate for a simple family production. Still it was a lot of fun for those involved and the small audience that consisted of Ron’s parents, Gwen and Mia. When the small play was finished the “actors” took all took a bow to the standing ovation they earned.

Once all the costumes were carefully placed back in their storage boxes, everyone settled down as comfortable as they could in the living room to watch whatever Christmas specials were still on at the time. To Ron’s great pleasure this included another replay of Snowman Hank, but even watching his favorite animated special wasn’t enough to keep him, and Mim, from eyeing the presents every few seconds. Kim noticed this and couldn’t help but smile at her husband and daughter’s enthusiasm. She laid her head on his shoulder to try calm him down but it didn’t seem to do much good. He did acknowledge her affection by gently holding her hand but he still continued to peek over at the presents every so often. Kim rolled her eyes then sat up when the show was over and look at her mother.

“Mom I think we better open the presents now before these two explode,” she quipped gesturing to Ron and Mim.

“I suppose we can go ahead and open them a little early,” Ann conceded. “Mim do you want to help me pass them out?”

“Yes!” the blonde girl shouted enthusiastically as she bolted up from the couch.

Unfortunately, in her excitement Mim forgot that Mia was still on her lap and her sudden jump upward sent the small android sailing through the air. She let out a high-pitched shriek just before landing in an undignified heap on the coffee table.

“Ow…” she mumbled pathetically.

“Oh Mia I’m so sorry! Are you alright?” Mim asked as she helped the Cyberdoll stand up.

“Yeah I think I’m fine,” Mia said, rubbing a sore spot on her head.

“Again I’m so, so sorry. I totally forgot you’re there.”

“It’s alright I’m not hurt. Just a little sore.”

“Well I’ll make it up to you later, OK?”

“Okay!”

Mim nodded then moved over to the tree where her grandmother was already starting to sort out the presents. Ann stacked them into small, carefully constructed piles and it was Mim’s job to take them to their respective owners. Once everyone had their piles, Ann and Mim took their original seats and then it was just a matter of deciding who would open their presents first.

“Why don’t you start us off sweetie?” Kim offered Mim.

She let out a squeal of excitement before yanking a present off the top of her pile. She briefly read the card to see that it was part of the bundle her aunts Kimila and Shego sent them before tearing the decorative paper off in a heated frenzy. Underneath, she found a box with a homemade label on it is reading “Cyberdoll Accessory Kit”. Intrigued she tore the tape holding the two cardboard pieces together then sat it down on the coffee table and pulled off the top right as Mia walked up to her. They both peered inside to find a tiny cat suit scaled to fit Mia and two flash drives one marked “Martial Arts Program” while the second one simply said, “Other Stuff”.

Mia picked up the cat suit to examine it more closely. It was mostly a light gray color with an aqua colored pattern around the chest that almost looked like a sports bra. Thin lines branched off the centerpiece and ran along the arms down to the sleeves where they would meet base of the gloves that were currently laying in the box. The gloves themselves had an aqua pattern on them but they consisted of a large square on the top and at the fingertips. The boots continued the trend by having aqua coloring on their heels and toes.

“Really milking that green coloring, aren’t they?” Kim muttered as she looked over the mini outfit as well.

“Just a bit. Still looks pretty good,” Ron remarked.

“So I guess we don’t have to ask Wade to make a mission outfit for her after all,” Mim said with a smirk. “Plus I think she’ll look great in it. What do you think Mia?”

The green haired minibot held the outfit against herself and looked down with an judging eye.

“Yeah. I think it’ll look good too. In fact I might try it on right now!” Mia announced happily then reached for the zipper on the back of her French maid outfit.

As the zipper slowly began to be pulled down, the eyes of all the males in the room instantly focused on her. Completely oblivious to this, Mia started to pull her clothes off but was quickly stopped by Mim who reached over and pulled them back on and zipped it up.

“Maybe you should wait to do that in private,” she suggested.

Mia blinked in confusion but shrugged and smiled up at her mistress.

“Okay,” she agreed, much to the chagrin of all the guys.

“So Conner why don’t you open one of your presents next?” Kim prompted.

“Huh? Oh yeah, sure,” Conner mumbled, as if snapping out of a trance.

He reached for his own pile pulled off a small present from the top. The tag taped to the front revealed it was from his dad and with a bit of a shrug he ripped the paper off to find himself holding a new Game Station game.

“Whoa! ‘Super Football 3000’!” he exclaimed happily. “I’ve been wanting this game for months!”

“Yeah I kinda figured that when you kept bringing it up all the time,” Ron revealed with a smirk.

Conner ducked his head in embarrassment. “I wasn’t that bad, was I?”

“Just a bit. But it’s cool, I use to be the same way.”

