© 2024 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.

All Aboard Andi's Dream

Chapter 13

"We're Family"

Paul Jarecki was awakened by a strange squeaking. He was dreaming about spending a quiet weekend at the cabin, just him and Andi, but there came this noise, a tree branch scraping against the cabin, and no matter what he did, the branch kept rubbing against the cabin and continued to squeak. Slowly his eyes came open, and he was in their bedroom and the squeaking continued.

Little stars and planets slowly circled the ceiling, occasionally a shooting star would zoom across the ceiling, and the ISS, a rocket, or Santa Claus, would also drift across the sky. It was a gift from Grandpa Harold, Andi's step-father, a planetarium projector. He said it would keep the baby entertained at night. Paul wasn't sure about the baby, but he was fascinated. He might have to get another one for the nursery and keep this one. The thing was amazing, and Paul couldn't wait to explore the educational modes and teach the twins about the stars because star gazing was a big part of camping.

However, the squeaking continued and soon built up steam. Paul got out of bed, pulled on a robe and walked around the bed to Andi's side and carefully, so carefully, scooped tiny Danny out of the cradle as Andi woke up. "I have him," whispered Paul.

"Mmmfff" said Andi, and she went back to sleep.

Paul stepped into his slippers and stepped out of the bedroom. He headed down the back stairs and stepped into the kitchen, opened the fridge and took out a tiny bottle of breast milk Andi had expressed earlier, and set it on the counter. He put a pan of water on the stove and fired up the stove, then sat down at the table. Paul gave Danny a pacifier, which the little guy gnawed on thoughtfully for a while, then he pushed it out with his tongue. "You're so hungry," teased Paul. "Hungry, hungry boy," and he tried the pacifier again.

Eventually the water got to the temperature that he wanted and as he got up to warm the milk, John slowly walked into the kitchen with a bundled baby who was making little quacking sounds. John reached into the pantry for powdered formula, but Paul stopped him. "Hold on, we have natural," and he took another bottle of expressed milk out of the fridge and put both bottles in the warm water. "It's better for her."

"I can't have you doing that," said John. "That's for Danny."

"Andi is doing fine. She was feeding twins a few years ago, and her body still remembers how. There's more than enough for Danny and my little goofy girl," and he tickled Katarina under the chin. She didn't understand, but she was just barely a week old. There's a lot that she and her cousin Danny haven't figured out. Paul plucked the bottle out of the warm water and handed it to John, then grabbed the other one and sat next to his brother at the kitchen table and they fed their babies.

Paul reached over and adjusted the way John was holding the bottle. "I don't believe how you have taken to babies," said John. "You're like super dad."

"Me? No... I just have a little training. When I was seven mom made me help take care of you," said Paul. "I was complaining about changing your diaper and she said, 'you're going to have children some day and you'll thank me for this.'" Danny fell asleep while eating so as Katarina taught him Paul tugged on the bottle which woke Danny up. "Thank you mom," he whispered sadly.

"You changed my diapers?" demanded John.

"Yeah, quite a few times... then I married a doctor who raised two preemies on her own. It's quite an education."

"Macy still isn't producing enough to keep Katarina full and she's feeling horrible. We don't want to keep asking."

"We're family, it's ok. We have it, and if you need it, it's yours. Andi has only been part of this lunatic asylum for 11 months, but she really and truly loves Macy. It's ok about the milk, we have plenty and Macy will come along. Andi went through the same thing six years ago. She had Lucy to help her, but Lucy never had kids, so she couldn't identify with her problem." Paul pulled the bottle out of hungry little Danny's mouth, then put him up to his shoulder and started patting his back. He gestured for John to do the same.

John pulled the nipple out of Katarina's hungry mouth and burped her like Paul was doing. "How do you know when they need to burp?"

"They always need to burp," said Paul as a little burp erupted from Daniel.

Katarina burped, then expelled gas from the other end with a tiny beep. "Really classy, little girl," said John as he continued patting her back.

"It's ok, we'll check diapers when we head off to bed."

"I forgot my diaper bag," groaned John.

"There's always a spare here in the kitchen," said Paul. "This is where the babies are fed so Andi insists that a bag remains here. She says that it goes in one end and out the other."

Just then, Heather stumbled down the stairs. Her eyes were bleary, her nose was red from being blown. "You don't look good, Mom," said Paul.

"I'm fine, I heard the babies and I'm here to help."

"Get back to bed, we have it under control," said Paul. "I'll bring tea up to you when its ready. You need sleep as much as anyone else around here."

Heather looked at the teakettle, which gave no hint of warming up soon, and said, "I'll get tea in the morning," and she headed back upstairs.

The brothers fed and burped their children for quite a while under the watchful eyes of Macy and Andi, who peeked at them from the parlor door. When the tiny newborns couldn't keep their eyes open anymore and were done feeding, the guys changed the diapers and headed back to bed to find their wives sound asleep, or at least they looked sound asleep. But both Andi and Macy realized they weren't alone with raising their children. This wouldn't be as hard as they first thought.

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Yi made sure that the twins were ready for school, lunches packed, homework complete, pencils sharp and ready. As Yi checked their backpacks, Heather zipped the twins' parkas up and led them out to the van and snapped them in their seats. As soon as they were locked in, Heather said, "Kiss!" and got a goodbye kiss from each of the girls. "Have a good day!"

"Bye gamma!"

Yi took the twins to school fully prepared for their first homework essay assignment, 'What I did during the Blizzard of November.' The assignment was sent at the height of the storm, asking for an essay on what they did to keep busy. They both wrote a 200-word essay describing, as only the twins can describe, what happened at their house during the Blizzard of November. Their mother and aunt in labor, their dad loading them in the snowmobile and riding off into the storm, and pictures of babies being sent back. Of watching Yi being dragged around by the snowblower, and playing in the snow with Wonka. Oh yes, and meeting their new brother.

They were also armed with plenty of pictures of Danny and Katarina to hand out to their classmates. "What if they don't like Danny?" Sandy asked Yi.

"Don't start a fight. They clearly don't like beautiful babies," said Yi.

"Ok," Sandy almost sounded like she was disappointed she couldn't beat up a classmate. Yi put Madeline's glasses on her, then took a pair of glasses with plain lenses for Sandy and put them on her.

"You ready?"

"Uh huh." The twins really liked school ever since they got moved up in grades equivalent to the second grade.

"Ok, don't lose your glasses." Yi gave them a kiss and led them to their classroom. Their lunch boxes were attached to the outside of their backpacks "just like camping" as the twins claim. As soon as they were close, they yelled and squealed and dashed off to the classroom.

"They're sweet, are they yours?" asked a woman that came up behind Yi.

"No, I'm their governess."

"They never mention a governess, but they talk nonstop about their big sister," said the woman as she headed into the classroom.

Big sister? The twins teased her when they found out her birthday was the day after theirs. Yi felt a warmth that the twins would think of her like that. She wanted to rush home and make her little sisters a sweet treat for when they get home, but first she had a stop to make.

"Hi pretty girl!" called Grandpa Archie as Yi entered the feed store. "How's my favorite Korean granddaughter?"

Yi gave Grandpa Archie and Grandma Lacy a kiss and asked, "Where's Kenny?"

"He's unloading a truck," said Archie. "Sit down, you look a bit worked up. Anything happen since we last saw you?"

"We had two babies born," said Yi as she sat down in a rocker by the warm parlor stove.

"Any of them yours?" asked Archie, and Grandma Lacy swatted him with her newspaper.

"I haven't had a chance to touch either one of them. Andi is teaching Macy all about mothering and John and Paul are there constantly trying to be the best dads they can be when John's not writing his next sermon or Paul's not in his office being boss."

"So the whole bunch of ya are in that big old house?"

"Andi's mom is there with us too. Her dad will come for Christmas."

"That's quite a bunch! You going to have room for Kenny up there?"

"Kenny?"

"You can't live here and watch those little girls," said Grandma Lacy as she filled in a word on her crossword puzzle.

"You got your whole life ahead of you," said Archie. "You can't dedicate your life to a job."

"The twins and Danny are not a job," said Yi. "They're my sisters and brother."

"I'm sure that if you went to Paul and Andi and said, 'Kenny and I are going to open a restaurant in London,' they'd wish you luck and buy your plane tickets," said Archie.

"I'm sure he would, but I don't want to do that, not right now anyhow," said Yi. "I'm needed, and it's nice to feel needed."

Lacy swatted Archie with her newspaper again and said, "let the kids be. They'll make up their own minds."

Yi got up and headed back to the room that Kenny was converting to a sporting goods section and found he did quite a job. It looked wonderful. There were racks of snowshoes, skis, and ski boots, both alpine and Nordic. There was ice fishing equipment and all kinds of hunting equipment, and outdoor clothing of all types.

"What can I get ya?" he asked from behind a counter.

"I want a turkey," said Yi.

"I think the B-Quik has Butterball turkeys, I'm not sure of the other brands. Bells IGA just up the road has smoked turkey legs on sale."

"No, I want a wild turkey for thanksgiving," said Yi. "I've been involved in every bit of food on my menu, I planted and harvested every vegetable that will be on the table, I'm even going to whip the cream for the pumpkin pie I am going to bake. I already made the pie filling from the twins pumpkins. The only thing I didn't grow is the cranberries, but I will make my own cranberry jelly."

"Doc has a big old sack of cranberry's in his root cellar," said Kenny. "We picked them. There's a few cranberry bushes back by the spring that feeds the pond. Besides, Doc always cooks Thanksgiving dinner."

"I still want to harvest a turkey."

"Harvest?" chuckled Kenny. "Harvest isn't exactly the word for hunting and killing a turkey. They're pretty tricky birds.."

"I don't care, I dispatched half a dozen chickens a couple of weeks ago, a turkey is just another bird."

"Ok, you need camouflage, a shot gun, ammo, a hunting license, and a place to shoot," said Kenny as he pulled out the paperwork for a hunting permit. "Autumn and winter shooting isn't very good, the critters are skittish. Spring is much better. This permit will be for the remainder of this autumn and next spring."

"Perfect," said Yi. "When are we going hunting?" she asked as she paid her license fee.

"Honey, you know that I would do anything for you, but the store is expanding so fast that I don't have any time for..." memories of Yi stomping off angrily filled his mind and he steeled himself for her reaction.

"I'm sorry, I should be more supportive," said Yi. They leaned across the counter and kissed, then she whispered, "it's been crazy for me too... but I'm gonna get that turkey!" She gave him one more kiss, then she headed out of the store. In shock, Kenny watched her small, round ass swing as she headed out.

"Damn," he whispered. Now Kenny knew the precise feeling that's summed up in the expression "dodged a bullet."

Yi drove to Paul's cabin to check on the chickens and parked in the road because the driveway was still covered with snow. She clipped on her snowshoes and trooped over the snow and made her way to the barn. She went inside the barn, but this time she hit more than one light switch when she entered the side of the barn. There was the orange Kubota sitting in readiness, but it had the backhoe attached to it, along with the dump scoop up front. It was tempting to try, but Paul would freak if she broke it. In another bay was Paul's antique Ford 8N with a drag plow. She could drive the 8N, but there was too much snow out there for a drag plow.

Then she saw the John Deere, the baby Deere. It still had the snow blower attachment on the front. Here was a snow blower that wouldn't drag her around and make the twins giggle! And the baby Deere had a full tank of gas. She turned the key, and it started right up with a little bit of choke applied, then she shoved the barn door open and sat on the seat of the Baby Deere and studied its controls. This should be simple. She pushed down on the hydrostatic transmission pedal and the tractor surged forward, but it bogged down and stopped when it hit the snow.

Yi pondered this for a few moments as the yacht mechanic in her brain went to work. She backed up the tractor, turned the crank so the chute was aimed forward and a bit to her right, then pushed the lever that adjusted the lawnmower height. It lowered the snow auger. She pulled the lever that engaged the lawn mower and the snow auger roared to life. "YEEEE HAWWW!" she screamed and tromped down on the transmission peddle and the baby Deere tore into the snow.

She had figured out the zero turn lawn mower back at the house in a matter of moments. This was fractionally as complex to get started and running. The baby Deere gnawed away at the snow and ice, and she quickly had the area in front of the three cabins cleared and the larger area around the barn cleared. After that, she tore into the driveway. The first pass down the center was slow going, the auger clogged with the heavy wet snow quickly and twice she had to stop and clear it with an ice chipper. She made the full run and turned around and went back to it, and made a total of four passes to clear the driveway.

She returned the John Deere to the barn, then went upstairs to check the chickens. They were low on food and water, but not out. She cleaned up their roosts, collected a lot of eggs, and refilled the food and water, then cleaned out the straw and changed it, and carried her heavy basket down to her truck.

Ten minutes later, she was at Brad Clemmons' hog farm. "Need some eggs?"

"Did you bring pictures of the babies?" asked Brad's wife, Dianna. Yi opened her phone and showed Brad and Dianna the new babies and the overjoyed parents. "They're so darling! I can see their fathers in both of them. They must be so proud... oh and the twins!" Dianna flipped to a carefully posed picture of Sandy and Madeline holding Daniel and Katarina.

"The twins are crazy about them," said Yi. "The babies have to have a kiss before the twins head off to school."

"School? How are the twins liking school?" asked Brad.

"They're loving school now that they're in Zoar Academy."

"I knew it!" laughed Brad. "I knew there was no kindergarten that could hold them! What grade do they have them in?"

"Zoar doesn't strictly do grades, but they're doing second grade equivalent work. Their math skills are beyond that, but they need to get acclimated to school."

"And the glasses?" asked Diana.

"Madeline needs the glasses," said Yi. "Sandy wears a pair of matching frames with fake lenses because they're twins."

"Their glasses don't match, one is purple, and one is pink," said Brad.

"They both have a set of purple and a set of pink, but they wear the different colors so their little brother can tell them apart." Yi shrugged and added, "it makes sense to them."

"We can't wait to see them at church. Say hi to everybody for us," said Diana.

Yi departed with a dozen two inch thick pork chops and headed over to Gerry and Irma's dairy farm which was on what Andi called "The Happy Corner." It was where Paul rescued Andi and the twins.

"Hi, we need extra milk," said Yi as she handed Irma a dozen eggs, a pair of pork chops, and a couple of empty milk bottles.

"I suppose those tots get thirsty playing in the snow," said Gerry with his usual laugh.

"They're too busy being big sisters," said Yi as she handed Irma her phone.

"Oh my goodness!" gasped Irma.

"I could see it in their eyes that Sunday morning when we dug her out," said Gerry with a loud belly laugh. "I knew it would lead to this!"

"How sweet! Paw, get those folks some protein, said Irma as she gushed and cooed over the pictures. "What are their names?"

"They're named for their grandparents. He's Daniel Cyryl, and she's Katarina Romée."

"I miss Katarina and Cecil, we'd sit by the campfire with them after Paul built his cabin and they spent the nights," said Gerry wistfully. It was the first time that Yi had ever not seen Gerry laughing about anything.

"We never met Daniel or Romée," said Irma as they looked at pictures of the twins snuggling in a bed with the babies.

"Andi's father Daniel died in Iraq when she was young," said Yi. "I just found out that Macy was an orphan. She ran away from her uncle and Romée was the person who took her in and made her a fashion model."

