© 2023 Duleigh Lawrence-Townshend. All rights reserved. The author asserts the right to be identified as the author of this story for all portions. All characters are original, any resemblance to anyone living or dead is purely coincidental. This story or any part thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the expressed written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a review or commentary.

For readers of Stormwatch and We're A Wonderful Wife, this story is the genesis. On the Stormwatch timeline this is one year before Stormwatch - A Blizzard in Buffalo and it falls during the same time as We're a Wonderful Wife Ch. 10 and twenty years after The Pilot's Conjugal Christmas.

Doctor Adrianna (Andi) Roberts and her twin girls ended up in the ditch during a Western New York Lake Effect Blizzard. She was rescued by a man she once met in the past, Doctor Paul Jarecki. He took Andi, Sandy and Madeline to his cabin and as they waited out the storm they opened their souls to each other and love bloomed. Now having proved to Andi's best friend that he can protect Andi and having driven her ex-husband away, it's time to get married.

_______________________________

Andi's Dream

Peace On Earth

The conference that initially lured Andi to Western New York ended on time considering its rocky start delayed by a blizzard, and with that complete there was so much to do! There was Christmas shopping, presents to be wrapped, pre-marriage classes with Macy and John, and dance practice. With the furniture moved aside, the library in Paul's house was a fine ballroom, which both Paul and Andi began to suspect was its original purpose. Their neighbor Veronica van Köster came by with her dance coach Mitch and gave Andi and her fiancé Paul some pointers. As a couple they looked a bit odd on the dance floor, Andi is curvaceous and sweetly cute with long dark blond hair and large breasts but she's under five feet tall. Paul is over a decade older than her, slim and very tall, with a hook nose and thinning hair. They look mismatched, until you see them together and you realize that they were truly placed on this earth for each other.

Dancing at the Crikit House, a local tavern, was much more fun and became almost a nightly event and Andi was becoming good at several types of country dancing. On several occasions their neighbor Veronica von Köster joined them with her coach Mitch and put on a show of country style ball room dancing that had the rest of the people in the bar applauding.

"What's Worzil's?" said Andi as she returned from an expedition to find her twin girls new clothes.

"It's a pub just up the road on the corner," said Paul as he studied a document.

"Veronica said it's a good place to eat."

Paul glanced at the clock and was shocked to see how late it had gotten and he didn't have anything to start for dinner. "Would you like to go there for dinner?"

"Go! Go! Go! Go!" chanted Andi's twin girls Sandy and Madoline. The twins are tiny for their age (5) and have bright blond hair. They look identical, but their attitudes can be light years apart. Finally Madeline said, "What's a pub?"

"It's a place where they serve beer," said Andi, "and food."

"Grab your coats."

The soon-to-be family of four trooped up Howard Ave through the old neighborhood, boots crunching through the snow, their breath white in the cold air, the twins trying to catch the errant snowflake on their tongues. Most of the houses they passed were Victorian, one was fifties retro modern and one was eight sided with a porch that went around the entire house. Finally they reached Worzils. Paul held the door open for his girls and from behind the bar a woman cried, "PAULIE!" The co-owner, Julissa Tanaka came out to greet the family. "How long were you going to hide them from me?" she asked. Short and matronly with thick brunette hair Julissa rushed up and hugged Paul. Being a retired USAF Sergeant, she looked like that mom that you never wanted to cross even though she never had children. Julissa is almost 100% of German descent, the Japanese name came from her husband.

"Do I have to drink a beer?" asked Sandy. "I'd rather have pop."

As the middle aged brunette shook hands with Andi she turned to the twins and said, "You'll drink what your momma gets you."

Andi breathed a sigh of relief; the twins are masters at twisting people around their little fingers and Julissa just shut Sandy down. "Thank you for that."

Sandy was plotting to get an orange soda and whispered something to Madeline about it and Madeline whispered that she preferred root beer. The bartender and Julissa's husband Ayato Tanaka leaned over the bar and said, "Sorry, we can't sell you a pop under the age of ten without your mother's permission." Ayato is 100% Japanese and he was an officer in the USAF. He and Julissa retired together, put on civilian clothes and got married. Although Ayato has poor eyesight and wears thick glasses, he has incredible hearing; it's rumored that if you drop a quarter he can tell what the image on the back of the quarter is from the sound it makes when it hits the floor.

"I wasn't talking to you," pouted Sandy and she followed her family into the dining room with her head held high.

"I guess she told me," muttered Ayato with a grin.

Paul led them to a table in the back where they were joined by Paul's younger brother John, the pastor at the local church who was going to perform their wedding, and his wife Macy. John is a younger, shorter version of Paul, but Macy was completely different. She's tall and slim and very black. She has a beautiful figure, a delightful smile, long straight raven black hair and being from Quebec, she has a delightful French accent.

"Can I see a menu?" asked Andi which brought chuckles from around the table.

"Menu, she said," said John with a laugh.

"Débutante!" said Macy with a giggle.

"What? What did I say?" asked Andi.

"Nothing," said Paul. "The menu is simple, Beef on Weck, Pepperoni Pizza, Wings, Fries, and beer. On Fridays its fish fry only. I already ordered."

"What? What did you order," but shortly Julissa came out and gave the adults a large roast beef sandwich on a salt covered hard roll with fries, the girls got a mound of very mild chicken wings and fries along with a root beer and an orange pop.

"This is incredible!" gasped Andi after she tried the Beef on Weck. The Kimmelweck is a simple hard roll that is covered with kosher salt and caraway seeds and toasted a little bit so the crust is crunchy but the inside is still soft. The roast beef is tender and moist and dipped in au ju and the sandwich is completed with horseradish so hot you could light a cigar on it.

"This is the real food of Buffalo," said John as he added horseradish to his beef on weck. "The wings are for the tourists."

"And this makes it perfect," said Paul as Julissa placed a draft Genessee Cream Ale in front of Paul and Andi. It's the only beer that Andi likes and she put a big dent in Paul's stash at his cabin. They discussed the upcoming ceremony, and the "homework" that Macy assigned in their marriage class and after dinner they walked home in the gentle snow while looking at the Christmas lights of the village.

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The highlight of this time was the Christmas shopping. At first Andi's list was short, trying to stay in budget, when Paul asked her what she was doing. "Planning my Christmas budget and shopping list."

"Oh, here." He handed her a credit card that was pure black and made out of metal. "Don't forget a gown for New Years Eve, we'll be at a nice place, John and I will be in tux. Also - swimwear for you and the girls and see if Macy needs any."

"Swimwear?" she asked as the sound of the neighbors son shoveling snow off their driveway filled the house. Andi pictured a hotel with a pool, that's what the folks do in North Dakota in the winter, go to a hotel with a pool. "What's the limit on this?" Andi asked as she inspected the black card.

"It's not anything you can hit," said Paul as he gave her a kiss then headed upstairs to his home office.

She sat at the table and stared at the card for a long time. Occasionally she considered calling out to Paul but in the end she sighed and stared at the card again. Slowly she bundled up the girls as she pondered what Paul had said, then she grinned, and picked up her phone. "Macy? I'll be by in 10 minutes, we're going shopping!"

And the wedding details were keeping them busy; Andi was constantly on the phone with Mary Kraft the church treasurer and church matron about using the church, she was constantly reassuring her maid of honor Lucy that what she picked out for Lucy to wear will be beautiful but not girly, there was the tuxes for Paul, Gus, and John, the dresses for the twins, and most importantly how to keep them in line during the ceremony. Macy and Lucy both volunteered to do that most important task by babysitting the twins in the church's nursery, but Andi would have nothing of it, Macy and Lucy and the twins were all in the ceremony and she wasn't going to allow any of them to escape. Then Paul came up with an idea which everyone laughed at, then thought about, then tried, and it worked, so it was left in the ceremony. Music was left up to the church pianist, Melissa Kraft, and the church worship leader Peter Runyon. It shouldn't be much because they were getting married immediately after the church's Christmas Eve service, so they want to keep the ceremony short.

Paul caught Andi in a thoughtful mood in the breakfast nook one morning, she had her reading glasses on and was holding a clipboard and pondering very thoughtfully. Paul topped off her coffee and asked, "What are you working on now?" as he sat down with her.

"Christening our house," she said like it was general news, "I think I have a preliminary plan." Paul understood that Andi, like many wives, want to make love in the house to christen it. "To christen a house this beautiful, we're going to have to christen every room. Should we start in the attic and work our way down, or should we start in the basement and work our way up?"

"Are you counting closets?"

"Only ones that we can stretch out in, why?"

"You're putting a lot of work into this; most couples just do it in like the kitchen and the living room."

Andi looked over the top of her reading glasses at Paul. "I've waited my entire life for a house this beautiful and a man with a big dick to love. We are going to do it right." She got up, scooped up her clip board and her impossibly big coffee cup and headed off to do whatever she had planned next and she elbowed him on the way past. "Rest up, you have a lot of christening ahead of you."

Paul sipped his coffee and wondered how he got so blessed.

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Years ago Paul bought an old farm outside of Springville and built a cabin on the property. The original barn is still there and inside the barn is Paul's flock of chickens. Right now each hen is in a small cage in their heated coop, waiting for spring to return. Every day the twins went to visit their chickens and were getting much better at collecting their eggs, even the eggs that the chickens pooped on. Before they realized it, their little hands were able to get the eggs all the way from the roost to the basket, as long as the hen wasn't in a pecking mood.

And many of the hens now had names, usually names like Sally, Red, Pecky, and Chook Chook. Unfortunately for the hens, the twins often forgot which chicken belonged to which name. Also, taking the eggs to the Hirsh's and the Clemmons was not as much fun as the first time they did it in the Snowcoach being towed by Pappa's snowmobile. Now that the road was open, they could be driven in momma's car or pappa's truck which wasn't any fun. They couldn't wait for the next storm; it was so much fun living in the cabin!

Then one day they went with Aunt Lucy and Aunt Macy to make sure that the cabin was ready. They stocked the refrigerator with bottles of wine, cheese, and fruit, topped off the Christmas tree's water, stuffed the wood stove full of wood, then they did something that the twins always thought was amazing. The couch back folded down and the couch became a big bed. They knew it did that, they just never seen it happen. The twins wanted to play on it, but Aunt Lucy kept scooting them off while Aunt Macy put sheets, soft fluffy blankets, and pillows on the couch.

<Who is Gus?> Sandy whispered to Madeline in their private language TwinBabble®.

<He's poppa's friend, him and poppa and Aunt Lucy went to the suit store yesterday> answered Madeline.

<Aunt Lucy sure asks a lot of questions about him>

"What are you two carrying on about over here?" Aunt Macy was looking down on them with her huge smile.

"Nothing."

"Things."

"Yeah, things."

"They won't crack," said Aunty Lucy, "when they're talking their TwinBabble® they never reveal what the conversation is about."

<I'm cold>

<Let's go to the hotroom> and off they went.

It was cold in the cabin, while the modern cabin had electric heat, when no one is there it is usually only warm enough to keep the pipes from freezing, the main cabin was 100% wood heat, and the stove was not lit. When Macy and Lucy finished up with their decorating and bed making. Macy grabbed a couple pieces of newsprint, crumpled it loosely and stuffed it in the wood stove under the logs, closed the door and opened up the oxygen feed and the chimney damper. "One match and this place will be toasty warm in a matter of minutes," she announced.

"Should we put these under the tree?" asked Lucy as she stacked gifts on the table in front of the windows.

"They will be fine there on the table," said Macy, "they'll be missed, ignored, or forgotten under the tree." She picked up one gift, slightly taller than a soda can. It was wrapped in military camouflage colored paper and a tag read "Survival Supplies" Macy held it up next to her striking face like she was modeling for a magazine campaign. "Lubricant?" she asked Lucy.

"And a roll of cherry Lifesavers."

"Is that joke ever going to grow old?"

"Not in my lifetime... where's the twins?" asked Lucy as she suddenly noticed that the twins had been out of sight for a few minutes.

They searched the cabin for a few minutes with growing desperation, there's not much room to hide in 350 square feet. They searched the loft under each cot and in each locker, listening desperately for the telltale sound of a giggling five-year-old. It was a warmish, slushy day so they went outside to see if the girls were playing in the puddles, then they searched the barn, then they got desperate.

As they searched the laundry room again Lucy pulled out her cell phone and prepared to call Andi, but Macy said, "Wait a minute... the washing machine is full of clothes." She opened the front loader and pulled out a jacket, a shirt, play pants, boots, everything the twins were wearing earlier in the day. Both women looked over at the sauna, they never checked the sauna.

Opening the door they found both girls in the sauna, naked, chittering to each other in their private language. Madeline was pushing the steam button over and over not realizing that the steam button only delivers steam when the system is turned on from a control panel outside the sauna. "Come out here and get dressed you guys, you'll freeze to death."

"We were cold..." whined Sandy.

"...so we went to the hot room to get warm..." said Madeline sadly as she pulled up her tiny panties.

"...and the button didn't work..." said Sandy struggling to get her pullover sweatshirt on.

"...don't tell poppa we broke it, please?" said Madeline as she pulled up her play pants.

The women marveled at the manner in which the twins completed each other's thoughts. "You didn't break it," Macy reassured them, "there's a control panel that you can't reach that has to be turned on. There's a security code used to prevent little fingers from cooking themselves."

"There is?" asked Lucy.

"John and I come by on occasion to uh... unwind," grinned Macy. "Come on twins! Big day today, let's take eggs to Grandma and Grandpa Hirsh and Clemmons!

Energized the twins struggled on their coats and ran for the door, the trauma of the "broken" sauna forgotten.

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Harold and Heather Driscoll landed at Buffalo International Airport and Heather called Andi as soon as they were off the plane, "Andi, it's mom."

Andi was nervous enough; she was getting her hair done by Carol Snow in the master bedroom. "Hi mom, how was your flight?"

"About as good as you could expect on an economy flight. Are you on your way to pick us up?"

"I'm getting my hair done mother, I told you, Larry is going to pick you up and bring you here."

"You can't put things aside a moment to come meet your mother at the airport?

"Mother please, I'm getting married in a few hours, I still haven't given the twins their bath." Andi was going to lose her temper and scream. Why did her mother have to be this way?

"I wouldn't want to be in your way, I'll just have this Larry fellow take us to a motel, I'm sure you have motels in Springbrook," her mother sniffed. "Let's just hope he's not a mad rapist."

"Springville. Mother please, I need your..."

"No, that's fine," Heather interrupted her daughter, "I wouldn't want to be a burden." And she hung up.

Andi stared at her phone for almost a full minute. It's not like she couldn't believe her mother acted that way, unfortunately Andi was quite familiar with this kind of emotional abuse. Her mother probably drank her entire time on the flight. She sighed. "Hey Carol, Larry isn't a mad rapist, is he?"

Carol made a show of thinking about her husband. "No, he's got a bad ticker. His doc told him to stay away from the three R's - Rape, Ravishment, and Razing villages."

"I suppose that rules out being a pirate, does he want to be a pirate?"

"Doesn't everyone?" Carol shrugged and Andi could see her shrug in the mirror, it made her laugh for a moment, but it doesn't take away the sting of her mother writing herself out of the wedding. Luckily, she had a backup plan.

"Wonka, you're up." Wonka didn't raise his head, but his tail sagged and thumped against the floor loudly.

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"Ok, does everyone have everything?" called Paul. Garment cases where checked, purses and wallets checked, "Good to go," said Andi, "Lucy will meet us there."

The family started out the back door when the twins shouted "STOP!" in unison.

"What's the matter girls?" asked Andi worried that it could be something serious.

"Santa! We forgot a letter to Santa!" The twins were nearly in tears, which would ruin their pretty dresses.

Andi sounded a bit perturbed. "Oh, for crying out loud..."

Paul raised a hand in a 'I got this' manner. "Ok girls let's do this quick," and he led them into the library. In the corner of the room was a small desk. Paul sat and drew out a piece of paper and said "Ok, let's start this with 'Dear Santa, we've been incredibly good this year' is that good?

The girls nodded enthusiastically.

"Ok, just tell me the things you want the very most. Just not a horse or a pony or any other pet, Wonka will get jealous." The girls called out several items that were based on Disney's most recent releases, many of which lay wrapped in the basement. Paul jotted everything down and said "Ok, sign here," he gave the girls a pencil and they actually did a good job writing their own names. "And we just need an envelope..." he started looking around for an envelope, "and we send it to Santa the fast way." He looked around then said, "Hang on, I have an envelope in my office," and he ran upstairs as quickly as possible. In his office he grabbed a legal envelope and put a piece of paper in it while putting their letter in his pocket.

Returning downstairs he walked over to the fireplace in the library with a Twin escort. "What happens here is that the letter burns, the smoke goes up the chimney to the North Pole where Santa pushes it back together into a letter."

"Wow" was all they could say, and soon their letter, envelope, and all lay burning in the fireplace and on its way to Santa.

Andi got the satisfied girls moving toward the exit and whispered to Paul "That was some quick-thinking soldier."

"Wait until tomorrow morning when the real magic happens."

"There better be some magic before tomorrow morning," she purred into his ear.

"Trust my magic wand."

"I love it when you talk dirty to me."

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"Nana just type andi&paul in the search bar... really, the stream is there, I'm watching it here." Andi was trying to get her wedding gown on while she tried to ensure that her grandmother could watch the wedding as it streamed on the internet. "It's not andi and paul, use an ampersand, it's the 'and' symbol... the shifted seven key... no spaces... ok, now click the little sideways triangle... yes... you should see a church full of people singing... you got it? there you go. Ok, Nana, I love you, I'll wave to you, bye bye." Andi turned off her cell phone and handed it to Lucy who shoved it in Andi's purse, then went back to making sure that Andi's white cape fit perfectly without a wrinkle.

"Ok ladies, show time," said Carol Snow. Her husband Larry was head of audio and video and she quite often assisted him with weddings and ceremonies.

"My mouth is so dry," gasped Andi.

"Here, this will help," said Lucy as she offered Andi a cherry Lifesaver. "Any second thoughts? regrets?"

Andi looked her best friend straight in the eye. "My only regret is that we didn't do this the minute they cleared the snow off of the roads weeks ago." She met Paul when he rescued her after going in the ditch during a blizzard. They emerged from Paul's cabin madly in love and engaged. She popped the Lifesaver in her mouth, and it did help with the dryness. A little.

Lucy gave her a half smile. "I thought you were going to regret the vow of chastity."

"That's a standing regret. Come on love bugs!"

"Bug bug."

"Bug bug."

They gathered in the darkened foyer; through the windows they could see the flickering of the candles as the packed sanctuary sang Silent Night in acapella ending their short Christmas Eve ceremony. Ernie Kraft was there to man the door. "Are you guys ready?" he asked.

He only received nervous nods. He put a big hand on Andi and Lucy's shoulders. "Andi, I've known Paul over 10 years and have never seen him happier, and that's all because of you." Andi suddenly felt shy in the presence of this big Teddy Bear of a man. "And Lucy," he turned his head to the slim Doctor. "Gus does nothing but talk about you. Did you cast a spell on him or something? Now go out there and have fun you guys."

Turning her back to Ernie, Lucy broke into a huge, astonished grin and Andi hugged her as they quietly squee'd their joy at Ernie's words about Gus. Recovering quickly, they prepared the twins for their entry into the church. Just as the congregation came to the final "Christ the savior is born," Pastor John asked the congregation to hold their candles for just a few moments longer. He nodded to the pianist Melissa Kraft and she began to play Bach's beautiful Christmas Oratorio, she was soon joined by her son Jacob on cello, and her youngest son Damon on violin. All three were talented enough to play for any orchestra, and Damon was recently accepted by the Philadelphia Pops.

Spotlights lit up John and Macy standing on the podium, the lectern was moved out of the way. John had changed from the casual attire he wore into a black tuxedo with white shirt, green satin bow tie and his tuxedo jacket had green satin lapels. Macy wore a beautiful green off the shoulder floor length dress that had white lace trim up top that plunged between her breasts in sort of an inversed bustier. The same lace became half sleeves that accentuated her beautiful black skin, and the green of her dress perfectly matched the green of John's bow tie and lapels.

Momentarily Paul stepped up next to his brother wearing the same tuxedo but with red bow tie and lapels, followed by Gus who wore a black tuxedo with green tie and lapels, the same as John.

John motioned to the back and Carol and Ernie opened the doors. Andi crouched down and whispered to her girls "Ok babies, just like we did before." She kissed each daughter on a cheek and with all the discipline a 5-year-old can summon Sandra and Madeline Roberts stepped forward and walked slowly down the center aisle, each clutching the special harness that their leader, Wonka, wore. The entire congregation both laughed at a dog leading the girls down the aisle, but also there was a collective awww as the beautiful tiny girls walked in time with the music. Their hair was done in Shirley Temple curls and they wore red floor length dresses that matched the red bow around Wonka's neck.

Following behind was Lucy wearing a floor length straight black skirt, white blouse with green satin tab at her neck, and a black tuxedo jacket with green lapels. Lucy's hair was normally worn in a tight bun but this evening her hair was released, long and flowing. It spilled over her shoulders in waves of "mouse brown." Her plain face was brilliant in the huge smile she tried to stifle but grew less and less successful as she grew near the podium where Gus stood, his eyes fixed on her. She stepped to the left of the girls and attached a long red leash to Wonka, handed the other end to a young man waiting in the front pew. The moment she hit her spot Melissa, Damon, and Jacob began to play the bridal march.

The congregation stood and watched the small woman stride forward clutching a bouquet made of red roses, white lace, and sprigs of holly and pine accented with small red ornaments and red ribbons. Her smile was blissful, and her head held high as she slowly walked the length of the aisle alone. Her brown eyes flashed between the twins and Paul, who both waited breathlessly for her arrival. The spotlights reflected off the hundreds of rhinestones on her white floor length cape, the reflections dancing across the ceiling of the church in a myriad of patterns.

Finally, she stopped and stood confidently alone in the aisle. The music stopped and the lights came up a bit and the congregation blew out their candles as they sat. Pastor John started the ceremony.

"Brothers and sisters, as we gather together to celebrate the birth of Jesus, we celebrate the wedding of our own Paul Jarecki and Adrianna Roberts. Who gives this woman in marriage?"

There was dead silence for a long time, it was so long Andi's mother Heather almost stood to say something, but that embarrassing moment ended when Andi's voice was heard clearly throughout the church. "No one. I give myself to this man who risked his life to save myself and my children. I give myself to his love and his protection without qualm or reservation." With that Andi drew off her white floor length cape to reveal her chosen wedding gown, a mirror image of Macy's dress but in the same shade of red as the twin's dresses. She handed the cape to Lucy who folded it, laid it on the pew and stepped up on the podium.

Wonka was led off to the side and Andi took the girls hands and walked confidently up the steps to stand next to Paul. They turned to face each other and from that moment Andi lost track of the entire ceremony. She heard John talking, then she heard Macy talking, and it was all lost on her, she was drowning in Paul's eyes. Damn it, she cursed herself, every time she looks into his eyes she loses track of what is going on around her and all she wants to do is take off her panties and... well, she fooled them this time, just hope Paul doesn't hoist her skirt up too high when it comes time to do the garter... wait, the words are coming through... she heard John read Paul's vows.

"Paul Luke Jarecki, do you take Adrianna Louisa Roberts to be your wife, to bathe her in love and friendship today, tomorrow, and for as long as the two of you live, to love, protect and raise her children as your own, to trust and honor her, to love her faithfully through the best and the worst, whatever may come, forsaking all others, and if you should ever doubt, to remember your love for each other and the family here that is willing to help you?

"I so very much do," said Paul and he slipped the wedding band on her finger. Andi's mind was spinning - Paul slipped in "love, protect, and raise her children" without telling her and when she heard it, she almost melted. Tears of joy formed in her eyes and crept down her cheeks and she fought against the urge to throw herself at him and wrap her arms around him. Then Macy read Andi's vows.

"Do you, Adrianna Louisa Roberts, take Paul Luke Jarecki to be your husband, to submit to his judgement and to cherish his friendship and love today, tomorrow and for as long as the two of you live, to stand by his side and support him, to trust and honor him, to stand with him faithfully, through the best and the worst, whatever may come, forsaking all others, and if you should ever doubt, to remember your love for each other and the family here that is willing to help you?"

"Dear God, yes!" she cried as she slipped his ring on his finger. She remembered holding his ring and it felt huge, and his finger felt huge, and her mind slipped off to other things that were huge, and she moved as close to Paul as she could. The twins clutched at her dress and his pants legs.

"We'll take that as an I Do," said Macy to chuckles in the congregation, "Why don't you two go ahead and kiss."

