Holiday Happiness

"Can I open it now?"

"No," I chuckled out, "We're gonna wait until everyone gets here."

"Aw, come on!" she whined out, "The suspense is gonna kill me. I'll be dead before they get here." She placed the back of her hand to her forehead and pretended to faint onto the couch.

I laughed out at her antics and slapped her feet lightly. She moved her legs enough for me to join her on the couch. "How about we watch a movie to pass the time?"

Immediately she took to the idea and sat up gasping. "Yeah! I wanna watch 'Ponyo'!"

I chuckled again and told her it was on the movie shelf by the TV. As she searched for it, I set up the DVD player so it'd be ready to go when she found it. I took my place back on the couch and grabbed the remotes for the TV and DVD player. Once she popped in the disc, she ran back and sat next to me on the couch. The opening ads began playing and Jayy walked in from the kitchen.

"Dinner's in the oven and the table is all set up for when they get here." I smiled at him and thanked him for cooking the rest of the meal. I started everything this morning and he put on the finishing touches as the time grew closer to our little get-together.

"Jayy-Jayy, come sit with me." I held my arms out like a kid and he giggled before sitting in my lap. "Alexia, where's your brother and sister?" he asked.

"Val's still trying to untangle the lights for the staircase" she jabbed her thumb over towards the tree where our youngest daughter Valerie, sat on the floor with the Christmas lights thrown about her as she tried to undo a huge knot in the middle. Earlier we caught her trying to pry the strands apart by biting one end and wrapping the other around her foot and pulling them.

"And what about Daniel?"

She paused for a minute as thought. She brought her finger up to her cheek and then smiled. "I remember! He was looking around my room for where I hid the presents." Her smile grew as she added "I hid them too well this year and lost them again."

"Ugh" both Jayy and I groaned out and palm-slapped ourselves. She always forgets where she puts important things. Ask her where she put a note she received in 3rd period and she'll tell you without even looking up from her phone, but if you ask where she left the house keys, she'll have to retrace her steps 5 times to find them. Jayy turned around and looked at me seriously while saying "She is so your kid" and then shook his head.

He meant to say it as a well-meaning insult but I just smiled and hugged him tight to me. "No, she's our kid." He couldn't help but grin widely. She really was our miracle child after all. Unlike her brother and sister, she is the only child we had together somewhat naturally and I never want to go through another pregnancy again. Once was enough, thank you very much. And I don't want to push our luck. Our son and other daughter are adopted, but they already know that. After Alexia was born, we realized we wanted to share our home even more. We became foster parents but once Danny arrived, we didn't want any other child but him.

Before our first week together was through, we had already put in the forms to adopt him. Alexia was three at the time and he was five, but already they had grown so attached to each other like they had been siblings all along. The years passed and they grew even closer. We did more research through the adoption agency to find out his medical history and found that he had a sister in the system as well. She was just a year younger than Alexia and didn't even know she had other family. Once we tracked her down, we adopted her as well. Now it feels like we're complete together. I think we're pretty lucky, actually. Sometimes I've heard that adopted siblings don't always get along with their guardian's children. But Danny is always so protective of both of them and we've all been very thankful that we found each other. Now he's 18 and the girls are 15. Alexia's birthday is coming up in two months and we are not looking forward to teaching another child how to drive. Danny is an excellent driver now, but when he first started well…it was horrifying to say the least. And I don't think Alexia is going to be any better. I swear being in a car with that boy behind the wheel took 5 years off my life.

As I was recalling the many terrifying incidents with the car, said son carefully made his way down the stairs. His arms were loaded with all the presents that apparently had been hidden in Alexia's room.

He set them down in front of our fully decorated tree with a grunt and then cracked his back. "God, Lexie! What did you wrap? Bricks?"

She giggled "No! But I think the one you're talking about is Marky's. I got him that new amp he wanted." The boy was one of Sally and Andrew's kids. He was the second oldest of the triplets and their last boy. All together they have 4 children. The youngest having a birthday only 3 days off from Valerie's. One thing we could never figure out was how that little girl got her red hair. No one else in that family is redhead that we know of, so how she turned out to be one is a complete mystery, both to us and her parents.

Every one of Sally's pregnancies was a complete surprise. And having triplets was something she never forgave Andrew for. Of course I completely understand her opinion, having gone through a pregnancy myself. Imagine finding out you're preggie by accident, it's your first one and you're having triplets. It's no wonder she tried to strangle him when the ultrasound came through. Andrew said he nearly fainted when he saw 3 growing babies inside her. After they came, it was only a couple months before the second scare. I'll never forget the look on her face when she came out with the home test. It was a beautiful mixture of "Holy fuck!" and "Someone is gonna die for this." She chased him around the house yelling out every swear she could think of. As the babies played together on the floor, Jayy and I watched the scene, very much amused. Soon we found the babies laughing too.