"They are beautiful babies," sighed Irma. "They must be happy."

"Overjoyed," said Yi as Gerry handed her several frozen steaks and a huge roast that Yi immediately started making plans for.

As he handed Yi the meat, Gerry said, "Do you have anything against veal?"

"Veal is my favorite beef!" gushed Yi. Ten minutes later, she was loading the frozen meat into her truck, then saying thank you to the couple, she headed back to Paul and Andi's cabins to load much of that meat into the chest freezer. After locking up the cabin and barn, she pulled out of the driveway and was getting ready to lock up the gate when she noticed Josh was at his cabin across the road. She walked over with a question on her mind.

"How ya doin' Miss Yi?" asked Josh as he unloaded a cooler from his truck.

"I was wondering if you hunted turkeys."

"Me? Nah. I should though. The damn things are all over my property. They're thick as mosquitos in a South Georgia swamp and they're tearing everything up. They really tore into your garden this year."

"Really?" asked Yi. "I thought that was deer."

"Nah, deer nibble, they don't rip stuff up. I'm surprised Paul didn't deal with it."

"We were kind of occupied this year," said Yi. "Could I hunt turkey on your land?"

Josh looked Yi up and down. Even in a warm parka, she looked slim and tiny. "Have you ever held a shotgun in your life?"

"I shoot rifle quite often. My dad has an M1, and we shoot floating targets in the ocean off his boat."

"A shotgun and a rifle are two different animals. First, we don't hunt with rifles in Erie County." He led Yi into his cabin and took a shotgun off the rack. "This is a turkey gun. It's a Weatherby Orion 12-gauge shotgun." He handed it to Yi and expected her to buckle under the weight, but she seemed to like it.

"I thought shotgun barrels were all side by side," she said as she broke down the gun and eyed down the bore of the over/under barrels.

"You want to take a shot?" asked Josh.

"Hell yeah!" said Yi.

"Ok, let's step outdoors," and he led her outside and showed her how to hold the gun. "Tight into your shoulder. Pull it back into your shoulder as tight as possible. Good, now lean into the gun, good. Sight down the barrel... perfect." Josh led her off the porch and stepped a few steps toward the pond. "Here you go," and he handed her two shotgun shells. "This should be turkey shot."

She broke down the gun and put the shells into it. "Is this double aught buck shot?"

"No this is BB shot, it'll do good for geese and turkey."

Yi brought the shotgun up to her shoulder and swept her view along the edge of the woods. "Do turkeys sit in trees?" she whispered.

"Yes."

"Do they look like sideways hornets nests?" she said as she tightened up on the trigger.

"Yes..." He was answered with a double BOOMBOOM! And Yi fell back on her butt. Josh tried to catch her, but the shotgun shoved her down pretty hard.

"Ow!" groaned Yi, and she grabbed her shoulder.

"Are you ok?" said Josh as he crouched down next to Yi. "Normally you shoot one barrel at a time."

"I think I dislocated my shoulder," she groaned.

"You should go get that checked out," said Josh as he took the shotgun and helped Yi to her feet.

"Gotta get my birds first," she said, and she trooped through the snow to the edge of the woods. "They came down right about here..." Josh didn't see the turkeys she claimed to have shot, because he was paying attention to Yi. "Here we are!" she said, and she came back to Josh holding a turkey by the neck in each hand.

"Holy shit," gasped Josh. "That was your first shot?"

"Yeah, I never harvested a turkey before."

As they walked back to the cabin, one of the turkeys struggled in her grip. "I think that one is still alive," said Josh.

Yi gave it a snap with her wrist, and its struggling ended. "Got it, thanks."

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Gus and Lucy were at Paul and Andi's house and the six of them (eight counting the babies) sat around the dining room table. Lucy held Danny in her arms, and Gus held Katarina. "When you're married you need to steel your mind for anything," said John as part of their pre-marriage class.

"Oui, anything!" said Macy. "We had tried several times to have a baby, so when ma sœur (my sister) suggested a baby race, we did not expect to have Katarina."

"I keep telling you," said Lucy, "it's the magic of Valentine's Day."

"That's a fact." said Andi.

"Just because you are careful doesn't mean you will remain childless. This is something you need to consider. Gus you are not too young to have another baby, and Lucy, you are younger than Andi. Both of you are hardworking, things happen. I'm not going to say mistake when it comes to a baby," said John. "Planned or surprise, babies are incredible, beautiful creatures that need your love."

Katarina became fussy, and she was pushing the bottle away. This was her way of showing that she wanted attention elsewhere. "Keep talking," said Gus and he placed a receiving blanket on the table and laid Katarina down and opened her swaddling. As John continued with his lecture, Gus quickly stripped Katarina of her wet sleeper, changed her soaked diaper, cleaned her up, dressed her in a dry sleeper, and swaddled her back up. John wasn't far in his lecture and Katarina Romée was warm, dry, and gnawing on her "nootcher" as she drifted off to sleep.

"Wow, I should have timed that," laughed Lucy.

"Well, it's not exactly calf roping, but with three daughters and five grandchildren, I know my way around a diaper bag," said Gus.

"Lucy, are you prepared to become a grandmother?" asked John.

"Hell no," laughed Lucy. "But I know that's in my future...'Grandpa? Why is my new grandma same age as mommy? Is there something Freudian going on here?'" Her remark caused Andi to laugh.

"Like I said, you have to be ready for everything," said John.

As John said that, Yi pulled into the driveway after picking the twins up at school. She was running just a little late. As they finished up their conversation they heard Madeline in the kitchen calling, "A little help here? This is heavy!" She walked into the dining room carrying a dead turkey. "Where should I put this?" she asked. Andi shrieked and jumped up, and Madeline was followed by Sandy, who was also carrying a dead turkey.

"Out!" shouted Andi.

"But they're dead," said Sandy.

"They have germs and fleas and bugs!"

"Oh kay!" groaned the twins, and they went outside to find Yi standing in the driveway.

"Where did you go?"

"To take the turkey to mom!" they cried in unison. They were nearly in tears from their mother's rejection. Just then, Papa Paul stepped outside.

"I'm sorry girls but momma's scared of bugs and germs after being in the hospital so much with her broken leg and having a baby. We need to clean these birds before we can take them in the house. Yi, why don't you take the girls upstairs... Yi? Why is your arm in a sling?"

"She broke it hunting turkeys!" said Sandy.

"You broke your arm hunting turkeys?"

"I dislocated my shoulder," Yi said nervously. "I guess I let go with both barrels when I saw the birds."

"Both barrels? Whose gun did you use?"

"Josh's turkey gun."

"The Weatherby?" asked Paul. "You're lucky to have a shoulder left. But these birds look great. Don't worry about fleas or bugs, the cold weather killed them all off, that's why we hunt in the late autumn. Go take a bath with the girls to humor Andi and I'll clean these guys up and get them ready for the fridge."

Ninety minutes later, Paul stepped back into the house with two turkey carcasses plucked, gutted, and scrubbed and they were put in the freezer in the basement for Thanksgiving two weeks away. As he stepped into the dining room, they were huddled around the table, Yi and the twins in bathrobes, and they were playing a board game that John and Macy developed to teach an engaged couple to deal with married life. Andi and Lucy were fascinated, and Gus had a very successful marriage, so he was far ahead in the game, taking Lucy with him and they were ahead of John and Macy and Andi and Yi. "Tricheur!" (Cheater!) Macy cried as Gus and Lucy lapped them a second time.

"You told me that a woman must submit to her husband," said Lucy. "I'm applying that lesson."

"Will you apply that lesson to everyday life?" asked John.

"That depends on the circumstances," said Lucy. "When we're at the drag strip or in his wood shop or paying bills, he calls the shots. When someone is lying on the ground bleeding, it's my call."

"And that is the right answer," said Macy.

Just then the doorbell rang, and Andi said, "Darling can you get that? It should be our supper."

"Will do," and he disappeared into the parlor. A moment later he called out, "Girls! Did you check the tree water?"

"Ooops!" The twins dashed into the kitchen and soon emerged with two small pitchers of water and ducked under the tree in the parlor. The tree was still undecorated except for a well-loved Strawberry Shortcake doll that was sitting in the branches. They topped off the tree's water and scolded Wonka for drinking tree water and when they were finished, they rose and saw their dad reentering the living room with a stack of pizzas, a box of chicken wings, and he was followed by Josh and Veronica.

"We had to come and see how the newest cripple in Doc Jarecki's emergency ward was doing," said Josh.

"I came to see the babies," said Veronica, and she took them both so Gus and Lucy could help clean up the board game.

"Can you handle them both?" asked Andi.

"I think I can, they're just so precious, aren't you? You're momma's boy aren't you? And you're daddy's little girl, I can just see you bringing your prom date home to meet Pastor Dad."

"That's why there's a second amendment," said John as he helped clean up the table.

"I've never heard you ever talk about owning a firearm before," said an astonished Paul.

"I've never had two beautiful women living in my house with me before," said John.

"You know," started Andi, "Yi has never held one of these babies."

"Keep them away from me," said Yi. "They're addictive. If I pick up one of them, I'll be carrying triplets the next day and Kenny will be on oxygen."

"Oh, I will, will I?" said Kenny, who came in through the kitchen door and snuck up behind her. She yelped in surprise and Kenny leaned over and kissed her. "I came to see the turkey killing she-demon."

"Swear to god, I never saw a one of those birds," said Josh holding up a hand like he was swearing in as a court witness. "She said, 'do turkeys sit in trees,' and I said 'Yup' then she said, 'do turkeys look like sideways hornets nests?' and I said 'Yup' and she said BA-BLAM! And let go with both barrels. She ended up on her back about ten yards behind where she was standing. I said, 'you got to get that shoulder looked at,' and she said, 'I gotta git my birds first,' and she picks herself up and walks over to the trees and comes back with about fifty pounds of turkey! Honest to god, I never saw one of them. I saw Yi yank the trigger and then I saw Yi sailing through the air, but I never saw a turkey until she picked them up."

Everyone was laughing riotously, which woke the babies. "I broke them!" gasped Veronica.

"C'est bien," said Macy as she took Katarina. "It is her supper time." Then she began calming Katarina. "Chut ma douce. Maman est là." (Hush my sweet. Mommy is here.) She covered up with a receiving blanket and lifted Katarina to her breast. As she did that, Danny looked up at Veronica in confusion, and seeing an unfamiliar face right after his second afternoon nap! He began squalling too, but it wasn't as vocal as his little cousin. With a couple of hiccups, he went back to sleep.

"He's so sweet!" gushed Veronica as Danny licked his lips, yawned and snuggled down into her arms.

"No," said Josh. "You need to leave him here when we go. And we have our own baby coming." He held Veronica from behind and looked over her shoulder at the sleeping little boy and John took their picture.

Andi and Macy both gasped in shock. "You're... you're...?"

"When we go see my dad for Christmas we're bringing him back with us!" said Veronica.

"Oh," said Andi and Macy in small voices.

Sandy and Madeline came into the room. Their arms were loaded down with a stack of paper plates, napkins, paper cups and a two liter bottle of Sprite. "SUPPER!" cried Sandy, imitating her mom. "GET TO THE TABLE!"

Paul chuckled as he helped Sandy and Madeline set the table and he got a few extra chairs. "It's been a while since we had this many folks at the table." He looked at Yi and said, "Deadeye, would you say grace?"

"Grace."

"HEY!" shouted the twins, and they glared at Yi. "Say all of it!"

"Like this," said Madeline. "God is gracious, God is good, let us thank him for our food."

Yi loves tormenting her little sisters, but they looked so angry. "What's the matter?" she asked, but the twins just huffed and grabbed their paper plates and went into the kitchen to eat. "What's wrong?"

"I'll go talk with them," said Andi.

"What did I do?" asked Yi.

"They're not used to someone close to them making fun of their faith," said John. He sighed and said, "Give them time."

"I... I didn't. That's an old joke."

"Those are young kids," said Kenny. "You and I know it's a play on words, like 'say good night Dan.' Good night Dan."

"Madeline told me why they like saying grace," said Macy. "Because now they have enough food so their mother can eat too."

"It was pretty grim for their whole life," said Lucy. "The only thing Frank left behind when he ran off was his bills."

"I didn't know," said Yi. She got up and went into the kitchen and hustled Andi out, then sat down with the twins. "I'm sorry. I didn't understand how serious you took saying grace, I was being funny, I made a word joke, and I was wrong. I'm sorry."

"You're our sisser!" pouted Madeline.

"You should say grace wif us!" wept Sandy at the edge of tears.

"I'm very sorry, but I wasn't raised like this," said Yi. "Tell you what, while we prepare dinner you teach me, and we'll say grace together."

"Every night?" asked Sandy.

"Every night," assured Yi. "and when Danny is talking, he does it with us."

"Ok," said Madeline.

As the three 'sisters' made up to each other, Veronica was still holding Danny in the dining room and was bouncing the tiny snoozing boy gently. "You know who would like this?" she asked Josh. "Ant and Marj Friedman. When they hear about their baby race they'll go nuts."

Josh had to agree. Their boss, Anthony Friedman, and his wife Marjorie were crazy about kids. They had seven, three of their own and four adopted kids, and Marjorie ran an adoption service that helped couples through the paperwork nightmare of the adoption process. "How would you guys like to go to a holiday party?"

"When?"

"December 28th," said Veronica. "Anthony likes having the holiday party between Christmas and New Years, not before when everyone is rushed getting ready for Christmas."

"You have to come and see Veronica and Mitch dance, it's really awesome," said Josh.

"Me and Paul?" asked Andi.

"And John and Macy," said Josh.

"Don't forget Danny and Kat."

"I don't know," said John.

"Je suis d'accord," said Macy. "We are not party people."

As Veronica tried to convince them it was an awesome holiday party with a sumptuous dinner and Josh gestured to the guys and stepped into the kitchen. Paul, John and Gus followed him into the kitchen, and he said, "I'm going to..." and he opened a ring box that contained an engagement ring.

"We'll be there," said John.

"I'll get a suit for Danny," said Paul with a chuckle. The girls were going to love this.

"Does your uniform still fit colonel?" asked Josh. "I have an idea."

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

That Sunday, Springville Congregational Church was happier than it's been in a long, long time. John was preaching again, although still from a stool from behind the lectern, and most importantly, the babies were there! People crowded around Macy and Andi after the opening hymns, trying to see the babies, and it took quite a while to restore order. "Should we just pass them around the room?" John asked Paul as Paul finished up the announcements.

"NO!" shouted Sandy, causing the congregation to laugh.

"He was just kidding," said Andi, trying to calm down Sandy. "I have Danny right here. He'll meet everyone later."

"But he's my bruver, he could get lost!"

"He won't get lost. Now shush."

"It has been a very challenging period of our lives," continued John. "As you know, Paul took Macy and me into his house immediately after the accident so they could make sure she had the best pre-natal care, and he has been nursing me and Andi ever since. Paul and Andi's mom has been pampering poor Macy, along with his own family, and we ran him ragged. We want to thank Andi's mom Heather who has been a mom to Macy too. She has been watching over Andi and Macy and her newest grandchildren since our injuries. She's been a mom to me also, bringing me coffee and sandwiches as I study and prepare my sermons."

