The Next Year

I had spent the last 24 hours on a high that I had yet to come down from. Ever since Nathalie had tried to insist on hosting the celebration dinner, where Sid and I said firmly no, I had been working on a menu and making sure everything would be perfect. Having this be the first real dinner party I’d thrown, I was nervous. I had all the food planned but had kind of driven myself nuts with the table setting. On the one hand it was a family dinner and on the other it was a bit more formal than that. Sid rescued me from my dilemma by setting the table in a semi-formal family style. When I sputtered about a centerpiece he laughed at me. “Trust me, I have an idea. You make the food perfect and I’ll make sure this is.”

He shooed me into the kitchen to focus on that. I knew the rest of the house was ready having had our cleaning crew come in and give the house a special once over. Of course it was noon and while the steaks and chicken were in the fridge marinating, it was too soon to make _most_ of the rest of it. I re-read all of the recipes I was using and decided that I could easily do the prep work for most of the rest of them, including both salad dressings. I chopped all of the herbs I would need and put them in paper towels that I labeled in the fridge. I then looked at the fresh green beans I was using and trimmed them up like I needed to.

I next turned to the two salads I was doing. I spread the walnuts out on a baking sheet and began them toasting in the oven. I then began working with the onions I would need for the three recipes that needed them. Those went into paper towels that were labeled for each recipe. I then decided I needed to tackle the greens. Carefully I washed them all and spun them dry. Of course they didn’t get completely dry but that wasn’t a big deal as I put them in separate plastic bags with paper towels that were labeled. Yes when it came to things like this I believed in making sure everything was labeled so they could be put together easily.

After taking the walnuts out to cool, I turned to the two dressings. The one for the Strawberry Romaine was the easier of the two so I did it first. I had a large jar with the perfect lid so that’s what I used. I put the mayo, vinegar, sugar and milk in the jar and shook it until it was smooth. All I would have to do for that was add the poppy seeds before we served it. Then I got out the small food processor for the Cranberry Vinaigrette. I began to add ingredients into the work bowl; cranberries, vinegar, onion, sugar, and mustard. When that was smooth I slowly added the oil until the emulsification took hold. I then tasted the dressing and added a bit of salt and pepper and mixed it again. That also went into a jar with a tight fitting lid.

The next thing I tackled was making sure the potatoes were all clean and ready to be prepped. I knew that cutting a potato before you were going to use it was a bad idea. I was doing that when Sid came in whistling. “Ok the table is all set. Do you need me to help in here?”

I smiled. “The dishes? I’ve got most everything handled for now. I haven’t mixed the hamburger up yet. I was going to do that next so I could get those shaped before I changed.” He came over and kissed my temple. “I’m as prepared as I can be before I can actually cook.” My nerves, which had abated while prepping everything, were creeping back to the forefront.

Moving to the sink Sid began seeing what could and could not go into the dishwasher and loaded it. “I’ll grill everything that needs it and I’m sure I’ll get help from others. Just like I’m positive the ladies will do everything they can to help you.” When he was done loading the dishwasher he hand washed the few items that could not go in it then turned to me as he was drying his hands. “We’ve done our workout and we’re on track for tonight. If you want to put off mixing the hamburger I know the perfect way to get your mind off of things.” There was no mistaking the teasing in his voice.

I dried my own hands and made sure the counters were clean. “Oh really now? This wouldn’t be my Captain trying to corrupt the innocent rookie in his care would it?” Two could play this game…

He chuckled, came up behind me and encircled me with his arms. “No, not at all. This is a husband seeing his beautiful wife starting to stress out over something that will go perfectly.” He began slowly kissing his way from my shoulder up my neck, being sure to blow gently into my ear. I couldn’t help but relax into his chest as he did so. “Better, but I know we can do even better.” He maneuvered me sideways and picked me up. He carried me out of the kitchen, through the great room and into our bedroom.

Several hours later I was “allowed” out again after a thorough relaxing. This was over course after Sid made me promise _not_ to peek into the dining room. “Fine, if you insist. I promise I will not look in the dining room until the family arrives. Happy now?” He nodded and went downstairs. I was going to be joining him in a little while. I just wanted to make the patties before I completely forgot.