They melted into each other's arms and kissed deeply, the kind of kiss that leads to much more, in fact he dipped her as they kissed, and in response she pushed her Lifesaver into his mouth. Standing they took a moment to recover their breath and kissed again until John politely cleared his throat. "Oh yeah," said Paul and he and Andi turned to the congregation.

"Friends," called out John, "meet Mister and Missus Jarecki. The congregation clapped until Melissa Kraft struck up 'Joy To The World' for a recessional. Paul scooped up the closest twin and held her tight while Andi hoisted Sandy to her hip and the brand-new family walked up the aisle to the old classic Christmas Carol. Madeline grabbed his groomed beard with her tiny fingers and held tight.

"Are you really my daddy now?"

"Really and truly and forever."

She rubbed her tiny smooth cheek against his bearded cheek "My daddy."

"My Maddie," he said. She just snuggled tighter. Normally she would become terribly upset if someone called her Maddie, but it was OK for her poppa to say it.

Behind them followed Gus and Lucy arm in arm, her smile just wouldn't fade, and neither would his. Then behind them followed John, Macy, and Wonka, and then the congregation filed out.

The Wedding Party was hustled into a side classroom where the photographer set up a small set for the photography. There was a winter mountain background and the foreground was a large white mound that looked like a snow drift, and a fake pine tree was added to meld the foreground in with the background. There was a wooden bench for seated shots. Since everything was digital Paul and Andi insisted that the photographer kept shooting and not wait for the perfect shot. There were the usual shots bride and groom posing, then all the bride side of the party, all the girls, all the boys, and the twins were everywhere especially with Wonka.

The best shot of the session was after the photographer shot the brothers and asked for the sisters. Andi and Macy posed the twins on the snowbank and started to back out of the frame when the photographer said "No, I want all the sisters - that includes you two." At that point, the realization hit them, they were sisters, this was a brand-new revelation, the fact that their husbands were brothers, and this would change Andi and Macy into sisters, which never occurred during all the wedding planning. They both squealed "I have a sister!" Andi was an only child and Macy grew up with two brothers. Suddenly they started calling out ideas "We can go shopping," "and get our hair done," "I know a great place for sushi," suddenly Andi's eyes shot wide open "LET'S GO SLEDDING!"

The picture was perfect, Andi's eyes were wide open as she sang out her idea to go sledding, her perfect pale white skin almost blending with the snowy background, her red and white Santa hat which matched her red and white dress, was cocked to one side, statuesque Macy in her green dress and green Santa hat laughing at Andi's excitement over sledding, meanwhile the twins laughed uproariously at their mom and Aunt's excitement, while Wonka wearing fake reindeer antlers sat off to the side looking bored.

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The reception was held in the fellowship hall with tables overflowing into the church foyer and choir practice room. A large area in the middle of the fellowship hall was left open for the couple to dance. The reception was dry, all that was served was punch, lemonade, coffee, and water. There was a huge abundance of cakes, cookies, bars, and Christmas sweets of every shape and size placed at separate tables. The wedding party was seated at the head table as usual, but the wedding party seated unusually. The twins sat between Andi and Paul, so the newlyweds had to lean over the twins to kiss. The best man and maid of honor sat together to Andi's right, the bridesmaid and groomsman who both were also the officiants, sat to Paul's left. Wonka curled up at Paul's feet.

Soon the guests started tapping the plastic tables with their hands calling for a speech. Larry Snow walked across the dance floor with the wireless mike and stood in front of the head table. As pastor John reached for the mike out of habit, Macy slapped his arm down and Larry smiled and handed the microphone to Gus, who took it reluctantly. He and Lucy had a bit of a discussion, the tradition at Springville Congregational was for the speaker to step out on to the dance floor at weddings so everyone could see him or her. In fact, a small table with champagne flutes filled with sparkling cider stood waiting for the speakers. Holding hands Gus and Lucy walked out to the middle of the floor.

"All of you know me," Gus started, "and you all know Paul, so let's drink a toast to their happiness..." Gus stopped because of the good-natured booing for his attempt to weasel out of a speech. He started again. "Years ago Paul moved to Springville, he bought that rundown old Victorian over on Howard street and he hired me to help him fix the place up. It took me a year to realize that Paul and our new pastor John were brothers, because they never talked at that time. Paul was in a very dark place, his wife had recently died, and when that happened, he left the military and moved here. I guessed it was to be close to John, but Paul would just say "I wanted this house."

"He also bought the old Sprague farm out on Trevette road, I helped him there too, we wired up a small yard barn with lights, and we recently added on to the cabin as its now called. As we grew closer as friends, Paul kept hiring me to do work on that big old house on Howard street. He eventually joined us here at Springville Congregational, and he reunited with John, but he was still sad and alone. Then a few weeks ago he told me he was going to go out to the cabin, I told him 'you're crazy! There's a storm headed our way,' and he just smiled, packed up some food and headed out there.

"Five days later he came back a new man, a happy man. He brought home this beautiful little family and he hasn't stopped smiling. I can see the love radiating from these two, this isn't just a whirlwind romance, this is a deep love. After talking to both of them, I know this romance was God's reward to these two. I think this is why Paul had me and my men so busy at that empty old house, he was planning to fill it. As Andi described it to me, he was feathering a nest for his little chicks.

Gus lifted a flute of cider. "So here's a toast to you, Paul and Andi, go fill that big old house with love and laughter, and all those little chicks."

"Hear hear!" responded the guests and they drank to Paul and Andi. Gus then handed the microphone to Lucy.

"Most of you don't know me, I'm Lucy Kocis, I'm a pulmonary emergency surgeon at ECMC, if you're ever in say, an accident and end up at ECMC, after the ED stabilizes you and determines what kind of surgery or treatment is necessary, they may send you to me. To be honest I'm overjoyed to meet you here, but I don't ever want to meet you there.

"I met Andi in med school and our careers kept us close together for many years. We both ended up at the University Hospital in Denver and were roommates for several years. Andi is a warm loving woman who can be so silly, especially with her girls. But you watch, when she puts on her doctor glasses and puts her stethoscope around her neck, she's a different Andi. She's a serious doctor who concentrates on nothing but your health until it's time to take off the doctor glasses.

"Andi married another fellow several years ago, and he was not a nice man and he left her pregnant with twins and buried in debt. I learned to hate that man, but to love Andi as she dug herself out of the hole he left her in and raised these little preemie angels.

"I eventually moved out here, and Andi found out that there was a medical conference at South Boston and used that as an excuse to visit me, so she flew out here and drove off the road in a snowstorm. You all know about Paul rescuing her, right? Only some of you? To make a long story short she goes off the road in a storm, the cops are all off the road due to the driving ban, and the town of Concord police called Paul to see if he could render aid to a woman and her two children stuck out in the middle of nowhere. At the height of the blizzard Paul hooks a hay wagon to his tractor, chains up the tires, and goes looking for Andi. That was Wednesday. Sunday morning they come out of the cabin engaged and madly in love.

"As for me, I didn't trust Paul, I was sure he took her to his cabin for some hanky panky, but Andi made darn sure that I knew that yes, there was a little hanky, but there was no panky at all. In fact, I know right now Andi is thinking "Shut Up, I want to get to the panky."

Lucy paused for the laughter and continued. "I kept an eye on Paul, wanting to hate him, I even spied on Paul and Andi at every chance to see if he was taking advantage of her." Lucy pointed two fingers to her eyes and then rotated her wrist to point at Paul. "That's right, I didn't trust you, I didn't want to trust you. I wanted to hate you like I hated that other guy because I did not want my dear friend to hurt again. And then," Lucy paused and gulped for breath, her free hand reached out for Gus' free hand. "And then Andi's ex came back, he was planning to extort money from Andi and Paul by attempting to gain custody of the twins."

The folks in the crowd that knew Paul and Andi the closest gasped. Andi leaned over and was whispering frantically to Paul who was reassuring her quietly. John just shrugged when Macy asked him about this plot. Paul never mentioned it to him. And the twins simply continued to devour the treats placed before them, their faces a glory of chocolaty goodness. Windfalls of goodies like this come rarely and cleanup will be a sweet sorrow.

"Men of this church," Lucy said over the hubbub, "Men of this church, Paul, and Gus, and Ernie, were able to convince this piece of slime to drop his plans and just go away. And afterwards Paul prayed for that man, he prayed for that man to turn his life around for the better. I thought, 'what kind of man prays for such slime?' A man like Paul does, and I want a man like that close to my friend Andi for now and for the rest of her life."

Lucy held Gus' hand tighter and raised her flute of cider with the other hand. "To Andi and Paul, may your love be encouragement to all those that are still waiting for the love of their lives."

Hear hear! Responded the guests.

Finally, it was Paul's turn. "I just want to thank you all for all the love you've shown Andi, a newcomer dropped in your midst without warning. Thank you for letting us hijack your candlelight ceremony, I hear from John that the actual wedding ceremony only took sixteen minutes. I also hear from Macy that the ceremony would have only taken eight minutes if we would have kissed more politely."

He paused for the laughter, "I truly love Andi, when I first saw her stuck in the snow, and she looked at me with real distrust, I was hurt. I wanted to rescue her, but she wanted to protect her babies from a man she didn't know and didn't trust. I completely understood that, so I prayed that her heart would open just a crack, and it did. And the rest is history. I want to stay by her side, protecting and guiding her for as long as the Lord lets me, and if in that time I can't be there for her I know that Springville Congregational Church will step forward to aide her.

"And I want to personally assure you that there was no hanky panky in that cabin during that storm. There was a little bit of hanky, but hey - we had Missile Toes!"

"Missile Toast!" corrected the twins at the top of their lungs, perfectly in unison as if on cue.

"I want to thank the women's ministry for setting up this wonderful party in record time, we love you all." He laid down the microphone, held out his hand to Andi and led his bride to the center of the dance floor. In a short moment they were waltzing to Andi's choice for their first dance as Husband and Wife

It's the most wonderful time of the year

With the kids jingle belling

And everyone telling you be of good cheer

It's the most wonderful time of the year

They waltzed as they practiced, because Andi found this song to be a joyous celebration of a holiday season that had passed her heart by for so many years. So, when this wonderful man suggested he could get them wed in a church on Christmas eve, part of her sarcastically said "yeah, sure" but the rest of her cheered him on and reveled in the holiday season. At the end of the song they stopped, kissed, and tried to head for the door, but the worship leader Peter Runyon called out "One more!" he was in the corner with Melissa Kraft at the upright piano and her sons who had just finished tuning up. "Ernie tells us you like this one."

And with that, Dante and his wife sang in harmony as Melissa and her sons played beautifully.

I'll always remember the song they were playin'

The first time we danced and I knew

As we swayed to the music and held to each other

I fell in love with you

Could I have this dance for the rest of my life?

Would you be my partner every night?

When we're together it feels so right

Could I have this dance for the rest of my life?

Andi and Paul kissed through the entire dance as the couples of Springville Congregational Church joined them on the dance floor. When the song was over and they said their I Love You's, Andi and Paul tried to move to the door, but John picked up the microphone. "Hold up dear brother!"

Paul winced and stopped. Andi turned to him and said, "What's wrong?"

"We're busted." The couple turned around and saw that there was a folding chair set up in the middle of the dance floor, men were grouped on one side of the floor, women to the other side.

"The proprieties must be observed at all times," said John.

With a sigh of good-humored resignation Paul led Andi to the chair where she sat, the twins came out and stood on either side of her. Paul knelt and gently slid his hand up under Andi's skirt to her knee. "You're wearing two garters?"

"Well yeah, I'm going to keep one," then she leaned forward and said softly "And as much as I want you exploring there, let's do that later."

Paul smiled and eased the garter off her shapely left leg which he noticed for the first time tonight was encased in red nylon stockings to match her beautiful red dress. He slowly stood and took hold of her hand and he encouraged her to stand. Then as he pulled her close, he looked at her garter for the first time, it was white elastic lace with red woven into the lace and a holly leaf cluster embroidered on like a badge. He smiled and casually tossed the garter over his shoulder to the bachelor's behind him. He didn't even look to see who ended up with the lacy prize.

"One last task dear husband," smiled Andi. The twins were so excited about what came next. "You know what you're going to do, right?" said Andi to her girls.

"Uh-huh!"

"We know, we know!" The girls were so excited that they were practically dancing.

"Don't forget!" admonished Andi.

"Ok, ok!" and the twins dashed to where all the bachelorettes were waiting.

Macy went up to Lucy who was waiting with the bachelorettes only because Andi asked her to participate. "The twins really want the bouquets so please try to get it to one of the girls..."

Lucy looked her friend in the eye, "I heard you the first seven times, ok - I'll try to get the bouquet." Andi had two identical bouquets, one for keeping and one for throwing and if the twins were able to get the throwing bouquet then each would have one. "I've seen Andi throw; we'll be lucky if it doesn't get stuck in the ceiling fan or sent through a window." Then Lucy noticed that she had a twin on either side of her. "What are you two doing here?"

"I can be here!" cried Sandy putting her fists on her hips, "I'm a girl!"

"Yeah, me too!" echoed Madeline, "I'm a girl too!"

"Ok, just don't get run over," said Lucy as she looked to the other women in the crowd, "these women look bloodthirsty." Macy moved out of the way and Lucy didn't notice it, but she was suddenly alone in the front of the group, most of the other women pulled back. Then, without warning or fanfare Andi's arm rose and the bouquet arced gracefully through the air straight toward Lucy. "Why the hell couldn't she throw like that when we were playing softball?" thought Lucy as she watched the bouquet tumble gracefully in the air, turning end over end so slowly, so perfectly that she could almost snatch it out of the air by its tape wrapped handle. Instead she let it drop into her hands like a softly tossed Nerf football. She turned to hand it to Madeline who was standing on her right, but the little booger was gone, she looked to her left and Sandy was gone also. The moment the bouquet hit her hands they both took off like a shot back to their mother side.

Suddenly everyone was applauding. Lucy looked around and everyone was cheering and applauding her catching the bouquet including every "bloodthirsty" bachelorette in the lineup. Her gaze rose to the ceiling and she shook her head, she has been had. They set her up to actually try to catch the bouquet. The twins hopped up and down in ecstatic 5-year-old glee clapping their tiny hands in celebration of their subterfuge. Lucy looked across the room for support from Gus, but he shook his head with a defeated smile. He pointed to his arm where he wore Andi's garter, they had set him up too.

"I think this is our cue to go Mrs. Jarecki."

"Say that again."

"Let us depart this festive celebration Mrs. Jarecki."

"I love the way that sounds," she moaned seductively. Then smiling Andi crouched down and gathered her girls close. "Poppa and I are going to check on the chickens and plow the driveway at the cabin, ok? So, you guys need to take Aunt Macy and Aunt Lucy home with you and show them how to feed Wonka. He's been such a good boy but he's probably hungry."

"He IS hungry, he ate all my cake," said Madeline.

"See? He needs proper food. Can you take him home and feed him? And take baths! You guys are chocolaty messes!"

"Make sure Santa doesn't stop at the cabin!" cried Sandy, "Tell him where we are!"

"We will do that! We'll wait to see if he comes to the cabin, and Aunt Macy and Uncle John will stay at the house to make sure Santa knows that you're there."

As Macy and Lucy lead the twins off to collect Wonka and their coats Andi stood up on tiptoe and whispered into Paul's ear those 4 little words that every man loves to hear from their wives; "I'm not wearing panties." They were out the door and heading to their love nest in moments.

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"Finally!" sighed Andi as she sat with her legs hanging out of the cab of the Ranger and waited for Paul to unlock the cabin door. The security shutters were open, and Andi could see through the windows that Lucy and Macy had visited, things were different from the last time she was here.

Paul finally unlocked the door and returned to the truck to scoop up Andi and carry her over the slush, mud and snow into the toasty warm cabin, her arms around his neck. Their lips met again and again before he set her gently on the table next to the presents. She busied herself with opening the

Emergency Supplies while Paul removed her shoes and set about exploring her dainty feet. "Lube, we're going to need this," she said softly as Paul began nibbling on her toes.

The next present was a vibrator that looked like it had potential, some other toys: fuzzy hand cuffs, crotchless panties, flavored lotions, and some interesting looking games. Then there were bottles of wine, cheeses, all kinds of snacks and delectable goodies. Paul saw her trying to open a bottle of champagne and stopped nipping and teasing her toes and eased the bottle from her hands. "A true gentleman never lets a lady open a bottle of wine."

"Why not?" asked Andi as he popped the cork.

"It takes too long," and he filled two flutes and they toasted their love.

Andi hopped down off the table and turned her back to Paul and lifted her hair, the universal signal to unzip her dress. Paul pulled the zipper down all the way and Andi turned around; her arms bunched up in front of her. When she dropped her hands, the dress slipped all the way to the floor, a red puddle at her little feet. All she wore under her dress was thigh high stockings, not even a garter belt. She stood naked before her man, her breasts swollen with desire, nipples hard, and her pussy damp.

She knelt and unbuckled his belt, unbuttoned and unzipped his pants and they dropped to the floor. He lifted each foot to step out of his trousers and she peeled off his socks. Then as he removed his shirt and tie she yanked his boxers down and his cock sprung free. It slapped up against his belly, hard and throbbing, looking for a mouth to fill, an anus to spear, a pussy to conquer, and she was enthralled with the power she felt. She kissed the head of his cock and licked off the copious flow of precum and shuddered at the utter masculinity of the flavor. She opened her mouth and drew his cock in, sucking, running her tongue around the head of the cock in her mouth. It started to throb as Paul's strong hands lifted her up to her feet.

"I'm not going to last long this first time," he growled, "so we're going to make it worthwhile."

Shuddering in anticipation she leaned forward and sucked her man's nipple into her mouth and flicked her tongue over it, over and over while she stroked his hard throbbing cock, the cock that she prayed would brand her as his own, fuck her senseless and impregnate her. She released his nipple, and he pulled her close, his mouth covering her, his tongue sliding deep into her mouth. She groaned in desire and welcomed the assault. Tonight, the word 'No' had no meaning to her, the words "don't," and "stop" were only to be used together.

He snapped off the light switches and the cabin was plunged into semi-darkness. The fire, the flickering candles and the Christmas lights gave them all the light they needed.

She gripped her man by the cock and pulled him to the couch. When the back of her knees hit the couch, she broke the kiss and turned around lowering herself to her hands and knees on the couch. Paul reveled in the sight of his small beauty her curves so reminiscent of a cello, her flawless skin cinching down to her narrow waist then swooping out to her luscious hips, her milky pale skin now glowing in the firelight, and that beautiful round little bubble butt! It was all he could do to keep himself from pouncing, driving himself into her like a madman and viciously taking his pleasure. His cock throbbed with desire for this woman, aching to plunder her, to pound into her over and over until he released his pent up flood inside her womb.

But not tonight, tonight he is going to worship his angel, to explore every inch of her body, to find every pleasure zone, and wring every orgasm he could from her. What he did here tonight was going to set the pace of their sex life for the rest of their lives, and he wanted his woman to know that he was here to fulfill every need and desire she has or could imagine. His eyes fell to the cutest little ass he had ever seen in his life and he knew where he wanted to start.

With her back to Paul, she couldn't see what he was doing, but he felt him spread the cheeks of her ass. Her eyes rolled back in her head and she moaned a shuddering moan as his tongue speared its way inside her anus. "Oh yessss, sssooo good."

His tongue danced around her tiny pore, squirming inside her sphincter as if it were a living thing, strange and unique thrills slid around her body. Never had a man done such a thing, it was so good! She sighed and groaned as his warm wet tongue pushed into her, the snaky thrills consumed her mind and body...

She lowered her face to the blanket and reached back with her hands holding her anus wide open, giving herself up to him. His tongue circled her pore flicking his saliva over and over the sensitive nerve endings in her most intimate opening. Now poking his tongue demanded entrance to her ass, and she pulled her round, perfect ass cheeks as wide as possible.

Paul's hand began stroking her damp labia as he drilled his tongue into her ass. She moaned and shuddered at the forbidden sensations his tongue was eliciting from her. He pushed her delicate inner thighs apart and whispered "wider!"

"Yess, daddy!" she opened her legs as wide as she possibly could, giving Paul complete access. As his tongue penetrated her tiny anus over and over, his thumb began stroking her pussy outer lips. Her breathing became a series of "Hah!... Hah!... Hah!" as his thumb strummed the entrance to her vagina and slid over her clit, over and over back and forth. And all the time his tongue slid around her tight little anus. The pleasure was unbearable, she was building to a huge climax and was preparing to teeter over the edge...

Then suddenly it wasn't Paul, it was her ex-husband, it was one of his damn drinking buddies. Soon the hitting would begin, the slapping and punching, hair pulled, nipples twisted. Her stomach tied up in knots and all she wanted to do was run. Paralyzed with fear she slumped to the bed, curled up, and lay there shuddering. Now a new terror entered her mind, Paul was going to hate her for freezing up like this on their wedding night. She curled up tighter and wished she were dead.

"Baby?"

She didn't respond.

He curled up next to her and tried again, "Baby?" his voice was tender, she didn't respond.

"Turn over baby. Daddy wants to see you."

She sniffed then slowly rolled over on to her back, her face a mask of fear.

He crawled up and lay next to her, he held her tight, the bubble of sheer lust was burst, it may take time to get back to that point, but right now his baby needed to be held. They snuggled naked before the warm fire until her body began to relax. "Better now baby?" he asked. She nodded without saying anything. He thought that she came without reservation in the sauna and shower here and at home, why now did she freak out. Is it the bed? "Is it the bed baby? Is that what is freaking you out?"

"No," she sniffed. "I couldn't see. I was face down in the covers and I couldn't see. It felt sooo good, but I started to remember and..."

"Shh shh shhhhh, it's ok. Those times are over. I don't gamble, and I'll never leave you defenseless and blind." He hugged the trembling woman and kissed her neck gently.

"Ok," her voice was still tiny and weak.

"My baby, right now, naked before you and God, I pledge to you that I will never intentionally treat you in any way that terrifies you." He snuggled her close and he felt her start to relax. "If you want to just snuggle like this all night, that's ok."

"Are you sure?

"Uh huh." He snuggled her tightly and pulled a soft blanket over them both. "We'll get to see Santa Claus come out of the wood stove."

"I've ruined our wedding night," she wept.

"No, no you have not. If anyone ruined it, it was Frank. I had a talk with him..."

Andi tightened up in fear. "What did he say?" Her voice was tiny and distant.

Paul took a deep breath, if Andi got upset his marriage would be over before it was 12 hours old. "Remember when I asked if I could do a '23 & Me' thing on the girls?" Andi nodded in the affirmative. "Well, we kind of did one on Frank too."

Andi looked startled. "How did you... did he consent?"

"No, he didn't consent, he didn't know. I guess he didn't realize that chewing on a cheap cigar leaves DNA behind."

"You didn't!"

"I did."

"What... how..." Andi was shocked and at a loss for words.

Paul brushed a tear soaked strand of hair from Andi's face. "In Frank, we found southern Italy and Sicily, literally nothing else."

"What about the girls...?"

"England, Ireland, Norway, and eastern Europe. They could be Jarecki babies. Not a spec of Italian heritage."

"They're not...?" Andi couldn't bring herself to finish the question for fear of what the answer might be.

"Franks children? Probably not. The science on 23 and Me type blood test doesn't tell us who the father is, just a geographical representation of like DNA types. However, as I explained to Frank, this raises a question in my mind and any legal proceedings involving the twins will require a paternity examination.

"What did he say?" Andi's eyes were round with wonder of what she was hearing.

"He didn't say anything, he just signed a document that stated that he had no familial relationship with the twins. It was witnessed, notarized, and filed with the clerk of the Erie County."

Andi gasped; she couldn't believe what she heard! She squealed with glee and wrapped herself around Paul, crying and laughing at the same time. "He's gone? He's really gone? The Sword of Damocles has been lifted?"

"Yeah, it's over baby."

"Oh daddy! That is the best Christmas present anyone has ever given me!" she smothered his face with kisses and rolled on top of him.

Paul's eyes shot wide open, "Oh wow, I almost forgot!" He rolled her over and ended up on top of her.

"You forgot it is our wedding night?

"No, that it's Christmas Eve! Come on you, up and at 'em." He got up off the couch and found a large wooden match. Andi got out of bed and came up behind him and rubbed her nipples on his back in an effort to distract him. He didn't let it get to him, he led her over to the Christmas tree, struck the match, and began to light the candles that Macy put on the tree earlier in the day. "Back when John and I were small, dad lost everything, and for a couple of years, Christmas was pretty bleak. Mom had these candle holders from back in Poland, this is how they used to light the tree, and started the tradition of putting lights on the trees. To remind us that Christmas is about the gift that God has given us, momma would light the candles and we would gather around the tree and tell everyone what the greatest gift that God had given us this year.