"November will always be remembered in my mind as my brother Paul's greatest test of love. We both knew the babies were coming the moment that storm hit. It just had to be, right? Paul was able to take two women in labor and me to the hospital at the height of the storm in one trip on his snowmobile. Paul and I on the sled, me clutching Paul with one arm, my crutches with the other... and the girls were in Paul's snowmobile trailer as we wound around stalled and buried cars. I will never forget that sled ride."

"And then Fathership... wow. When Macy and I were looking for a position, we were turned down by several churches because we didn't have children, and now I'm starting to understand. I look into that little girls eyes and I see her mother's eyes, and I see MY mother's eyes, so I know I'm never getting away with anything ever again. Of course she wakes up at midnight, three, and six. She sleeps in bed with us, and she just barely squeaks and there's Andi's mom Heather leaning over our bed saying, 'are you ok? do you need help?' She's upstairs, we're down in the library. How did she hear that?"

"I raised Andi," called out Heather, and she was rewarded with laughter from the pews.

John looked at Paul and Andi, and said almost sadly, "Thank you, my brother and sister, but we have to return home. We know you want us to stay until after Christmas, and it's tempting, but we want to go home." He saw the broken, sad look on Paul's face when he said this. "After thanksgiving," he added. "I'm not going to take a chance on missing out on Yi's turkeys."

Andi patted Paul's hand. She knew how much he loved having John and Macy close so he could take care of them like they took care of him when he was going through some horrible times. Before he started with his sermon, John finished his homily by saying, "Any questions?"

Tammy Schatz stood and said, "What are you doing Wednesday?"

"Getting our house ready to move back into, why?"

"Wrong answer," said Tammy. "There will be a proper baby shower for these two darlings and your wives on Wednesday, here at church in the Fellowship hall."

John looked at her for a moment and said, "I guess I'll be at a baby shower that day. Anything else? Ok, let's get our bibles out..." He gave a sermon on fatherhood to no one's surprise, and as he finished, Melissa Kraft took her place at the piano, to play the recessional and John knew it was the moment he both dreaded and looked forward to, presenting Katarina to his congregation.

As usual, John walked to the back of the church, leaning heavily on his crutches, and Macy joined him, carrying Katarina. This time Andi and Paul followed, and they lined up at the door, forming a reception line for the babies.

As expected, the people of the church gushed and cooed over the babies, who woke up to look at the curious faces that peered at them. They were wearing the warm knit sleepers that their grandmother Katarina knit from super soft cotton yarn a decade before they were born. "Oh, I remember when Katarina was knitting these," said Mrs. Schuler, one of the oldest members of the congregation. "Such a shame, but knitting and sewing are disappearing."

"I still knit a little," said Heather, who was standing behind Andi with Paul.

"My momma can knit really good!" insisted Sandy.

"She just hasn't started yet," added Madeline.

Helen chuckled, those girls! They have such a wild imagination. But Andi considered it. Paul, John, and Macy all play at least two musical instruments, including the recorder, which makes three. Macy plays the violin and piano, John plays the guitar, harmonica, and piano, and Paul plays the guitar/guitarrone, and the bass. Andi once took piano lessons, but that was a massive failure. To her, playing the piano was equivalent to typing and she would just press the right keys in the right order. What she couldn't do was put life into the music, but at least she learned to read music.

She felt kind of useless. She can't even sing. Even Yi sings, and she has a beautiful voice and sings with Macy sometimes. But knitting? Andi is good at crafts and repetitious tasks, so she might be able to knit. She has some of Katarina's needles and skeins of yarn waiting to be knit into something. She's got to try. Besides, Paul's birthday is coming up.

As she pondered this, her friends and neighbors gushed over Danny and Katarina. Both babies seemed confused by the parade of people that marched past and spoke to their parents. Macy noticed Andi was thinking about something and asked, "What is on your mind, petite soeur?" (little sister)

Andi touched the beautiful, soft little hat on her son's head and said, "I want to learn to knit like this."

"Maman Katarina taught me, I'll show you. Do you have anything in mind for a first project?"

"Yes, a nice warm red, white, and blue scarf for Paul."

"Parfaite (perfect), I think I have the proper colors. Maman Katarina left so much behind for both of us."

"Both of us?" Andi asked as a tiny blue mitten covered hand emerged from under Danny's swaddling and pushed back his stocking cap. He grimaced in annoyance at the cap that was covering his eyes.

"Oui, she knew Paul would not be alone, she told me multiple times that you would be here soon, and we would be sisters." Macy smiled happily and Andi was shocked that the mother-in-law that she never knew had predicted her arrival.

"I don't know anything," said Andi. "I can't knit, I can't sing, I can barely cook, I hate housework... The only thing I can do is doctor, and I don't want to do that."

"Knitting is just counting, and as for singing, everyone can sing, no one ever helped you fine tune. Yi and I can help. You have been so busy with the twins and working and paying bills that you never tried," said Macy as the line of admirers thinned out. "This winter we will enjoy our babies, we will relax and let John and Paul provide the holiday cheer, and we will knit like Chère Katarina, and you will learn to love her too."

Andi spent all of Monday trying to knit, and she got very good at casting the yarn on to the needle, which is the very first row of stitches. It's something that needs to be practiced, so Macy made her tear it all off and start over again, over and over until she could do it with her eyes closed. She and Macy sat on the bed in the Library and Macy relearned the skills she hadn't used in over a year. Between them lay Katarina and Daniel, who loved to sleep together. As they knitted, they told each other their life stories and Andi was shocked to hear that Macy was an orphan, and worse, she didn't learn about it until after she ran away from home, had two careers, got married, and moved to a different country. She was especially shocked to hear about how Macy was drugged. "That was just like John!" she gasped.

"We would be happy if those stories did not leave this house. Like the story of John and I playing Cache-cache (Hide and seek) in your attic." Macy chuckled at the memory of that night almost a year ago. "Where is the strangest place you made love to Paul?" asked Macy.

"Your cabin," said Andi without a pause.

"What?" gasped Macy.

"They had just finished putting the roof on and most of the floor upstairs wasn't there, and what was there wasn't nailed down. I had mentioned to Paul about your hide and seek game in my attic a year ago, so we climbed up to the second floor with a ladder and christened your cabin.

"Where were we?" Macy gasped.

"You and John went to the pond with the twins." Macy's look of shock turned to one of admiration as Andi continued, "when you have kids you take whatever chance is handed to you. Where is the most unique place you ever made love?"

Macy grinned and said, "My car."

"You and John in your tiny Alpha Romeo?" gasped Andi. "Where at?"

"At the drive-in movie, where else?"

"HOW?" demanded a startled Andi. Macy's car is tiny!

"I was sitting in the passenger seat, and he put the top up because it was going to rain. Then he climbed in and kneeled between my legs, and I skooched down on the seat and as the rain came down we made love."

"I'm so proud of you!"

"We're home MAAAAA!" shouted the twins as they raced in from school. They jumped up on the bed, waking the babies.

"SHHHH!" said Andi, a finger to her lips. "Baby!"

"Shhh baby!" was the bane of the twins' childhood. For weeks before Daniel and Katarina were born, Macy and their mother were drilling them in "Shhh baby!" and being six they forgot that rule easily, especially when they were excited. As Andi and Macy cuddled a squalling Danny and "Kitty" (Macy hates that nickname, but the twins love to use it) Yi stepped into the library and said, "They may have an excuse this time," and they handed Andi a letter from the principal of the school telling her that the twins were doing very well in school and they are the tops in the entire second grade for mathematics, but their reading needs work.

"What did she say?" asked Madeline trying to read over Andi's shoulder.

"She said that your math is very, very good, you two are best in the school! As for reading, she says you're so good, you should read Danny's stories to him every night, so he grows up to be an expert reader too."

"Really?" The girls snatched the page from Andi's hands and scanned the paragraph for those exact words. Meanwhile, Macy and Andi pulled Katarina and Daniel's wet sleepers off of the squalling infants and changed their diapers.

"It's almost time to get them ready for their shower," said Macy as she rolled up the disposable diaper for disposal.

"Shower? Can't they take a bath with us?" asked Madeline. The twins have been aching to take a bath with Danny since he was born, but they're constantly told that he was too little.

"A baby shower is a name for a party for the babies and the mommies."

"What about sisters?" asked Madeline.

"Is Yan coming?" asked Sandy as Andi and Macy dressed the babies.

"Yes it's for sisters too. Her name is Lanh, and no, but I wish she would, you two are getting lazy tongues again." Lazy tongues is what Doctor Campbell called childhood mispronunciations from not placing the tongue properly. Lanh Campbell was a speech pathologist in Colorado, and her husband was Andi's patient.

"Sorry," said the twins in unison.

Why would Sandy ask about Lanh? It's been over a year since Lanh and her husband Don watched the twins for Andi. Don was Andi's patient, and his wife Lanh loved to watch the twins if Andi was stuck for a sitter. "What is this?" asked Sandy as she looked at Andi's knitting.

"It's going to be a scarf, for your father's birthday," said Andi.

"Oh," said the twins, but they looked confused.

"What's the matter?" asked Andi.

"You said you didn't have much time," said Macy as she handed Katarina's rolled up dirty diaper to Madeline and asked Madeline to dispose of it.

"Is there poop?" demanded Madeline.

"Il n'y a pas de merde," said Macy. "There's no poop."

"'k!" said Madeline, and she dashed off, then came back, took the diaper from Macy and dashed off again.

"I don't understand," said Andi. "What do you mean?"

Macy put her hand on Andi's shoulder and said, "Soeur chérie (sister dear) Paul's birthday is eleven months away."

Andi looked shocked; she was sure his birthday was next month. "No, that can't be right, It's December fifteenth..." Then she remembered a conversation she had with Paul in the cabin as they waited for the blizzard to blow itself out, "I'm not into horoscopes and sooth saying, but astrological signs seem to me to be strangely right on the money. I'm a Gemini, Frank is a Scorpio, that's the worst match in the astrological calendar I'm told, and I believe it. You on the other hand are a Libra and we are supposed to be the absolute best match on the calendar, especially sexually."

Andi looked down at Danny, who was chewing on his fist. "We missed Daddy's birthday."

"It's ok mommy, we took Pappa out for his birthday because you didn't feel good," said Sandy.

"Uh huh. We had hotdogs and ice cream," said Madeline.

Meanwhile, John had been working on his sermon in the kitchen, where Yi had been feeding him coffee and croissants and picking his brain about several strange subjects. His pain was worse than it had been in weeks. By noon, he had to switch from his favorite kitchen chair to the wheelchair just to make it to the bathroom.

"What does God think about ESP?" asked Yi as John came out of the bathroom.

"Real actual ESP? Why, can you read my mind?" asked John.

"No, not ESP," said Yi, looking for a word. "Maybe... telepathy? Just between two people."

John patted her hand and said, "It's not mentioned in the bible so if you can do it, all I can say is to use your skill wisely."

"Then... what does God say about dragons?"

"Dragons? Fire breathing or ice breathing?"

"Not Game of Thrones dragons," insisted Yi. "Chinese dragons."

"Is there a difference?" asked John.

"Just don't ask a Chinese dragon that. What does God think of them?"

"I suppose that depends on what the dragon thinks of God."

Just then, Paul returned from work in time to rescue John from Yi. "Let's go daddy, time for your shower. You're invited too Yi," and he wheeled John away from his laptop and into the library before John could close up his work.

"My sermon!" he started.

"Don't worry, nobody is going to cheat on the test."

Paul pushed John into the library. He was having a bad day dealing with the pain and he spent the day in a wheelchair. ""It must be the weather," said Andi. "I don't want to get up and walk either." The weather was cold and rainy, erasing the snow from a couple weeks ago and anyone with a nagging ache was feeling the pain.

"It's bad today," said John. "I ache all over."

"That's because you're broken all over," said Paul. "Are you sure you want to go home?"

"I really do, I miss my own bed and my fireplace."

As Paul leaned over the bed to kiss Andi, she broke into tears. He kissed her forehead and said, "What's wrong?"

"I forgot your birthday!" and she cried in huge sobs.

Paul hugged her and tried to calm her down. He prayed it was just the hormones coursing through her body causing this. "No, you didn't, you were having a bad time with the pain and the baby and hadn't slept in two days. I gave you some tea that knocked you out and I took the girls to The Station for ice cream." The Station was the old B&O train station that was part museum, part ice cream stand. It was just a few blocks away and a favorite for the twins to walk to on a nice day. "We had a wonderful day, and you got the sleep that you needed more than anything."

"I thought it was next month," she sniffed.

"No, there's a much more important birthday in December," said Paul. "Come on," he said as he dried her tears. "We're going to miss your party."

"It's your party too."

"You did all the heavy lifting. I placed the order, and was there for delivery, you did everything else." He gave her a warm kiss. "For all that, I am in your debt, my lady."

When they got to the church, the large central room known as the Fellowship Room was decorated with pink and blue streamers and it was filled with people. There was cake, coffee, and a pink punch that everyone loved. "Why is there no blue punch for Danny?" Sandy insisted.

"We tried," said Tammy Schatz. "But it tasted yukky, so we made blueberry muffins for Danny."

"I don't think Danny can eat them," said Sandy as Tammy handed her and Madeline a small blueberry muffin and a cup of pink punch each.

"I'll have to eat them for him," said Madeline, then she and Sandy went and sat down at a table in the fellowship room to finish their treats.

"I don't ever remember having a baby shower for a pastor's baby," said Melissa Kraft.

"You've never had a pastor's wife have a baby?" asked Macy.

"That's not what I mean," replied Melissa.

Macy thought about it, then realized what she was implying. "Oh! I see... I suppose that's rare."

The party was filled with laughter, which Danny and Katarina seemed to enjoy, and at one point Lucy ended up with both babies in her arms and she received a lot of taunting from the women. "This one is next!"

"I'm not so sure about that," said Lucy as she cuddled with her new "niece and nephew."

Gus just shrugged. "What happens, happens." That earned a glare from Lucy.

Happily, the women of the church did not leave out big sisters, and Madeline and Sandy got gifts also, Madeline got a T-shirt that said Big Sister and Sandy's said Big Sister Again. Both showed a stick figure of a girl with a baby stick figure. Andi and Macy were heaped on with piles of baby clothes, diapers, burp cloths, bibs, receiving blankets, pacifiers, teething rings. The list seemed to go on forever. The church gave Andi and Macy both a device that Sandy was sure someone called a "Baby cooker" a device that blended veggies, fruit or meat into puree fit for a baby and cooked it as well.

Kenny and Yi presented Andi and Macy, each with a wrapped picture frame. When they unwrapped them, they discovered Kenny had 'photoshopped' them into a photo with Katarina and Cecil Jarecki. Macy's picture was a picture of her holding little Katarina with Cecil and big Katarina on either side of her. Andi's picture was similar, but it included the twins. The work was immaculate. It was impossible for anyone to see that it was a Photoshop.

Andi said, "Thank you, that is so wonderful. Everyone should have their grandparents with them."

Macy was overcome with the memories of John's parents and how sweet they were to her. All she could do was cry at the memory and hug Kenny. Katarina, Cecil, Romée were all gone, and they meant so much to her. Paul and John were having problems holding back the tears themselves. "John, Macy and I know how much this day would have meant to them," said Paul. "Thank you, that was a perfect gift."