“Actually Ronald you were a little worse because all you wanted were Christmas presents instead of Chanukah ones,” Ron’s dad spoke up.

Ron sputtered as he almost fell out of his chair in shock of the comment.

“I…I did not!”

“Oh yes you did,” Mrs. Stoppable added. “I admit it was kind of cute at the beginning but it quickly got annoying.”

“Well that explains where I got that from,” Conner quipped.

“Hey, how about someone else open a present now?” Ron asked, trying to get the conversation off himself.

“Since you seem to be the center of attention at the moment bro, why don’t you open one of yours?” Hana suggested.

“Hmmm…why don’t I?” Ron mused as he rubbed his chin.

He shrugged it off then looked down at his stack of presents. The one that immediately caught his eye was a rather long and skinny box. He carefully hefted it up with both arms and tried to find a tag on it but couldn’t see one.

“Oh right, forgot to put that stupid tag on that thing,” Hana muttered, smacking herself in the forehead.

“This is from you?” Ron asked in disbelief.

“No, no, no. My present’s a lot smaller. That one’s from Yori.”

“From Yori?”

“Yeah she gave it to me when I was at Yamanouchi last summer.”

Now more intrigued than ever, Ron tore the wrapping paper off as quickly as he could. He was rewarded for his efforts by a rather plan looking black wooden box that would usually go unnoticed. There was something familiar about this one though, as if he had seen it somewhere before. It did come from Yamanouchi so maybe he saw it during his brief time there.

“No way…” he whispered when he remembered we he had seen this box before. “It couldn’t be…”

He set it down on the coffee table then slowly lifted the top of the box. It opened with a slight creak to reveal a pristine sword lying in crushed red velvet lining. Still in a state of disbelief Ron slowly reached out and grabbed the sword’s handle. A strange feeling of familiarity and oneness ran through his body as he lifted the weapon out of its case, as if it was a long lost pet returning to its master.

“She gave you a sword?” Kim asked, quirking an eyebrow.

“Not just any sword, this is the Lotus Blade,” Ron said in awe.

“That blade that’s somehow connected to the Mystical Monkey Power?”

He nodded absently.

“Why would she give that to you?”

“According to her ‘it was time he had it’,” Hana explained then shrugged. “Don’t ask me what it means.”

“This…is…awesome!” Ron declared as he stood up, holding the sword out in front of him.

“Be careful with that thing son,” his father advised.

“Yeah Ron you wouldn’t want to hurt someone or something here,” Kim agreed.

“Oh right,” Ron said sheepishly. “Hold on I can fix this.”

He closed his eyes and his face scrunched up a bit in concentration and a few seconds later the Lotus Blade glowed a bit before shrinking down to the size of a letter opener. Ron smile then sat back down and placed the now significantly smaller sword on the coffee table.

“Cool, huh?!” he remarked to Kim. “It can turn into whatever I want it to.”

“And you choose a letter opener?” she asked, raising an eyebrow again.

“I couldn’t think of anything else. Still it’s pretty awesome. Hey now I’m kinda like that other me.”

“Not really sure that’s a good thing. Even if he did still have a bit of the essential Ronness he seemed a bit too serious for my tastes. Plus that whole face thing?” She shuddered. “No thank you.”

“I wouldn’t want that either, but are you saying you’d leave me if the same thing happen to me?”

“No! No, no! Not at all!” she said quickly. “You know I’d love you know matter what, I just don’t want to see anything like that happen to you.”

“I know what you mean KP,” Ron confessed as he leaned over and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “But honestly how many times do I get to put you on the spot?”

Kim rolled her eyes and let out a soft sigh but smiled anyway as she looked at him.

“Alright, fine, I’ll give you that one,” she relented.

“Why don’t you open one of your presents to make you feel better?” he suggested as he reached over and picked out one for her. “Like say this one.”

She reached out and took the small box then looked at the tag attached to it.

“Oh how convenient, it’s from you,” she remarked.

“It is?” he faked sounding surprised as he looked at it. “Oh hey look at that, it is!”

Kim shook her head in amusement as she started to pull the paper off the box. Like the case to the Lotus Blade the box itself seemed rather plain and unassuming. When she opened it, however, she found a gold-chained necklace with a well-polished and sparkling emerald attached to it. She pulled it out of the small box by the chain and held it up in front of her to admire how it shined in the light of the room.

“It’s…beautiful,” she breathed.

“Yeah I saw it in a store a few weeks ago and it kinda reminded me of your eyes so I just had to go it,” Ron explained.

Kim lowered the necklace to look at him. “Still notice my eyes after all this time, huh?”

“Of course. I still notice everything about you KP,” he said softly as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close.