"You told me yours," he accentuated that with a kiss, "and my gift is obvious, it's you, and Sandy, and Madeline." With each name he punctuated his statement with a kiss. "I really don't know what I would have done if I hadn't received that phone call from the Town of Concord. I was so tired of the same old blah, day after day... I really don't know what I was going to do." He gave her a kiss that made her dizzy.

When they broke the kiss she smiled, "You may not have exactly 'traded up.' The three of us girls are pretty high maintenance."

"At least it's not boring, and I've been inundated by love. What man could ask for more?" He blew out the candles then led her to the bed. They snuggled up together and he continued, "I also want you to know that we are financially solvent and well off for the next 30 years at a minimum. And lastly I want you to know that I have started proceedings to adopt Sandy and Madeline."

They stared into each other's eyes for a long time until Andi said, "You say the sexiest things to me!" They kissed, their tongues swirling around, slithering over each other, then they broke the kiss and he started to journey downward. Finding her nipple erect again he began to suckle and nibble on it, she gasped quietly with each nibble. She cupped her breast with her hand, offering it up to him but he continued lower, tickling her belly button with the tip of his tongue, then lower still. Kneading her breasts she reveled in the attention he gave her pussy, soon he was driving his tongue into her pussy while his thumb strummed her clit and another finger slithered into her anus.

Her lush little body started tightening up and shuddering. Paul read these signals and began to tongue her faster and stroke her clit exclusively. She buried her face in her hands and made a small squeaking sound, her body shuddering. Her anus tightened around Paul's finger rhythmically and her legs began shuddering. He was sure she was coming. Finally, her body relaxed and Paul slowed his attention to her centers of pleasure.

"Angel, did you just come?"

"Y-yes daddy," she said softly.

"Baby, the quiet times are over, I want you to tell me anything you want to say, I want to hear you come, I want to make it so good for you. I love you, and when I put my cock in you, I want to know how much you like it."

Andi grinned at her man like she just received the key to the candy store. She grabbed his ears and held his mouth to her swollen tit. "Suck! Yessssss, bite. Harder. HARDER."

He truly was terrified of causing damage, but she showed no signs of pain. Regardless, he began kissing his way down her abdomen. He took her hands from his head and placed them on her own tits. "Show me how you like your tits played with." Eagerly she began kneading her firm breasts, trapping the nipple between her thumb and forefinger. She pinched and pulled her nipples while taking joy in the fact that Paul was watching.

Now he reached her clit, her pussy was flushed bright red, her breasts and neck were red too. He began tonguing her clit and she began whispering "Just like that daddy, don't stop, you're making me feel so good..." he slowly slid two fingers into her pussy and began fingering her. "Oh daddy! It's so good, faster daddy, suck me harder..."

He loved hearing her requests in her tiny unsure voice. He felt her tiny hand on the back of his head, holding him in place with a sexy "Yesssssssss" to assure him he was doing it right, "Lick me... suck me daddy... oh, oh, ohhhhhh..." she was getting close, she took her hand from his head and now both hands were bunched in the covers, her hips shifted up, offering herself to him. Her small body tightened and her hips lifted up off the bed, pushing up against his mouth "I'm COMINGGGG!" she screamed. Her hips pushed way up and began shuddering. The only parts of her body on the bed were her head and neck and her tiny feet.

Just as her orgasm reached its climax, Paul lifted his face from his lovers pussy, drew up and slid his cock up and down her wet pussy lips a few times causing more friction against her clit which caused her eyes to roll back in her head.

"Here I come baby..." he called out and slid his cock into her sodden yet tight pussy in one very tight, very slow stroke.

"Oh my God I love you!" she screamed and her body crashed to the bed, her arms and legs wrapped around her man tight as he plundered her cunt over and over with long full length strokes. It was like her orgasm never ended as she chanted "Fuck me daddy, fuck me daddy, fuck me daddy..."

And fuck her he did, his cock slid in and out of her sheath with wet squelching noises, driving her closer and closer to her next orgasm. And when it hit he joined her. With a roar he came spurt after spurt overfilling her eager pussy. "I can feel it," she gasped into his ear, "I can feel you coming in me." His orgasm never seemed to end but eventually he slowly deflated and slipped from her pussy.

She leaned up on her elbows watching his sperm flow out of her as she kept gasping, "Oh God your cock is big, I need more warning next time!"

They lay for a long time watching the fire dance and flicker. Even though it was quite warm in the cabin they wrapped up together in a soft blanket and reveled in the feel of their flesh touching the other's flesh.

Andi smiled, "Why don't you stoke the wood stove while I get us a snack?" Paul smiled and rolled off the bed and tended to the fire while Andi walked over to the table and turned on the overhead light. She moved the toys out of the way to get to the cheese and fruit but one of the toys caught her eye, a small black device labeled as a butt plug. She read the instructions on the package then looked over at Paul, he was straightening out the blankets.

She opened the package and opened a bottle of lube, lubed the device and slowly eased it into her rear passage. It wasn't as big as Paul's cock, but it still felt big in her. She switched it on and suddenly her ass was awash in pleasure. Not intense pleasure, just a warm fluttery pleasure, like when Paul was licking down there.

Andi filled the two champagne flutes and began to cut some fine cheese into bite size pieces when the feelings of pleasure in her anus started to overwhelm her. The feelings had been slowly intensifying until they were undeniable. "Daddy," she gasped, "I need you!"

By the time Paul had reached the table she had pushed the gifts out of the way and was sitting on the table, her legs spread wide. "Eat me," she gasped, "I love the way you do it, please daddy!"

Paul sat down on the kitchen chair and leaned forward and partook of the feast. He licked and suckled her clit until she began shuddering though a series of mini-orgasms, she leaned back on her elbows and watched her man feast on her pussy, her view was framed by her shuddering breasts which she was unable to reach because of the way she was propped up on her elbows. Her nipples were hard and demanding attention, they ached to be touched.

Shuddering and hiccupping with pleasure she tried to lay back and free her arms so she could pinch and twist her nipples, but she couldn't move, she was paralyzed with the overwhelming anticipation of a huge orgasm before it hits. Her legs which were spread wide, offering her pussy to Paul, suddenly snapped to his shoulder, her stocking clad feet crossed and trapped Paul's head between her legs. All he could do was hang on for the ride as his tongue washed over her clit, driving her to higher peaks.

Her breath couldn't come out, she was frozen watching her man trapped between her legs start to turn red as he suckled on her clit. "I... I... I'm going to cum daddy..." she gasped in a tiny, strangled voice, then she threw her head back and came. It was explosive, her ass came up off of the table and her back arched driving her pussy harder into Paul's mouth. Her voice returned and she cried out a long tuneless song of sheer ecstasy. Her body convulsed as wave after wave of shocking release crashed through her body and mind. Paul felt that all he could do was hang on to survive and he just enjoyed the scene of his beautiful little wife coming like it was the first time.

Finally the waves subsided, Andi felt her body relax and she sank to the table, her legs released Paul and just hung from the table, all the while the little butt plug buzzed away in her anus. She held out a hand and Paul helped her up into the sitting position. "I love it when you do that," she said and kissed him hard, tasting her juices on his face and beard.

"I'm ready," she said as their lips parted. Her small hand tried to wrap around his cock. "So are you," she smiled.

"What's on your mind baby?" he smiled and kissed her.

She kissed him and grinned. "Star Trek." And she popped open the bottle of lube and spread it all over his throbbing cock. It was time for him to go where no man had gone before. She saved her anus for years even when her friends in pre-med were telling her that it's a fun form of birth control. Frank tried to take her ass several times, once beating her so bad she had to get stitches and call in sick. She now knew that she was saving it for this moment, for the man she truly loved.

She handed the lube to Paul and slipped off the table, then turned and bent over it, offering her ass to him. She felt him ease the vibrating plug from her ass and rub lube over her sphincter, inside her, and all around the area. She was ready.

Paul looked over the gift that his wife was giving him, this was the ultimate submission, to give her rectum to him. Her back was beautiful and flawless, not a blemish or freckle on her milk white skin, her narrow waist flaring out to her hips reminded Paul of Jacob Kraft's cello. Enough sightseeing, he wanted... no needed to be inside his wife. He lined up his cock with her sphincter and pushed.

Andi felt the push and her ass spread open for the invasion. She worked as hard as she could to relax but his cock was overwhelming. She felt stretched to the limit as her husband pushed.

"Ok, the head is in," he said softly.

"Just wait," she said and tried to calm her jittery nerves. Then a few tips from her pre-med friends came to mind. One friend had told her to push back, like she was trying to evacuate a big bowel movement, so she tried that, and another inch of her husband slipped inside. Another hint was to stimulate your clit, so she reached down with her left hand and touched her clit. Her little button was still ready to go. "More," she said, and he pushed while she pushed, and more of his cock entered her. She paused for a breath, her fingers strumming on her clit, and she pushed back. Little by little his cock inched into her anus. Before she knew it she could feel his pubic hair against her beautiful round ass cheeks.

"You're mine," she hissed between shudders brought on by her self-stimulation. "I have you inside of me, I can feel your heartbeat." She paused, soaking in the feeling fullness then started moving forward and back just a little, the impossibly big pole moving in and out just a little in her most private place. Her strokes got bigger and bigger while she hissed in pleasure, stroking her sphincter up and down the length of his cock. Her fingers were flying over her clit and she gasped "Don't move daddy, let me fuck you... oooo you're soo long, soo thick..."

Soon she began taking him full length, she knew he couldn't hold back any longer from the grunts she was hearing behind her. "Now daddy, fuck me. Fuck me like you will never let me go... take me... mark me as yours..."

That was the signal that Paul was waiting for. He grabbed her round hips and began to thrust in and out, feeling the grip of her guts as his cock slid in and out of a woman's ass for the very first time. Andi groaned beneath him and at first he feared she was in pain but she sighed "Fuck me daddy... Harder..." With that he spanked a beautiful round ass cheek as he pushed in. She yelped in surprise and shoved back hard. Their rhythm grew faster, his plunging felt deeper if that was possible. She began to wiggle her hips as he pushed in, the sound of his pelvis slapping her ass filled the air. Her fingers danced over her clit, and when he pushed in, they danced on his tightening balls.

Andi was in heaven; her man was fucking her into oblivion. She stroked her clit and begged her man to fuck her faster, to spank her harder. She raised her head up a little and saw their reflection in the window, Paul was looking at the junction of his cock and her ass, she was so jealous, she wanted to see that too. She could see the passion in her eyes, and when he looked up she could see the same passion in his. She watched her tits swaying with the beat of his thrusts. The stroking of her clit was finally getting to her. "This... is... where... I... go... Crazyyyyy..." she groaned and then she came. Her orgasm crashed over her and she drove her ass back against his plundering cock, "Unnngh... Unnngh... Unnngh... Yaaaaaaaaaa!"

She shuddered and shook as her orgasm took control of her nervous system. Paul held her shuddering hips tight and eased his cock in and out slowly, the exquisite feel of her ass clutching and sucking his cock finally took its toll and he roared as he came, squirting his semen into her clutching asshole over and over, his body jerking with every pulse of release.

Finally, it was over, and with a strange pride Andi felt Paul's cock soften and slither out of her rectum soon followed with a stream of his cum. Paul's leg's went weak under him and he slid down into the chair and pulled Andi down on his lap with him. They kissed and cuddled and while they did, Andi's legs and hips would suddenly start shaking then relax. "After shocks," she said. "That's when you know you had a good cum."

"I don't think guys get them."

"That's a shame, it's' really cool. Come on, let's shower then hit these snacks."

<><><><><>

"Let me show you the only way I could get off on Frank" said Andi as they cuddled on the couch watching the fire and listening to piano Christmas music.

"I don't want anything to do with Frank."

"No, it's neat, watch this." With that she slithered down Paul's body until she was face to face with his soft cock. She drew it in to her mouth and with a combination of suckling and tongue action, his cock grew harder and harder and eased down her throat as she kept her lips against his pubic hair.

Finally, she pulled her head back and his cock withdrew like a sword being drawn from a sheath. It slapped back on his stomach and she crawled up and planted herself on him, her pussy resting against his hard cock. "I forget where I learned this, it's always been a favorite..." she started sliding her pussy up and down his cock, her clit being dragged against its firmness.

She looked in his eyes as she performed what she called "The Camel Toe Slide." Paul looked down and saw her labia wrapped around his cock as her pussy slid up and down. "What does it look like?" she asked.

"It's pretty, your pussy is snuggling my cock."

"I wanna see, but my boobs and my baby belly get in the way."

"I can fix that." Paul reached for his camera that was on the arm of the couch and took a picture or two.

"Are you sure that if Macy texts about the kids you won't send that?"

"I'll try," he grinned and handed her the camera.

She didn't stop sliding her clit against the underside of his cock as she looked at the picture. "We're beautiful together," she gushed. "We should do that more often." Laying the phone down she clutched her breast and squeezed it, pinching the nipple. Her hip gyrations grew more and more frantic, and before she realized it, she had a shuddering climax that knocked her over.

Andi lay gasping for breath, moaning and cooing her joy at being his choice. When she had caught her breath, Paul reached down, aligned the head of his cock and speared her pussy. Andi's eyes flew open, "More?" she squeaked.

"This much more," grinned Paul and he pushed Andi up to a seated position. This caused his considerable cock to slide deeper into Andi's cunt, deeper than before, and her weight pushing down with his hips pushing up forced his cock to bottom out.

"Oh my," Andi purred, "I think you found some virgin in there." She raised and dropped herself a few times then fell forward and kissed Paul forcefully. "I think Daddy just hit my cervix."

"Are you Ok?" There was real concern in his voice.

Andi rolled her eyes like she was performing an internal survey, "I'm fine, but since the twins were born by caesarian, you are the biggest thing I've ever had shoved in my pussy."

"Sorry, I'll be careful."

"Don't you dare be careful Paul Luke Jarecki! I'm not made of glass or tin foil, so when I ask daddy to fuck me harder, I want daddy to pound me into mush!"

Paul was still concerned. "Ok, I'm going to give you a safe word. It's "Teddy Bear." Got that?"

Andi undulated her hips causing Paul to groan, he was still balls deep in his bride. "Got it. What's a safe word?"

"You're kidding, Frank left you tied up and blindfolded for any pervert to do whatever they want and he didn't give you a safe word?"

"I guess, what's a safe word?"

"A safe word is a word for your safety, if we were playing a sex game and it hurt you, or it freaked you out like earlier, you'd say the safe word and the game stops, whatever we're doing. Even normal sex, if you need to stop, say the safe word and I stop."

"But I don't want you to stop," Andi said as they rolled over putting him on top. "I want you to pound my pussy like you did my ass."

Instead of fucking her madly, he took her slow and easy. They gazed into each other's eyes and made gentle passionate love by the light of the fire. Andi even sang to her conquering hero as he slowly lifted her to the sweetest climax she ever had. "Can I have this dance, for the rest of my life." Paul came shortly after she did, throbbing in her pussy and she hoped that one sperm out of the millions she received would find the mark. They were not using birth control for the first weeks of their marriage because a boy would be nice.

Andi drifted off to sleep moments after he came inside her fertile unprotected womb for a second time that evening.

<><><><><>֎<><><><><>

Macy and Lucy swept the twins up and rushed them out the door and back to their new home, up the stairs, out of their dresses and into a nice warm bubble bath. "That was such a sweet ceremony," said Lucy, "I can't wait to see the pictures."

"It was unique, I've never officiated a wedding and was also in the wedding party at the same time, and I'm sure John has never done it either."

"Officiate..." Lucy thought back, yes Macy did read the vows for Andi, "...don't you have to be a judge or a priest or a pastor to officiate?"

"Oh ma drôle de petite amie, my funny little girlfriend! I am a pastor, but I am not a paid pastor, my husband is. I teach and preach to the women, and help the women's ministry, and sometimes I help at weddings. If you follow God's word in the bible, the roll of men and women is an extraordinarily complex dance, and to dance with each other is what God wants."

Lucy hoisted a squirming twin out of the bathtub and started to dry her off, but the twin got free and bolted naked from the bathroom running as fast as her little legs could take her. With an ear piercing "YAAAAAAAA!" her sister broke free from Macy and tore off after her waving her panties over her head.

Lucy and Macy decided to let the twins run free and maybe burn off that sugar, so they cleaned up the bathtub and hung the girl's dresses up in their closet then slowly walked after them. As they passed along the balcony, they could hear the girls yell from what they believed was a floor below them in the library.

As they straightened up Macy spoke about how she was a model before going to seminary and Lucy spoke of her confusion over how Paul, Gus, and Earnie actually prayed for Andi's ex, even though he did such horrible things to Andi.

"Oh, mon chéri," Macy collected the confused Lacy in her arms,

"Don't," said Lucy fighting weakly against Macy's embrace, "you'll get some on you."

"Some what?"

"Me, some of my ugly."

"Oh stop, you are not ugly..."

Lucy pushed Macy away, "I do not need to hear the Ugly Duckling story from a swimsuit model..."

Macy grabbed Lucy and spun her around and sternly said, "Arrêtez! Just stop! Where I come from, my skin color is not well appreciated, up in the French fishing villages la femme noire is répugnante to the white men. I worked very hard to make myself beautiful on the outside and I never met a person who cared what was inside. When I moved to Montreal, they wanted me on their arm but then they say je veux te baiser..." her face saddened.

"That's not good?" asked Lucy.

"That is incredibly good if your husband says it, when your boss says it? Not good at all. But one day I met a fellow who did not care about my skin, or my figure, or my looks. In fact, he put a nasty note on a paper I graded just to be able to take me out for coffee and get to know me better." The two sat down at the top of the main staircase and looked down on the beautiful Christmas tree in the parlor.

"It's not fair," Lucy moaned, her hands flailing over her chest indicating her lack of boobs.

"You are so right there," sighed the beautiful black Canadian, "You and I, we could combine all four of our boobs and still not come up with one of Andi's. But then Andi tells me you have abs that my mother could have done laundry on, the one body feature I always wanted, and I have the one body feature that Andi genuinely wanted, height. But look - August is going to be here soon!"

Lucy groaned and buried her face in her hands.

"But you like August!" Macy put her hands on Lucy's shoulders and drew her close, ending up with a hug. "What is wrong mon ami?"

"All this talk about Christian values and tradition, many of them are mine also," said Lucy after a long pause. "Gus and I cannot be a thing... he's so deep into the Christian faith..." She took a deep breath, "but I'm Jewish."

"Oh, mon cher ami, I wish you had told us! We would have celebrated Hanukkah with you!"

Lucy was both surprised and cheered, "You would?"

"Oui! And be sure to tell August, he loves to cook kosher! He personally cooks the seder meal at church every year! He will make sure you stay kosher!" Macy was nearly gushing. "He studies the Tora every Wednesday under Rabbi Lockman."

"Wait... what? Why?"

"They are old friends, and Rabbi Lockman is a carpenter, he worked with August on this house!" She leaned toward Lucy and whispered conspiratorially "I think they are trying to convert each other." That caused Lucy to laugh.

"Ok! I'll tell him!"

"Bon! August will be here tonight to help us bring presents up from the basement after les jumaeux go to sleep. Talk with him, talk about anything; the weather, going to the zoo, where to get a good fish fry..."

"And?"

"And let it go from there."

<><><><><>֎<><><><><>

Gus did show up with John not long after Macy and Lucy trapped the nudists downstairs while they were trying to get the large TV in the media room to turn on. They were murmuring in Twinbabble® while they were being dressed in their new Christmas pajamas. "Aunt Macy?" asked Sandy eventually.

"Yes dear."

"You're our real and for true aunt now?"

"Yes, I really and for truly am, why do you ask?"

"We... we... we don't want to stop calling Aunt Lucy our aunt," and the tears started to flow.

"Oh honey, you don't have to stop calling Aunt Lucy your aunt" but the twins weren't buying it. Now that Aunt Macy is their mommy's sister, she's the legitimate heir to the title of Aunt and all other aunts are pretenders to the throne. Rather than try to argue the twins out of their mindset, Macy simply changed the rules. "Ok, I understand. I'm going to have a talk with your mommy about it and we'll see what she says, but until that time, you can call her "Aunty" Lucy ok?"

The twins thought it over, approved the suggestion, and signified so by throwing themselves on Lucy. As they were having a tickle war with Lucy on the couch that Paul had been using as a bed up until this night, they heard John and Gus stomp their feet coming in the back door. Being children of a dryer climate, the twins have yet to learn that the stomp means one thing: it's snowing.

"That's your Uncle John and your daddy's friend Gus. Let's go upstairs lovebugs!"

"Bug bug."

"Bug bug."

And off they went, they zoomed up the stairs to greet their guests followed by Aunt Macy. John and Gus were in the kitchen laughing over the events of the evening and especially the remarks of the church members as they poured themselves a cup of coffee. John and Macy sat at the kitchen table and John started to tell her about the reaction of several church members to the ceremony when the twins decided to climb in his lap.

"Unka John! Unka John!" and with that they initiated him into the life that their mother had been living since they started talking just about two years ago. Their mom was an only child, so the twins didn't have any uncles, and now they do. Andi had been telling the twins how great it was to have an uncle and now they were bubbling with enthusiasm and were overflowing with the joy of being nieces. Sandy was telling her Uncle John about the difference between Aunt and Aunty while Madeline told him how much Wonka enjoyed being in church. John's head was spinning with the verbal barrage and Macy was almost paralyzed with laughter at his confused expression. Suddenly Gus appeared in the doorway of the kitchen, smiling and listening to the children's babble. When both girls looked and saw him standing there, they were suddenly shocked. "STOP!" they both shrieked.

"What? What did I do?" asked Gus confused.

"DON'T MOVE!" Madeline jumped off her uncle's lap and ran over to Gus, sat on his foot and wrapped her arms around his leg to keep him from moving. Sandy meanwhile ran off looking for Aunty Lucy,

"AUNTY LUCY! HELP! HELP!"

"What? What did I do?" asked Gus

"HURRY!" shouted Madeline as she wrapped her arms tighter around his leg, "HE'S MOVING!"

John surveyed the situation then realized what got the girls agitated. He sipped his coffee and said to Macy "Do you see it dear?"

"AUNTY LUCY! HELP!"

Macy surveyed the scene then noticed it, "Oh oui," she said, sipping her coffee with a huge smile. "We need Aunty Lucy for this, absolument!"

Finally, Lucy emerged from the basement with Sandy behind her, pushing against her buttocks. "Hurry! Over there! Over there!" It took a moment for Lucy to realize that she was being pushed toward Gus.

"Better hurry up," said John between sips of coffee.

"I still don't understand," said Gus.

Madeline looked up at Gus angrily, he clearly did not realize the severity of the situation. She hugged his legs even tighter and shouted, "Missile Toast!"

"Wait, what?" He looked at the coffee table for support and saw John and Macy pointing over his head. He looked up and saw the lacy bell with the mistletoe hanging in place of a clapper. With that he deftly swung Lucy into his arms, bent her over slightly, and gave her quite a kiss. Her eyes shot open with surprise before she wrapped her arms around him and returned the affection. He stood her up and smiled, "Let it not be said that August Di Domissio shirks his yuletide duties."

Lucy's eyes were spinning from the surprise kiss, "No you do not." The twins slumped at their feet, happy in the knowledge that a crisis was averted.

"The last two folks these love bugs trapped under their Missile Toast just got married tonight," said John.

"Bug bug."

"Bug bug."

"I'm willing to take my chances," said Gus. Lucy just laughed and swatted his arm where he still wore Andi's garter, but did nothing to break the embrace. But break it they reluctantly did, and they sat at the kitchen table sipping coffee and enjoying eye contact.

Come on you deux insectes d'amour, it is time to get to sleep or Père Noël will not come down the chimney, he will put you on the liste de vilains! Courir! (Run!)

"Bug bug."

"Bug bug."

Gus turned to Lucy, "They speak French?"

Her answer was a shrug. "I quit being surprised by anything they do."

As the twins scurried off toward the big staircase Macy turned to Lucy and Gus and said "Parler!" (talk) then followed the twins up the stairs.

"What do you suppose she wants us to talk about?" said Gus.

"Anything," sighed Lucy.

They sat in silence for a while thinking of something to talk about and nothing came. To break the silence Gus said, "Do you want to see something pretty?"

"Sure," said Lucy brightening.