Finally, Macy said, "this will find a prominent home in our nursery."

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

"Are you sure you don't want to eat with us?" John asked Yi as she pulled on her parka and dug out her knit cap with kitty ears. "Paul and I will be doing all the cooking, and these are your turkeys." They were early risers at the Jarecki house, especially on Thanksgiving.

"No, mine are in the freezer, these are yours," said Yi. She was invited to thanksgiving dinner with Kenny at his home with his folks, grandpa Archie, Grandma Lacy, his youngest sister Olive, her husband Devin, and their three kids. When she got the invitation, she took Paul's turkeys out of the freezer and put hers in. "I'd be too tempted to correct your culinary catastrophes on my day off especially with my turkeys on the line. They're in the freezer waiting their turn."

"What are you going to do to Kenny's faux pas?"

"Make him suffer."

"You're so heartless," said Paul as he hung holly wreaths in each of the kitchen windows. The rain was slowly turning into snow outside, adding to the festive air in the house. "Have a good time with the Johnsons, tell Kenny's dad that the truck will be ready Monday."

"I will" Yi said as she pulled on her coat.

Kenny's dad, Davis, found an old GMC pickup even older than Kenny's, a 1950 step side GMC. Paul had his team of experts at his primary car dealership restore the truck to brand new condition and it was lettered for Johnson's Feed Store in the style of the 1950s. Instead of black like Kenny's truck, it was painted a bright red with gold leaf lettering like an antique fire truck. The only thing left was the wooden sideboards above the sides of the truck bed. Humoring her boss's holiday spirit, Paul's assistant Min had a large pine tree placed in the back of the truck to resemble the red truck and Christmas tree craze that was sweeping the craft stores.

Yi pulled on her hat and checked her purse, and she called out to Paul, "Kenny said thanks."

Before Paul could consider what Yi said, the twins stumbled into the kitchen wearing their nighties, each clutching a brightly colored teddy bear. "Did you guys check the mail yesterday when you got home from school?" Paul asked.

"I'll get it," said a sleepy Madeline, and she slogged off to the front door with Sandy and Wonka in tow. The twins are never at their best first thing in the morning.

"That poor old dog," said Yi as she watched John fill a pot on the stove with water. He was going to skin potatoes for roasting and mashing the easy way. "How long have you had him?"

"Which dog?" asked Paul. "John or Wonka?"

"You have had Wonka for seven years," called Macy from the parlor. She and Andi were sitting on the French Provincial sofa, in front of a warm fire. Both were knitting, and both had a baby in a little wooden rocking cradle at their feet. When Danny or Katarina Romée got fussy, a few gentle nudges from a foot to rock the cradle put the child back to sleep. They were wooden cradles made by John mere weeks after discovering that Macy and Andi were pregnant. The babies were covered in hand knitted baby Afghans knitted by Grandma Katarina out of silky soft cashmere yarn. They wore their little cashmere hats and mittens and slept peacefully.

Madeline returned with a handful of letters and gave them to Paul. "Just bills," she muttered. It was the same thing her mother said whenever she brought in the mail in Colorado. Dragging her teddy bear, Madeline joined Sandy and Wonka in the living room to watch the Thanksgiving day parade. Actually, very few of the envelopes contained bills. Most were junk advertisements for credit cards (Having a high credit rating attracts them) but one was addressed to Lt. Col. Paul Jarecki, USAF, Ret. The return address was from the US Air Force Judge Advocate General corps.

To: Lt. Colonel Paul L. Jarecki

I was the first assistant for the trial counsel in the trial of General Abernathy Blecher. I understand the pain and turmoil that he caused you, and I hope you are healing. I wished I could have provided you with more than a guilty verdict. His actions certainly warranted a death sentence, but that was not to happen. As you may not know, there were several Article 32 investigations into other forms of wrongdoing by former general Blecher, which would have been halted at his death, so a life imprisonment sentence was imposed.

However, justice has found its own way. At approximately 1300 hours on the eighth of November at the Midwest Joint Regional Correction Facility, Fort Leavenworth, Leavenworth, Kansas, Abernathy Blecher was found dead in his prison cell of multiple stab wounds. An investigation is ongoing, and I will provide you with updates if desired.

Sincerely,

Major Joseph Rice AFJAG.

Paul looked at the page again and again, then with a pained look, he folded up the letter and laid it on the table, then left without a word.

A little while later, John turned from the pot he filled using the pot filler valve over the stove. He finished slitting the skin on the potatoes and plunked them all in the pot and cranked up the fire. Then he saw Paul was gone. He heard the treadmill down in the basement and then noticed the letter on the kitchen table where Paul had left it. He crutched over to the table and picked up the letter and read it and groaned sadly. He closed his eyes, lowered his head, and said a brief prayer. Then John painfully made his way to the parlor where Andi was breast feeding Daniel Cyryl and Macy was checking the scarf that Andi was knitting for any dropped stitches.

John handed the letter to Macy and said, "Chérie, could you go talk to Paul? He's down on the treadmill and I can't get down the stairs."

Macy read the letter and reacted the same way that John did. When she was done with her prayer, she said, "Oui. Votre fille dort." (Yes. Your daughter is asleep) Then getting up, she handed the letter to a confused Andi. John took Macy's place on the sofa and gently rocked Katarina's crib as Andi read the letter.

"Oh no," Andi groaned. She was there at General Blecher's court martial for raping Melony Jarecki. It was just a few months ago. It felt weird knowing that she saw this man sitting on trial and speaking. Now he's gone. Murdered. Then she noticed the date of his death. She pointed it out and asked John, "Is that why Paul is downstairs?"

"Probably.

Down in the basement, Paul was stripped down to running shorts and a pair of sneakers and he was sprinting as hard as he could. He didn't know if he was setting a record for this treadmill since he got it, but if not, he had to be close. Macy stood next to him, and he was sure she wanted to talk, but he wasn't ready yet. Not yet, so on he ran until exhaustion overwhelmed him, then he slowed to cool off.

"Is there a conflict?" asked Macy.

"Oh yeah," said Paul. "A big one."

Macy handed Paul a bottle of water from the refrigerator, and he slammed it down. "Are you going to make me guess?" she asked.

"Maybe, what's your best guess?"

"I would like to say that you are worried that he didn't achieve redemption, but that's probably not it."

"You're right, that's not it," said Paul as he poured some water over his head.

"You're upset he isn't alive to be tried for Captain Sommer's rape."

"I didn't know anything about that," said Paul. Paul heard rumors that there were more female fliers that Blecher attacked. Paul didn't know that when former Captain Alica Sommer heard about Melony's rape, she stepped forward. That was the Article 32 investigation that Major Rice mentioned. Paul avoided everything about Buzz Blecher. He just didn't want to be reminded of Buzz and what he did to Melony and to him.

"Hmmm... best guess, you're thankful he's gone..."

"You're getting warmer."

"He died as we gave birth to Daniel and Katarina," said Macy. She was there for just a few minutes of his murder trial and the man disgusted her.

"That's it. He died before our babies were born. He's gone. How can I sit at the Thanksgiving dinner table and not say, 'I'm most thankful that the murdering bastard died in agony like Melony?' Would it be hypocrisy to say anything else?"

"You're more thankful for his death than for the birth of your son?" demanded Macy.

"No, I suppose when I think of it like that."

"Then you're more thankful for his death than for your daughters?"

"You have a way to make someone embarrassed for having conflicting feelings," said Paul. "This must be why you're not in private practice."

"That's right," said Macy with a rueful grin.

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Upstairs, Heather emerged from her bedroom. She came downstairs just in time for Andi to hand over Danny after his feeding and changing. "Gamma's here!" cheered the twins as they saw her settle down with Danny in her arms.

"Watch!" said Sandy. "We're teaching him!" then the girls gently tickled Danny's nose, saying, "Show us your tongue! Show us your tongue!" As they tickled him, the tiny infant squeezed his eyes closed and his tongue appeared from between his lips.

"Good Danny!" said Madeline. "See? He showed us his tongue, he knows what his tongue is!"

"Ok, ok," said Heather. "He's a baby, he doesn't know what that means. His job right now is to grow. He'll be able to play soon enough."

"But he likes us!" said Sandy.

"The only person he knows right now is his mommy, but he will learn. Now go watch your parade and see who is at the very end."

"K. Come on Wonka," and the twins retreated to their parade.

As Heather settled Danny down, she rocked on the rocking chair in the parlor. It was a wonderful thanksgiving morning. The rain finally turned to snow, soft Christmas music played, and the fire popped and snapped. Now and then, Andi would open the glass fire-place door, letting a little of the sweet smelling birch wood smoke in the room to add to the fragrance of the huge blue spruce standing in front of the window.

"You look so happy," said Andi, as she placed a cup of tea next to her mother.

Heather smiled and whispered, "I'm holding Danny in my arms again." She was clearly talking about the infant's grandfather.

Andi gave her mother a kiss and whispered, "I know the feeling."

Macy soon rejoined the group and sat between Andi and John. "Paul was conflicted with his feelings over the death of General Blecher."

"Who is that?" asked Heather.

Andi and Macy looked nervously at each other, but John said, "about ten years ago he raped and killed Paul's wife."

"That's horrible!" gasped Heather. "I can understand why he's conflicted."

"What do you mean?" asked Andi.

"Thanksgiving is supposed to be joyful and it's hard to keep in mind the good things while someone so hateful dies."

"And that was exactly it," said Macy as Paul entered the parlor, refreshed from a shower.

"I have fresh coffee and a coffee cake in the kitchen," said Paul. "Unfortunately, our wait staff is off for the season." He set out dishes of nuts and a couple of nutcrackers and picks, then sat down and looked at the fireplace and around the beautiful room. "I could spend hours decorating just this room."

Andi eased into his lap and sighed. "I want to help." She gave him a kiss. "You made me love Christmas again. Before I ignored it or worried myself sick wondering where I would get the money for the twins gifts."

"It's not about the gifts," said Paul.

"I know. But when you have babies you want to give them everything." She fought back the bitter memories of bounced checks and empty refrigerators. "When you have nothing but debit it's horrible."

"You know Howard and I were there for you," said Heather.

"I know mom, but I didn't want to depend on you for everything, you were feeding us!"

"It's ok, you're here now, we're solvent and safe," said Paul.

"I want to make everything beautiful," sighed Andi, as they kissed again. "Are you settled down now?"

Paul knew exactly what she meant by settling down. "Yes, a Canadian helped me organize my priorities."

After getting dressed, Andi was happily assisting Paul and Macy, who were looping the garland along the banister of the grand staircase. Where the loops swooped up to meet the handrails, they decorated the peak of the loop with a large red and gold bow. The garland had multicolored glass ornaments, and they worked hard to match the left and right banisters that divided the parlor from the living room.

As they stepped back to admire their work, the doorbell rang, and the twins and Wonka rushed to see who was at the door. Peeking through the window behind the tree, Sandy saw who it was and dashed to the door and opened it before her parents could say, "Wait!"

"It's ok," said Madeline. "It's just Aunty Ronika."

Josh and Veronica came in as Paul and Andi welcomed them into the house. "You're early," said Andi.

"It's snowing," said Veronica.

"Yeah It's snowin'" said Josh. "An ah figgered if'n we were gonna be snowed in, we should do it where the food is."

"One little blizzard and he's gun shy," sighed Veronica, rolling her eyes. She's lived on the shores of Lake Erie most of her life. Josh has just recently learned what snow is all about.

"Wail, ah kin earn my keep," said Josh. "Ah kin decorate, cook, and eat. What else is needed on a Thanksgiving?" Paul chuckled as he spoke. Josh's southern accent was refreshing. The military, especially the enlisted corps, is dominated by the patriotic good ol' boys from the south. It was like being home when Paul heard them speak. Glancing at the fireplace, Josh saw the two grandparents' pictures that Kenny made proudly displayed on the mantle until the Christmas Decorations take over. "My man Kenny did a hell of a job on them, didn't he?"

"He sure did," said Paul. "We're waiting for Howard to come for Christmas so we can take a similar picture with Howard and Heather." He looked at the photoshopped picture of his mom and dad holding Danny with the twins standing with them and wondered, how old are you when you stop missing your parents?

Just then the phone rang, and Andi took a break from decorating to take the call. It was a Colorado number she used to dread hearing from. It was a patient that she loved, and she felt horrible that she abandoned them. She put the phone to her ear and said, "Hi Doctor Lanh!"

"Hi, Doctor Andi! Happy Thanksgiving!" said the bubbly speech pathologist in Greeley, Colorado. She sounded happy. "How is your leg?" When Lanh last called on Halloween, Andi was still in a lot of pain and bed ridden.

"Better, this darn cast comes off next week and I'll be free to limp around."

"Your accident scares me," said Andi. "I have nightmares of getting hit by a car... I don't know why. Silly huh? Oh! Did you have your baby yet?"

"Yes, we had a boy on the eighth!"

"How big?" said Lanh excitedly.

"Seven pounds six ounces. Now Danny is rocking in his grandmother's arms while I'm sitting on a couch in front of a fire with my sister-in-law Macy and her daughter Katarina and she's teaching me to knit. Paul, John, and Josh are putting up the Christmas decorations and the twins are watching TV."

"When was Katarina born?" asked Lanh. Any time Andi sent Lanh a picture of her progress, Macy was in the picture, so she knew all the news. And the mention of someone named Josh gave her warm memories of a Josh she knew years ago.

"One hour after Danny, at the height of a blizzard." And she told her old friend about their terrifying snowmobile ride through the snowbound village, through the blinding snow to the hospital in time to have their babies.

"Wow," gasped Lanh. "You really struck gold when you left a year ago," said Lanh.

"How are you and Don doing?" asked Andi.

"Oh... they keep cutting my hours and Don's speaking engagements are getting fewer and farther between, and our poor neighbor Karole, she lost her job so we're helping her..."

"Like you helped me. I just worry about you two," said Andi, thinking about Lanh and her husband, Don Campbell. Those poor folks, all they ever wanted was kids, practically since the day they met, and all they end up with is heartbreak. "If you're still looking to adopt I know someone who can help."

"Really?" asked Lanh. They've been turned down so many times that she wasn't trusting at all in the adoption process.

"Yeah, I think they can help you in Colorado, let me look up their number..."

"That's why I was calling," said Lanh. "Don and I are moving back to Minnesota! We want to be home for New Years Eve. We're taking our neighbor Karole and her baby Krissy with us! We're going back to the farm!" she squealed.

Just then behind them Josh broke up in laughter over something John said, and he called out, "Lawd love a cow!"

Lanh heard it too and said, "That sounds so much like Josh I knew."

"Josh? Who's this Josh?"

"Just an old friend from Korea. He was in Don's squadron, and he was so good to us when I snuck over there."

"What was his last name?" asked Andi.

Lanh thought back years ago when they were in Korea... She could picture Josh, big, jovial, always smiling... Josh, Wedge, Roxie, Don and Lanh... they had so much fun for a couple of months. She leaned back and said, "Don! What was Josh's last name?"

"Josh who?"

"In Kunsan, the weapons guy. You know, Wedge's boss."

"It was Asshole I think."