“Right back at ya handsome,” she retorted with a smile as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders.

They stared into each other’s eyes for a several seconds and leaned in for a loving and passionate kiss.

“Ewww!” Mim cried out, breaking their concentration. “Other people in the room here!”

They quickly broke apart and coughed and shifted nervously while their cheeks flushed red in embarrassment.

“OK, well to break us way from that disturbing image, why don’t you go ahead and open one of your presents babe?” Tim asked Gwen who was sitting in his lap.

“Well if you insist…” she replied with a smirk.

She looked over the small stack she had and picked out a rather large looking box. It was also rather heavy and caused her to let out a slight grunt as she lifted it onto her lap. When she looked at the tag and saw it was from Tim she glared down at him.

“What did you get me, a ton of bricks?” she scolded.

“Just open it and you’ll see,” he insisted.

With a slight since of dread, she slowly undid the wrapping and half expected something to pop out at her when she was finished. Instead she found a cardboard box that was designed to look like an old wooden chest complete with a faux metal latch in front. While she appreciated the design of the container it was really the contents inside that really piqued her interest. She didn’t even have to open it to find out as it was spelled out for her in bright yellow, stylized letters.

“‘The Complete Harry Potter Book Collection’?!” she exclaimed in surprise.

“Yeah I was hoping you’d like them cause you’re into that all that magic stuff,” Tim admitted.

“Like them? Like them?! I love these books!” Gwen cried out then leaned forward and gave her finance a hug and kiss.

“Good to see I was right then.”

“Oh you were,” she said as she flipped open the box and looked at the new books. “It’s not jus the magic stuff I like but also the wonderful characters in these stories. Not to mention the settings! Oh it’s…thank you!” she said again before giving him another kiss. “You have no idea how much this means to me.”

“I’m starting to get an idea.”

“No really. Most of my copies are either worn out or were destroyed by some alien monster at some point. So getting all together like this is amazing.”

“Well I’m glad you’re happy.”

“Oh trust me, you’ll be more than glad later tonight,” Gwen said in a rather sultry tone.

“Hoo-shaw,” Tim muttered happily.

The holiday festivities carried on in much a similar fashion. Each family member took turns opening a different present and thanking those that gave them to them. As the night moved on the piles got smaller and smaller, Kim eventually got to the last gift in her stack. The card revealed it was from Kimila but also carried with it the rather ominous warning of “Open In Private”. Not one to second guess the kind of things her sister could give her, she decided to follow the instructions and casually played it down until someone else took their turn.

After all the presents were open and all the loose paper cleaned up, everyone started to drift off to either play around with their presents or just get ready for bed. Ron’s parents and Hana decided just to head back to their home while Kim and her family, along with her brothers and Gwen, decided just to stay the night in their parents’ home. Kim made her way back to her old room, which always seemed so empty now, and sat on the bed with the mysterious present in hand. She stared down at it apprehensively as her fingers fiddled with the edges of the wrapping paper.

Finally deciding just to go for it she shrugged and tore the paper off, throwing it recklessly onto the floor. What was underneath was a plain white cardboard box, the style someone would pack clothes in. She ripped the tape holding to the two halves together and taking a deep breath she yanked the top off as fast as she could. After a few seconds of silence she decided that it wasn’t anything dangerous so took a peak inside.

“Oh you have got to be kidding me!” she cried out when she saw the contents.

Her look of disdain eventually turned to one of intrigue and then acceptance when she realized she could in fact put this unusual gift to good use.

“I’m sure Ron will get a kick out of it…” she said with wicked smile.

Ron let out an exhausted sigh as he finished packing up his family’s newly acquired stuff. He didn’t want to pack it in the car yet, but he at least wanted it all ready for tomorrow when they left. Or at least that’s what Kim wanted, he was more than happy to just throw everything in the trunk and hope for the best. Still he learned a long time ago it was best just to go along with his wife’s wishes. 1) Because she was usually always right and 2) because it usually ended up very well for him.

Speaking of which, I wonder where Kim is anyway? he thought as he made his way through the house. Probably back in her old room.

Deciding that was the best place to start looking, Ron made a beeline for the set of stairs that led up to the loft style room Kim had lived in for so many years. He stopped at the edge of them and peered upwards.

“Kim! You up there?!” he called out in a hushed tone.

“I’m here Ron!” her voice called back. “Come on up, I’ve got something special to show you.”

Ron raised in an eyebrow in confusion but decided to take her up on the offer anyway. From the tone in her voice it sounded like the ‘special something’ was a good something so he didn’t have any reason to be nervous. Course he never really needed a reason to be nervous anyway. Still given that it was Kim that was going to surprise him and the festive mood of the day he was sure it would enjoy it. After all, being called up into Kim’s room was usually good thing anyway. Well when it didn’t have anything to do with a mission at least.