"Grab your coat and hat, come on." And Gus led her outside, down the long driveway and out onto the street. Outside it was snowing in a way that Lucy had only rarely seen before. Large flakes, no make that huge flakes coming down so slowly, spinning gently as they descended. It was a beautiful magical moment, with all the Christmas lights in the village shining brightly, the snowflakes shown like diamonds as they gently settled to earth. There was an occasional puff of wind that cause the flakes to gently zig or zag as they drifted down from the heavens. Somewhere in the distance a church bell clarion played "Silent Night."

Lucy caught one flake on her mitten and examined it to find it was made of many small flakes that banded together to make one large flake. "I have a friend in Montana, the snow doesn't come straight down there, it merely flies west to east. His kids came out here one winter and they saw a snow like this, and it freaked them out, to this day they call any snow in Montana that falls straight down "Buffalo Snow."

"It's beautiful," said Lucy as she examined another flake she caught. She then looked at the village, the streets, cars, trees, and houses were now dressed in white. Many of the stately old Victorian houses in this neighborhood had hedges which were decorated with Christmas lights, these too were covered in snow and the multicolored lights glowed through their snowy coating. She looked back at Paul's house, now Paul and Andi's house, the edges of the house were colored with Christmas lights, the big, beautiful tree in the window, the illuminated evergreen garlands decorating the porch and the waist high wrought iron fence all frosted with a glittering coating of snow, it was all so incredible.

Even the village's faux antique gas streetlamps were adding to the beauty, each one wrapped with evergreen and each lamp was circled by an evergreen wreath, and around each lamp was a halo of dancing snowflakes. Lucy's head spun, the whole world around her was in motion, it was like standing inside a gently shaken snow globe. She finally understood the attraction to those silly, pretty toys.

Gus held her wrists gently "I'm not a scientist so I can't tell you how those small flakes formed, nor can I tell you how the flakes joined up into one giant cluster flake. I'm not a poet either, so I can't adequately describe the beauty of these flakes. But then, if I were a poet, then maybe I would be able to describe the beauty I see in your eyes and how your smile never fails to light up everything around you, and how lucky I feel to bask in that radiance. I'm just a guy with a hammer, the best I can do is build you a box to keep that snowflake safe and secure. And right here and now, the very best I can do is to repeat Italian phrases, such as vieni a bere qualcosa con me"

"I'd love to have a drink with you," said Lucy softly, then looking up into his big brown eyes she whispered, "Build me a box."

<><><><><>֎<><><><><>

Macy and John watched the couple walk off in the gently falling snow together from the big round window in John's office. "They're headed toward Worzil's" said John, "we may not see them for the rest of the night."

"Worzil's is closing at ten tonight darling, they will have time for one hot toddy, and they will be right back here," the office was suddenly plunged into darkness as Macy turned off the only light that was on. Now the only source of light was the Christmas lights encircling the window outside and the muted lights from the village.

John walked over to where his wife was last and found the green dress with the white lace was empty and draped over the back of a chair along with her panties and stockings. "You better hurry and find me before they get back mon amour!" called his naked wife from the darkness.

His beloved wife had removed the only white on her body and slipped into the storage area of the attic where she awaited her husband naked. "Challenge accepted," he said softly.

Macy crept on her hands and knees through the stacks of boxes in Paul's attic, it was pitch black in there and she was completely naked. She reflected on all the twists and turns her life has taken to get her to this point. Born of Nigerian descent, Marie-Claude Solange Dagenais' slim figure, striking features and coal black skin, got her early jobs in modeling and she made enough money to leave her family's world in a small Quebec fishing village behind, to strike out on her own, eventually and inexplicably winding up in the seminary.

She loves God and she loved theological academia and when given the chance to pastor her own church she turned it down for a teaching job at the École de théologie évangélique du Québec, the leading Evangelical seminary at the time in Quebec. She loved preparing young women for a life leading a church, then she met John, who exploded that life.

Now here she was crawling through her brother-in-law's attic naked waiting for her husband to pounce. Having quietly shed her dress, panties, and shoes from the wedding in Paul's third floor office she silently crept into the storage room that takes up half of the third floor. It once was a bedroom, so instead of being dusty with open flooring like other attics she has seen, this one is finished with wall to wall carpeting. Boxes were stacked neatly but in groups that make sense to Paul, and probably no one else on earth, making numerous aisles and alleys to hide in, the twins are going to love this when they discover it, she thought. But being so distracted she didn't notice what was behind her.

Macy crawled stealthily between the stacks of boxes in the storage section of Paul's attic. She was completely naked having left her dress and underwear in Paul's office with John. Her husband was now probably following, erect, ready to grab her and fuck her. Not that she wasn't inviting this response from John, but she wants to play.

Suddenly her eyes and mouth opened in shock as two unseen fingers entered her moist pussy. She knew she had to roll to the side or pull away but every muscle and nerve in her lithe body wanted to push back against those fingers, to drive them deeper. Her nipples suddenly grew hard as pebbles and clamored for attention and she fought with every fiber of her will to keep from pinching her nipples. With a frustrated whimper she pulled forward freeing herself from his fingers, then before he could get a grip she rolled to the side, ducked between rows of boxes and tucked up in the darkest of corners. He passed by her without noticing his beautiful black wife in the dark.

She rolled over on her back and touched herself, mon Deiu was she wet! She licked a damp finger and smiled, her arôme was delicious, but it was missing something... the flavor of her husband. She sat up and looked around, she couldn't see anything, this back corner of the attic room was pitch black, there was no light of any kind, her sense of sight was lost. She paused to listen; did she hear a board squeak? Was that a gentle scuff of a foot on a rug?

She could hear herself breathing, so she held her breath and eased back quietly and bumped into... her husband. Damnit. She shot forward as fast as her long lithe limbs could propel her and he grabbed at her in surprise himself, his hands sliding off her warm skin. As quiet as possible she scooted around a stack of boxes but he was on her trail. She scampered down the row of boxes until she came to the end of the row and realized it was a dead end. As silently as possible she climbed up on top of the boxes and lay there as silent as death. She heard him discover the dead end by the way the sounds of his searching became confused. She heard his hands sliding along the boxes as he went back up the row.

She waited as long as she dared then she silently lowered herself down and the hunter became the hunted. She started up the row of boxes after him. She continued up the aisle when she realized that the sound of her prey was behind her. How could he have turned the tables so quickly? She leapt forward but a warm white hand closed around her slim black ankle and she came to a bone jarring halt. "Non!" she squealed but she quickly covered her mouth with her hand, afraid of waking the twins.

The search was over, but the game was still on.

She was dragged backwards, out of the narrow aisle of boxes, trying not to laugh aloud. He was trying to flip her over but she was able to spread her legs out to prevent that. He wrapped one of his legs around hers and grabbed both wrists and brought them together. Crossing her wrists, he was able to grasp both of her wrists with one hand over her head which freed one of his hands to begin to explore, caress, and tickle.

Rocking side to side she was able to fend off his tickling attacks, but she could feel his erect cock rubbing against her thigh which was almost as much a distraction as his fingers. Her wrestling became frantic until a finger of his free hand touched her exposed anus and started to circle it. This felt better than she expected but in 10 years of marriage he never asked, never tried to go there. The circling finger felt delightful, but then it slid into her ass up to the second knuckle.

"Pas dans le cul!" she gasped, "not in the ass!"

"Your mouth says no, but your body says oui oui!" John whispered.

He may have been right, but Macy didn't want to go in that direction. She fought to get away from that maddening finger and suddenly found herself on her back and was able to fight off that attack, but now she was wide open. That free hand started to head toward her pussy, so she locked her legs together, denying him access to her vagina. But he wasn't daunted, he now began an attack on her breasts and nipples.

She remembered their wedding night when she apologized for her breasts being so petite, but he proceeded to make love to her breasts, bringing her to orgasm simply by suckling, pulling, twisting, pinching and nipping her erect nipples. He was now going down that same path. Giggles and sighs filled the attic as John held his wife's hands captive above her head and meanwhile gnawed and nibbled on her erect nipples. "Pas juste," she gasped "no fair!"

He released her wrists so both of his hands could cup her breasts and his fingers could pinch and roll her nipples. With a happy sigh she held his hands in place with hers as their mouths met for a kiss in the dark. He broke off their kiss and began to kiss his way down her slim body pausing only to suck her entire tit in his mouth. He left a trail of kisses down her tummy, to her naval and past. She suddenly realized she was in danger as he kissed and licked his way closer and closer to her flower. She held her legs tightly together, but it was becoming increasingly harder to hold them together. As he began kissing her trimmed pubic bush, she fought off the urge to grab his head and hold it in place over her clit. Instead she pinched and twisted her aching nipples sending erotic shocks to her clit.

He forced his face into the juncture of her legs and stuck his tongue deep into the fissure and his searching tongue made contact with the hood of her clit. She was shocked at how her body suddenly gave itself to him. Against her will her traitorous legs eased apart giving him full access to her sex. He quickly crawled between her legs and lowered his mouth to her vagina and began kissing and licking, in response she fully capitulated to her man.

Her head swam with joy as his tongue and fingers worked together to drive her passion higher and higher. Over and over she whispered "mon mari aimant", my loving husband, her tension building higher and higher. When sweet release finally came, she had to cover her mouth with both hands to stifle her cries, she wanted to shout her love for her man. Her unseeing eyes were wide with the shock of the power of the orgasm that crashed over her. She hooked her ankles together and squeezed poor John's head in place as her body shuddered in convulsions of pure rapture. Her fingers tangled in his hair and held his head in place along with her legs and sighed and softly whispered "Je jouis, je joius, ohhhhh I'm cumming my love, je viens!" Deep inside she wanted to scream her delight to the heavens and thank God for the man with the patience to love her through those long nights where his advances terrified her thanks to the abuse she suffered at the hands of a photographer in her teens.

Finally her shudders subsided and she untangled her ankles and released John who was finally able to inhale a deep draught of air for the first time in a few minutes. She reached up to cuddle him but he reared up, grabbed her hips and flipped her over. She smiled and prepared herself for her man. He pulled up on her hips and she obligingly raised herself to her knees and elbows and spread her legs. She felt him position himself between her legs and finally press forward, penetrating deeper, deeper, to where he belonged. Finally, as she felt his pubic hair press against her ass, she felt his cock throbbing inside of her, "I don't think I'm going to last long darling," he whispered.

"Give me your seed, cum in me love," she whispered. "Baise moi, fuck me."

Slowly he pulled out and pushed his cock back in feeling every millimeter of her sweet pussy clutching to his cock. No, he wasn't going to last long. The excitement of searching for this beautiful vixen in the pitch blackness of his brother's attic was exciting enough, but the wrestling around once he caught her then bringing her to a thundering climax was almost enough to set him off without touching his cock.

Macy rolled her hips as her man moved slowly in and out. She knew that the clutching, sucking, squeezing of her pussy was driving him beyond his ability to hold back. She began pushing back as he slid in. She reached between her legs and began to rub her fingers in a circular motion on her still buzzing clit. The remnants of her mind-bending orgasm still caused her legs to shudder. Her hand flashed over her clit as his cock pumped in and out of her, spreading her out and making her feel so delightfully full down there.

Now she felt herself wondering if she could take him in her ass, the thought terrified her and excited her beyond reason at the same time. The thought caused her to push back harder, trying to take him deeper, grunting like an animal the thought of being sodomized by this man that she's loved for a decade drove her mad...

"S'il vous plaît jouir en moi amant! Please come inside of me lover! I want you so much..." Forgetting the tykes sleeping below them the lovers cried out to each other until John grabbed Macy's hips and began to slam into her as hard as he could. He growled and plowed deep into her, holding himself deep. His body shuddered and he grunted with each shot he fired into her. She actually felt his semen shooting into her, striking her cervix, the feeling of her man filling her with his seed set her off and her orgasm soon followed his.

They sank to the carpeted floor and he held his woman close, whispering endearment into her ears. In turn she reached and caressed his hip and ass, urging him to stay inside her, but soon he soften and eased out of her. "The saddest part of the day..." she said aloud whishing he could stay inside of her forever.

"What's that m'love?" he asked.

"When you soften," she whispered. With that she rolled over and scooted down and began to lick and suckle her man's cock clean. John felt an invisible mouth engulf his cock and suck sweetly on him. "Nous avons si bon goût ensemble," she whispered, "we taste so good together..."

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Gus and Lucy walked through the door about an hour and twenty minutes later. John and Macy were seated in the kitchen exactly where they were before putting the twins to bed, however now they were wearing pajamas and matching plaid bathrobes. Gus was talking excitedly about the floor of the library in Paul and Andi's house. During construction in the basement, Gus had discovered that the library floor was a sprung floor meaning that the floor was self-supporting and mounted on springs to the frame of the house. This is something that only happens in the entertainment industry where the floor is designed to absorb the shock of dancers. "...so, the staid and stately library in the prim and proper house on 23 Howard Street probably started its life as a polka parlor."

"That is probably why Miss Veronica likes to practice dancing here," said John. "Lord knows there's a shortage of Polka Parlors."

"Polka Parlor? There's no such thing!" laughed Lucy.

"Well if there isn't, there should be," smiled Gus, "The polka can be fun." Lucy gave Gus a playful backhanded swat on the chest and grinned. "What, what did I say?" he asked shrugging.

"Out for a walk in the snow?" asked Macy.

"We did that, then we stopped in to Worzils for a hot buttered rum and wished Ayato and Julissa a Merry Christmas." Gus was speaking of Ayato and Julissa Tanaka, owner operators of Worzils Bar & Grille, a watering hole that has been in Springville for generations. Every time the business changed hands the name remained, but on occasion the final E on the word 'Grille' would be removed only to be restored by the next owner.

"Was Julissa there?" asked Macy. She enjoyed the chats she had with Ayato's wife Julissa.

"Yes, she was behind the bar while Ayato was cleaning the tables. I invited them both to Christmas dinner, I'm sure that will be ok with the new Mrs. Jarecki."

"Her new husband has always had an open table on Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving, I think she would adore that custom," said Macy. Then she accidentally said "I wonder what she is up to now..."

"Probably the same thing we were about 20 minutes ago," said John between slurps of coffee.

"Jean Matthieu Jarecki! Ferme la bouche! Vous êtes un révérend, agissez comme tel! (John Matthew Jarecki! Shut your mouth! You are a reverend, act like one!) Macy cried, grabbing a wrapped package off the table and bopping her husband on the head. She settled down and placed the package back on the stack and smiled "Then again, j'espère bien qu'ils le sont" (I certainly hope they are)

Gus smiled "We were still in our tuxedos from the wedding and Ayato got all bent out of shape." He handed Lucy a cup of coffee.

"He said that we were turning his nice little hole-in-the-wall into a classy joint fit only for the ruling elite," added Lucy.

"I told him to be careful or we'll do a Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers number when the bar flies arrive and drive them all away." Gus pulled out his cell phone and showed them a picture that Ayato took of Gus and Lucy in their tuxes at the bar, both looked happier than they could imagine.

"Enough with the alcoholic revere, we have work to do. First you have to ditch the tuxes..." John put a small stack of Christmas gifts in front of each. "Fred, these are for you, Ginger, these are yours. The new Mrs. Paul Jarecki requires that you open them up now, and when you see what they are, you'll know what to do."

Minutes later Gus and Lucy were wearing new Christmas pajamas, Gus in men's green flannel PJs and green slippers, Lucy in an ankle length green flannel nightgown with fuzzy green slippers, both were wearing matching plaid robes that were primarily green. Both John and Macy were wearing green based pajamas, his were men's green linen pajamas, Macy was sporting a sexy green babydoll. "Ok folks, Gus, you're on assembly duty, Macy & Lucy, you're with me hauling stuff up from the basement," said John.

"Wait, who put you in charge?" demanded Macy.

"Isn't it obvious? It's in the blood. The king of this castle is my brother so obviously the weight falls on my shoulders to manage this undertaking," he said in a tone of voice that projected complete innocence.

"So what? I'm tallest," said Macy.

"And I'm fastest," chimed in Lucy who got a high five from Macy.

Gus who stood by innocently said "I'm just the guy with the toolbox who is enjoying this show immensely."

It was past midnight by the time all the boxes were carried up from the basement and distributed between the living room tree and the parlor tree, then arranged by size and recipient. Andi had pre-stuffed the stockings and there were stockings to be hung from the fireplaces in the parlor, living room, and library, and the gifts were divided between the living room and the parlor. John took great care in arranging the stockings, his first inclination was to arrange them in alphabetical order, but that just didn't look right as he stood back and looked at the end product, so then he arranged them by size, smallest at one end, growing in size from left to right. He stood back and looked and still wasn't satisfied.

It was finally time for the "Walk Through" inspection led by Macy to insure the house was ready for Santa's visit and the twin's first Christmas in "Madeline's House." She and John couldn't wait to see the look on the twin's faces in the morning. "This house is so different from years gone by," said John as they reviewed the Library. It was decorated sumptuously in holly garlands and evergreen boughs. Books had been cleared from the eye level bookshelves and a model Christmas village was set up, the tiny buildings lit and decorated, scenes depicted snowball fights, selling Christmas trees, a Christmas parade, while tiny skaters spun and twirled on a frozen pond and a little trolly trundled through the scenery.

"Oui," agreed Macy, "It truly is different."

"Looks the same to me," said Gus as they moved from the library into the living room making sure the decorations are perfect, the fireplaces full of wood, stockings hung, and the gifts are stacked in some semblance of neat order. "But I will admit that there are more gifts than usual," he conceded.

"It's not the gifts," said John as he fiddled with the Lionel train that ran under the aluminum Christmas tree. He removed the New York Central Flyer train from the tracks where it ran faithfully year after year and replaced it with an exact replica of the train that Paul and John's father had when he was a young boy, the Union Pacific M10000. This was John's gift to his nostalgia crazed brother Paul. Year after year they'd go through the family photo albums and they'd see pictures of Dad as a little boy playing with his M10000 and Paul would always remark how much he would have loved to see that run.

"It is the love," Macy completed for her husband as she helped him build a tunnel of brightly colored packages for the M10000 to emerge from.

"There certainly is a lot of that going on around here," said Gus as he looked around the room.

"This place was an echoing tomb until recently," said John. "The only sound here was the sound of Gus's hammers and saws as he rebuilt this place."

"Yeah, I was avoiding an echoing tomb of my own," said Gus with a sigh. Then seeing the questioning look on Lucy's face he said "My wife had passed away, the girls had already moved out, so I filled the void with work. Non-stop work, I spent a couple of Christmas Eve's and Christmas Days right here with Paul rebuilding this place."

Turning off the lights they proceeded into the parlor, where the fire in the parlor fireplace was burning low. Macy and John made sure that everything was as it should be, then they lit a couple of oil lamps and turned off the electric lights in the room. "This is a Jarecki family tradition that goes back... I don't know how far it goes back to be honest, I just hope it continues," said John, "through the lean years it meant a lot."

"I'm sure Paul will remember," said Macy with a smile.

"Really? On his wedding night?" John was aghast at what his wife said. He and Macy had several small silver plates that clipped on to the tree branches. Each silver plate had a small silver cup soldered to the center of the plate, and in each cup, they placed a white, four inch tall candle.

"Lucy and I put the candles on the tree, and I left a note for him," Macy had a radiant smile as she and John lit the candles. The natural candlelight was more beautiful than any ornament on the tree and the shuddering flames made the tinsel shimmer.

"You are so wise," smiled John as they kissed, then he turned to Gus and Lucy. "All right folks, years ago when my dad lost everything, and he couldn't find work, when Paul was feeding me from a dumpster, our Christmas was pretty lean, but we had each other. Mama used these candle holders and candles from St. Timmy's to light our tree and to get our minds off of the commercial aspect of Christmas, we joined hands and told each other what the greatest presents God has given us was this year. We weren't allowed to name pets or toys, so I'm just little, maybe 4, I know I wasn't in school yet, so I don't remember what I said. But I remember the look in Paul's eyes when he said, "I got a job at Mama Giardini's so you don't have to worry anymore dad." He was so happy to provide for the people he loved..."

John stopped there for a moment, fighting back the tears, but with a deep shuddering breath he continued and his voice cracked with powerful emotions "My greatest Christmas present from God this year was to see that look in my big brothers eyes again. His eyes, they were so dead for so long... when he stepped out of the truck at church that Sunday, with Andi and those beautiful babies..." He broke down with tears of joy, unable to continue. He wanted to say how he saw that look in Paul's eye, literally glowing from his eyes at the wedding, but he couldn't form the words, all he could do was hug Macy as he fought to contain the tears of joy.

"I, myself, received a similar cadeau de Noël," started Macy whose voice was starting to tremble also. "When Paul came to us, he was emotionally shattered, that... that... raclure de bidet! (something scraped from a bidet) she destroyed that man!"

"Dear!" cried John.

"Non! I care not for speaking polite, his wife... putain! La pute! She was a whore! Paul was so sad, for so many years, and then he was so empty, simply working and sleeping, l' appareil a machine, so I am glad you got your brother back, that brings me joy also, and is similar to my cadeau de Noël. For my cadeau de Noël from God is a sister!" She sighed with happiness and relief as she said it aloud. Every year of her life was spent alone, wishing and praying for another woman whom she could share her deepest, most intimate thoughts, a sister she could trust and spend time with. Andie was all that to her and more, they could talk and laugh about almost anything, Andi was teaching her about children, something she definitely wants, and she's teaching Andi to speak French, and Andi is picking up on it fairly quickly. Since so few people around them speak French, soon they will have their own private language, similar to the twin's own 'TwinBabble™'

John looked into his wife's glistening dark brown eyes and said, "Merry Christmas my darling."

"Joyeux Noël ma chérie," she replied, and their lips met.

Gus cleared his throat and said, "I will have to say that my Christmas gift from God is the chance to step back and watch all of this happen. When Paul told me his plans to marry Andi on Christmas Eve I thought "this is a rush-job if I've ever seen one" but when it came time for the ceremony I was like "why did you guys wait so long?" I'm so happy for Paul and Andi, and it's really made my life sparkle too. I can't wait to see what is next."

Then all eyes turned to Lucy, who smiled and squirmed then finally said softly "I got my Andi back." Her eyes started to tear up, "I felt so guilty when I moved here, I felt like I abandoned her and the girls and was going to try to convince her to move here when she came out to visit, but you guys did it all for me!" She started to get misty and sniffed a couple of times, "You guys, all of you, are so incredible. Thank you for loving my Andi as much as I do."

John blew out the candles but left them on the tree to show the twins how pretty the candles were, then he went over to the fireplace, crouched down, took a folded piece of paper out of his pocket and started to scorch the edges.

"Burning a letter from your girlfriend pastor?" grinned Gus.

"No, I received a text from Paul asking me to get this letter out of his desk drawer, singe the edges, and put it in one of the girl's stockings." He showed Gus the paper, it was the twin's letter to Santa Claus.

"What's with burning the letter?" asked Gus.

"No idea, I'm hoping Paul will explain it to us in the morning," said John as he tucked the letter into a stocking hanging from the mantle. "Sounds like Paul and Andi are starting a new tradition. I wish we had a fireplace when we were kids."

"How did your parents do it?" asked Lucy.

"We didn't have a fireplace; we had a space heater. Dad would stack bricks around it to make it look like a fireplace, and mom would tack the stockings to the wall. There was just Paul and I, no other kids."

"Sounds kind of sad," said Lucy.

"No, not at all. Just because we didn't have a big house with lots of fancy store-bought decorations and a fifteen-foot-tall tree didn't mean our Christmases were sad. Just the opposite, we had each other and our church and our neighborhood. I don't think my family ever had a bad Christmas, just some years there wasn't much under the tree, and some years we did very well for ourselves."

"What about the time you came home a protestant pastor instead of a catholic priest and had a black wife to present to momma and poppa?" asked Macy as she re-arranged the stockings on the parlor fireplace.

"Ok, I'll admit, that one was a little bit tense," said John, "but momma was just worried that our kids would come out zebra striped." John turned to Lucy who had covered her mouth but was giggling. "You laugh, but it's true, she was terrified of that. She said that she was going to have to go to the zoo to visit her grandchildren."

"I told her that when we have children, that we were going to encourage them to get jobs as zookeepers to make their grandmama happy," grinned Macy, which sent Lucy into gales of laughter.

"You laugh, but it happened," said John.

"Mama was funny," said Macy. "She was teasing us... I miss her."

"And when mama finally settled down it turned out to be one of the better Jarecki Family Christmases in a long time." Seeing that Macy had finished arranging the stockings he turned to stack presents under the trees.