I pulled out the fresh ground chuck I preferred for my burgers and then crumbled up some bread slices I had left out from earlier. I added a couple teaspoons of milk over them and let them soak. I then pulled out the Worc sauce, garlic powder and cayenne and got those ready to put into the large bowl I was going to hand mix the burgers in. I pulled off my rings and put them in the dish I had in the kitchen for this purpose and then broke the ground chuck into the bowl. I had grabbed and beaten an egg after putting the bread to soak and now dumped it on top of the meat.

Slowly but surely the burgers took shape. As I finished mixing it, I made it level in the bowl and then, taking a page from Rachel Ray, I “scored” the meat to work on making the patties equal. I then formed the patties carefully being sure to have them thicker at the edge than in the middle. I put them between waxed paper and then washed my hands before putting them into the fridge to wait. I washed up what I used and then went to join Sid in our basement. I know that he had done the monthly maintenance earlier in the day and would probably be testing it out now.

I heard him before I saw him. I couldn’t help but laugh and shake my head as he skated laps on our 1/4 size synthetic rink. I leaned against the door and watched him move. We had done everything in our power to keep in shape in the last year and now it would be ramping up soon to be in tip top condition for camp in September. “Are you having fun?” I asked while he moved.

His unmistakable laugh rang out. “Are you kidding? How could I not be having fun? We finally fixed the CBA and will get to actually _play_ this year! We can again talk to anyone and everyone we want to.” He stopped in front of me and offered his hands. “Come skate with me.” He was grinning again, I hadn’t realized how much I had missed that until right now.

I chuckled. “You realize we skated just this morning at Southpointe right?” He nodded, a smile still bright on his face. “You want me to join you for another reason?” He made grabby hands at me and I sighed. “Fine but I don’t want to put my skates on right now.” I took his hands and stepped onto our rink. He started off backwards making us both giggle. We didn’t often skate like a stereo typical couple.

We skated around for I don’t know how long until I heard the doorbell. “Were you expecting anyone?” He asked as we got back to the boards. I shook my head and carefully stepped off the rink. “You check it out while I pull my skates off? Without…”

“Looking in the dining room, yes.” I gave him a quick kiss and moved for the stairs. As I got to the door I had to work at keeping my promise. When I opened the door I was floored. “What are you doing here? I thought your plane didn’t land for another hour?”

A very tired Evgeni came into the house with a small smile. “I lie, want to surprise you two too.” I grabbed his bags so he didn’t have to and closed the door. As I turned around I was engulfed in a huge hug. There was nothing I could do but return it. I knew how he felt, we had missed an entire season. Neither of us said anything while we hugged, words weren’t needed. He was home, where he belonged.

I heard Sid on the stairs but didn’t care until he chuckled behind us. “You know if I didn’t know you were both happily married, to different people, I might be jealous.” Geno pulled back and looked at me kind of awkwardly, I just rolled my eyes. Sid had been working on his jealousy issues while we were waiting for this to end. When Geno let me go he turned and pulled Sid into a similar hug.

Now normally Sid wasn’t a hug guy, but this was one hug he had been waiting for. Both of them slapped each other on the back and were grinning. Finally they pulled back and Sid spoke up. “You want something to drink or eat? I know how most airplane food is.”

“Yes food bad. Need to stay awake too. When everyone getting here?” We moved into the great room where Geno took one look and nodded as if pleased. He then sat on our large sectional and bounced. “This is comfy, yes?” Both Sid and I nodded and laughed, more than once in the last year we had fallen asleep on that couch since we got it. “Show me more?”

“Sure, come into the kitchen and we’ll get you something to snack on while Sid gives you the tour.” I moved into the kitchen and grabbed some fruit from the fridge. While I wedged the apple and then some cheese, Geno came in and whistled. “I know, I loved it when I saw it. It flows really well. Oh Sid, did you grab the wine to chill? If not it should be done soon.”

Sid’s eyes lit up as he remembered. “Hey you wanna see our wine nook? Maybe help me pick out what we’ll have tonight?” I knew he wasn’t speaking to me, but rather Geno who shrugged and took a couple more pieces of apple and cheese. I chuckled as they went downstairs to find the best bottles we had.

At 5 the doorbell rang just as I sent Sid and Geno outside to start the food. By now I had changed into the dress I wanted to wear tonight so I grabbed the door. Opening it I found my folks, aunt and grandfather all with big smiles. “Привет! Пожалуйста, входите. (Hi! Please come.)” I moved out of the way so they could come in. They all easily came into the house and hugged me after they had. “Сид и наш специальный гость находятся на палубе комплектования гриль. (Sid and our special guest are manning the grill on the deck.)” We moved through the great room to the kitchen before my aunt asked.