All of his rambling thoughts were completely lost when he reached the top of the steps and entered her room. What he saw standing in front of her bed was quite simply an image of absolute beauty. It was Kim standing there in a bright red bra and matching panties with white full-length gloves and thigh high stockings on. The gloves and stockings had red ribbons attached to their trims that gave the whole ensemble a Christmas feel to it that seem perfectly fitting for the day. The necklace he had given her earlier in the night and could now fully appreciate how it rested just above her breasts topped off the outfit.

“This is the present Kimila sent me,” she explained, holding out her arms. “What do you think?”

Ron’s mouth moved soundlessly a few times before he was finally able to form words.

“I…I think…we need to send her a very big thank you card,” he said in a far off voice.

Kim giggled and walked over to him, putting an extra sway in her hips. “I take it that means you like it.”

He nodded enthusiastically.

“So does this mean that after all this time and two kids you still find your dear old wife attractive?” she asked in a sultry voice as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders.

He smiled and wrapped his arms around her waist to pull her closer.

“Of course I do,” he replied. “Told you a long time ago I’m always going to find you attractive.”

“Even when I’m all old and wrinkly and gray?”

“Yep even then. Course I’ll be wrinkly and gray too so I hope the same roles apply to me.”

“Of course,” Kim agreed and moved in even closer. “So we’re alone and back in my old room and I’m nearly naked and really close to you. This better be giving you some good ideas.”

“Going out to see if Bueno Nacho is still open?” he asked with a playful smirk.

She frowned and glared at him.

“Ron…” she growled.

“I’m kidding I’m kidding,” he confessed as he tightened his grip on her. “Trust me I know exactly what to do with you while you’re dressed like that.”

“Then show me.”

He accepted her challenge by tilted his head towards her and capturing her lips with his own. The kiss started out as a sweet and loving one but quickly grew more heated and passionate as their hands began to roam over the other’s body. Without breaking the rhythm they had built up they made their way over to the bed where Kim quickly flipped them both around so that she landed on top of him when they crashed onto the bed. She positioned herself to straddle him and finally broke off the kiss to stare down at him.

“Happy Chanukah Ron,” she whispered.

“Merry Christmas Kim,” he whispered back.

She lowered herself on him so that her face was just inches way from his.

“It’s about to be.”

“Booyah,” he smirked as his hands went to her hips.

Kim started the kiss up again as she reached over the clicked off the light.

And to all a good night.

The End.

Author’s Notes: Well FINALLY I got this story done. I am so very sorry that it took this long. I really did plan to finish it by or on Christmas but you know what they say about the best laid plans. This time they went array thanks to my inability to concentrate while at my parents’ house and getting caught up in holiday stuff. Then I had a nasty virus that caused me to have to reinstall Windows and then there was just my natural inability to focus and mini bouts of writer’s block. Still I hope you guys can enjoy it even if it has lost its meaning being so far away from Christmas now.

The other I want to mention is that if it isn’t painfully obvious by now the Gwen in the story is Gwen from “Ben 10”. Obviously she’s older at this point and has her Gwendolyn look but…well honestly I was too lazy to type out that name all the time. Plus it’s a slightly different world than we saw in the “Ben 10,000” ep so that can explain that. But mostly the lazy thing. The funny thing is it all came about cause I wanted one of the tweebs to be at least be involved with someone and when thinking up potential mates Gwen just popped into my mind and well it was too good to pass up.

I also have to mention that I can’t take credit for the outfit Kim wore at the end of the fic. That originally came from DarkDP and Levelord over on DeviantART for some Christmas themed pics. I’d link them here but the morality police over at DA took them down cause God forbid anyone see anything mature featuring their favorite cartoon characters. That’s horrible!

One thing I can link to is the incredible pic of Mim that the artist Aoleitao did for me over on DA. Or at least as much as I can link here on FF.N If you fill in the gaps you can find the pic here:

http// aoleitao. deviantart. com/ art/ Mim-74897128

It’s a great pic and I can’t thank him enough for doing it for me. Bit of a warning though if you look through his gallery you’ll see some of those “horrible” mature pics so make sure you’re the right age to view those pics. Cause I don’t want to get in trouble and I’m sure Aoleitao doesn’t want to either. So I can at least say I gave that warning. “The blood is washed neatly from our hands”.

Also I need to add that the character of Bonita is not mine but belongs to Tucsoncoyote over on DA and a pic of her can be found on his page. I encourage everyone to check it out. And of course she is use with permission.

Alright that’s enough out of me. Hopefully my next fic won’t take nearly as long to get done or posted. I guess I’ll see you guys then.