Even though the pregnancies were unplanned and unwanted, as soon as the couple held their children in their arms for the first time, we all could see the immediate love they had for each one. I know deep down that they wouldn't change anything if they had the chance. They love their children just as much as we love ours.

I sat deep in thought when Valerie's yelling brought me out of my trance. "Ah-ha! I finally got it!" she yelled out giddily. I smiled as she looked down proudly at the large mass of now untangled lights. She ran up the stairs and began weaving the string of multicolored lights around the wooden rail. We watched as she worked her way down the stairs until she reached the outlet to plug it all in. For 10 brief seconds the lights came on, alternating every other light to create a cute effect. Then they flickered off. Val let out sigh of frustration and said "Fuck it" and unplugged the lights again.

Jayy was the first to respond "Language, young lady."

She tried to suppress rolling her eyes but failed. "Screw it?" she offered.

Jayy and I both sighed. "Close enough." I don't think we're gonna get much better out of her. We don't exactly have the best track record ourselves when it comes to swearing in front them.

As she made her way to the living room, she looked out the bay window before excitedly rushing to the door. Just as she opened the door the Ferrara family stepped onto the porch. Sally and Andrew smiled at her as their kids pushed their way through the door. Michael was the first one in with Haylie following close behind. Michael immediately glomped Danny once he was within range. Daniel gave a small smile and blushed lightly before returning the hug. Those two have been inseparably close lately. Personally, I think they're gonna end up together, if they haven't already. Jayy has a bet going on with Sally over which of the boys is gonna spill first. My money's on Michael despite what Jayy thinks. I know Daniel pretty well and 1) he's a very private person and 2) he's very quite. Michael is the polar opposite of him, so I'm betting that he's gonna let it slip without realizing it.

Jamie was the 3rd one in and hugged Valerie before making her way over to Lexie. The two hugged a bit longer than what Daniel and Michael had, which made me raise an eyebrow. I looked over at Jayy and he didn't seem to notice anything unusual so I let it slide. Probably just my imagination…or my over-protectiveness of my little girl. Sometimes I think I'm more protective of her than most moms. She pretty much is my little angel and if anything happens to her, I will hunt down the rat-bastard and strangle him with his own intestines.

The two sat down together by the tree and Valerie and Haylie quickly joined them. They began gossiping about god-knows-what and I tuned them out as Sally and Andrew sat beside us on the couch. Mark was the last one in and settled down on the floor in front of the other boys practically cuddling on loveseat. He leaned back on his hands just as Valerie had done facing the opposite direction. Their hands brushed each other but instead of moving, he placed his hand over hers. That definitely wasn't my imagination. I jabbed Jayy in the ribs and motioned my head towards the scene. Sally also looked and pointed it out to Andrew. We all shared a smile and turned back to the TV.

By now the opening menu had played for what seemed to be the 1000th time. Jayy leaned over the side of the couch and dimmed the lights. The fireplace was going so we had plenty of light to see our children by. The girls had moved from their little circle to make a line from the tree stretching to couch.

Valerie turned to face the TV but still did not move her hand from underneath Mark's. I saw a rare smile go across his lips as he began to take in the movie. Jamie had now moved into Lexie's lap, where she was held as securely as I held Jayy. Haylie moved in front of her parents but rested her head on Alexia's free shoulder. A big smile made it's way across my face as I was reminded of another time I watched this movie with Lexie. It was the same night I first felt her kick. I nuzzled into Jayy's neck and gave him a chaste kiss over his tattoos. He turned around to me and captured my lips in sweet kiss. He tasted like the sugar cookies he had been baking earlier. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Sally and Andrew following the same path we took.

It wasn't long until Alexia let out a much exaggerated "Ewww." The others turned and followed suit. Danny shook his head and Valerie stuck out her tongue in a disgusted fashion.

"Lose the PDA. I'd like to be able to keep down my dinner later." Mark said to all of us.

Sally pulled off of Andrew and responded "Hey, if it wasn't for PDA, none of you would be here." Lexie let a disturbed look pass across her face and let out a "gross" out under her breath.

I spoke up next "You know Lexie, 'Ponyo' was the movie I watched the night you woke me up with your first kick." She stuck her hands over her ears and tightly shut her eyes. "La-la-lala, I can't hear you."

Jayy smiled back at me in remembrance "It's true sweetie. And as we watched it I blew your dad-"

"Oh, gross! Don't tell me that."

The rest of the kids let out noises of objection and complaints. All of us parents just laughed at their discomfort and went back to making out, much to the kid's displeasure.

Lexie let out a frustrated sigh. "Now they're trying to ruin 'Ponyo' for me." The others murmured in agreement and tried to refocus on the movie. Although I'm not sure how focused they are with the wet sound of our lips smacking against each other.

"Sick!"