The largest collection of gifts was in the parlor underneath the huge, beautifully decorated blue spruce that was harvested by John and Paul from their secret grove of "Christmas Ready" trees on Paul's property shortly before Andi arrived. These were the gifts that would be opened Christmas morning. The gifts for people that were coming later for dinner or the Boxing Day gifts were under the living room tree.

Gus had a ball putting together the Big Wheel bikes for the girls, both were blue, and each depicted a different female character in the latest Disney cartoon. Each one came with two racing pylons and Gus put the four pylons in a line down the center of the Library floor giving plenty of room at each end to allow the twins to negotiate the turns of "Jarecki Speedway."

Finally, all the preparations were complete, the final gift placed in its proper position, the final stocking filled to bulging and hung in its proper place. Much needed folding chairs brought up from the basement storage and placed at the ready for the visitors, and the good punch bowl and mug set readied for the morning. Seeing everything in order and ready for the morning, John and Macy headed upstairs.

"I don't know if anyone told you, but this is a sleep-over party, said Gus as he dimmed the lights in the Parlor and now the only light coming from the tree, the window behind the tree, the fire, and the occasional candle. "There's three unoccupied bedrooms up there, just grab one and nap until 6:00 AM if you want."

"Does it have to be unoccupied?" asked Lucy with a smile. Gus didn't answer, he smiled and turned toward the tree. "It's still snowing," said Lucy softly.

"It's beautiful, nearly as beautiful as..." Lucy stopped Gus by placing her soft hand on his lips.

"Gus, don't get any ideas. I can't be a lover; I can't be a girlfriend. I'm not a lesbian but then I'm not quite anything really. I want to get to set records, so I train, I want to be a doctor, so I work. I don't wear fancy dresses; I wear speed suits and scrubs. I don't...

Now it was Gus's turn to stop her with a hand calloused from decades of hard labor laid gently on her lips. "You're breaking up with me before we even exchange phone numbers?" He shook his head. "I'm not looking for a lover, I don't even know if I deserve a girlfriend, but what I do know is that I am attracted to you, you're in my thoughts constantly and I sure like talking to you. Why don't we hang out together and see what the future has in store for us?" He leaned forward to kiss her and she didn't pull back.

After their lips parted, they stood looking at the beautiful tree and watching the snowflakes swirl around outside through the holly lined window. Gus put his arm around her waist, and she leaned her head on his shoulder. Millions of possibilities of a future that included Gus somewhere swirled in her head like snowflakes. "Where do we go from here?"

"I was thinking down to the media room to watch a great Christmas movie."

"Like what?"

"Die Hard."

She suddenly put a hand on each side of his face and looked him in the eye. "One or Two?"

"It's not Christmas until Hans goes off the 23^rd floor of the Nakatomi Plaza."

"This is going to be a wonderful friendship!"

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It was 6:23 when Andi and Paul crept into the house. Andi put on coffee while Paul brought in a large, covered bakers pan, larger than any normal sheet pan. He placed it on the formal dining table and uncovered it: there were buns and rolls, ham egg & cheese on bagel, donuts, coffee cake, and fruit salad.

Paul put the bagel sandwiches in the microwave oven while Andi went upstairs. She first checked on the twins who were sound asleep, Wonka laying on a rug at the foot of their beds. Wonka appeared to be asleep, but his eyes traced every move Andi made.

The bedrooms in the house were arranged in two rows of three divided by the grand staircase. The two bedrooms at the balcony end of the row had their own bath and walk-in closets so one was the Master, the other was the "other-master" for lack of a better designation. The only difference was the location and the view out of the window. Paul had chosen one master to sleep in, only because the construction when that room was rebuilt was complete first, but as soon as Andi moved in, she disagreed with the view, it looked straight into the neighbor's tree. The other overlooked a quiet street in a peaceful village. She moved all of Paul's clothes and toiletries to the master bedroom of her choice after she redecorated the room.

When Andi and the twins moved into the house, Paul had moved onto the couch in the media room rather than one of the other bedrooms to deal with the desire to 'commute' in the middle of the night before the wedding. With Paul out of the way Andi was able to complete the move without his knowledge, so when he came to change clothes one day, he found his room to be completely empty.

Hearing splashing across the way, he walked into the other master bedroom and found it tastefully decorated, his clothes neatly hung up in the walk in closet, and in the bathroom he found Andi and the twins splashing in a sea of bubbles the large free standing tub. When he walked in the twins held an armload of bubbles up to their chests and screamed. "You taught them that?" he asked Andi. She smiled and nodded.

"It's a skill that may come in handy someday," she smiled and lifted a couple of handfuls of bubbles to her chest to end the twin's demanding "Momma! Cover up like me!"

Paul gave her a kiss and said, "I love the room." And that was all that was said about her redecoration.

Andi found John and Macy snoozing in the "other-master" bedroom and roused them. She checked the remaining bedrooms, but they were all unoccupied except for the twins' room.

She went down to the kitchen to mention this to Paul, but he was gone too. She went down to the basement and found Gus and Lucy snoozing in each other's arms while some space movie played on the big screen. She bent over the back of the couch and shook Lucy's shoulder gently and Lucy slowly came to consciousness. She looked up at Andi and said "Hey, sexy."

"Hey sexy yourself. Breakfast is ready."

Lucy looked up at the snoozing Gus and snuggled in, closing her eyes.

"We'll be up in a few minutes," said Gus without opening his eyes.

Andi headed back up the stairs, her huge fluffy slippers making no sound. She walked out to the breakfast nook in the kitchen dining area and saw something that made her heart fall. Paul was standing in the driveway talking with her mother. Damnit. Andi opened the door a crack to hear what was going on. Her mother was on a roll, that's for sure.

"I just don't think it's proper, you and my daughter holed up in your love nest with my grandchildren doing God knows what..."

"God knows certainly well what we did with the children there, and he knows what we did there without the children last night..."

"And now they're in there with your African American nanny, how dare you!"

"She's neither African nor is she American, and she's not a nanny...

"I don't care what she is..."

"She is my brother's wife, she is now Andi's sister, and she is a doctor of theology AND a doctor of psychology, and if you didn't care then why did you bring her up?"

Just then Andi's stepfather, Harold Driscoll, grew a pair and stepped into the fray "Now dear..."

"Don't 'now dear' me! You just let me..."

Paul started talking to Harold and ignored Heather completely "She's pretty upset because she was left out of her daughter's wedding ceremony, replaced by a dog. Now I admit it would have been nice if their grandmother led the twins up the aisle, but she is the one that cut off Andi thoroughly yesterday and left us high and dry. It hurt Andi a lot and I really took offense to it also. Great offense. Then there is what she said and did about Frank." He gave Andi's mother a look that up until now only Frank has seen.

"Frank was a nice man, he cared for Andi, he..."

Paul leaned in close and whispered into her mother's ear so Andi couldn't hear but it must have been about the rooms in Blackhawk, her mom looked horrified. Yep, Blackhawk. Paul then spoke louder "We have the DNA evidence, the twin's father is a Russian mobster who fucked a helpless, blindfolded Andi to clear Franks gambling debts." With that bit of news Heather broke down crying in the driveway. Andi never saw her mother cry, when Andi was a kid if her mom had a problem, she would just drink it away. "Harold, when she's ready bring her inside, it's Christmas, the twins want to see her... We don't want an apology from either side, we just want our children's grandparents in the family. Oh, and we want you to wear these, it's a pajama party Christmas." And he handed Harold and Heather Driscoll two wrapped packages.

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"Yaaaaayyyyyy!" The twins came roaring down the back stairs into the kitchen as fast as their tiny legs could carry them. They both had red "foot jammies" and red plaid robes that they were both dragging. They came around the corner at the bottom of the stairs and slammed into Paul. "Poppa!" and they were off again racing as fast as they could through the kitchen where they could find their desired target: Wonka. He was just coming through the dog flap after doing his morning business and was blindsided by the twin tornado.

"It's Christmas Wonka!"

"Maybe Santa left you a reindeer for breakfast!"

"Sounds like someone told the twins what wolves eat," said Andi angrily glaring at Paul, but Lucy was looking pretty guilty.

"Can we open presents now?" asked Sandy and Madoline as they bounced up and down in excitement.

"Photo first," said Andi and shooed her babies into the "Pretty Room" (as the twins called the Parlor). Seeing the gifts under the tree the twins shrieked "SANTA WAS HERE!" and headed for the piles of gifts. It took a heroic effort on Andi and Paul's part to keep the twins from diving in and tearing open the mountain of gifts, but soon they had the girls under control and dressed in their red robes.

All grouped up in front of the tree; Andi, Paul, and the twins in red plaid robes, everyone else in green plaid robes. The colors were intended to reflect the colors at the wedding but only Andi, Macy, and Lucy caught on to that fact and would point it out for years to come. The robes all matched, either red plaid or green plaid, and the men's pajamas were either red or green, but the women's pajamas were picked to match their personalities, Lucy had a cozy green flannel nightgown, Macy had sexy green babydolls, and Andi was simply wearing the top to Paul's red men's pajamas.

Paul set up a DSLR on a tripod and took several pictures via remote control and it was starting to remind Andi of the wedding photo shoot only 12 hours ago. The twins were starting to get antsy to open presents and they were getting ready to dive into that when Andi's mom and stepfather came in. Even Paul was surprised when Andi cheerily said "Hurry mom! Get your robe on and get in here!" Some more photos of the entire group were taken with Grandma and Grandpa Driscoll in their red plaid robes, several with Grandma and Grandpa and the twins, and some with Andi and Paul before the bride and groom could settle down on the love seat.

"That was right civil of you to treat your mom so nice."

Andi looked Paul right in the eye and said softly in his ear "It's easy being civil when you spent the night getting your guts rearranged by a giant dick," and planted a big kiss on him.

To start the morning John put on the Christmas music, the music he and Paul grew up with - Andy Williams, Jo Stafford, Mel Torme, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Steve Lawrence and Edie Gourmet, and all those big instrumentals. To the Jarecki boys the spirit of Christmas is in the music, and this music has been playing all month and would be in the background for another twelve days.

The twins wanted to dive into the pile of gifts but Paul said, "Stockings first!" so with Auntie Lucy's help they got the stockings down and discovered candy, crayons, coloring books, small toys, and a giant orange in the toe of each stocking, but in Madeline's stocking was a piece of paper that was scorched and burned at the edges. "What is it?" asked Andi.

The girls shrugged and were about to toss it aside when Paul said, "See if there is something written on it."

Madeline opened it up and they saw it was the exact letter they sent to Santa via smoke signal. They were shocked, mouths hanging open, and their expression made Andi's favorite Christmas photo for years to come and even featured prominently on future family Christmas cards. They suddenly ran about the room waving their letter about, showing it to everyone with the pronouncement "Santa got our letter!" That is when Gus wheeled the tricycles into the living room.

"Here is something that Santa brought especially for you," he declared. The twins saw the Big Wheel tricycles and dropped the letter. "Hop on, give them a whirl," said Gus.

They hopped on leaving the scorched letter forgotten and took off in a household wide rally.

John bent over and asked Paul, "What was that whole burning the letter thing?"

"We were running late to get to the church last night and the girls suddenly remembered that they didn't write their letter to Santa," explained Paul.

While Paul reminisced on the joy of helping the two munchkins generate a list, Andi continued, "Paul had them write a letter to Santa, which he burned up in the fireplace. I'm told that Santa gathered the smoke up and put the letter back together."

"He did! See?" cried Sandy as she slapped the letter into John's stomach before she remounted her Hot Wheel and chased after her sister.

"That Santa, what a guy," chuckled John glad to have taken part in making Santa Claus become real for a pair of little girls.

"Père Noël has a special gift in the living room for Monsieur Paul," said Macy with a huge smile. "Debout!"

"What's a doo-boo?"

"It means get up!" growled John, pulling on his brother's arm.

Paul allowed himself to be led to the living room, and there everything looked normal, the gifts were rearranged a little, but no major changes, even the spotlight continued to shine multiple colors of light on the silver tree with more noise and heat than could be considered safe. He was about to ask, "What's the deal?" when Andi crouched down and adjusted the speed lever of the train's transformer. The M-10000 "Tin Worm" emerged from the tunnel of packages in its art-deco, brown and yellow, streamlined glory. Three articulated trainset included the locomotive/baggage/rail post office in the lead, hauling two passenger cars, the M-10000 was the train that began the downfall of the steam locomotive. For seven years the M-10000 raced across the American west shuttling passengers between Kansas City Missouri and Salina Kansas, until it died of exhaustion in 1941 with a million miles under its belt.

"It's beautiful!" gasped Paul, "I-i-is this prewar?" There are some beautiful reproduction Lionel M-10000 models out there, but one made before WWII while the real M-10000 was kicking up Kansas dust in the real world was utterly worth the collector's value. Their father had an M-10000, bought second hand from a Buffalo NY icon: Chester Spoonley, also known as Spoonley The Train Man.

"Yes, it is, and the entire set, including the track and transformer was rebuilt, by hand, by Chester Spoonley the third. I told "Trey" who it was for, and why we wanted it, and he seriously put his heart and soul into it."

For Paul there were no words, he held John tight and wept muttering "Thank you so much, it's so beautiful."

Confused Andi turned to Macy and whispered, "It's just a toy train."

"Non," whispered Macy, "it is so much more." She picked up a photo album from the 50's vintage coffee table and flipped to a marked page. She showed Andi a black and white photograph of a boy sitting next to a Christmas tree as a Lionel M-10000 streamed past. "It is a link to their father. They know so little of their father Josef Jarecki, he shared so little of his past with them."

"I wonder what ever became of dad's train," said Paul as he and John headed back to the parlor with Paul wiping the tears with his bathrobe sleeve.

"Who knows, sitting on a shelf somewhere? Maybe going around a Christmas tree in South Buffalo? I can't see throwing something that nice away. Maybe this is dad's train? You never know," and John led Paul back into the parlor.

"Boys and their toys," smiled Andi.

"Andi," said Macy in a scolding tone. She took hold of Andi's left hand and pointed to her rings. "This piece of metal is so much more than a trinket, just as that train is so much more than a toy. It is the meanings that we give them, the memories they invoke."

Andi looked at her ring and remembered the night, walking in the gentle snowfall and looking at the Christmas lights, waiting for Mr. Wetzel to finish crafting the ring that is now on her finger. The grilled Danish, the hot, delicious Tim Horton's double-double, the festive window displays, twins running in circles trying to catch snowflakes on their tongues, and Paul placing this ring on her finger. She had a feeling that she would remember that evening forever because of these rings. Looking at her ring she said, "You're right, these items tie us to who we are."

"And you have come to an important truth in life," Macy grasped Andi by the shoulders and stared into her eyes. "Repeat after me; Macy is always right."

"Wait... what?" Andi spanked Macy's butt causing her to laugh and step out of the way.

As if on cue, the twins appeared, their eyebrows lowered, their jaws set. "What are you doing?" demanded Madeline.

"We're playing Smack The Sister," replied Macy who swatted Andi in the butt.

Quick as lightning Sandy reached out and gave Madeline a quick smack in the arm and cried out "I win!"

"Hey!" cried Andi and Madeline.

Just then, Gus stuck his head into the living room and called out "Paul said that any presents left unopened are his by law." That ended all familial feuding and the girls raced to the parlor.

The gifts Paul gave Andi were varied and beautiful, tons of clothing (picked out by Macy and Lucy), the mother's ring which Andi was expecting, and a present that completely shocked her. It was a wonderfully bound book titled A Portfolio of Our Assets. She knew that Paul had worked very hard turning a near bankrupt chain of 3 automotive dealerships into one of the largest auto chains in the NY-PENN region, and he worked consulting at two different cardiology departments. This book showed a breakdown of various investments and other side businesses that Paul managed out of the sheer boredom of a life lived alone in solitude. And now he is sharing the entire estate with his beloved.

As she flipped through the book Andi bookmarked several pages with scraps of wrapping paper for later review. She shifted her sore posterior in the seat next to Paul, ignoring his explanation of how the charter income will pay for the expenditures and how he's contracted a crew that can yadda yadda yadda. All she knew is that her man is securing the future for her and her babies. She went through the portfolio again, looking at the different accounts, stock acquisitions, and income as CEO of Jarecki Motors INC. That's not even including his income as consultant to Springville and South Boston hospitals.

There was a list of debits, there was still some outstanding debt on the farm on Trevet road but it's almost paid off. "My student loans will mess this whole thing up," she muttered grimly.

"Hmm? No." he flipped back a page and showed her a chart that showed where her loans were scheduled for payoff, December 27th. "I have your Toyota listed as a debit, but I know a couple of salesmen, we can deal with that."

"Wait... my debt is gone?"

"Not yet, day after tomorrow."

Andi gasped, "My debit is gone? MY DEBIT IS GONE!!!" she shrieked and she threw her arms around Paul's neck and peppered his face with kisses.

"Well, yeah we absorbed it and your bills are paid off... except for your car."

What impressed her the very most was the sizeable annuity he set up for the twins, and the will which left everything to her. She stared at that stunned. It was worth more money than she could imagine. "When I sell my condo that money won't even make a ripple when it hits this pond," she said in shock.

"No, what we can do is set up an..." Paul almost started into a financial tangent when Andi covered his lips with hers.

"Stop," she whispered, "it's Christmas, can this wait until after the honeymoon? Where are we going anyway?"

Paul looked stunned, "Our boat of course, unless you'd rather not, but it's in the portfolio. I was figuring we could spend a couple of weeks on our yacht..."

"We have a yacht?"

"Well, yeah. It's kind of a Christmas present for the four of us. Didn't you notice?" He opened the portfolio book again and flipped to a bookmarked page.

Andi saw a sheet full of numbers and slowly it swam into meaning, this was describing a pretty nice boat. Is seventy-two feet a big boat? Then she turned the page and she saw a photo of a large motor yacht, "That's the same as Frank's boat..." she thought, then she saw the name "Regal Dream," yeah - it was Franks boat. But the next page showed a series of pictures of the boatyard men repainting the stern to read "Andi's Dream" and the realization caused her to squeal and scream. She hopped up and threw her arms around Paul's neck laughing and crying at the same time as she kissed his face. The dragon of her nightmares was now leashed, and the leash was handed to her!

"Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God! I have a boat! WE HAVE A BOAT!" she grabbed the portfolio and ran about the parlor showing the pictures and inviting everyone on the maiden voyage.

"Andi dear, you can't invite everyone, it only has four cabins..."

"It has cabins? Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God! My boat has cabins!"

Paul stopped trying to calm down his wife and leaned back to enjoy the show. The bedlam only got worse when Macy opened a box and found inside a folder with all the paperwork needed to build...

"CABINS! I got CABINS!" Macy went ecstatic when she saw that John and Paul were going to build her a pair of cabins identical to Paul's cabins on his farm on Trevette road.

John tried to explain "Paul and I figured that since he now has a family his cabins will be full so..." Macy stopped his explanation with a lingering kiss.

"Merci beaucoup mon amour."

Andi finally calmed down and eased her sore posterior into the love seat next to Paul. "Cabins! We both got cabins," she sighed and leaned in for a kiss. They kissed again sweet and long, and when they broke the kiss, they looked and there were the twins staring at them. The twins had exhausted themselves in the Library racetrack, parked their tricycles haphazardly, then returned to the "Pretty Room" when they heard their mom scream.

The twins were used to some pretty lean Christmases and the Hotwheels bikes and a big room to race in, not to mention the huge stockings and stuffies they saw under the tree were more than they could have ever hoped for, until they heard their mom say, "Aren't you going to open your presents?"

They started at each other eyes and mouths opened wide in surprise and joy and were ready to dive into the mountain of gifts when Poppa Paul said, "We have some rules here," and immediately their shoulders slumped, and their faces changed to comical frowns as they awaited the words they dreaded. "Since you guys can run the fastest," Paul continued, "you get to help deliver presents and..." he produced a box of garbage bags, "you collect wrapping paper."

"Ok!" That wasn't too bad an exchange for unknown heaps of Christmas loot.

Aunt Macy was sitting on the floor sorting out presents and the twins really got into delivering the gifts to the adults in the room, getting it right the first time quite often. Exchanges like "No, I said that goes to Grandpa Harold" or "Here, this one is for you, the twins gave it to me," were heard quite often, but that never slaked the joy the twins felt as they carried and sometimes pushed packages around the room to the adults. Before long Andi had quite a stack in front of her as did Macy and Lucy. Even Wonka who didn't let the excitement ruin his chances for a nap in front of the fireplace spoil his fun, had a small stack of gifts to open.

"Aren't there any for us?" Madeline finally asked.

With a huge grin Macy gestured to a huge pile of gifts behind her. "These are all for you two, but only if you can read your names!"

Well, of course they could, if their names were written in large block script in clear bold letters, which their parents made sure was the case with each package. The overjoyed twins began tearing open packages chattering excitedly in Twinbabble® until their mom had to remind them "Use your words!" but they would occasionally slip back into Twinbabble® due to their excitement.

When they opened a package, they were always asked "Who was that from?" and they learned to recognize "Mom and Dad" and "Santa," but they needed help with new words like "Uncle John and Aunt Macy" and "Uncle Gus" and "Aunty Lucy." Dolls, dresses, brightly colored activity toys, books that talk, Unicorn pajamas, Princess castles, and stuffed toys of all shape and color. Finally, they came to a box that contained a flat piece of wood and they brought it to mom to find out what it was.

"Bthm bthm nn foo" (that's what TwinBabble® sounds like).

"Use your words."

Sandy screwed up her face in annoyance. "Santa brought us this, what is it?"

Andi took the wood plaque which simply said "Official Proclamation" in ornate gold leaf letters. Andi inspected it further and found that it was hinged like a book. She opened it and found that it contained two identical documents one with Sandy's name, one with Madeline's name. Both said that the application of adoption by Paul Jarecki has been approved and congratulations from the Erie County Commissioner. It was dated at the time and moment of their marriage December 24 at 6:45 PM signed by County Commissioner Michael V. Giardini IV.

Paul had started the adoption process as soon as the streets were clear of snow less than one hundred hours after their mutual proposal of marriage in the snow, and since this was a purely legal matter since there was no father listed on their birth certificates, there were far fewer hoops to jump through than when adopting a child from an agency. It also helped that County Commissioner Giardini was a guest at the wedding and sat next to his brother and sister-in-law whom the twins called "Grandma G."

Andi started to softly cry in delight.

"What is it mommy? What is it?" the twins were frantic in their desire to find out what it meant.

"Babies, this is the best present a little girl could ever want for Christmas!" Andi said as she laughed and cried at the same time.

"What is it?" they demanded even more desperately. The entire room was entranced by the Christmas drama being played out.

"It means that you are going to have an official, real live and for true Daddy!" The twins received the news with stunned silence, their faces saddened, and Madeline started to cry. "What's the matter?" asked Andi, "Aren't you happy? Girls?" and with that Madeline started to cry even harder.

Now Sandy's eyes started to well up with tears and she suddenly cried out "But we want Poppa Paul!" Both girls wailed at the top of their lungs, holding each other tight as the tears flowed. All of the adults in the room realized why they were crying, and they too were moved to tears at their heartbreak.

Paul tried to say something, anything to comfort them, but Andi patted his knee and said something to him, but it was impossible to be heard over the sound of the heartbroken girls. Finally, the twins began to run out of steam and their wailing subsided somewhat. Andi held the plaque open to show the girls the documents inside and said "Look, see what this says?"

Shuddering and sniffling the twins turned and studied the documents as if they could actually read, they scanned the entire page but all they were able to pick out was their names at the top of the page. "It says," Andi continued, "that if you want Poppa Paul to be your real daddy, you can have him forever and ever, and no one can take him away from you."

It took a few seconds for that to sink in, the girls still clutching each other carefully considered those words, then suddenly shrieked with joy and catapulted themselves on to Paul's lap, kissing and hugging their new forever father chanting "Poppa" between each kiss. Paul found himself covered in snot, slobber, and tears of joy as he hugged his daughters close. This is what he waited his entire life for. Between each noisy kiss Paul heard Gus ask, "So are you glad to have a daddy?" Paul looked up to see Gus recording the scene with his phone, as were John, Macy, Lucy, and Harold.

"He's not our daddy," said Sandy in a scolding voice.

"He's our poppa!" explained Madeline. "only momma can call him daddy." And the girls went back to kissing Paul.

"You care to explain that brother?" asked John.

"Not on camera," smiled Paul. He turned to Andi and said, "They changed directions pretty quick."

Andi nodded, "They get that from their momma... or didn't I mention that."

"Thanks for the heads up." Paul finally realized the rest of his life was going to be filled with emotional U-turns from three different directions. He started to wrestle the girls up off his lap. "Ok babies, time to collect paper."