“Специальный гость? Кто это? (Special guest? Who is this?)” I smiled without saying a word. “О, они являются неожиданностью, да? (Oh, they are a surprise, huh?)” I nodded happily. No one knew that Geno had joined us in this celebration.

“For everyone, let’s migrate to English. Not that I don’t _love_ having people understand me but Sid isn’t fluent just yet. I _am_ working on him, he’s just really bad.” My folks laughed, they knew how bad his pronunciation was. “What would like to drink? Wine is chilling for dinner but we have more than just that.” I took drink orders and made sure they were set before opening the door and telling Sid they were here. “Hey babe, my family is here. Can you step away for a second?”

He stepped in and grinned. “Oh look my in-laws.” He went over and hugged my mom tightly. “We missed you a lot.” He then hugged my dad which was new. “I don’t know how many times I had to stop her from just calling you guys.” He was about to hug my aunt when he stopped. “I’m sorry, I don’t know you.”

Everyone kind of froze and while I knew my aunt would be moving with my grandfather, I had never told Sid her name. “Oh, I’m sorry babe. This is my Aunt Tatyana, my dad’s youngest sister. Aunt Tanya, this is my husband Sidney.” I felt like a heel but you couldn’t tell that from the grin that split Sid’s face.

“How great! It’s wonderful to meet you.” She embraced him in a huge hug. “My father told me much about how you love Alekskaya and support her. Добро пожаловать в семью, моего племянника. (Welcome to the family, my nephew.)”

The bell rang again and I moved to the door again. Outside was our second family. “Hey! Come on in!” They came in and clearly were looking around. I kept my back to the dining room so I could keep my promise, just as I had when my family came in. Again I was engulfed in hugs from people both Sid and I cared about. I motioned them into the great room but before I could close the door, I heard a voice.

“Auntie, don’t close us out!” I turned and couldn’t help but let out a laugh. Anna had her hand on the door and was trying to hold it open. I scooped her up and held her tightly to me. I must have squeezed a bit too tightly as she tapped out on my shoulder.

Setting her down I glanced over at Sid who just nodded. Taking a deep breath I turned to my favorite, and only, niece. “There’s a surprised for you and your mama on the back deck. Why don’t you go see if you can find it.” Being that surprises were her favorite thing ever, Anna quickly tugged Mari out the door Sid held. I grabbed his hand in anticipation of what was about to happen. “PAPA!” Anna screamed as Sid laid a kiss on my temple and went to rescue dinner.

I happily smiled as everyone looked at me oddly. “What? You didn’t think I’d make sure Geno knew that we’d gotten an agreement? It was his idea to come home so soon and surprised everyone. Including us when he showed up early.” I laughed as Anna came running back in and threw herself at me to give me a hug. I laid a kiss on her head and snuggled her close again. “You’re welcome Annushka. Your papa waited so long to come home.” After she wriggled free, I spoke again to everyone left in the house. “Sid is out grilling half of the meal. I’ve got some light snacks in the kitchen as well as drinks. This is a party, please help yourselves.”

Everyone dispersed either to try and help me or to the deck to talk with Sid and Geno. I didn’t care, my family was whole again. I put my summery apron on and began the last items I needed to do before dinner would be done. Of course everyone asked if they could help in some way, but I had planned for this. I divvied out the things I needed done and they were all happily surprised that I had so much of the prep work done already. “It’s been a long day, I had to do something to keep myself from going crazy.” Of course they all laughed at that, this might be _my_ first serious dinner party but the other ladies were pros.

My mom shook her head at me. “Poutine, really?” I shrugged as she began cutting up the potatoes so they could bake and get crispy.

“I blame Sid. I planned a healthy menu and he asked for that.” I replied as the bacon I was rendering began to do just that. I put in the onions and garlic to get them going while we all continued to talk. It was mostly gossip and nothing of consequence but it felt so nice to be able to them all again. Once the water and green beans were in I switched to just keeping an eye on it for a few minutes before I started the next side.

Nathalie had taken both salads as there wasn’t much to do for them. “Oh Alexa run home and grab the cheesecake and whipped cream from the refrigerator. I can not believe we forgot t’em.” It was then that I remembered the one piece I had forgotten, dessert. “Aleks please do not be upset. I had to do somet’ing.”