"No really," huffed Lanh. "What was Josh's name?"

"Gravely."

"Gravely! Why?" Lanh finally said to Andi.

"I think I might know him, let me think..." Andi got up from the couch and found Josh holding a stepladder for Paul while Paul hung a large wreath over the front door mudroom. She put her phone on speakerphone and handed it to Josh. "Here it's Lanh, she wants to talk to you."

Josh looked confused, and he held the phone up and saw the call ID that said Doctor Campbell. "Hello? Lanh?"

"Josh?"

A huge smile of recognition spread across Josh's face as the memories came flooding back. "SQUIRT!"

"REDNECK!" she squealed.

"Oh my God little baby! How are you doing? I heard about Don's injuries. How is he doing?

"I'm right here," said Don. "I ain't dead yet." It was obvious Lanh had put him on speakerphone. "We're living in Colorado, but it's not panning out, so we'll be heading home to the farm right after Christmas."

"Back to the cows? Your little lady will like that... and I do mean little."

Attracted by Josh's laughter, the twins came running. When they heard Lanh's voice, the twins suddenly squealed, "Yan!"

"It's Lanh" said Lanh, emphasizing the sound of the letter L.

"Yan!"

"Say it like me. Luhh, Luhh, Luhh."

" Luhh, Luhh, Luhh," repeated the twins.

"Now say Lanh."

"Yan!" they said brightly.

"Lazy, lazy tongues," scolded Lanh.

"I wanna see your cows!" shouted Sandy.

"Me too! I want to see baby cows!" said Madeline as she bounced up and down.

"Not until you work on those lazy tongues!" said Lanh.

"Ok," pouted the twins.

"Ok, back to your parade," said Andi. "Say goodbye."

"Goodbye Doctor Lanh!" called the twins, pronouncing her name properly, then they dashed back to the living room.

"Brats," muttered Lanh.

Lanh, Don, Josh, and Andi chatted happily. Lanh and Don were stunned that two old friends from different places now live two blocks from each other. "We've got to get together," said Josh.

"We're tied up for the next two months, " said Don. "After that you're all welcome to come out to the farm."

"How about a cruise in February?" said Paul as he brought another box of decorations down from the attic. "Andi and I have been aching to go sailing and we will have the big boat."

"Yes, let's do it!" gushed Andi. "Josh and Veronica are overdue a vacation together, and you guys need the rest."

"I don't think so," said Don. "Money is tight and..."

"It will be my Christmas present to Andi," said Paul.

"You need to speak with Veronica about adopting in the first place," insisted Andi.

"Who?"

Now Veronica stepped up to Andi's phone. "I'm executive assistant to the founder and president of Adoption Advocates, and I think we can help."

Lanh nearly broke down in tears. How many times has she heard that? How much money have they lost trying over and over to adopt? "I'm sorry but we don't have the money anymore... It's cost us so much and we're so tired..."

"No, this is a free service, and we have a 99 percent placement record. We can even come up with financial assistance to parents. Look us up on the website and give me a call next week. I'll have Andi text you my personal cell phone number."

Lanh took the phone and sat down when it was just her and Andi on the call and said, "Don't worry about the plane tickets, a place to stay, or food. Paul said it was my Christmas present."

"I don't understand," said Lanh.

"We'll fly you down to Florida, anywhere you want to land, and we'll pick you up on our boat. We'll have fun! Josh and Ronnie are coming with and we're going to go visit a friends private island."

"Let's do it," Lanh asked Don.

That's great! And I'll have Veronica call you and set up a meeting with Marj Friedman, ok?"

"Will do! Love ya Doctor Andi!"

"Love ya Doctor Lanh!"

"Who was that?" asked Macy, as Lanh hung up the phone.

"A wonderful, wonderful friend that I left behind when I chose to stay here," sighed Andi.

"Lanh was a nut," said Josh.

"How did you know Lanh?" asked Andi.

"We had a couple in the squadron, if you know what I mean. A guy named Wedge worked for me, his girlfriend Roxie worked with Don. Good folks, fell for each other big time. They were really meant for each other, and the dumbest shi... uh... stuff kept happening to Wedge..."

"Like what?" asked Paul, who loved war stories.

"He had this butter bar wingnut on his first live drop with 2000 pound bombs that was convinced he nuked Korea, then he had some eagle eye whirlybird driver try to land on him while he was driving down a taxiway."

"I don't know what's better, the story or your spin on it," said Paul as he laughed.

"Anyhow I went to meet Wedge and Roxie for dinner at the NCO club and they had Don and Lanh with them. I knew Don, great troop, loved the hell out of him, and he had this tiny little ajumma with him and..."

"A what?" asked Andi.

"Ajumma is a Korean word for married woman. We had Korean women who did laundry and light cleaning in the NCO rooms, and we called them ajumma. So, she's sitting there, and I figured I'd show off all of my magical powers of Korean lingo and said 'Annyeonghaseyo ajumma,' and she said 'Huh?' and Don said, 'She doesn't speak Korean, just Vietnamese, German, and English.' I said, 'Ah ain't no good on none o' them.' and she said, 'Sit yo ass down.' I said, 'You speak 'merican too!' She loved it, we was buddies ever since. She was living in the dorm with Don for two months."

"She never told me that, she told me that Don was in Korea for 3 years and she was there for his two years in..." Andi searched her memory. "Ocean?"

"Osan, it's outside of Seoul. How do you know them?"

"Don is my patient, he had an incident in the Air Force. As his doctor, I can't talk about it, but it gave him issues that would send him to a pulmonologist. Lanh came to every appointment..."

"YAN!" shouted the twins from the living room.

"She helped me with the twins when I was at a really low point," said Andi sadly. "They really love Lanh."

"Docker and docker!" said Madeline from the living room.

"Docker and Docker?" asked Veronica.

"Lanh and Don are both doctors, she's a Speech Pathologist and he's got an Ed.D."

"Holy Shi... uh... cow. I cannot wait to see them again!" said Josh.

"It's SANTA CLAUS!" cried the twins. They dashed into the parlor and announced, "Santa Claus was in the parade!"

"That's the end of the parade," said Lanh.

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

Gus and Lucy pulled into Paul and Andi's driveway later than expected. "Do you think anyone will complain?" asked Gus. "I promised we'd be there after the parade."

They opened the kitchen door, and the twins stood glaring at them, brows furrowed, bottom lips pouted out in anger. "Oh yeah," said Lucy. "We're in big trouble."

"Tree!" demanded Sandy.

"You promised," said Madeline with a pout.

"Big, big trouble," agreed Gus. Then he tried another tactic. "Look what we made!" and he showed the twins the pie he was carrying, a woven crust cherry pie, sparkling with sugar.

"That's mom's pie."

He showed them the other pie he was carrying, a perfect pumpkin pie. "This was made from your Halloween pumpkins," he said.

"Pappa's pie."

"Told ya," Lucy whispered.

"Tough crowd," whispered Gus.

"I got 'em," said Lucy. She pulled open the Tupperware bowl she was carrying. The twins peered in suspiciously... careful, it could be broccoli...

"COOKIE SALAD!" they shrieked.

They tried to dip their fingers into the bowl for a taste, but Aunty Lucy pulled it back. "Not until you cleaned up your plates!"

"Awww... come on. Papa needs you," said Sandy. After Lucy and Gus set their desserts on the kitchen table, far back from an inquisitive Wonka, they stepped into the dining room and saw that it was decorated exquisitely with autumn colors, the dining room fireplace mantel was decorated with wax figurines of boy and girl pilgrims and wild turkeys whose tails were fanning wide. Each figurine had a wick protruding from the top.

"Those were Katrina and Cecil's candles," said Gus. "Katrina had them for all holidays and got one candle for each of her boys. John has the same candles at his house."

"So, they decorate the kitchen for Christmas, the dining room for thanksgiving?"

"Just for today," said Gus. The dining room will be Christmas tomorrow if Paul doesn't go to work."

The twins led them into the parlor, where much of it was decorated like Lucy remembered from 11 months ago; the tree was still bare but there were two tall step ladders next to it and Paul was getting ready to put lights on the tree. "We found them!" announced Sandy.

"Why don't you two sit on the couch with grandma and Danny and Katarina and read them a thanksgiving story?" asked Andi. She was nervous about the twins bouncing around as Paul was preparing to climb a ladder.

"Read a story to both of them?" demanded Madeline.

"You only have to read the story once; they both can hear it."

"Oh yeah!" said Sandy. "I forgot." Heather carried the two babies in their carriers to the couch and the twins dashed into the library to find a story book they were sure they could read.

Paul had a battle plan ready for Gus and Lucy's arrival. "Ok. Gus and Lucy on Ladder 1, Josh and I on Ladder 2, Veronica and Macy handing up ornaments, we'll be done before the oven timer goes off."

"What about me?" demanded Andi.

"And me?" huffed John.

Paul hugged John and Andi tightly and whispered, "Don't ask me to put you two in danger anymore. No ladders, no climbing, no holding on. I don't want to fall on you."

"So we're stuck in the kitchen?" demanded Andi.

"Just whip up some egg nog for us," said Paul.

"It's not hard, you open the carton and pour..." she realized she was being stared at by Paul and John.

"Follow me dear sister-in-law," said John, and he led her into the kitchen.

"Are you ok?" asked Andi as John led her into the kitchen.

"No." He took a deep, shuddering breath. "This is the first time since Paul came home that we didn't decorate the tree together."

"Is that a Polish tradition or something?"

"No... it's a John and Paul tradition." As John took a spoon and dipped potatoes out of the boiling water one by one and dropped them into a large bowl, he shared stories of Christmases in a tiny house with no money and Thanksgiving dinners with relatives in Gowanda. One by one, he took the skin off the potatoes; the skins having been boiled just fell off. Then John cut up the semi cooked potatoes and returned them to the water.

"The first Christmas he had in this house, mom and dad were here and we put that gigantic tree up and we decorated it with Gus and Dad holding the ladders. Mom and Macy were freaking out, but we did it and it looked beautiful. We had that tree so high that the star touched the ceiling, after that we decided that sixteen feet was too high. Then mom, God bless her soul, put up an N scale train around the tree. She said, 'No tree is complete without a train!'"

"Is that bad?" asked Andi as she tried to picture her in-laws living with Paul, John, and Macy in this house.

"An N scale locomotive is this big," and he held his fingers a few inches apart. It's tiny, and under that enormous tree, nobody noticed it. That's the sense of humor that mom had."

"Is the train still around?"

"Yeah," said John with a cheerful smile. "It runs on top of my piano every Christmas. So, it became tradition to put the tree up on Thanksgiving while the turkey roasts. It helped Paul deal with his loneliness and pain so much."

As he talked about holidays past, John quickly and expertly separated a half dozen eggs with his bare hands. "I always thought you poured the egg from one eggshell half to the other back and forth to separate the white from the yolk," said Andi.

"Yeah, that can work if you don't like touching eggs," said John. He cracked an egg, opened it into his hand and jiggled his hand and the egg white flowed out between his fingers, leaving the perfect yolk in his hand. "Nothing is easier." As he put milk on the stove to heat, he spoke of how broken Paul was when he came home.

"Are you saying that because he hit you?" asked Andi.

"He needed to hit me," said John. "He needed to get that anger out, General Blecher destroyed him, he murdered Melony and convinced Paul she was cheating on him. He had to hit something to get the anger and hate out. And it had to be someone he loved so he felt the pain too." John started adding heated milk slowly into the whipped egg yolks and continued whipping. "He can hit really hard. Ok, this is the important part, add the milk slowly, you don't want to cook the eggs, you want to warm them with the milk."

"But you went through all that pain, and you don't hold it against him?" asked Andi.

"How do I put it?" John asked himself. Then it came to him. "Do you hold all that pain you endured against Frank?"

"Hell yes," said Andi quickly.

"But you went through even more pain three weeks ago when Danny was born, do you hold that against Paul? Do you hold it against Daniel?"

"Touché. No wonder why you're the pastor and I'm the girl they shush when I try to sing."

The ingredients came together quickly and soon there was a large container of egg nog cooling in the fridge. Just as John finished cleaning up, Paul peeked into the kitchen. "Are you ready?"

"For what?"

"The tree. We need you." John and Andi followed Paul into the parlor and saw that the tree was decorated with lights, and tinsel, and ornaments, halfway down. "We got the ladder work done, and it's your turn."

As the music played on the stereo, the brothers decorated the tree together while the scent of roasting turkey mixed with the scent of pine. As Paul and John decorated the tree, they recalled stories of Christmases past, laughing and nudging each other. Macy put her arm around Andi and said, "This is what healing looks like."

Dinner was done on time at 5:00 PM, with most of the tree's decorations completed. The twins were promised that they could hang ornaments if they ate everything up. "Everything looks so good!" said Veronica. "The turkeys look incredible." Incredible but smaller than she was used to. Josh recognized what kind of turkey they were and didn't say a word. It was all there: turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberries, green beans, lima beans, and acorn squash.

"It all came from our land except one thing," said Paul.

"The turkey," said Veronica.

"Nope, Josh got one and I got the other. They're wild turkeys from the woods behind the pond. Next guess?"

"The cranberries? I didn't see them in the garden, don't they need a bog?"

"That just makes them easier to pick. We have cranberries growing back by the pond," said Gus. "Lucy and I picked them, and the blueberries that are in the freezer."

"I'm pretty sure Josh knows what the secret food is," said Andi. "It's on the table just for him."

"Lima beans," said Veronica. "He has to have his lima beans."

"Bingo. Pastor Jarecki..." John and Macy both looked at him. "The short one... would you care to lead us off?"

"Proud to and glad to," and John said a short and to the point grace. He wasn't a pastor that was bound up by flowery language, he liked plain language so a new member to his church wasn't lost in a tangle of 'Christianese.' "I am so thankful for my beautiful, beautiful daughter, and oddly, I'm thankful for my injuries, which make my baby's eyes so much sweeter to look into and remind me how important family is to me."

They went around the table. Sandy was thankful for Wonka, and Madeline was thankful for school. Josh was thankful for Veronica, and Veronica was thankful for Josh. Gus was incredibly thankful for his fiancée and Lucy, who usually said pass, said thanks for the chance to learn what love is really all about. When they got to Paul, tears streamed down his cheeks. "I've been so blessed this year, I can't even count all the blessings that have been heaped on me... but I could have lost it all if it wasn't for the greatest blessing I've always had and never appreciated, my brother." He started weeping uncontrollably as Andi and John threw their arms around him.

As he thanked John over and over and Andi joined him in tears, Josh leaned over to Veronica and whispered, "In my family, normally at this point, Aunt Hetta would have insulted every dish and have all the wommin folk steaming mad and ready to leave, and Grandpa Joab woulda dropped his teeth in the gravy."

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

Yi had a wonderful meal with the Johnsons, but she missed her girls. Kenny and Yi-jin had promised to come by for dessert, so when they came into Paul and Andi's house, everyone was still there. The tree was beautifully decorated and the dining room that she and Andi decorated for Thanksgiving was now becoming part of the Christmas wonderland of the rest of the house. The little wax pilgrims and turkeys were replaced by wax snowmen, angels, and Santa. Center stage on the mantel was a wooden nativity scene that John had made years ago when he started working for Gus. Everyone was in the parlor and the twins were dashing back and forth between the tree and Andi, who had a box of ornaments. The twins would get an ornament from Andi, dash to the tree and hang an ornament on the lowest branches, then sprint back to Andi. John and Paul sat on kitchen chairs playing Christmas carols on their guitars.