"Yes poppa!" they shouted, and each twin grabbed a plastic trash bag and frantically ran around the room picking up wrapping paper.

Paul and Andi eased back in the love seat with a sigh. "Don't expect them to follow your directions that quickly in the future," smiled Andi.

"Yes, momma bear."

"Or ever again, for that matter."

"I fully expect that to be the case." They looked around the room and Macy brought them each a cup of coffee fortified with hot coco and a dash of peppermint schnapps. "Have a good Christmas darling?" Paul asked.

Andi snuggled up close and covered them both with a new comforter she recently unwrapped. "After our ceremony, and our night in the cabin, then all of this... There's only one thing that would make this morning better," she whispered to Paul, "more dick."

"You know, we can slip out of here without anyone noticing and start christening this house."

"I need time to heal, can you give me till lunch?" The married lovers chuckled and kissed.

Paul went into the dining room to grab a pastry for Andi and himself, and when he returned, he found Andi curled up asleep there in the loveseat. So, when John got up from the couch Paul carried Andi over to the couch and laid her down to nap, covering her with her new comforter. He motioned to John and Gus and they came over. "Shall we?"

"It's that time," said John.

"I'm in," said Gus.

"Come join us Harold," said Paul inviting his father-in-law to their cherished tradition.

"Think I will," said Harold, and the four headed for the back door. It was the boys traditional Christmas morning cigar. Normally Macy would join them but there was something she wanted to do first. She crept over to the couch where Andi lay. Seeing that something was up Lucy joined her and sat on the floor in front of the couch.

Andi opened one eye and saw Macy and Lucy peering at her, both with huge grins. "What?" she asked.

"Well, how was it?"

Andi wracked her brain for a wise ass answer and couldn't come up with one. All she could say was "I hurt... I may never sit normally again."

"And?" asked Lucy.

"And I want more." Wincing, Andi pushed herself up to a seated position.

"Come on mon ami, tell us," Macy whispered. "What is the score?"

"It was 6 to 6 yesterday morning, today I think it it's 2 to negative 7," Andi said referring to their sexy football bet. "Oh God can that man make me come."

"Come on, dish," pestered Lucy

"Let's just say that I've been all the way around the world."

"Ooooo belle-soeur!"(Sister in law) gasped Macy, anal sex was something that terrified her. "How bad did it hurt?"

"Thanks to your emergency supplies..." she looked around to see if anyone was paying attention "... not much at all. In fact, I came my brains out." To emphasize her point she stuck her tongue out and crossed her eyes.

"How was Paul?" asked Lucy, "He seems quiet and introverted."

"Not last night," Andi thought back to the details of her wedding night, "He was everything I needed exactly when I needed it. If I needed a man who would hold and comfort me, he was a big cuddly teddy bear, If I needed a man to fuck me raw... well... heh, he did... and he did me soooo good." She crossed her eyes and hung her tongue out making a classic ahegao face to the amusement of Lucy and Macy.

"When he... you know... when you let him..." Macy struggled with the words.

Andi looked sad. "When we started, he was... I ummm..." She took a deep breath and finally got the words out, "I was on my hands and knees and he was being so gentle and getting me so hot! I was ready for anything that would come to his mind, and I mean anything, then I realized that I couldn't see him, I started to think about what Frank did to me... and I freaked out." She was actually beginning to feel the emotions she felt last night. "I froze... I just curled up into a ball and started to cry."

Lucy looked like she was in shock, and she was feeling guilty, she had never told Lucy about the horrible things that Frank had done to her. Lucy was thinking that if she could have gotten Andi to talk, maybe she could have gotten her some help...

"Belle-soeur!" gasped Macy, "what did you do? What did He do?"

"I just lay there in a ball wishing a hole would open up and suck me in," said Andi sadly. "I was sure I ruined everything, and he was going to divorce me right then." She sighed and took a deep shuddering breath. "But he didn't. He covered me with a blanket and cuddled and hugged me and told me that I was emotionally safe with him, and that we were financially safe for a long time. Then we got out of bed and lit some candles on the tree and he called me his gift from God."

"We did the same thing," said Lucy with a smile.

"I was worried Paul would forget," added Macy, "It is important to us Jareckis that the traditions continue, like canned chow-mein on Halloween."

Andi felt another thrill run through her when she thought on Macy's words "us Jareckis" - she and Macy, her wonderful new friend, were bound together in a family now, so many thoughts of her new family slipped into her head, like how she refused to take Frank's last name, but leapt at the opportunity to take Paul's last name, will the twins want to take it too? Which somehow lead back to last night... "We got back into bed and that's when Paul told me he was planning to adopt the girls." She smiled and leaned back, "When I knew that we could depend on him, I felt myself relax and enjoy my wedding night."

Lucy and Macy grinned and were ready to pump Andi for more sex talk when Heather appeared out of nowhere and sat down next to Andi. "Your father was like that, my Danny." She sniffed. "I love Harold, but my Danny..." she held a tissue to her nose and closed her eyes. "I can still smell him; he was my everything..." she wept bitterly into her tissue while the three younger women remained silent. "I sometimes call his name out at the most inopportune time... Harold says he understands but I know it hurts him."

Andi was utterly shocked, she has never seen her mother like this, so open. In fact, she never thought her mother cared about her father, Andi never heard her mother talk about him until now. Heather continued "I still love your father; he's the reason why I pushed Frank on you."

Andi was in total shock now, "What the fuck mom? Frank whored me out! He whipped me, he beat me, he took my money and ran off and left me pregnant, penniless, and up to my ass in debt."

Heather looked miserable. "I didn't know, no one could have predicted that, he was a harmless schlub that I was sure would treat you decent like Harold treats me."

"But why?"

"Because of that Kauffman guy you were seeing, Craig or Harris or something."

"Nathan, so what?"

"He was a fighter pilot; I didn't want to see you fall for him then watch him go over there and get killed like your dad. I didn't want your heart splattered all over some desert shithole like mine was." With that Heather broke into heart rending sobs.

"Mine was too when we lost dad," Andi tried to hug and console her mother, but this was the first time she had ever heard her mother talk so plainly about her father's death and soon both women were crying.

At the sound of their mother and grandmother weeping the twins responded instantly. They wheeled their Big Wheels to the Pretty Room as fast as they could and found their mom and grandma crying. Sandra climbed on Grandma Heathers lap while Madeline crawled up on mom's lap and asked repeatedly what was wrong. Finally, Andi wiped her eyes and said, "We're telling sad stories."

Sandy said with an authoritative finger wave "Don't do that." The problem was solved as far as Sandy was concerned, but Madeline wasn't so sure. She leaned against her mother and patted her back.

"Wanna hear something funny?" said Andi in a tone of voice that wasn't telling any jokes. "I met Paul for the first time on the night Frank left me. I wish I could remember how I felt about Paul at the time, but I was carrying the girls, and the complications were starting to set in about that time."

"Are you his first wife?"

"No, but I get the feeling I'm the first one to give a damn. His first wife was a fighter pilot, she died of a heart attack right there in the cockpit of her F-15 while she was waiting to take off. The cause was an allergic reaction to the morning after pill."

Heather was confused. "Paul loves these babies! I can't see why Paul would ask her to take a morning after pill if he loves children so much."

"He didn't, she was on a 90-day temporary duty assignment to Korea, they hadn't seen each other in 3 months. It destroyed him when he found out that she slept with her commander. He retired from the Air Force and went and hid in a cabin for several years." Andi felt sick to her stomach when she thought of her Paul being so lonely. They were quiet for a long time; the house was filled with the sounds of Christmas music and occasionally the sound of the girls laughing as they returned to their racetrack.

"Madame Heather," started Macy, "How long did you know Andi's père, her father before you married him?"

Heather took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She looked inwardly to a number that she kept sealed in her heart for years. "Seventy-five incredible love filled hours."

Andi, who was still looking off to the middle space suddenly snapped to the here and now. "Wait... what?"

Heather tried to smile and shrugged, "There's just something about a long weekend in Las Vegas when you're a single girl."

Andi's jaw dropped as she recalled what Nana said to her when Paul called Nana from the cabin as she tried to wrestle the phone away, something about short courtships being a family tradition.

The women were silent in shock for a moment, then Lucy said "Well, I see we've made some real progress here today group, but what I really need is brunch." With that she got up and headed for the dining room, followed by Macy, Heather and the twins. Still in pain Andi was slow to get up.

"Wait! We need to talk!"

<><><><><>֎<><><><><>

The twins didn't want to eat breakfast but continue to play with their new toys. Their mother, Aunt, Aunty, and Grandmother tried to force them to sit down and eat a decent breakfast. Instead they sat in their chairs and pouted and whispered to each other when they were sure they couldn't be heard. They appealed to Grandma Heather for support, but she sided with the other adults.

Finally, Poppa, Grandpa, Uncle John and Mr. Gus came in from the garage talking about horses and power and ponies, and they all agreed with mom too. Life isn't fair when you're five and small. But poppa got up and made little pancakes that he called silver dollar pancakes, but they weren't silver, they were regular pancake color, and they were good! They even had Princess syrup that was red and delicious! The twins ate them up and were back at their toys in no time. Madeline even ate her bacon.

"How do you do it?" asked Andi.

"Little pancakes for little girls - it works every time. And that syrup is a Buffalo original: loganberry. And if they turned up their noses, I would have given them "Princess Toast."

"What's that?"

"I just cut the silver dollar pancakes square."

With a wave of her fingers she beckoned Paul over and she reached up and gave him a kiss. "How do you know these things?"

"I'm willing to assume," started John, "That my brother learned a thing or two teaching Children's Church for the past couple of years."

"You may be right, little brother, and I do learn a lot there. But then, I have been making those lovebugs breakfast for a couple of weeks, their tastes haven't changed any." Far off in the house could be heard:

"Bug bug."

"Bug bug."

"Little kids have really good hearing."

<><><><><>֎<><><><><>

Andi was used to Christmas day as being a sort of let-down. Once the presents were opened and the naps taken you might as well take down the tree and call it a year. Not in the Jarecki family. Once the presents were open, the mess cleaned up, and naps were taken (and Andi was looking for more naps), the party was just beginning. She arose bleary eyed from a nap where she was dreaming of a flying carpet ala Aladdin, when she realized she was flying. She was sleeping curled up on the Parlor love seat and awoke to find it being carried away by John and Harold. "Bluh? Flou? Mee?" she babbled trying to wake up.

"Now we know where the twins got their own language," said John.

"Now we know," agreed Harold and they set the loveseat next to the Christmas tree where the smell of the blue spruce reminded Andi of the forest that she and Paul and the twins explored on a snowmobile. "Sorry Mrs. Jarecki but you were in the way, we need to set up for dinner. She mumbled "yeah, yeah," and hugged her bathrobe and blanket tight and laid back down again and almost nodded off when she was scooped up in the air in Paul's arms.

"Me thinks the lady of the house doth sleep too much," he said with a smile and a kiss.

"Me thinks m'lord has faileth to provide sufficient coffee to his bride," she sighed as she lay her head on his shoulder and just basked in the feeling of warmth and safety in his arms. Then she realized he was carrying her downstairs. "Where doth m'lord convey me?"

"To the showers fair doctor, and stat, for thou hath been clothed far too long!"

Andi peeked through one half open eye and sure enough, he carried her through the home gym, into the changing area where he drew the privacy curtain between the gym and the changing room (she didn't realize there was a privacy curtain until now) and then he began to undress her like a fragile little doll, with care and kisses then he scooped her up into his arms and into the warm wet shower room already filled with steam.

Andi whooped and screamed and kicked her feet as Paul held her under the gentle rainwater shower "Don't forget that we have guests right above us." He swung her up and held her horizontally as if she were a baby and Andi suddenly felt his love as he rocked her side to side. Then just as she thought she might fall back asleep under that soothing waterfall, Paul lifted her up and tilted her toward him, bringing her left breast to his mouth.

The sudden feeling of her nipple being sucked hard brought her to a full realization of what was happening. "Oh Daddy no!" she gasped. He dropped her back down, giving her a respite, then lifted her back up, his teeth trapping her hard nipple, his tongue strumming on the sensitive nub. Then his lips closed over her areola and he began sucking while his teeth "chewed" delicately.

She gasped and wrapped her arm around his neck, pulling his mouth tight to her tit. His ministrations began to make her gasp "oh shit Daddy, ohhhhhh shit!" her body began shuddering, he was torturing her with sharp, painful pleasure. He began biting her breast, small sharp bites as if he were looking for the softest, most succulent part to start chewing then held her horizontal again, her face a mixture of fear and anticipation.

She was instantly turned on, she had never been brought 'up to speed' so fast in her life, still she thought they should act with some decorum. Her breasts shuddered with every shivering breath she took, both nipples erect with eagerness. "Daddy," she gasped, "we have a house full of guests, they're going to start looking for us... Ohhhh daddeeee!"

He lifted her up again, this time higher so he could get to her as of yet unmolested right breast. She kicked and squealed but he took her nipple in his mouth and began to chew on it giving it the same treatment her left nipple received. She tried weakly to push him away, but the illicit thrills had her in his control, and she held his mouth to her nipple exacting every erg of pleasure out of whatever came over her man.

What had come over him? She fucked him silly last night, taking him in her mouth, twice in her pussy, and even in her ass. He should be sated until they leave for their honeymoon. The illicit combination of the sharp bites along with the enthusiastic suckling of her nipples had gotten to her in a big way. Or was it his domineering attitude that was such a turn on?

He lowered her and her breast came free from his mouth with a sucking pop. She began to rub her breast and nipple with her left hand. "Daddy, why?" She was afraid to look in his eyes, she was terrified to see the same sadism she saw in Franks eyes. Yet slowly she looked and she didn't see sadism, she saw lust, she saw that same longing she felt so many times, to find a lover who will love both emotionally and physically. But she had to ask, "Why daddy?"

He looked her straight in the eye and said "I intend to fuck you to death, and I will pray to God that you have the same fate intended for me."

She recognized those words, where did they come from... "I said them," she whispered, 'and it's true,' she said to herself.

He swung her so she was upside down, her thighs over his shoulders, his strong arms holding her around the waist, her pussy exposed, wide open, and eager for his assault. And assault her he did. His mouth closed over her clit and her ankles locked behind his head. "Oh my God daddy," she sighed as he sucked and licked her clit. Upside down the blood ran to her head and her head swam but she recognized his cock sure enough. She opened her mouth and his cock slid right in, back where it belonged, inside her. She gripped his ass with one hand and his balls with the other and her head began to bob up and down on his large member. Grunting and moaning around his cock she encouraged him on, begging him to suck harder, to nibble on her clit like he did on her nipples, to spank her tight ass cheeks which he did perfectly.

Still sore from the greatest sex of her life mere hours ago and here she was getting more. He sucked and licked at her clit, pure erotic tension building and building, the sting of the spanks edged her on, oh God how she wanted to cum, and this wild man she married was using her for his own desires. Just that thought nearly set off her orgasm. They were both in a state of pure rut and one more swipe from his tongue was going to set her off.

She pulled his cock out of her mouth and cried "Oh God! Suck me! Eat me! Oh God you're the best," and she engulfed his cock again. She felt her body start to shake; this was going to be a big one...

But then he stopped, she nearly cried she needed to come so badly. He swung her down gracefully and planted her on the shower floor on her elbows and knees and she realized that he was going to mount her. She spread her legs and hissed "Yes, take me - fuck me - knock me up!" Her head threw back and her mouth and eyes flew open in shock as he plowed into her. Still not accustomed to his size she felt like she was being impaled on a fence post. The shuddering in ecstasy began again.

He drew back and paused, just the head of his cock in her pussy, then he slammed forward into her again and their bodies clapped together. "Uuuggghh! So good!" she groaned. Again he pulled back and paused, then he thrust into her pussy with all his might and their bodies met with a loud smack. This one set off the explosion she has been building up to. "Yessss!" she shrieked, and she began shoving herself back at Paul as he thrust into her over and over, the sound of their groins slapping filled the air. Looking up at the shower room door she saw Lucy peeking in at them, but there was nothing she could do to stop herself; she was out of control in lust. She grinned up at her dearest friend who winked at her and closed the door.

Andi's grunts of pleasure were starting to mix with groans of pain, still so sore after her "debut" last night, and now the wonderful, delightful rain forest shower is washing her natural lubricant away. Even while shuddering from a tremendous climax the pain was becoming too much; she was starting to worry about damaging her tissues. Reluctantly she threw herself forward on to the shower floor and cried "I'm sorry daddy, teddy bear." And curled up into a shuddering ball.

She expected anger and hate, fists and slaps. She expected Paul to continue to fuck her or hit her until she consented to it again. But nothing happened. No slaps, no hits, no angry shouts of being denied release, just the gentle soothing rain forest shower kept spattering down on them.

Andi looked behind her and Paul was simply kneeling there, waiting. "I'm sorry Daddy, but I'm sore." And suddenly her tears began to flow.

"Oh baby! don't cry," he took her in his arms and held her tight.

"You're so big in me daddy, I need some practice," she said through her tears. "I'm sorry I failed you."

"You didn't fail me baby, you used our safe word just like I asked. If you had said "no" or "stop" I may have considered it to be part of the game."

"I suppose our "emergency supplies" from last night might help... oh no!" she noticed his erection, so rampant and strong, throbbing and jerking in need. "Let me help," she whispered. She sat cross legged on the shower floor, the gentle rain trickling over them. She had him lay back, his head in her lap, then she reached forward and grabbed his cock, so hard and hot, a velvet covered steel rod, and began stroking him.

As she stroked him she leaned forward and lowered a breast to his mouth which he eagerly suckled. Her tiny hand wrapped around his cock gently and flashed up and down its length as she crooned "Cum for me daddy, give me your love. Cum for me..." Soon his sucking at her breast grew urgent, his cock grew harder if that's even possible, and his hips arched up off the floor, his scrotum tightened up, ready for the explosion. Suddenly he grunted and his cock jerked, a shot of semen shot up into the air and landed on his chest. The ecstasy of release crashed over him as he fired volley after volley of life creating semen into the air.

With a joyful "Oh daddy!" Andi eased her breast from his mouth and slipped out from under him and lay atop him and took his still throbbing cock into her mouth. He leaned his head up to kiss her sore pussy and she arched her back pulling away, yet she held on to his cock in her mouth, savoring the feel of it soften in her mouth. Every time he came and she felt his cock soften she felt the same way she did when she felt it get hard: "Mission accomplished."

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As they dried each other off Andi was still giggling over Lucy's interruption. "Well, it's not the first time that girl has heard me cum," shrugged Andi as she patted Paul's butt dry.

"What? tell me," grinned Paul.

"We were roomies for years, remember? And you know sometimes you have to take matters in hand and sometimes you stumble in on your roomie who is taking matters in hand. This is the first time she walked in on me having sex while there was someone else in the room..."

Andi was interrupted with a raucous clamor, the clattering and banging of pots and pans outside the changing room. She nearly jumped out of her skin "What the..." the rest of what she was going to say was lost in the noise.

Completely frazzled Andi reached for her "Mrs. Santa" dress that Paul bought her to wear today, and he quickly pulled on his clothes. As soon as she had her dress in place a corner of the curtain moved, and Andi could see Macy's eye peeking through. Suddenly music was heard through the clattering and banging, and then all of a sudden, the clattering stopped, and the curtain was pulled open while voices sang;

It's the most wonderful time of the year

With the kids jingle belling

And everyone telling you be of good cheer

It's the most wonderful time of the year

Andi squealed and laughed as she saw that their gym was full of people singing to her and Paul, many people from church, Brad and Dianna Clemmons and Gerry and Irma Hirsh from Trevette road, then Andi noticed Katrina Mays, her Nurse Practitioner from University Hospital. The co-workers squealed and ran to each other and hugged, but whatever they said was lost in the singing that changed to

God bless the master of this house, likewise the mistress too,

And all the little children that round the table go

Love and joy come to you

And to you your wassail too;

And God bless you and send you A Happy New Year

And God send you A Happy New Year

"Three Cheers for the bride and groom! Hip-Hip-Horray! Hip-Hip-Horray! Hip-Hip-Horray!"

And the banging and clattering restarted but the crowd paraded back upstairs leaving behind Paul, Andi, Lucy, Katrina, and the twins who really enjoyed banging their aluminum pie pans together.

"What was that?" laughed Andi.

"That was an ancient tradition which was extremely popular in this area during the colonial times, especially out here when this area was considered the 'wild west' back in the seventeen hundreds. This banging and clanging and singing is called Chivaree," said Paul. "The friends of the newlyweds would come out to the house or wherever the honeymooners retreated for their wedding night, and they would do this until the newlyweds were able to bribe them into silence, usually with food and alcohol."

"Good thing they didn't come out to the cabin last night," said Andi as she guided Katrina to the media room.

"Oh, they're smart, they wouldn't come out to the cabin. They know I have a crossbow."

Andi suddenly whirled around and cuddled up close to Paul. "Speaking of smart, guess who forgot to put these on again?" and she held up her silk panties so he could see them. "I'm going to put them somewhere warm and safe until later," and she shoved them down his pants, tucking them in nice and tight where he would constantly notice their presence. "Now ta-ta my good man, the Ladies Katrina and Lucy and I have some conversing to do."

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Katrina apologized for not being able to attend the wedding ceremony, the only flight she could get was airborne during the ceremony. So, the three watched a video of her wedding on the big TV in the media room. For the first time Andi was able to see clearly how the ceremony looked. Taking her white cape off was pretty dramatic now that she could see it, but it looked like she went from an overweight bride to a horny Mrs. Santa Claus, which she was/is.

"Who is that doll?" exclaimed Katrina breathlessly.

"Silly, that's me," said Andi as she nudged Katrina.

"No, the other one... not the twins or Lucy," she added.

"The black woman standing next to the pastor? That's my sister, Macy."

"You like saying that don't you," smiled Lucy. "Sister... I have several sisters I'm willing to part with if you want more."

"I like the way Macy says it better, belle-sœur."

Suddenly two small Christmas sprites appeared in dresses that match their mommies, and without invitation they climbed up on Katrina's lap and watched a few moments of the ceremony. Suddenly they both got excited "That's Wonka! See him? He was a good boy!" and with that they crawled off her lap and scooted up the stairs calling for Wonka.

"That's it? No 'Hi Aunty Kat' or anything?" asked Katrina.

"Christmas overload," explained Andi.

"They went non-stop until 9:30 last night when Macy and I finally wrestled them into bed," said Lucy, "We gave them a bath and they took off on us, we had to chase them through this huge old house before we caught them down here."

"They get silly when they're over tired," agreed Andi.

"Speaking of a big old house, show this one to me," said Katrina.

The recorded ceremony ended, and Andi shut off the TV and led them upstairs to a house that dramatically changed. There were people everywhere, the "Pretty Room" was the center of attention where everyone gathered. A table covered with snacks was set next to the doorway into the formal dining room. In the formal dining room, the dining table became a refreshment table set up with wine bottles, beer bottles, beer cans, soda cans, and a large punchbowl. There was also hard liquor and mixer for those so inclined. The dining table was pushed against the wall because on the other side of the room a large folding table was set up, covered with desserts for the dinner: cakes, pies, bars, and dozens of Christmas cookies.

Paul came up and hugged her from behind and she gasped, "What is this?"

"It's your wedding reception," said Paul which earned him a glare. "It's the boxing day potluck we have every year, I told you about it."

"Yeah but..." Andi's eyes spun; she's going to be cleaning up for years. "Hey! Boxing day is tomorrow!"

"There's a Bills game on tomorrow. Go meet your fans, Macy is looking for you."

Andi was astonished at the transformation of her house, where just a couple of days ago she was wondering what to do with all this empty space, now she felt crowded. The library had suddenly become a dining area for the multitude, it was filled with folding tables and folding chairs, obviously borrowed from the church. It is no wonder why Paul keeps this room empty. She introduced Kat to everyone that she could remember, and begged forgiveness a thousand times for forgetting a name. This wasn't just a church gathering, there were neighbors, local businessmen, farmers, and friends. And there were more people that she hadn't met, than there were people that she knew.

There were their neighbors up on Trevette road, Brad and Dianna Clemmons, Gerry and Irma Hirsh, and out of the crowd a stocky man emerged, not heavy but bent from a life of hard work. He was ruggedly handsome with long flowing silver hair and a cheery smile. He had a can of Genesee beer in his right hand and his left arm around a slim, smiling woman. She too had a look about her that said she had a life filled with hard physical labor. The silver haired man broke into a huge grin and threw his arms around Andi, hugging her so tight she thought she couldn't breathe, she almost spilled her ginger ale. "So you're the woman that finally lassoed our Paulie!"