I laughed. “Are you kidding, until you said something I had forgotten all about dessert.” Everyone else laughed as well. It turned out my mom made chocolate mousse. We had a good hard laugh over that too.

By the time the boys were done grilling everything we had everything inside ready. Sid wouldn’t let me into the dining room just yet so he took the food in and set everything on the table. When that was done, he covered my eyes and brought me into the room. When we stopped and he uncovered my eyes I couldn’t help but gasp loudly. As I looked it was clear that no one expected my reaction. Sid chuckled. “I made her promise not to look after I got the table prepped.”

My grandmother’s table had the aqua table cloth on it. That, in turn, had the butterfly table runner. On the runner were several small hurricane glass with yellow and dark pink roses in them. There was also floating tea light candles in smaller holders to give some ambiance. Above all of that were brightly colored balloons in Aqua, Dark Pink and Yellow. I glanced over to the buffet we had found and saw it was also covered in the food and chosen colors for this party.

With tears in my eyes I turned to Sid and smiled. “It’s perfect.” He kissed me and helped me sit down. “How did you come up with the colors? It’s so festive.” Everyone was now paying attention to what Sid might say.

He flushed, he hated being in the spotlight sometimes. “Well, I started by looking in your flower book and finding that yellow roses give feelings of joy, warmth and welcome; and symbolize of friendship and caring. That felt perfect and then I read the pink rose meanings and found that they are used to convey admiration, joy and gratitude. Reading deeper the Deep Pink rose sounded the best because of the deep gratitude and appreciation they convey. We had the table cloth so I looked that up and found that it can represent balance, healing and be uplifting. All of that combined felt just like how I know we all feel.” I was floored, he knew that I used color sometimes to make myself feel better and did the same for this party.

Mario chuckled. “This is perfect. The thought put into it by both of you makes this feel as festive as anything we could have wished for. Why the balloons though?” We were beginning to fill our plates and glasses when he asked.

Sid made everyone laugh with his reply. “Because it’s not a fun party without balloons.”

After we all had eaten, mom asked the fateful question. “So, are we going to see the rest of this huge place?” Everyone else agreed. “I mean we’ve seen a few rooms on this floor but just by the size I know there’s more.”

Both Sid and I laughed. “Of course there’s more to the house mom. What would you like to see first?” It was decided that the ladies would get a more detailed tour than the guys cause well, they wanted to see more. I took the ladies into our bedroom. We had tidied up after our fun this afternoon so it was fit for company still. All of them oohed over how large a space it was and my sitting/reading area.

As I brought them into the master bath, Mari spoke up. “God 'Leks that tub is huge! What do you do in it?” That all of us laughed at. While we had gotten the tub for the nights where I wanted a bath or either of us needed another soak in the hot tub, it was big enough to do more than just that in. Mari realized this and blushed. “Oh god, I just realized how that sounded.”

“Don’t worry about it Mar, I love our 2 person bathtub. It’s been great for the times where we needed it after ice time, but I won’t say that there hasn’t been _some_ fun started in it. The shower is really nice too. Both of us fit in it.” Another laugh escaped everyone. We moved through the first floor and I showed off the laundry room. It had enough room to wash and fold clothes as well as storage.

I heard the guys downstairs so I took the girls upstairs. We came to the play room first, which was not surprising as it was at the top of the stairs. We hadn’t done a lot with it yet so we moved through it to the bedrooms. “When we toured the house on my day with the cup, both Sid and I kind of had visions of both this room and the larger of the three up here. This is where I saw our daughter growing up.” I opened the room up and went in. Right now we had simple furniture in it as until we had kids it would be one of our guest rooms. I had put a chaise in the off shoot where I originally saw a futon.

“Oh sweetheart this is lovely!” Mom moved through the room looking around and smiling. “This would be a good place for a girl to grow up. Easy to configure it for sleep overs. Show us more.” You think talk of her having grandchildren excited her?

I moved through the connecting bathroom into what we were thinking would be the original nursery. “We don’t know exactly what we’ll do with this room just yet. It might just end up being a room for the kids to have friends in when they are older, who knows.” I moved into the last room up here and had to laugh. Sid had already kind of decorated a little. “Well if you couldn’t tell by the little bit of decor, this is going to be our son’s room. When he’s old enough that is. It doesn’t have a tub but it does have a shower in the bathroom. Let’s go see what the guys are doing downstairs, although I have an idea.”