"Uff da! It's snowing out there!" said Yi as she and Kenny sat down on the love seat.

"Uff da," chuckled Josh, "what's an uff da?"

"It's just a Norwegian expression," said Andi.

"Uff da!" cried the twins.

"Shhh! Baby!" said the adults in attendance.

"Sorry."

"The tree looks so awesome from outside," said Yi. "The twinkling lights, the tinsel, I never knew tinsel was so cool! Why don't we use it anymore?"

"Cause it's a mess!" said Andi and Macy at the same time.

"Yeah, you need a good vacuum," said Paul. "Even if you're careful, you're going to drop it."

"It takes a lot of practice to put it on the tree," said Kenny.

"Practice, that's silly. Give me some of that tinsel." Yi approached the tree with a package of tinsel that John gave her. "Are you done here?" Yi asked the twins, and they nodded silently. It was as if they knew that entertainment was heading their way. "It's just pieces of shiny mylar. You take some and you put it on the branch..." She ended up with a wad of tinsel in a shiny tangle on top of the branch.

"That doesn't quite fit in with the pattern," said John as he strummed his guitar and Macy joined in on the violin as they played We Need A Little Christmas softly.

Yi pulled the wad off of the branch and tried to straighten it out, but Kenny took the wad from her and said, "Try again."

Again, Yi tried and again she ended up with a wad of tinsel. "What am I missing here?" she demanded.

"Gravity," said Veronica.

"Huh?"

"Haven't you ever seen an icicle hanging on a tree branch?" asked Veronica as she took the pack of tinsel from Yi.

"Icicle? I've never seen ice in the wild before moving up here! Where I come from, ice is only seen in glasses of tea and coming out of refrigerator doors," said Yi. "You have to make ice; it doesn't just happen."

"It's time we hung some tinsel on that evergreen bough!" sang John and Paul

"Let me show you," said Veronica. She took some tinsel out of the pack and let it hang from her fingers. "Work with little bits... hook the short end on the branch... hang the tinsel and just guide it into place gently and let gravity do the work. Everything is gentle, try to get the tinsel to hang straight down."

Before she knew it, she and Kenny were hanging tinsel on the lower branches and doing a marvelous job of it. When they finished up, they turned and saw Paul and Andi chuckling. "What's so funny?" asked Yi.

"Have you ever read Tom Sawyer?" Andi asked.

"No," said Yi.

"The whitewashed fence?" asked Kenny. "I get it."

"I don't get it," said Yi.

"We have been had," said Kenny.

"I don't care, this is the prettiest tree I've ever seen."

"Do you see all these ornaments up here?" asked Andi as she pointed to exquisitely beautiful ornaments that were hung far out of the twins' reach. "They are hand blown, hand painted antique Polish Christmas ornaments that Grandpa Cecil and Grandma Katarina's families brought with them from Poland."

The colors! The shapes! Yi and Kenny were entranced with the collection. "My god," whispered Yi. "Look at this one! It's a full painting!" The hand painted scene on a white ornament was a small church surrounded by pine and deciduous trees, a picket fence, and if you turned the ornament, the reverse side featured a snowy road with a horse and sleigh riding past snow-covered trees. On every tree, the branches were covered with glittering snow. Then she noticed more and more scenes hanging from the tree, nativities, three wise men trekking under a star, and geometric designs that made the ornament look more like a tiffany egg. "How much do you think they're worth?" asked Yi.

"They're priceless to Paul and I," said John. "There were Christmases where those ornaments hung from a bare branch that Dad, Paul and I found, and that was it. We were broke, but we had each other."

"You remember that year?" asked Paul in surprise. He sighed. "We had nothing, Mom and Dad lost their business and our house, we ended up in that hovel in Cheektowaga. We had an open flame gas heater because the electric furnace was too expensive."

"One light!" said John, imitating Cecil's demand to turn the lights off when not in use. "Dad only allowed one light bulb per room and you better be reading!"

"Mom and Dad stacked bricks around that gas heater and that was our Christmas fireplace where we hung our real socks thumb tacked to the wall," said Paul. "A few Christmases in a row there was nothing under the tree."

"But we got our orange!" said John.

"Yes, we always got an orange," said Paul.

"Boże Narodzenie," said Macy to the twins. "That means Christmas, or God's birthday to the Polish."

Andi took Paul's guitar and sat in his lap. "Let's do Christmas your way this year."

"We can't," said Paul. "The Christmas Eve dinner, the Wigilia can last hours if you do it right. We have obligations that night."

"Lets do it, but do it early, like at three, then do our American celebration on Christmas day."

"Is everyone cool with a Polish feast on Christmas Eve?" asked John, and almost everyone was excited about the idea. Then he said to Paul, "You need to work from home that day Ebenezer."

"We can't make it," said Josh. "I promised a friend I'd come and show off this here filly," he said as he hugged Veronica.

"We're going to visit my dad," said Veronica.

"You should go look at the tree from outside," said Yi.

"Yeah," said Paul. "Let's."

They pulled on coats and boots and, leaving the babies sleeping in their carriers, they assembled in the street and looked at the tree as it sparkled in the window. "It's beautiful!" gushed Andi.

"But wait! There's more..." said Paul, and he took out his cell phone and tapped a few screens and started up the app that Kenny designed for him. "I have a friend who went crazy with a Raspberry Pi." As he spoke, the lights around the huge front window came on one by one. The lights woven into the pine garland that decorated the waist high wrought-iron fence around the property came on in a chasing pattern around the perimeter of the property, then started twinkling gently. Meanwhile, under the eaves of the complicated Victorian roof, lights came on shining against the siding of the house. Those lights changed colors in chasing patterns as Christmas lights around each window came on.

"That's beautiful!" gushed Andi.

"The lights under the eves stay on the house year round and we can change the colors and patterns with a phone app," said Paul. The twins were more interested in throwing snowballs for Wonka to catch until Andi said, "Look who's on the porch."

"SANTA!"

On the porch was a lifesize cardboard Santa Claus holding a bottle. "Coca Cola?" asked Andi. "We have a Coca Cola ad on our front porch?"

"The Coca Cola Santa was the best Santa ever; they developed the modern image of Santa."

With a huff, Andi headed back into the house.

Back in the kitchen, they handed out foil pans full of leftovers, and Heather took the twins upstairs for their bath. "Thank you every one of you for coming and sharing with us and helping us start the holiday season in our house," said Paul as he and Danny stood at the door and shook hands as the guests departed.

"Board meeting next week, don't forget," said Gus. "You missed the last one."

"I had a new toy to play with," said Paul as he and Danny made eye contact. "Are you ready for your bath?" he asked Danny, who didn't seem to care.

"Wait for the girls," said Andi.

Soon the house was silent except for the gentle Christmas music coming from the parlor and as Danny watched from his carrier, both babies had a check-up with their pediatrician the day before and they were back up to their birth weight which was perfect for a three week old infant. Paul scrubbed and sterilized the kitchen sink and filled both sides full of scalding hot water.

"Don't worry, we're not making Danny or Kitty soup," Paul told Madeline, as she pushed a chair up to the kitchen counter to watch. The girls were done with their baths and were in their jammies. Sandy pulled some drawers open and used them as a staircase to climb onto the countertop to watch. Paul added cold water to the sinks to cool them down to the proper temperature.

"Why did you put hot water in first?" asked Sandy as she watched John undress Katarina.

"To make sure that the metal sink was nice and warm. We don't want the sinks to be cold when we put the babies in," said Paul. Then, as John eased Katarina into the left-hand sink, Paul lowered Dannie into the right hand sink. The babies waved their little fists around and tried to kick, but from all indications they enjoyed the warm water and the feel of their father's hands washing them. Andi and Macy watched from across the kitchen. It was amazing to watch the brothers work together on this simple but loving project with the girls at their side as they worked.

A fountain of pee informed the twins of one of the differences between little boys and little girls. They squealed and giggled and slid down off the countertop and dashed to their mother. "Danny peed on poppa!"

"That happens," said Andi, which shocked Sandi even more.

"I never peed on poppa!"

"He's never changed your diaper." Then Andi teased her daughter. "Do you need Daddy to change your diaper little miss tattle-tale?"

Andi was sure that this was exactly what she and Paul suffered for, to be able to appreciate this moment.

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

For their last night in Paul's house, while Andi and Paul lay on the bed in the library watching Danny and Katarina, John and Macy made their way to the gym and entered the shower/steam room. While the steam generator heated, John adjusted the shower, then turned around and Andi was still in her bathrobe. "Y a-t-il un problème?" (Is there a problem?)

The beautiful woman frowned, a look that rarely crossed her face, and it worried John. "Oui, beaucoup." (Yes, many).

"What is wrong my love?" he asked in French as he eased her robe off of her.

"Je suis gros," (I am fat) she pouted. "I have never been fat before. I should be slim for you."

He looked over her dark chocolate body and she looked marvelous to him. Her breasts were much larger now, up to a C cup and she was breast feeding "little Romée" properly now and was able to pump milk and store it in the fridge. She had a bit of a paunch, which John expected, but she kept her figure well. "You are the mother of a beautiful, brand new angel, that is what I see when I look at you." He pulled her into the shower spray and kissed her deeply.

"You must hate the way I look," said Macy.

"You must hate the way you must baby me," said John. "I am constantly a drag on your energy, I can barely do anything without your help."

"No! You saved two, maybe three lives!" said Macy in French. "You are the bravest, most courageous man I know. Your limping reminds me of your bravery."

"And this reminds me of yours," said John as he ran a wet hand over her tummy, which really wasn't large. She and Andi were very conscious of their weight through their pregnancies. "I know how scared you were, but you carried Katarina Romée and did it so marvelously. I am sure Paul and Andi won't mind if you use their gym equipment whenever you want."

"I am sad for this," said Macy as she wrapped her hand around John's erection. It would be weeks before she would be ready for sex. "Et nous étions si bons!" (And we were so good!) Macy pulled John to her, his back against her sexy black body, and she ran her soapy hand up and down his throbbing cock.

"Oh, dear God," groaned John in English as the sensations she was generating washed over him. She held him tight as her hand slid up and down his solid staff. Her other soap covered hand slid over his chest, searching for his nipples.

"I cannot wait until we are ready again," Macy whispered in John's ear. Not only does Macy and Andi need to heal from childbirth, one of the side effects of breastfeeding is a lowering of the woman's libido. However, Macy does not want her husband to suffer. It had been a long road for Macy and John to learn how to pleasure each other, and they didn't want to lose their touch. She kissed his neck and nipped at his ears

John reached behind him and grasped Macy's hips, holding her tight as her hand flashed up and down his cock, rapidly bringing him to a shuddering orgasm. He grunted as he came. Lightning bolts of relief washed over him, and Macy hugged him from behind as the steam filled the shower. His orgasm was so overwhelming that his legs went limp, and Macy had to hold him up. He shuddered as his orgasm coursed through him and finally, as his erection faded, he turned, and they kissed.

"Tu es un amant si merveilleux," (You are such a wonderful lover) and he pulled her close for a kiss. Their tongues slowly danced together, their hands roamed over each other's wet, naked bodies, and their lips met as the water splashed over them.

"Je dois garder mes deux bébés heureux," (I must keep both of my babies happy) said Macy as their lips parted.

John sat on the bench and tugged Macy down next to him as the steam filled the shower and drove the winter chill away. "I am going to miss having a fireplace in our bedroom," said John.

"Oui, Kitty likes watching the fire," said Macy and John smiled. That was the first time he heard Macy call their baby Kitty like the twins do. The healing between Macy and Katarina is still continuing, but Macy now truly loves her daughter.

"Je t'aime," (I love you) said John as the steam heat eased his aches and pains and Macy adoringly rested her head on his shoulder..

Upstairs, the twins were in bed. They had read Kitty and Danny two stories, but Papa said 'no Christmas stories until St. Nicholas Day' then they could read all the Christmas stories they wanted. When they were done reading to Katarina and Daniel, they moped and headed upstairs and climbed into bed. The excitement of the holidays had them stirred up, but Yi watched as Grandma Heather read them a story and they were soon asleep. Yi whispered goodnight to grandma and slipped to her room where Kenny was waiting for her.

"Wanna have a sleepover?" she asked him wordlessly. She unbuttoned his shirt, exposing his muscular and nearly hairless chest.

"With a house full of people?" he responded. "What will they say in the morning?"

"They'll ask if you want coffee or tea."

Kenny started unbuttoning Yi's blouse, and he slipped it off her shoulders. Her pert braless breasts stood proudly, aching for his touch. He just knew what she wanted, and she knew all of his desires. The problem was deciding which desire to fulfill first. Yi unfastened his trousers and yanked them down, exposing his cock.

She pushed him back onto her bed and moaned, "Oh yessss," as she pulled off his shoes and socks and pulled his pants and boxer briefs off, then stood and stripped off her blouse and slacks. In the flickering candlelight Kenny could see Yi's lissome body, her dark erect nipples and her graceful curves. "Now I have you where I want you," she whispered and crawled over him. Their bodies pressed against each other, their lips met, and their tongues reached out for each other. As they kissed, Kenny's hands roamed over the body of the woman he loved, the woman who could share his ideas and desires. They rolled over and Kenny was on top, kissing and nipping at her neck until he found that spot that drove her wild.

"Don't give me a hickey!" she giggled as he nibbled and suckled. It's been a long time since someone gnawed on her neck, and she forgot the thrills that shot from her neck straight to her pussy. They twisted and wrestled and somehow he ended up between her legs, his cock at the entrance to her pussy. Normally, Kenny likes a lot of foreplay, but Yi was so hot for him. She wanted him inside her without delay. He eased into her, stretching her out, creeping deeper, striving for her womb.

She looked up into his eyes, his ice blue Nordic eyes and blond hair. She always went for the bad boy, always. She asked herself, why did she fall for this boy scout?

"I'm no boy scout," Kenny whispered. "A boy scout needs two sticks to start a fire, I can get your fire going with one stick." He drove his cock into her as hard as he could, and Yi whooped in surprise and laughter.

Kenny pushed himself up on his hands and watched his lover as he fucked her as hard as he could. She was loving the savage fucking, their damp flesh slapping together as he pounded away at her. He went on and on; he was tireless as he ruthlessly fucked away. Her pert breasts shuddered with each skewering thrust of his hips. His long cock seemed to reach deeper into Yi-jin with each thrust, finding untouched areas at every stroke.

Yi's pleasure built and built. She was joyfully helpless under this man who tossed around 50 pound sacks of feed effortlessly all day long. Was it a few minutes or was it an hour? Yi didn't know. All she knew was that she was out of her mind with sexual excitement and as the tension built, she wrapped herself around him, her fingernails clawing into his back and she found she was begging him to cum in her. As her orgasm crashed over her, Kenny tried his best to hang on as she writhed and fucked back up at him. She planted her feet on the mattress and lifted her hips high up, lifting Kenny too.