"Well, I haven't actually tied him down... yet" answered Andi as she regained her breath, "but it is on my to-do list." She turned to shake hands with the slim woman with the incredibly long thick blond hair. The slim woman had an extraordinarily strong, almost manly handshake.

"Heh, good one! Tie him down, I'm going to ask him about that later. Hi, I'm Heather Schaffer, and this big ape who sucks at introductions is my husband Jeff. We're your neighbors up on Trevette Road."

"Oh! I didn't think I'd meet you guys until the winter broke, Paul tells me you folks just go camping up there."

"Yeah, that's right," said Jeff, "That and a little hunting and fishing. Heather and her buddies are going camping on New Year's Day if you want to join in."

"I don't think I'd like winter camping."

"Do you hunt?"

"No."

"Do you fish?"

"No."

"You don't hunt, you don't fish, can you at least handle a chain saw?"

"No."

"Then what the hell good are ya?"

"I'm a good doctor," Andi couldn't figure out what was going on with this guy.

"So is Paulie, what else have you got going for you?"

"I can plow snow with the Kubota."

"Paulie let you drive the Kubota? Solo?"

When Andi nodded and Jeff threw his arms around her again and shouted, "We got us a winner here!" then he turned to Kat and said, "I don't know why I have this thing, here you go," and handed Kat his can of beer. Then putting his arm around his wife, he and Heather disappeared into the crowd.

Kat examined the unopened can of beer and looked at Andi. "What just happened here?"

"I don't know, I just met the guy myself," shrugged Andi.

"That's just my cousin," said another face that emerged from the crowd. This fellow had short, cropped hair and beard, he wore a plaid flannel shirt and blue jeans held up with suspenders that were emblazoned with "Stihl Chainsaws." On his feet he wore combat boots, on his head he wore a rolled up knit cap. Everything about him screamed "Lumberjack."

"You're Jeff's cousin? Then you must be Tommy Steinbach," said Andi offering her hand. Although their facial features were quite different, both Jeff and Tommy had the same stocky, muscular build.

"That's right," he said and instead of shaking Andi's hand he kissed it. "His dad is my mom's baby brother."

"Sooo... I'm guessing you're a lumberjack?" asked Kat.

"Lumberjack," Tommy scoffed. "I am an arborist, I plant, transplant, spray, prune, sculpt, and remove trees. I treat for disease and infestation, trim back from power lines, install lightning protection, and when all else fails I will cut it for firewood."

"Cool, and what does Jeff do?"

"Jeff? He's a lumberjack. When he's not sitting on his ass, he's scratching it." Then Tommy noticed the unopened Genesee in Kat's hand. "Did Jeff give you that?"

"Yeah, he just handed it to me and..."

Tommy interrupted her with an upraised finger. He pulled a bottle of Heineken out of his back pocket, "Here hold this a second," and placed it in Kat's hand. The moment she took it, he turned and walked away.

Kat looked at the two unopened beers in her hands, "What just happened here?"

Brad and Dianna Clemmons appeared and noticing the two unopened beers in Kat's hands Brad smiled and said, "I see you met Jeff and Tommy."

Kat shrugged, "are they actually arborists, or do they work for a brewery?"

Brad chuckled, "Tommy is a tree surgeon, Jeff is his supervisor, and Joe, who is Tommy's oldest brother, is their regional manager."

"So what's with this beer thing?"

"Don't know, they won't say. It's just something they started doing when they started going to AA."

Just then a large man with dark hair and smile that said, "to hell with them all," came up and said, "Actually those are my beers, thank you kindly little lady for wrestling them to ground for me." He had a south Georgia accent that when used properly with his deep baritone voice wouldn't leave a pair of dry panties in the room. "I ain't never met any of y'all at one of the soirées, I'm Josh Gravely, I own the cabin across from Paul's cabin." And he shook Andi's hand.

"I'm Andi, I'm Paul's wife..." she was interrupted by Josh's rolling laughter.

"My, my, that's a good one Miss Andi. Did Paul put you up to that?"

"No, really, we got married yesterday."

"It's true!" called Paul from the kitchen. Josh looked at Andi who looked up at him smiling and nodding. Dianna Clemmons put her arm around the tiny bride to rescue her.

"Merry Christmas Redneck, I was there, they married in John's church twenty three hours ago."

Josh looked at Andi, than at Paul who was looking at him from the kitchen, then back to Andi. "Well... Miss Dianna wouldn't pull ma leg. Welcome to the family, ma'am." He shook Andi's hand then turned to Kat and said, "I'm going to be needin' them beers." He took the beer from her hands and walked off into the crowd leaving the four women to start laughing.

Andi and Kat went back to greeting their guests. "Kat, this is my dancin' instructor Veronica, she lives just across the park from me."

Beautiful Veronica shook hands with Kat and said, "You're going to have to bring Andi over, she's been too busy and I'm all alone over there."

"I'm going back to Denver in the morning," sighed Kat.

"We're heading out on a honeymoon cruise in a couple of days, I'll swing by before we go," promised Andi.

Unfortunately, Lucy had to leave for a Christmas shift at ECMC and she was gone long before the entire crowd had arrived. The crowd was joyful and merry, but earlier in the evening they kept pushing drinks on Andi. At her size and weight, it doesn't take much alcohol to put her over the edge, so rather than refuse, she reloaded. Andi found out a long time ago that holding a drink was the best defense against someone pushing a drink into your hands, so she carried a glass of ginger ale and ice, dropped a cherry and a swizzle stick in it, and no one bothered her. Katrina on the other hand had no problem with handling proffered drinks and once she gave the unopened beers to Josh there was no shortage of drinks being offered.

In the kitchen the kitchen table was piled high with side dishes that the guests brought; salads, casseroles, cranberries, and potatoes served in so many different ways. John and Macy were working hard to make room at the end of the table for the star of the evening: the turkey. Paul was busy slicing not one but two turkeys, wild turkeys harvested from his forest, and a huge ham brought in by Brad and Dianna Clemmons. Andi introduced her favorite nurse in the whole world to John and Macy who eagerly shook her hand, but when Macy shook her hand it appeared to Andi that Kat was so overjoyed to be touching the beautiful former model and didn't want to let go.

"Je pense qu'elle est lesbienne," (I think she's a lesbian), Macy whispered into her husband's ear.

"Oui, moi aussi," he replied. (Yes, so do I)

Soon the food was set out on the kitchen table, paper plates, plasticware, and napkins set on the kitchen counters, deserts and drinks set out on tables in the dining room. Seeing all was ready Paul cleaned up, took off his apron and finally took Andi in his arms and gave her a kiss. "Ok Mrs. Jarecki, it's show time."

"Oooo, that gives me tingles, say it again," and she pointed to her ear.

Paul leaned over and whispered softly "Ok, Mrs. Jarecki, it's show time."

"Say that again and these folks will be getting a show," she said in the sexiest voice she could muster and licked her lips.

Paul gave her a playful swat and asked John to lead her to their table. Then he picked up a bell and walked into the parlor. He rang the bell until he had everyone's attention. "If you could all please find your way into the library and find a place to sit, we can get started." And slowly the crowd moved into the library.

There was plenty of table space for everyone to sit and John led Andi and Kat to a seat at a reserved table near the fireplace. Andi placed Kat next to a tall, slim working man. "You keep your hands off!" Andi warned Katrina, "he's taken!"

The man visibly blushed and muttered "Geez Andi, laying it on a little thick are ya?"

"Oh stop, you are taken. It's a shame neither one of you will admit it. Kat, this is Gus, he and Lucy are... interested in each other."

"Lucy? This is the one? Oh my!" Kat shook Gus' hand energetically.

"Wait, what do you mean..." Gus was drown out by Paul and the bell again, and the room came to silence.

"Ok folks, you know how this goes, we're all going to have to sing for our supper," said John standing on a chair. "In front of you is the lyrics to O Little Town Of Bethlehem, let's do it acapella tonight." He blew a pitch pipe to indicate the key and Macy began singing. The room was silent except for her clear, clean voice singing exactly on key. Slowly the room joined in and grew louder, but not too loud, all were reluctant to drown out the beauty of Macy's voice.

"She sings like an angel," gasped Kat.

"She does at that," nodded Gus.

"That's my sister," said Andi with a tear in her eye.

After the singing everyone sat down and grace was said by Paul, then Andi gathered the twins to her. The twins had already eaten, Paul saw to that in the desperate hope that the twins would nap on a full stomach. "Can you girls stay here with Aunt Macy and Kat while Mommy and Poppa go help people get their supper?"

Both girls nodded their heads vigorously, "Uh huh!"

"Ok, you two are going to tell the people when to get their food, ok?"

"Uh huh!" The twins were suddenly flush with a sense of power.

"Ok, this pail has cards in it, when Aunt Macy tells you to pick a card, one of you holds the pail and holds it 'way up and the other one picks one card, just one, and hands it to Aunt Macy. Who wants to hold the pail?"

Madeline was bouncing with excitement at the thought, her little hands clasped under her chin, her eyes wide with excitement. "Ok, darling, you can hold the pail." At those words Madeline snatched the pail out of Andi's hand with so much enthusiasm that she nearly spilled the cards. She held the pail so high that Sandy had to climb up on a chair to get the card, and she finally came up with the three of hearts.

"Ok darling, hand it to me," said Macy as Sandy started dancing around, waiving the card in the air. "Table number three! Please get your dinner!"

The folks at table number three rose and gathered their dinner buffet style. As they walked to the kitchen, Paul stood and took Andi's hand and led her to the formal dining room. He put on his red suit jacket that he always wore for this occasion; it was red with white trim and had a black belt. He wore a red shirt with white tie and black trousers and black shoes and ended up looking like a business professional Santa, which matched Andi's Mrs. Santa Claus dress perfectly.

Andi was amazed at the smooth flow that was set up, folks came in through the kitchen door on the north side, collected their plates, napkins, and utensils then got their main courses off the kitchen table, then entered the formal dining room on the south end of the kitchen. In the formal dining room, they got their drinks and desserts and were able to head back to the library. As they passed Paul and Andi the newlyweds thanked their guests for joining them and sharing in their joy.

Finally, when all the guests have been served, Paul and Andi filled their plates and sat down with John, Macy, Gus, Kat, and the twins. John stood and announced, "Everyone has been served, which means the buffet is open for seconds." And people began rising to refill their plates.

"This is incredible! This turkey is better than the one we had during the storm!" declared Andi as she inspected a forkful before eating. "And the potatoes! So delicious!"

"That's one of your turkeys, baby sister," smiled Macy. "Paul brined these turkeys so they're even more flavorful. And the potatoes came from local farms, most likely Emerlings at Trevette and old Route 219."

"What do you mean 'one of my turkeys'? I don't own any turkeys."

"They're off of your property. John, Josh, and Paul hunted them just a few months ago, out back of the pond." At the sound of his voice Josh, over at the "Trevette Road Table" waved a fork.

That caused Andi to pause, she never intends to divorce Paul even though she's known him for less than a month, and things do happen, relationships change, but he loves that property. Every square inch of that land is in his blood. She could never take it from him. She closed her eyes and bowed her head.

Paul looked over at Macy who was sitting across from Andi and shrugged his shoulders to silently ask "what is she doing?"

Macy steepled her hands together to indicate that Andi was praying. This must be pretty important; Andi was raised as a CEO (Christmas and Easter Only) and was new to true Christianity. After a long time, she opened her eyes and let out a breath, then dug into her meal again.

"What was that?" Paul asked.

"Oh, I just had a conflict going on in my head and I prayed it out," she replied around a mouth full of cranberries and mashed potatoes. She swallowed and wiped her mouth. "Not your land on Trevette. I want to see a lawyer and have him fix those documents you showed me." She put her hand on his leg and leaned toward him. "If anything happens to us before 'death do us part' I do not want a claim to your farm or the Kubota. That's yours, part and parcel, and I want that in writing. I could never separate you from your land."

"Oh, that's sweet, I'll fix up the forms and have..."

"No, we need to get a lawyer."

"I am a lawyer," he insisted.

She squeezed his leg hard. "You're also a doctor, you'd never treat yourself, would you?"

He didn't answer.

"Would you?"

Still no answer.

Suddenly it all became clear, the sudden love, the generosity, showering her with everything she could want, he is sick! He's dying! "Oh my God, you are treating yourself!"

"Dear, it's not like I'm dying."

"Maybe a little," said Sandy.

"Just this much," said Madeline holding her thumb and forefinger about an inch apart. Then the twins went back to eating their pieces of banana cream pie.

"What just happened here?" Paul asked, looking at the twins.

"That's my line," said Katrina.

"Fine," said Paul, "we'll talk to a lawyer and a doctor when we get back from our honeymoon."

"Deal," agreed Andi. They shook hands, kissed, and got up for seconds. Returning to their seats Andi scanned the room and saw the crowd finishing up their meals. "We're going to be cleaning up forever," muttered Andi.

"Oh no," said John, "Don't forget, these folks are veterans of a dozen potluck dinners a year, they got this down, you just watch and be amazed."

Paul and Gus were began talking about options for house modifications. They considered turning two bedrooms into a combination playroom/bedroom, but the problem was that Andi wanted the bedroom next to the master to be a nursery. They batted around a few ideas of movable walls until Gus said "Right now the twins want to sleep in the same room, but what happens when they want their own room? Will they want a connected room? Will they want individual rooms with a third room as a playroom? What I suggest is for now is putting in a floor over the master staircase and connecting the two ends of the balcony into an open play area and we'll worry about the rooms later. Sure, there may be some gravity experiments going over the handrail, but if we do it right it will look like it was originally designed as a natural part of the balcony and later utilized as a play area. The only hard part I can see is matching the wood floor."

"Are you an engineer?" asked Kat as she saw his plans being drawn out on a napkin.

"Oh gosh no, I'd still have to draw this whole thing up and submit it to the village engineer. I'm just a contractor. I'm really honored to sit with the genius that's here at this table."

"What do you mean?" asked Kat.

"Ok, you're a nurse practitioner and a great one from what Andi says, but then you have John, Macy, Lucy, Andi, and Paul - doctor, doctor, doctor, doctor/lawyer and doctor/doctor. I'm amazed at the knowledge gathered here and I try to soak it up, even if they are all as nutty as a cage full of squirrels." With that Andi nearly passed an entire ginger ale on the rocks out her nose laughing.

"He's got us there," said John.

"Oui, he sure does," chimed in Macy.

"What did you mean when you said, "Is this the one?" when we were introduced?" asked Gus unable to hold back the question any longer.

"Oh, it's just that Lucy..." Katrina paused for a moment to ponder; do I tell him? Or do I make up a lie that sounds good? Or do I weasel out of it. Kat decided that since she was leaving in the morning, telling the truth is quick, easy, and she'd be 2000 miles away from Lucy if she didn't like it. "When we were talking this afternoon, she kept mentioning a guy she was really taken with, and when she found out at the wedding that he was really into her, she became very excited. She loves the fact that he is a gentleman to her, opens doors for her, pulls her chair out at restaurants, holds her hand and takes her for walks. From talking to you, you sound like a man who would do that for her."

Gus blushed. "Yeah, I am. And I'm Italian, I was raised to treat all women like that, but with Lucy it isn't a duty, to me it's a privilege, and I love having the opportunity to be able to do it. Besides, my dear departed mother would come back to hit me if I didn't." Gus looked down at the table and wiped his eyes with a napkin.

"Do you still miss her?"

"Very much so," said Gus staring down at the table.

"Do you mind if I asked how she died?" asked Kat.

"Oh, she's not dead, she moved to Cleveland," he responded, his face deadpan. Then the laughter started around the table and he looked up and said "What?" He looked at Kat and she looked angry at him. "What?"

Andi put her hand on Kat's shoulder "He's not pranking you, he's serious. Gus is the sweetest most innocent man you'll ever meet. He's not stupid by a long shot."

Kat gave a half smile, then asked Gus "How do you feel about Lucy?"

"Oh, I like her a lot." Gus nodded, "that's definitely it."

Kat was starting to think that maybe he was a moron. "That's it? You like her a lot."

Gus looked at Katrina. "I suppose I should tell you what I told her. I'm not a poet, so I can't adequately put into words what I feel. I can't accurately describe the utter joy I find in hearing her talk to me, or why when she smiles at me, how my entire life lights up, and everything around me fades into the radiance of her smile. When we kiss, it's like our souls blend but I can't adequately put that into words, nor can I properly describe the longing I feel when we say goodbye for the day."

Kat looked at Gus stunned. He more than adequately put his feelings into words as far as she was concerned. But Kat had one last question, "So you don't mind her being all plain and skinny and flat and all...?"

"Am I supposed to? If there's one thing I learned from my wife is that the body is just a transitory vehicle." He got up to head into the dining room. "Does anybody need anything? I'm going to get myself a soda and Andi a ginger ale."

After he left Kat said, "He has a wife?"

"Had a wife," said Paul, "she died of metastatic breast cancer about 7 years ago. She was..." his voice hitched, "his entire world."

Not long after Gus left the guests rose as if on command and began to transform the library. The tables were cleaned off and folded up then carried out of the room, then the chairs were moved to the sides of the room making the library a "Polka Parlor" as Gus had called it. Andi got up to watch the choreographed cleanup. In a matter of moments, the tables were gone, the plates, cups, plasticware, napkins, centerpieces, salt and pepper shakers, and butter dishes whisked away.

As the crew cleaned up, Andi's phone rang. She ignored it but Paul looked at it, "Who do you know in Minnesota?"

Her bright brown eyes shot open, "Don!" she cried. She answered the phone and composed herself. "Doctor Jarecki."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I must have dialed the wrong number. I'm sorry to have disturbed..."

"No, Don! It's me Andi. I got married!"

"You got married?" shrieked a high pitched female voice and Andi realized her favorite patient had her on speaker. "Tell me all about it."

"Hi Lanh, we got married last night, look honey, we have a bit of a party going on here, let me text you a link to the wedding stream and I'll give you a call in a few days, ok?"

"We love you doc, take care," said Don. "Merry Christmas."

"You two take care of each other, bye bye." Andi ended the call and slumped.

"What's the matter honey?"

"Oh, that was Don and Lanh Campbell, he's my CTEPH patient." Andi's eyes teared up. "How do you tell your favorite patient that you're not coming back?"

"By getting them the best replacement possible," said Paul as he took Andi in his arms. She just realized that there's going to be some costs to this wedding.

In the kitchen men and women toiled to clean up the pots and pans used in preparations for the party. All the pans used to roast the turkeys and hams were scrubbed and put away. The remains of the feast were scooped out of their original containers and put in disposable containers to be donated to the local nursing homes and shelters, as were the remains of the meat. The original serving dishes were cleaned and stacked up for the original owners to take home, and the freezer was packed with so much food!

"We're not going to need all that, we're leaving in a few days," said Andi.

"Of course, but you're going to want something when you get back," said the president of the Women's Ministry. "If you need something to nosh on before you go," she opened the refrigerator which also contained leftovers. She threw her arms around Andi and hugged her, "Have a wonderful honeymoon, dear."

When they broke the hug Andi looked around, all of the leftovers were gone, her kitchen was spotless, and the formal dining room put mostly back to order, the drink station was still there, although mostly non-alcoholic now, and the dessert table included snacks. The parlor, which all evening was filled with private conversations and folks there just to admire the tree and decorations, was empty, everyone was now in the library.

Paul came up and gently took her arm. "There you are. Everyone is waiting for us."

"For what?"

"Same as last night, we start the dance."

"What dance? No one told me about a dance." He escorted her into the library, which was lit almost exclusively by candles now, the guests lined the book covered walls and applauded as Paul and Andi stepped into the middle of the room. He took her right hand in his left and placed his right hand on her hip. "I hope this is a waltz," she said as she placed her left hand on his shoulder.

"It better be, it's the only thing we practiced."

Being the hosts of the party Paul and Andi started the evening off and yes, it was a waltz, this time to Frank Sinatra's version of the Christmas Waltz.

All Andi could remember was the swirling of lights as they spun around the room, the faces she saw held no meaning for her, just the tall handsome doctor that smiled down at her. Soon people stepped out on the floor to join the host couple and after about three songs quite a few people were dancing, including the twins.

"She looks so sad, and many men have asked her to dance," Macy said to John, "maybe I should?"

"I thought you had left that world in the past," he responded.

"I have, but look, she is so lonely. She came here to see Andi and Lucy and they are both so busy, and she has to leave in the morning. You can cut in at any time."

"Ok, you know I trust you; I just worry."

"I know, and I love you for it." And she gave him a kiss, tussled his hair, and headed back to a world she had left over 20 years ago.

Kat was staring at the dancers but not seeing them, Macy was right, she was very lonely and kicking herself for coming all this way to be ignored. Two of her best friends on earth and she only got to see them for about 30 minutes. Suddenly a slim black hand swam into her sight.

"M'accordez-vous cette danse?"

Kat looked up and saw it was that beautiful black woman. She thought her heart had stopped.

"May I have this dance?" Macy repeated.

Kat's mouth went dry and she couldn't believe her ears. Finally, when Macy said, "Maybe I should ask Andi to dance?" Kat stood up on wobbly legs and took Macy's hand. She was swept onto the dance floor. The song was a lively two step and there were several other girl-girl couples dancing due to the lack of men sober enough or skilled enough to dance so off they went around the small dance floor. Kat not believing the luck she was suddenly having, dancing with this beautiful woman alone is worth the trip.

They weren't dancing close, but still, they were close enough that Kat could feel the sinuous movements of Macy's body as they stepped around the floor. Then Kat looked and saw Andi dancing with her husband Paul, their eyes locked on each other, their smiles radiated their joy, and she decided that Paul was too tall, too old, and too smooth for Andi. And that he was perfect for her. "What do you think of Paul?" Kat asked Macy, more to hear Macy's lilting French accent than any desire to learn about Paul.

"Oh mademoiselle, if you wish to find dirt on Paul, you asked the wrong person. I am married to his brother and..."

"No... no, I mean will he be good to Doctor Roberts? I worry about her and..."

Macy shooshed Kat with a gentle rebuke, "Do not worry about Doctor Jarecki, I have known him for ten years and he is the most gentle, loving man you could meet. In return I worry for Paul, could Adrianna be a croqueuse de diamants? How you say... gold digger? Could she just be using Paul to secure a future for her babies?"

Kat was ready to deny that insinuation to the heavens, then thought about it for a moment and answered "Maybe, a little bit, but only if he loves them. If he didn't, then she would distance herself and the girls from him immediately."

"Oui, I agree completely mon amie. So, let us continue this dance, as friends." And with that Macy led Kat on a swirling course around the dance floor that left Kat's head spinning and her heart pounding.

When the song came to an end, they stayed on the dance floor and ended up dancing another dance; however, they were joined by Madeline whom Macy scooped up and they both held her as they danced. Toward the end of the song Kat felt a tugging at her pants and saw that it was the other twin, Sandy, dancing along with them, or trying to at any rate. The third song was slow and romantic, and Macy didn't want to go near that, so she thanked Kat for the dance and noticed that Madeline had fallen asleep on her shoulder. Sandy was swaying back and forth with her eyes closed but she held tightly to Macy's skirt and Kat's blue jeans.

"It was my pleasure, completely."

Macy saw the look in Kat's eyes and said, "do you want to talk somewhere?"

Kat looked embarrassed. "Yeah, I uh.... I don't want this moment to end."

Macy smiled, "There is a place I know of... excusez-moi s'il vous plaît" and she gestured to Andi who came running.

"Oh my poor babies! Are you sleeping baby?" she asked Madeline as she scooped her off of Aunt Macy's shoulder.

"No," answered Madeline without opening her eyes. Sandy held both hands up to be picked up and Paul came and scooped her up.

Macy whispered something in Andi's ear, then as the couple took their twins up the grand staircase to tuck them in bed, Macy led Andi out the kitchen door into the back yard. The big Victorian had a large back deck that was merely a wide version of the front porch as it wrapped around the side and the back of the house. Kat could see a tree out in the backyard covered in Christmas lights, and what looked like a shelter that was outlined in Christmas lights also. "What is that?" Kat asked.

"That is a big, beautiful grape arbor," answered Macy. "It is so cool and refreshing to sit under on a hot summer afternoon, the cool shade, the whir of hummingbirds, the smell of cut grass and ripening grapes, c'est celeste!" (It's heavenly!)

Their walk went through the 'carriage house' (garage) and directly behind it was the swimming pool and hot tub. They met Heather and Harold Driscoll who were heading back in from a soak in the tub. Macy gave Heather a hug and a kiss on the cheek and called her "Mama" and Harold a pat on the shoulder.