We went down there and of course I could hear them all on the rink laughing and having fun. “Come on, we’ll meet up with them soon enough.” I brought the ladies into what would be Taylor’s room when she visited. “This is Tay’s room for when she visits. It’s underneath our room but we had soundproofing put in the ceiling. She also has a sitting area under mine and even helped decorate the room. We haven’t done a lot in the next room yet, but we will once we get a chance to talk to Kades. It’s going to be our home gym, the second door on the left is the built in sauna I thought of. The hot tub in out on the deck for this level.” I went into the shared bath and showed it off. “This is the only bathroom down here so we made it a bit bigger so it could handle all of the traffic.”

That brought us to the room Sid’s folks would have when here. “Seeing that so many of our parents and surrogate parents already live here, we set a room up for when Sid’s folks come to visit. It doesn’t have a closet but with the armoire it doesn’t really need one. Next to it is what we’re calling our wine nook. The room next door is empty right now cause we’re trying to decide what to do with it.” It was clear that most of the basement wasn’t yet finished with furniture. “If you couldn’t tell this is still a work in progress. Although we did get the wet bar done finally. We’re trying to decide if we want a pool table or not.” I turned into our mini locker room and grinned. “This is our mini locker room. All of the cabinets are custom made for the room. We’ve got both heat and large fans to keep things clean and smell free.”

I could see Alexa and Anna both straining to see what was behind me as I had my back to the rink. I smiled and continued. “Before you ask _why_ we needed a mini locker room, welcome to our 1/4 size synthetic rink.” I stepped away and heard the gasp by everyone I had led through the house. I could see the questions beginning to form so I cut them off. “It’s a Kwik Rink. We have monthly maintenance we have to do to it but other than that it’s always ready to go. We’ve been skating on it sometimes, it’s helped a lot. It’s more difficult at first but once you get the hang of it, it’s great. Anna would you like to go out on it?”

“Will I fall on my butt?” She asked breathlessly. I could see the want on her face.

“Maybe, but there’s no ice butt here. It’s not cold until we turn the temp down in here. Go on, I bet you get the hang of it before your papa does.” That was all she needed, she and Alexa were out there quickly.

Having skated both here and Southpointe, not to mention being in a dress that flutters easily, I sat on the bench we had next to Mario. “I still can not believe he did this. The house still needs some work, but you two have done much more than he would have alone. It is also much more personalized than if a decorator would have done it all.”

I had to laugh. “Mario, we _did_ use a decorator, one that Nathalie recommended in fact. We’re waiting on the rest of it to get here is all. Stella worked wonderfully with us to find a balance of what we wanted for now and what we would need for the future. She had a client that would not wait any further so we didn’t get to finish the basement right now. I have some ideas that will help us fix that but it will take time to find the right pieces. After that we decide what kind of art we want on the walls and work on finishing off the little things. We’ve only really been living on the main floor but we both know once everything starts up again that will change.” My mom grinned at me as she glided past with my dad.

Sid came over and kissed my temple. “Trust her Mario, she’s got serious plans for this place. She always makes sure I’m on board with her ideas or we work on something that we both like. Like down here is going to have a lot of pictures of our careers and such, where upstairs has lakes and water theme. I really love both ideas, as does Stella.”

Nathalie sat down on the other side of Mario. “It is a lovely home, for now and for your future. Although ‘ow will you keep t’e kids off of t’is?” She waved a hand at the rink. We were honest and told her that we hadn’t though of that just yet, which made them laugh. “I guess t’at you have a place t’at is fun for everyone is t’e best.”

Sid had his arm around my waist and smiled freely. “It may be a really small rink compared to what we’re used to, but it’s still perfect. The whole house is perfect.” That seemed to sum up how everyone felt.

It took some doing to get everyone off the rink and back upstairs for dessert but we managed. Everyone was thrilled with the idea of two desserts, even if they were really rich.

We hated to break the party up, but in the end we had to due to kids having school still. Before Mari, Geno and Anna left, she cornered me in the kitchen. “So _you_ gave him the idea of surprising everyone huh?” I wanted to argue with her but it’s hard to do that when someone you’ve missed gives you the biggest hug. “Thank you sis. Having him home is the single best thing anyone has ever done for me” She then took her completed family home and left Sid and I leaned against each other in our doorway.

Sid sighed as we crawled into bed later. “This was the best night.” Which it was.