Kenny grabbed her hips and fucked her brutally, sending her orgasm into overdrive. Her eyes and mouth were wide open as she came and suddenly he was cumming too. As he shot his sperm into her, he slammed into her with bruising thrusts. Four... five... six... tremendous plunges into her and he sighed and collapsed onto to his shocked lover.

They cuddled and kissed until Yi asked, "Where did that come from?"

"You inspire me."

"When I came I felt it everywhere, my hands were tingling!"

Kenny kissed her and said, "That means I got it right."

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

"Are you coming with?" asked Macy sadly as John fastened Katarina in the child carrier of their leased wheelchair lift van. Katarina was crying as he fastened her carrier into the car seat. At the same time, her cousin Danny was squalling in Andi's arms. The slate gray sky threatened to open up and deluge the area with rain.

"I will be by later..." said Andi, choking down the tears. Over the weeks, as the sisters-in-law shared their pain and their joy, they grew closer and became actual sisters. "I need to know how to end the scarf and knit a matching cap. And maybe mittens."

"And I will need guidance with my bébé," whimpered the beautiful pastor. They clung to each other until John pulled Macy away and he limped as he guided her to the van.

"Thank you for everything," said John to Andi as Macy got into the van.

"You saved my life," said Andi, as she fought back the tears.

John kissed her tear covered cheek and said, "Yes, I saved your life, and when you arrived you saved Paul's life, and he saved mine years ago so I could save yours. We're in a beautiful circle of love, and the circle is unbroken. Come visit us... please?" and he climbed into the driver's seat and for the first time in months, he fastened the seatbelt and put a vehicle in gear.

Andi watched as they turned left out of the driveway on to Howard Avenue, then drove up to Main Street and turned right at Worzils and disappeared. The morose gray sky echoed Andi's mood as the people that mean most to her disappeared into the foggy morning traffic.

"Come on baby," said Heather, and she urged her daughter into the house. Andi stumbled as she climbed into the front door.

"Damnit!" she cursed. "This fuckin' thing!" She limped into the living room and laid her fussy baby on the couch next to her, then looked up at her mother, who was staring at her in shock. "What's wrong?"

"I haven't heard you speak like that since you were in pre-med," said Heather.

"I'm sorry but I can't be wearing this clumsy ass thing while carrying a baby!" snarled Andi as she started releasing the Velcro straps on the plastic cast that she's worn on her left foot for a month and a half.

"You shouldn't take that off," said Heather.

"Mom, I have so much steel and screws in my ankle, it's time they started doing their job and not this piece of junk," and she waved the cast around. "I'm going to go shower without a bag on my foot, can you watch Danny?"

"Of course."

As Andi showered, John and Macy pulled into their neatly shoveled driveway and looked at their house. "Lord knows how much I love my brother and sister," said John. "But I missed our house so much."

"I miss it too, but I will miss my sister at my side," sighed Macy.

"I have a feeling you and Andi will remain at each other's side," said John with a smile as he climbed out and unclipped Katarina's baby carrier from the baby seat.

"I will be dusting for weeks," groaned Macy.

"We will be dusting for weeks, oh look." As he spoke, Gus and Lucy pulled up in Gus's F-550 shop truck. It already had the plow and salt spreader on the back.

"I come to see why you're late for work!" demanded Gus, but he couldn't hide his grin as his friend opened the back of his van. "We will get that for you," said Gus as John started pulling the luggage out of the van. "You need to worry about getting in your house without falling."

Macy looked at her big wide porch and said, "My brother has been here."

John looked up and on their broad front porch he saw a cheerful life size cardboard Santa holding an ice cold bottle of Coca Cola.

"You Jarecki's and your front porches," gushed Lucy. "Would you have bought this house if it didn't have a huge front porch?"

"No," said John. The look on his face showed it was a silly question.

"Jean and I almost lived on his parents porch in Williamsville while we applied for jobs. Their house was almost an exact copy of this one."

"Did you sit on their porch and play music in the evening like you do here?"

"Oui!" said Macy with a huge smile. "We practiced every evening. The village of Williamsville must still be tired of Ashokan Farewell."

"Come on old man," said Gus as he guided John up the front stairs. "You should use the side stairs, it's safer. They're indoors and free of snow."

"Let me be a grumpy old man," said John. "I just learned how to climb stairs last night and I'm going to go in my front door." He got up on the wide, covered wooden porch, a glider chair for two to sit in and sway back and forth, and two Adirondack chairs stood waiting for a warm day. He looked around and saw that the Christmas lights were up, which made him smile. He teases Paul about the Christmas lights on Paul's house, but he's crazy about them as well.

John opened the front storm door, which looked antique by design, and then the big wood and leaded crystal front door and stepped into his living room. "I think we need to spray for elves," he said as he saw the Christmas decorations all over the living room.

The room was immaculate, and a warm fire burned in the fireplace. A new glass enclosure was over the fire and... John looked again. It was a glass front wood stove like Paul and Andi's. It also had two heat vents that reached out across the baseboards of the room, releasing hot air from the fire into the room over a wider area. "Where..."

"Your brother. I guess you did him a favor and that's his way of saying thank you," said Gus.

"No, he's got to stop this," said John. "A thank you is more than enough."

"No!" said Lucy sternly. "You saved my sister's life. There's nothing we can do to thank you enough. You know how inarticulate Paul is when it comes to matters of the heart, please let him say thank you the only way he can."

"Ok, just no more surprises," said John as he turned and saw Lucy standing with an antique swinging cradle in her hands.

"It's just an old thing that I cleaned up."

"It's beautiful," said John. "Thank you." Lucy had taken up woodworking as a hobby in Gus's wood shop and found a love for restoring old furniture. As he admired the cradle, Gus showed him where Lucy replaced broken and rotting wood and her work was beautiful. "Hands of a surgeon," John muttered.

John turned to get Macy's opinion, but she was nowhere around. Then he heard a hammer tapping upstairs, and he slowly made his way up the stairs. The nursery! When that idiot Frank ran John over, the nursery was an empty room; the walls speckled with white patches where holes were filled, and the ancient plaster was evened and smoothed out. John looked at the walls, which were a soft pink, the trim a glossy light pink, the ceiling was white with sparkles. Macy was tapping a nail in a wall and hanging the photograph that Kenny gave them of Cecil and Katarina with baby Katarina.

The room was full of baby furniture; crib, bassinette, changing table, dresser, side table, all matching perfectly. There was even a baby monitor. Each item had a tag on it, and each tag simply said, "From your flock."

John broke down in tears as he looked at the generosity of the church and stood weeping in the middle of the room. Gus came up behind him and hugged him tight. "You don't think they were going to just give you disposable diapers at a baby shower and that would be it?"

"She loves it!" gushed Macy as she swung Katarina around.

"I... I can't..." John tried to talk, but he was overwhelmed by the outpouring of love.

Gus hugged him from behind and said, "they love you little guy. You are our shepherd, and sometimes our kid brother. And now you're our hero."

"I just can't believe it..." John said as he finally got hold of himself.

"What did I tell you in university?" said Macy. "Laisse-les t'aimer," and she gave John a sweet kiss, then held up Katarina for a kiss.

"What does that mean?" Lucy whispered to Gus.

"'Laisse-les t'aimer' means 'let them love you.' It's a hard lesson for young pastors who are unsure of themselves."

Lucy turned around in Gus's arms and gave him a kiss. "You are very wise. How did you get so smart?"

"I surround myself with genius and listen."

"Genius?"

"Between You, Paul, Andy, Macy, and John that's six doctorates."

"What about you? You're a walking calculator. You can turn a tree trunk into a steamer trunk. What's your educational level?" asked Lucy.

"Me?" asked Gus. "I'm a high school dropout."

"What's that ringing?" asked John. They could hear bells jingling outside. Gus peeked out the window that looked out over the front porch roof and saw Andi pushing an old-fashioned style Pram stroller while Yi had a roped tied to it and pulled it when they got to sidewalks that weren't plowed. Ahead of them walked Heather holding a belt of sleigh bells, jingling them as they walked.

Gus watched them turn up John's driveway and said, "It's your in-laws come to visit."

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

The holiday season this year was so relaxed compared to last year when Andi and Paul were getting married, Andi had the hospital conference, and she and the girls were getting ready for a whole new world. This year was so relaxing. Andi could do something that she couldn't do when the twins were born, she could sit back and watch Danny grow. Every morning, Paul went off to work, either at the dealership or the big VA hospital downtown where he donated his time, leaving Andi all alone with Danny (and Yi and her mom). Andi decided that might be her next course of action. She might donate her time to the VA and work for Lucy. When Andi was there, she enjoyed running the clinic, but with the twins and with Danny, it took up too much time.

Every day, Andi and Danny would walk to Macy's house or Macy and Katarina would walk to Andi's house and Macy taught Andi to knit and to sing. "What would you rather learn to sing," started Macy. "Minuit Chrétien? Or would you rather learn to sing Cantique de Noël?"

"I want to sing Cantique de Noël. I want to sing a Christmas song."

"Wise choice," said Macy as she tried not to laugh. They're both the same song. "This is a very important song. Every Christmas eve at midnight, all across the French-speaking world, we come together to sing Cantique de Noël."

"How do you get everyone to sing it at the same time?" asked Yi.

"We all go to Midnight mass. Listen..." Macy played the song on their piano, a beautiful upright grand, then she sang.

Minuit, chrétiens, c'est l'heure solennelle...

"I know that song, it's O Holy Night!" said Andi.

"Oui, in French it is Minuit, Chrétiens or Cantique de Noël and I sing it to start the candlelight service at church and at home."

"I didn't notice, I'm sorry," said Andi.

"Ah ma sœur, you were so busy getting ready to get married! This year, it is Lucy's turn."

Andi loved the way Macy pronounced the word Lucy. The word sparkled in her mouth; her French pronunciation was musical. "You sound so wonderful when you speak. Does John's French sound as pretty to you as yours does to me."

"Ah, pauvre Jean. He has what we would call in Montreal, un accent de buffle."

"Which means what?"

"A Buffalo accent. You said that you can read music, am I right?" asked Macy.

"I can understand it. I know a whole note and a half note and a quarter note and a rest and stuff like that," said Andi. "But if you point to a note on the page and say, 'sing it' I can't do it."

"Ok, here," and she put sheet music on a music stand and put it in front of Andi. Where Macy saw the French Minuit, chrétiens, C'est l'heure solennelle... Andi's page had phonetic spellings of the words:

Mee-nwee cray-tee-un say hayer sola na la... "Now sing along with me," said Macy and she started playing.

A couple of minutes later, Andi gushed, "I sang French!"

"One more time, from the top," said Macy and this time Yi joined Andi and began singing the phonetic French. Hearing Yi singing next to her helped Andi hit the notes. "Marvelous!" cried Macy as they completed a third time through the song.

"I'm no judge but you three sounded wonderful!" gushed Heather. "And the babies loved it!" Katarina and Danny sat up in their carriers and paid attention to the music.

"The phonetics are so cool! How did you come up with this?"

"This is now I taught non-French speaking students to sing at École de Théologie Évangélique du Québec. Tomorrow we practice knitting and singing at your house?"

"Oui, oui!" said Andi as she, Yi, and Heather got their coats on. As Andi and Yi pushed and pulled the carriage home, they sang what they could remember... "Noël, Noël! Shonton lay Ray domp tur!"

(Noël, Noël! Chantons le Rédempteur - Christmas, Christmas! Sing to the Redeemer!)

While they were singing, John had finished up this coming Sunday's sermon and had gone to Gus's shop. Gus and Lucy were in the wood shop and Gus was showing Lucy how to use a router. They stopped and greeted John as he limped into the shop. "What's up buddy?" asked Gus.

"I want to see if I can get one of my chairs ready in time for Christmas," said John.

"The shop is yours," said Gus as he and Lucy went back to work with the router.

John had four projects going, but they were far from completion. They were all meant to be Christmas gifts, but they all needed sanding, a mind numbing simplistic task which was going to take a lot of time. With luck, he could get one project done. He had all the pieces in a series of lockers. He opened the first locker and found that the project was fully sanded. He just had to assemble, glue into place, then stain and varnish.

He took the first project out, and in a few minutes, he had a traditional farmhouse wooden rocking chair. Gus and Lucy watched in amusement as he tapped the joints together with a rubber mallet, then he set the chair aside and opened the next locker and took out the pieces... they too were all sanded. John turned and there were Gus and Lucy, leaning against the bench and grinning at him. "We just did the boring part," said Gus.

"Now you don't have to worry about getting them ready for Christmas."

"Thank you," he said to Gus. "It really means a lot."

"Don't thank me, it was our Jewish Christmas elf," said Gus as he swatted Lucy's bottom.

"It's my first Christmas," said Lucy. "I wanted to help... and Gus used this for training."

John nodded. When Gus trained him to sand, he had John sanding everything by hand for weeks. "Thank you again," said John.

In response, Gus handed him a large bottle of wood glue. "Let's start gluing and clamping."

With a huge grin, John disassembled the chair he had pieced together and began gluing the joints and reassembling the chair.

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

That evening, the members of the board of directors of Springville Congregational Church gathered for their December meeting. The November meeting was subdued and poorly attended. It was right after the birth of Danny and Katarina, so neither Paul nor John attended, and after the events of October, nobody was in the mood to celebrate. However, at the December meeting, everyone brought Christmas cookies that were added to an enormous platter. Paul and John showed up with Norwegian Lefse that Andi, Macy, Yi, and Heather made. Paul also brought a tub of spreadable butter and a sugar dispenser. Lefse is delicious with butter and a sprinkle of sugar. Andi, Macy, and Lucy arrived with the twins and the babies so the entire board could coo and gush over the infants.

"It is so amazing that you didn't have any complications after that accident," said Kathy Hansen, the church secretary, to Andi, as she felt Danny's grip.

"We use the term incident or assault," said Andi. "The word accident implies that he didn't intentionally try to kill me."

"We wanna watch," said Sandy as she and Madeline climbed onto a folding chair and sat at the long meeting table.

"Do not disturb the board members," warned Paul. He's been working on his 'Dad Voice' and the twins are learning when Paul is most serious. He tapped the gavel and said, "Let's come to order. Pastor Macy, since you're here would you like to open with a prayer?"

Macy said a prayer calling for wisdom to deal with the church issues. When she was done, Paul said, "Thank you, Kathy, could we have the minutes from last meeting?"

Reading of the minutes went quickly because the November meeting was sparsely populated because of the snowstorm. They just barely made a quorum. Next came the treasurer's report. Halfway through the report, Sandy hopped off the chair and said she was bored. She went and sat with her mother, but Madeline stayed and at least pretended to be interested in the meeting.

"Any old business?" called Paul.

"Dexter Humbolts replacement," said Larry Snow.

Paul sighed and wished he didn't have to deal with that, but he's gone. "Ok any volunteers?" That brought a few chuckles. Nobody volunteers for the board of directors. "Any twisted arms?"

Ernie Kraft cleared his throat. "The guy I get my horse feed from says he'll do it."

"Kenny?" asked Paul.

"He'd fit right in, he's got a great looking truck and a cute girlfriend," said Gus, which caused Paul to laugh.

"Are those the new requirements?"

"Kenny is cool," said Madeline, who was reaching for a Christmas cookie.