The hot tub is housed in a small gazebo off the main pool, the gazebo has ample room outside of the tub for sitting and chatting, it was heated and lit and had roll up curtains for privacy. Currently it was decorated with holly garland and tiny white lights, Macy flipped the top off of the hot tub and the steam hit the night air and looked so inviting. "Shall we enjoy the Jaccuzzi?"

"I didn't bring a suit," said Kat, looking at the tub, then at Macy, then back to the tub.

"I did not either, but we have these towels," she said indicating a rack of bath sheets near the hot tub. She tossed Katrina a folded towel then kicked off her shoes, and with the ease of a python she slipped out of her dress. She stood naked, legs slightly spread, her hands on her hips and said "M'accordez-vous cette danse?" then climbed into the hot tub.

Kat's mouth went dry and her pulse raced as she watched the ebony goddess slip into the steaming water. With shaking hands, she fought her boots off then trembling as she undressed, shucked off her shirt, jeans, bra, and panties and eased into the tub, the image of Macy's naked body burned into her memory. The hot water and the jets relaxed Kat until she was brave to reach out to touch Macy, but Macy quickly moved away. "No, no mon chéri. We look but do not touch, we came out here to talk."

"So why do this for me?"

"Because you were lonely, and I saw how you were looking at me, so this is un cadeau de Noël pour vous, a Christmas present for you.

Kat fought back the disappointment, then relaxed and decided to enjoy what was being offered. She asked, "How did a nice preachers wife figure out what I was thinking?"

Macy smiled ruefully. "When you have been a pork chop, it doesn't take long to figure out what the wolves want for dinner. I have been in your world, and I know that this face, this body, this skin, and this accent français is all very desirable to both sides of the coin. I used to be in your world, so I know."

Kat was shocked, maybe she has competition? She asked, "You're a lesbian with a pastor for a beard?"

"No, I said I was in your world, I did not say I was a lesbian. When you are 13 and have the stars in your eyes and everyone is telling you how pretty you are, you do not realize that there is a price for that beauty. After the photo shoot men shove things in your mouth and women shove your face where their things are hidden." Macy suddenly looked incredibly sad and very lonely. "I used to curse God for giving me these looks, they only attract trouble. Sometimes I still do..."

They were quiet for a while; the only sound was the gurgling of the hot water. "I didn't mean to remind you of the bad old days," said Kat, terribly sorry she caused such inner turmoil in Macy.

"Thanks to a photographer and several of my co-workers I learned to hate sex, but then I met John and over the years we have changed my mind."

Kat nodded to Macy and opened up. "I went lesbian in college, mostly as a form of birth control, I could have sex all I wanted without fear of getting knocked up. They called us LUGs - Lesbian Until Graduation, except I didn't quit girls after graduation. I keep telling myself that I will, but I never meet the right man. There's no Gus, or Paul, or John out there for me."

"Of course, there is, it is just a matter of recognizing him when he arrives." Macy told her the story of the grad student that angered her and dared her to meet him for coffee and how he changed everything. "Once you find that man you have to hold on, and it has to be a man that will hold on to you," then Macy turned to face the door of the gazebo and she said, "is not that right belle-soeur?"

Kat looked around, "What?"

Macy smiled and sank down deeper into the water, "I hope you do not mind but I invited my sister to join us. I may be a Doctor of Theology, but temptation knows no boundaries."

Andi slipped in the tub and joined them. "Ohhhh, this hot water will definitely help down there," she said as her curvaceous little butt slid into the steaming water. "Why didn't I think of this sooner?" she shuddered and sighed as her aching "lady bits" entered the hot water.

Katrina was so involved with Macy's story that she didn't notice Andi enter the gazebo, undress, and then get into the tub until it was too late. "Doctor Roberts?"

"Katy-bird, we're both on vacation, so it's Andi or Mrs. Jarecki or... Damn, you're hot girl! I can see why my little sister needed some moral backup."

"What do you mean little sister? I'm taller than you, I'm older than you, and I got my PhD before you did," pouted Macy.

Andi was going to say something like 'I beat you to the delivery room' but that would have been mean, so she thought of something almost as mean; "I have four hours on the Kubota."

"Curses! Foiled again!" Macy slapped the surface of the water making Andi giggle. Katrina in the meanwhile was mesmerized watching Andi's breasts bobble in the water.

"Doctor... I mean Andi I just want to... I mean ummm..."

"What is it Katy-bird?"

"Those bite marks on your..."

"I'm on my honeymoon, I earned every single one, and there's a couple that I had to demand."

"You're not out here to talk me out of sleeping with girls, are you?" Kat looked both indignant and worried at the same time.

"No, of course not. At least not these two girls," she said indicating herself and Macy. "We're just here to relax on a snowy Christmas night, and we're all caught in one of my husband's traps."

"Traps?"

"Yep, ask Macy," said Andi now sunk so low in the water her mouth was just barely above the surface of the water, "He's set these traps all over the house and out at the farm to make me all hot and wet. God that man knows how to trap me," she added with a lecherous grin.

"Oh oui! That sauna in the cabin! John has trapped me there so good!" Macy sang with joy.

"You should try the steam shower in the basement, or the big tubs in the master suites," sighed Andi.

"Oh oui! oui! The tubs are so merveilleuse!"

Andi's eyes suddenly shot wide open and she sat up suddenly. "And we're going to Florida in a couple of days - it's all warm water down there," she sank back down in the water, "I'm going to need more 'emergency supplies'."

"You guys make hetro sex sound so nice."

"We are speaking of a loving relationship between a couple who have pledged themselves to each other for life," said Macy. "We are not really talking about hetro sex, but we can get into that if you would like."

"Talk to my sis, maybe she knows. Me? My first marriage was a nightmare, worse than you could ever believe. I'm lucky to have gotten out alive. Now I'm on the other end of the spectrum and I'm so madly in love. So, I don't know what to say to you. If you're satisfied with what is happening in your life now, fine. I'm happy for you. What's the matter? You look..."

Kat blushed and looked down. "No, it's just that... I can't believe that I'm sitting here naked with you... we worked together for years and now... I don't know, this is just so cool."

"It is cool, but I don't think I'm going back Katy-bird. I think my life is here now."

"What are you going to do?" asked Kat.

"I'm going to raise my girls, love my man, and keep an eye on my sister here." Macy, who was relaxing with her eyes closed, raised an eyebrow. "You can come visit here as often as you want, and they always need good nurses here. But if you want to try a guy, start with Barry Sorenson in radiology. He's crushing on you," said Andi.

"Crushing?" Kat felt a little shocked, Barry wasn't her type, if she had a type. "Maybe we could meet up for drinks..."

"No drinks!" Macy sat up suddenly, nearly shouting. "Lunch in the cafeteria, walk in the park, rides at the fair, but no alcohol. Alcohol is instant asshole, just add people."

Andi nodded in agreement, but her attention was elsewhere. She started poking her breasts, watching them bobble in the water. "I always knew boobs float, I just never noticed," she said as she watched her breasts bob and wobble. She poked them with her fingers again watching them wobble and she grinned. "I guess I've never gone skinny dipping before."

Macy grinned, "You will up at the cabin, on a hot summer afternoon. John and I spend the whole day in the pond, it is so rafraîchissant."

"See? Another trap! And where is Paul when you guys are doing this?"

Macy looked sad. "Usually here, working up in the attic, he worked extremely hard to make this money you now share. Awfully hard. Please make him retire."

"I will, I have another job for him."

"And what is that?" asked Kat and Macy.

"To knock me up," grinned Andi as she leaned back against the jacuzzi jets.

"I should give John the same task."

"Oh no!" said Andi, "I am not going to let your husband..." she was stopped by a howl and a splash from Macy.

"I will task him to knock me up, you fille drôle. I'll race you to the delivery room!" They began splashing each other with such eagerness Kat was shocked that they weren't real sisters.

(The results of their baby race can be found here.)

"Hey! I thought we were talking about me here!" cried Kat, and suddenly she became the target of splashing.

Suddenly Andi cried out "Guys! Wait!" She saw something out of the corner of her eye. As the splashing stopped Andi hopped out of the tub, hit a switch which caused the hot tub gazebo screens to roll up, and she slid back into the water. The women were suddenly surrounded by a cascade of snow, huge flakes swirling earthward. The snowfall was just like the day that Andi and her babies were rescued on Trevette road. Normally you could see the lights on the houses of Third Avenue but they were looking at a wall of snow. The glow of the lights along Andi's back yard fence could barely be seen through the heavy fall. There wasn't a puff of wind to drive the snow, so it fell straight down, so very slowly. This was something completely unusual for two women from the western prairies and the beauty from the North Atlantic fishing village.

"People think Denver is snowy, but we never get anything like this," whispered Katrina in awe of the silent beauty.

"We rarely have days like this in Springville, and they call this the snowbelt," added Macy. "Where are you staying mon cheri?"

"Here, I called and spoke to someone last week, he insisted that I stay in Lucy's room with her."

"That was probably Paul, but we'll put you in the nursery," said Andi. "Lucy's room will have a guy in it tonight. A surprise for Lucy if she can make it back from work tonight.

"Nursery?"

"There is no baby yet," said Macy, "for now it has a queen size bed."

Andi wasn't paying attention; she was thinking about that storm a couple of weeks ago when she made the wrong turn but it turned out to be the right turn after all. "It was snowing like this the day he found me," said Andi in sweet reverie. "I think I like snow now."

<><><><><>֎<><><><><>

"This is my favorite part of Christmas," sighed Paul.

"What? Christmas is over," insisted Andi.

"Seriously? You said that to me... with words?" Paul was shocked, "You used your mouth to say that? We have eleven more days of Christmas to go." Clearly his new wife knew nothing about Christmas, at least as far as Paul is concerned. He considered joking that maybe they rushed into their marriage, but she may not consider it a joke.

They were laying on the big fancy couch in the parlor, covered with the red plaid blanket from the cabin, the blanket they fell in love on weeks ago was the same blanket they made love on for the first time 24 hours ago. The house is finally quiet, gentle jazz Christmas music was emanating from hidden speakers around the room. The tree glowed and twinkled with hundreds of tiny lights which were reflected in dozens and dozens of beautiful multicolored ornaments. Somewhere a small fan blew gently on the tree causing the tinsel to shimmer. The fire in the holly covered fireplace reflected on the polished wooden floors. Oil lamps throughout the room added a golden glow to the beautiful setting. "Ok, it's beautiful," admitted Andi, "but I'm exhausted. When you said that we have people for Christmas dinner, I didn't realize that it would be the whole village!"

"Well, normally we have the big Christmas dinner on Boxing Day, but..."

"When is boxing day?" interrupted Andi.

Paul released Andi's breast and looked at his watch, it was now half past midnight. "It's been Boxing Day for about 30 minutes now. Like I was saying, we usually have the big dinner on the day after Christmas, but there's a Bills game today, so we changed plans. This was all decided weeks before I fell madly in love with you."

"Aww." They kissed, and after they reluctantly ended the kiss, Andi asked "So how does Christmas normally go around here?"

"John, Macy, Gus, and I have dinner with Momma and her whole clan at Giardini's after the service at the church, then the four of us come back to Springville. After a Tom & Jerry or a Hot Buttered Rum at Worzils, we come here and place our gifts under the tree. We do the candles on the tree, then go to bed. Christmas day is quiet, we open presents, have breakfast, watch a movie or two, dinner. On Boxing Day, we have a big meal and get together. After that the week between Christmas and New Year's is non-stop parties, the American Legion, the VFW, the Village, both hospitals..."

"Wow, in Denver we have the parties before Christmas, then at noon on Christmas it's all over," said Andi.

"That's so sad," said Paul, "how do you get anything done if you are throwing the parties among all the preparations?"

Andi thought long and hard and finally said "I don't know! It just kind of happened, I never went to many parties so I guess we made it happen by turning down a lot of invitations." Andi suddenly smiled, "Can we do Christmas Eve dinner at Momma Giardini's tonight?"

"Good idea!" John reached over Andi and grabbed his phone off the coffee table and texted a reservation request to Giardini's for six adults and two children, then set the phone down. "That is one tradition I don't ever want to miss," he said.

"I missed my favorite tradition," said Andi with a pout. "I love sitting up on Christmas Eve wrapping presents for the girls and watching A Christmas Carol on TV."

"Which version?" asked Paul.

"An old one, from the fifties, with Alister Simm."

"I love that version!" said Paul as he tightened his hug on Andi. "He's not the best evil Scrooge, but he's the very best happy Scrooge."

"I know," smiled Andi as she pushed her butt back against her new husband's crotch.

Paul sighed. "John, Macy, Lucy, and Gus got to do the last-minute wrapping this year, I wondered if the TV was even on... the TV in the living room will be perfect for it."

It would be perfect, thought Andi. In the past she spent hours in front of her TV in Denver, sitting on the floor wrapping presents for the twins while great old Christmas movies played on her TV, Paul's faux console TV in her new living room would be perfect. When she first saw the living room she wanted to replace the tacky furniture in that room, until Macy showed her a picture of the living room that Paul and John grew up in, they were identical. It was a tribute to Paul's parents, they scrimped and saved for new furniture, and were able to pay it off before the bottom fell out of their business and they ended up penniless in Tiorunda. When they fought back and made it to "the big time" the furniture was forgotten, except by John and Macy who "inherited" it for their starter home in Springville. When Paul purchased the big Victorian house on Howard St., he purchased the furniture from John and Macy. He then had the couch and chair restored to their original "glory," but the cobblers bench coffee table retained its scars and scratches obtained from the Jarecki boys. "I can see us in front of that TV wrapping presents next year," Andi sighed.

"All four of us," sighed John.

"Hmmm?" Andi thought his count included the twins.

"John and Macy practically live here during the holidays, and Gus spends quite a lot of time here too during Christmas."

"Then make it the six of us, Lucy needs to be part of this family," she grabbed Paul's wrist and moved his hand back to her breast.

All they were wearing were their red robes from this morning and Santa Claus hats. His hand clasped her breast, and her nipple protruded from between his middle and ring fingers. He squeezed her breast and whispered, "Did all your Christmas wishes come true?"

"Every Christmas wish that I've ever had, has come true this week. Even that bikini." A package from Santa contained a bikini that could best be described as 'two dots and a dash' for the honeymoon. Macy teased Andi mercilessly over that when she opened it, but Macy eventually opened a box that contained a similar bikini.

"You've always wanted a micro-kini to open in front of your parents?" asked a surprised Paul.

"No, I've always wanted a man to wear a micro-kini for." She rolled on to her back and craned her neck for a kiss. When their lips finally parted, Andi rolled to the floor and crawled over to the tree. As she did, she whispered to Paul to come join her. Soon they were both laying on their backs, their heads under the tree, looking up through the branches. "I always loved doing this when I was a little girl, my dad called it a 'Squirrels Eye View' of the tree."

Paul humored her but then he noticed what she did, the tree was beautiful from below, the view took him back to his youth, climbing pine trees and hiding beneath their boughs. He couldn't see too many ornaments or much tinsel, but the lights were quite visible because he likes to put a lot of lights deep inside the tree to shine from behind the ornaments. "It's beautiful," he whispered, but when he looked over at her, she was gone. She had scooted down and was now deftly untying the belt on his robe.

Andi glanced over her shoulder at the second-floor balcony, every room was full up there, John and Macy, Katrina, Gus, her parents, the twins... oh well, nothing ventured, nothing gained! She gently sucked one testicle into her mouth and rolled it around on her tongue while she gently stroked his growing manhood. Paul propped himself up on his elbows and watched his darling wife set his nerve endings on fire. When Andi noticed that she had his complete attention, she smiled and winked, then swallowed his entire length, again and again, slowly, and deliberately.

Now she left love's labor and crawled up the length of his body, her robe open, her nipples dragging the length of his body. Their eyes were locked as she crawled slowly, her tongue and nipples tracing her path up his body every inch of the way. Finally, she stopped, her nose inches from his, then sitting up she lowered her pussy down until her lips folded around his hardness. She began to ease her hips back and forth, stroking her clit against his cock, her fluids providing more than ample lubrication. The feeling for both of them was exquisite, but a thought occurred to her and suddenly she stopped. "You," she said, "it was you all along, wasn't it?"

"What? What do you mean?" asked Paul.

"Since we met at that conference in Minneapolis, you were the man that was chosen for me. This all has been a path to our reunion."

Paul was confused, "I don't get what you mean."

"It's like the cosmos chose us to be together, we met in Minneapolis then we went to our respective corners and we spent the next five years preparing for this day, this celebration, this wedding." Andi continued, "I had no personal life at all, I raised my girls and concentrated on my practice. Except for a few sick days, I never took time off, saving all of my vacation and personal days for this exact moment."

Paul thought, which was hard to do with a beautiful woman sliding her pussy back and forth on your dick. "I just... it was business as usual for me..."

"Oh?" asked Andi, "these last five years, since we met in Minneapolis, did you date a lot?"

"Well, sure. This is a weird time to ask but yeah."

Andi leaned forward and drew her robe around the both of them. "Did you really? Because Macy says that you spent all of your time alone, in the cabin or up in your office, just working."

"No! That's silly, there was..." He almost mentioned Norma, the fiery Latina he dated for months, but come to think about it, she broke it off with him before he left for Minneapolis, and when he got back, she was involved with somebody else and had moved to Pittsburgh. After that, Macy was right, he dove into his work. The law classes he took to kill time and use up the GI Bill paid off in a big way when it came to expanding Jarecki Motors which expanded his income, but socially his life was dead. If it were not for the Sunday evening pasta feasts at Giardini's with John, Macy, Gus, and Gus's now departed wife Amelia, he would have been a complete loner. Those meals, the monthly church board meeting, and the occasional visit to the American Legion post were almost his entire social life.

"Sorry, I guess you're right." Then using his 'Doctor Face', the face he used with a patient who was denying something or holding back information, "What does this have to do with the here and now?" He punctuated his question with a thrust of his hips which pushed his erection against her clit making her eyes roll.

"Everything! Hear me out," her eyes danced with excitement. "That day, the day we met, the day we first touched, we shook hands, that was the last day any man touched me for the next five years. Frank left with his slut at that exact moment, and that was it, there has been no man in my life other than co-workers until we met, same as you."

"That doesn't mean..."

"It all adds up!" Andi said with increasing excitement. "Macy and Gus said that you spent those years working on this house and turning the farm into a resort, are they right?" When Paul nodded, she continued, "I was getting ready for you, and you were feathering this nest for us!" She suddenly smiled and gave her hips a saucy wiggle. "What was the first thing I ever said to you... remember?"

Paul looked back on the years, it was a moment that could have been forgotten easily, but he was able to bring back the memory slowly. "We shook hands... then..." Then the memory came rushing back making his head spin... "You jumped and held your stomach and said... you said..." And then the memory hit and exploded like a supernova, "You said 'oh wow, the girls must want to meet you too,' you said they both started kicking." He remembered that night, her standing near him in that big cold ballroom, doctors standing around holding drinks and canapés and being horrible bores, the only ray of humanity was this one smiling little pulmonologist carrying two tiny lives inside her. He remembered her black formal maternity dress, her hair curled and off the shoulders, and her smile, that warm glowing smile, the only warmth in that cold boring room. He remembered seeing her wedding band and realizing that he had to get away from that smile, otherwise he'd be drawn in and drown in its radiant glow. The sudden discomfort on her face got washed away with the joy of feeling the little lives inside her womb dancing in his presence.

"They did!" Andi was getting excited relaying her story. "Usually, it was one then the other, but never at the same time as that. They didn't stop until... really until they were born. It's like they wanted to get out meet their forever daddy!"

"I don't think that..." but on the inside, his mind shouted, 'Oh my God... is she right?'

"Think about it!" Andi exclaimed almost loud enough to wake the sleepers upstairs. "I don't screw up driving directions like that! 'Take 219 south, get off on the Springville exit, turn left', how simple is that? I remember approaching that corner! I have no idea how or why I turned right, and my GPS didn't say a peep when I went the wrong way!"

Silently Paul agreed, this was a head-scratcher. Andi has proven to be quite adept at finding her way on these winding country roads down here in the "snow belt." When faced with directions that would confuse the most jaded local, Andi always found her way.

"God dropped me in your lap!" she continued, "I should have ended up dead, gone off the road in Spooners Gulch, but I don't even remember driving through Spooners Gulch, I don't remember going down that hill, making that turn in the gulch, then coming back up the other side. I should be dead! Instead I ended up in a ditch one mile from the one man on earth who would care for me and my babies for the rest of our lives. A man I met so long ago, so far away, a man who touched my hand and our lives immediately changed forever."

"What brought all this on?" Paul's mind was spinning with the possibility that this all could be real.

Andi lifted up on her hands and wiggled her hips, and before either of them knew it, the head of his cock slipped into Andi. "Laying on the couch I was remembering how you lifted the girls out of the car when you found us, how they enjoyed it and pretended to be airplanes when you carried them to the hay wagon."

"I remember, they were cute. I think I fell in love with them right there and then."

"They've never reacted to a man like that before," said Andi as she eased more of her husband into her body. "They've always been afraid of men, including Grandpa Harold and Great Grandpa Ole. Then God drops them into your lap, and they fall in love with you..." She pushed back, swallowing his length inside her vagina as she eased back. The look on her face changed to one of sated bliss. "Then the memories came to mind, all of the things!

"I can't argue with you," said Paul as their hands clasped and their fingers intertwined. "If you think that God led you to me, I'm going to have to agree. If you think that this is a dying fantasy and that you and the girls are lying in a wrecked car in Spooners Gulch..."

"Impossible!" insisted Andi as she leaned forward, allowing her breasts to dangle delightfully. He pushed back on her hands keeping her from the kiss she sought, but it allowed him to admire her large breasts and her erect nipples as they swayed above him.

"Why do you think it's impossible?"

"Because I have the receipt from the rental car company, they want to charge me for scratches from going in the ditch on Trevette road." She wrinkled her nose at him and stuck out her tongue.

"So?"

"So, if this was a dying fantasy, you wouldn't have given me a Taurus, you would have given me the keys to that sweet gold 1972 Boss 351 Mustang that is locked up in the garage."

"Uhhh... point taken." The girl's got a point thought Paul. "I suppose if this were a fantasy, I'd be younger and better looking."

"Yes, you would be," Andi grinned down at him and clenched her muscles, from the look on his face she knew he felt her pussy tighten around his girthy cock, "and there would be a bidet in the bathroom." She started moving her hips causing her tingling clit to rub against his pubic hair. "We were made for each other," she sighed, giving his cock another squeeze. "We were born to be here."

Paul pushed up on Andi's hands, forcing her to sit straight up. As he did, his cock slid deeper and deeper into her vagina. Soon he was pressed firmly against her cervix, the head of his cock was deep inside her, deeper than any man had ever gone. She sat skewered on his pole, her head thrown back, her mouth opened, afraid he would find a way to surge deeper into her, but at the same time wishing that he could. The sudden shock sent her over the edge, she cried out in her orgasm and Paul pulled her close trying to stifle her cries. She sank her teeth in his shoulder and shuddered as wave after wave of release crashed through her. Her entire body shook with pleasure and he held her tight to himself, hoping that she didn't draw blood and praying that she didn't wake anyone.

When Andi opened her eyes, she found herself lying next to Paul in front of the dying fire, cuddling close and slowly coming down to earth. She eventually noticed the gentle Christmas music that still filled the room, and her nose was greeted by the smell of the pine tree, the sweet fire, and the perfume of their sex. "Oh God that was intense!" whispered Andi, "was I loud? did I wake anyone?"

In answer Paul pointed to the grand staircase. Andi squinted and in the dim light she could see Macy leaning over the banister grinning at them. "You want to keep it down? Us decent people are trying to sleep!" she whispered hoarsely.

"Fair may la boosh!" Andi tried to tell Macy to keep quiet in French and came fairly close.

"Je t'aime belle-sœur!" said Macy blowing a kiss and headed back to bed.

"Je t'aime belle-sœur,"(I love you sister-in-law) answered Andi. Then she turned to Paul, "I think it's bedtime."

"I still have unfinished business with you," said Paul opening his robe and showing her his still throbbing erection.

"I have a plan..." she grinned. Then she sprang to her feet. "Last one in the shower makes breakfast!" and she took off toward the stairs. However, her toes got tangled on the hem of the robe and she nearly fell. She slipped out of the robe and sprinted up the stairs wearing only her Santa hat. Paul sighed and followed her up the stairs carrying her robe, a plan of his own formulating in his head. This was going to be a fun marriage.