"I'll second the motion," said Bud Chance through the laughter.

"Which motion, Ernie's or Madeline's?" asked Paul.

"Both," said a laughing Bud Chance as Madeline sat back in her chair and nibbled on an oversized gingerbread boy. Seeing that the cookies were within arm's reach, Sandy returned to the chair with Madeline.

"Ok, moved and seconded, is there any discussion?" Actually, there was, and it was all positive. Kenny was liked by the members. He was always active in the church and the board needed a young voice.

Finally, Mary Kraft said, "Call the question!" signaling she wanted a vote on the motion.

"It's been moved and seconded that we put Kensington Johnson's name to the Congregation to be voted on for the open Deacon slot on the board. All those in favor of the motion signify by saying aye," and Kenny's name was approved unanimously, including Madeline and Sandy.

"Any more old business?" They discussed the window in the women's bathroom that was leaking, but Gus fixed it. "Anything else?" Paul asked. When no one said anything, Paul said, "Then let's discuss Dexter Humbolt. I know he said some awful things, but Dexter is... slow. He's one of our older members and he remembers how it was here when Pastor Mundy was healthy. He loves this church, and he wants to stay active... but do we have a job for him that will keep him busy but out of the way in case he gets angry?"

Lars Hansen called out, "I could use a hand with the grounds and gardens."

"Is that something he likes?"

"Oh yeah," said Lars. "He loves his gardens around his house."

"Ok, I'll approach him and see if he'd be interested," said Paul. "Any new business?"

"I have a wedding request," said John. "They would like to do a brief ceremony at the tail end of the candlelight ceremony."

"That sounds familiar," said Tammy Schatz, as she nudged Paul.

"That's good news!" said Paul. John and Paul practiced their lines before the meeting.

"Well, the bride is Jewish."

"Oh... that's bad news," said Paul.

"But she has converted, she is now a messianic Jew."

"That's good news!"

"But she's not baptized," said John.

"Oh, that's bad news," said Paul. He glanced over at Lucy and she was blushing furiously. In fact, so was Gus.

"She says everything is frozen and she can't get baptized until June."

"My hot tub isn't frozen." Paul and John turned to Lucy, and Gus turned around in his seat.

"Honey, this really is an exclusive club. We can't get married here until you're baptized."

Lucy finally said, "can I have Macy do it?"

Suddenly everyone on the board was assured that the couple was Gus and Lucy. Ernie Kraft called out, "I move we present the wedding plans to the congregation for approval and support as usual."

"Second!" called out Madeline.

"You can't second a motion Maddy," said Paul as he blew her a kiss.

"I'll second it," said Larry Snow.

"Moved and seconded, any discussion?" called Paul as Sandy and Madeline crawled up on his lap. The board was full of discussion, plus back slapping, hugging, and handshaking. Lucy began wondering what she got herself into. When Gus first mentioned baptism, she thought of images of babies getting sprinkled with a few drops of water.

"Oh no, baby," Gus said with a grin. "We're full dunkers."

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

"I don't see why we have to be dressed," pouted Sandy as her mother pulled a nice red and white dress over her head.

"Because it's Dzien Świętego Mikołaja!" said Paul as he pulled a matching dress in green and white over Madeline's head.

"I can't say that" said Madeline.

"Jen Schven-tago Miko-whya, but if you just say Happy Mikołajki (Miko-why-key) downtown the old Polacks will love you."

"But what does it mean?" said Sandy with a stomp.

"It means 'Santa Claus Day!'"

"Oh." Suddenly the twins were all in for Dzien Świętego Mikołaja (which actually means St. Nicholas Day.) They had their coats and boots on, and Danny was wrapped tight. "Grandma! Grandpa! Come on!" Andi's step-dad Harold had arrived that afternoon and was still unpacking upstairs in 'Grandma's Room.'

"Where do they get the energy?" gasped Heather as she and Harold came down the main staircase and Harold held open Heather's coat. "Are we walking?" asked Heather as she put on her coat.

"Yes, it's a pretty night," said Andi. "We're going to have dinner then go over to John and Macy's house for cookies and cocoa." She had Danny in a sling, and his head was nestled between her breasts and covered with a warm quilt. They stepped outside and Heather was in for a shock. She's never been out in Springville at night during the Christmas season. They walked up Howard avenue and all the houses were dressed in strings of lights or had red and green spotlights hidden in the bushes and projecting up against the house. All houses had wreaths on the doors and candles in the windows.

"What is the plan?" asked Heather, as she looked at the gazebo in the park. It was covered in tiny white lights and looked beautiful in the snow.

"Dinner first," said Paul, who had been in meetings all day and hadn't had a bite to eat. They stepped into the cheerfully decorated Worzil's Bar and Grille, with the twins leading the way. Each girl had a handful of sleigh bells, and they jingled them as they walked. "Happy Mikołajki!" called Paul as he entered.

A few Poles in the bar responded with a cheery, "Mikołajki!"

"Oh thanks, you set that bunch off again," groaned the owner Julissa. She was wearing a t-shirt that simply said, "Ho Ho Ho! Damn it." while her husband at the bar wore fake reindeer antlers. The bar was covered in silver garland, Christmas lights, and Coca Cola Santa Clauses.

Harold looked around in shock. They don't really have something like Worzil's in Colorado. Worzil's, The Cricket House, and Rick's have been open since prohibition ended and have been the village pubs continually. "We'll have three Genesee Cream Ales, a chardonnay and two loganberry's," said Paul as they took their coats off and sat down.

"Do you know what you want to eat?" asked Julissa as she returned with the drinks.

Harold eyed his beer suspiciously. He was a micro-brew fanatic and didn't trust anyone that put out more than a hundred kegs a month. He sipped his ale and his eyebrows shot up. This was good stuff! He turned to Paul and said, "You order, you're on a roll."

"Four beef on weck and two kids hotdogs with French fries."

"Gotcha, the Weekday Jarecki Special," said Julissa as she clicked her pen and disappeared into the kitchen.

"Beef on Weck?" asked Harold.

"You're going to love this," said Heather, patting his thigh. When their dinner came, he was impressed to see a large roast beef sandwich on a hard roll decorated with rock salt and caraway seeds.

"Careful with that horseradish dad," said Andi.

"You can light a cigar with it," added Paul.

Harold took a sniff from the horseradish dish and said, "Wow! That really cleared my sinuses."

"That's something needed here in this humid weather," said Andi.

They had a pleasant dinner with Harold, whose eyes were glued to Danny. "Heather told me that you went to the hospital on snowmobiles when Danny was born?" That was hard to believe because most of that snowstorm was washed away by the following rains.

"Just one snowmobile," said Andi as she took a dainty bite from her beef on weck. They told Harold about the ride through the storm with Andi and Macy in the trailer having labor pains while John clung to Paul with one hand and a pair of crutches with the other. "The streets clogged with stalled cars and Paul was zooming back and forth around them. Macy and I were in the back, and we couldn't see anything because the windows were covered with snow. Somehow we made it to the Hospital just in time."

"Yeah, grandma and Yi took care of us!" said Sandy.

"She gave us pictures of Danny right after he was borned," said Madeline.

"He was all yucky."

"His head was pointy, and his nose was flat," said Madeline as she pushed her nose flat with a finger.

"What about Frank?" asked Harold. Frank was an asshole, and neither Heather nor Andi saw through his line of bullshit until it was far too late. He probably wasn't happy that his ex-wife had a baby eleven months after getting remarried.

"He pled guilty to all charges," said Paul. Then he noticed that Heather and Andi were looking very guilty.

"What charges?"

"I take it that you weren't kept up to date... I'll just cut to the chase, Frank was charged with stalking, possession of a handgun without permit, attempted vehicular homicide, vehicular assault, and attempted murder. In Colorado there were warrants out for his arrest on the charges of promotion of prostitution, rape, suborning rape, sex trafficking, and violation of the Mann act."

"What is all this?" asked a very confused Harold. The bar seemed to go quiet and all that could be heard was Feliz Navidad from the jukebox.

"This isn't dinner conversation," said Paul softly. Then louder he said, "Frank got himself into a lot of trouble and tried to blame some of it on Andi."

"He's mean," said Sandy.

"We couldn't go outside," said Madeline.

Andi softly said, "I kept the twins hidden from him."

"Do you think Andi and the girls are safe?" demanded Harold.

Paul shrugged and said, "I thought they were safe before. Now, we have a guardian Angel watching Frank and we'll know if he even gets close to his jail cell window."

When they finished dinner, they got up and put their coats on and left, but not before Paul slid a substantial bill into the tip jar. "Come to Christmas Eve service Ayato, I think it will be good for you."

"I'm not the church going type," said Ayato.

"You found it entertaining last year. You'll probably enjoy it just as much this year."

After Paul, Andi, and the rest of them stepped out into the evening, Ayato turned to Julissa and asked, "What do you think he meant by that?"

"Gee, I don't know," she said sarcastically. "Other than Gus getting married, I can't think of a thing."

"Gus?" said Ayato, shocked.

"For someone who has 20/20 hearing, you miss a lot of news."

Paul and the family continued their walk down Main street and were joined by Kenny and Yi as they walked past Johnson's Feed. The village was decorated in holiday splendor and the snow gently fell, enhancing the scene. Pine garland circled all the streetlamps and was strung across Main Street on every block. A large holly wreath was hung in the center of the garland that was strung over the street, and all was lit with Christmas lights. The stores were dressed up for Christmas and lights edged every store window. Even the hardware store was dressed up for Christmas with a display of antique Christmas decorations in the front window. The display was circled by an antique Lionel train that fascinated the twins. "I know what to get Danny for Christmas," said Paul.

"I suppose," Andi sighed. "If I say no to the train set, you'll get him a HAM radio or something like that."

"You are truly a wise woman," said Paul as he gave Andi a kiss.

They turned up Railroad Ave where John and Macy lived, and all the houses were decorated and cheery. As they neared John and Macy's house, Paul asked Kenny, "Are you interested in serving on the church board?"

Kenny didn't pause. "I would love to."

"Wonderful, we'll put your name to the congregation on Sunday, and if you're in, the next meeting will be the second week in January.

"Thank you Doctor Jarecki."

"Please don't call me that if I'm not operating on you." They mounted John and Macy's porch and rang the bell and Macy greeted them all smiles and dressed in a flowing gold dress.

As they entered the house, the twins cheered, "Mikołajki!!!"

"Happy Mikołajki to you too," said John as he collected hats and coats.

"Oooo! Pretty!" said Andi, as she felt the fabric in Macy's golden dress. "I should get one like it in silver!" Andi was still wearing Danny in a sling. He was warm and comfortable and will remain that way until he was hungry or wet.

John and Macy's house was beautifully decorated with lights and candles and on the antique fireplace mantle were Cecil and Katarina's Krakow szopka nativity scene. It was completely unlike any other nativity scene Harold or Heather had ever seen. Rather than the nativity scene taking place in a barn or cave as usual, this was a model of a huge orthodox cathedral with towers and spires, onion-shaped domes, and polish flags. It was covered in silver and gold and bright colors. It was lit up and the layers of windows shone in bright colors, while tiny people in Byzantine dress stood around. The nativity scene was built into the cathedral three stories up.

"I've never seen anything like this," gasped Heather.

"That is a real life szopka, it's a nativity scene that was made in Krakow Poland," said John. "Rather than aiming for historical or theological accuracy, the builder instead made a copy of a famous building in Krakow and inserted a nativity scene in it to make it a holiday decoration."

"It's crazy," said Paul. "They have competitions. The first Thursday of December in the Main Market Square they bring their szopkas to be judged. Our mom and dad went there about ten years ago just to get this szopka."

"St. Nicholas day is a family holiday in Poland," said John. "The family gathers, and they celebrate with gingerbread cookies, candy and fruit."

"Traditionally, Saint Nicholas arrived bringing fruit such as apples and oranges," said Paul. "He would ask the children to recite their catechism and reward them with chocolate, heart-shaped gingerbread cookies."

"What's a catalizm?" asked Madeline.

"It's kind of like your Sunday School lessons," said John.

"We've used Saint Nicholas Day over the recent years to have an excuse to get together and plan our Christmas holiday," said Paul as the doorbell rang. Macy got up to answer the door, and it was Lucy and Gus, along with a small man with a thick black beard and wearing a yarmulke.

"Welcome," said Macy. "Come on in."

"Folks," said Gus, starting the introductions, "this is our Rabbi slash Pastor friend Lewis Blustein. Looie, this is Pastor John Jarecki, his wife Macy who is also an ordained minister, his brother Paul and wife Andi."

"And me!" cried Sandy.

"And me!" cried Madeline.

"Oh, no one can ignore you two, can they?" laughed Lewis. As Lewis shook hands with John, he said, "There's no introduction necessary. I was at your very first sermon here in Springville, so powerful a message! So loving! And then you prove your words just a few weeks ago... A true man of God you are!"

"Please Rabbi, I did what anyone else would have. You! You bring two combative faiths together in harmony. I am a fan of your work."

"Bah! Yes they are combative, but should they be? No! I just give a nudge here, a nudge there, read the appropriate scripture and it all becomes clear." He glanced at the fireplace and said, "If I didn't know any better I'd say you were at work here August."

Gus grinned and said, "It's the work of my best student," and he gestured to John.

"Really! A man of God and a man of wood... such fine craftsman ship!" Lewis said as he ran his hands over the woodwork on the fireplace mantle. "And a Krakow szopka!" he adjusted his glasses, "And it is real!"

"My grandma Katarina bought it in... that city you said," said Sandy.

Madeline, who had been hearing about St. Nicholas' day for almost a year, went up to Rabbi Lewis and said, "Are you Saint Nicholas?"

"No, but I came prepared! I heard there were four children here celebrating Saint Nicholas day," and he pulled four gingerbread cookies shaped like hearts from a pocket. "Have you been good?"

"Mostly," said Madeline.

"These days, that's a wonderful record, where are the other two children?" he asked as he handed Sandy and Madeline their cookies.

"They don't have teeth yet," said Madeline. "They just eat milk."

"They only chew on mommy," added Sandy, to Andi's embarrassment.

"Well, you better keep this for them," and he handed the twins the other two cookies.

"Come on you two," said Yi. "We have cookies to decorate and crafts to make," and she and Kenny led the twins into the dining room.

As they sat, Lewis looked around the house and said, "Saint Nicholas' day, a Krakow szopka, do I detect an orthodox upbringing?"

"A little," said John. "We were raised Roman Catholic at Saint Timothy on Cleveland Drive, then Saint Peter & Paul on Main Street in Williamsville. I even went to Jesuit seminary."

"What happened to change your mind?"

"Oh, the usual," said John. "I grew disillusioned with the Catechism I was raised on. I dropped out and I was too afraid to face my parents, so I turned to my big brother, an Air Force officer. He gave me the wisest advice I had ever received. He said, 'go find another school.'"

"That's wise?" said Lucy.

"Oh, it's very wise," said Lewis. "Sometimes we are so fixated on a goal we convince ourselves that there's only one path to that goal, we completely ignore other paths, and often other goals that are just as worthy if not more." He turned back to John and asked, "So what happened?"

"I taught myself French and enrolled in École de Théologie Évangélique du Québec."

"Tough school!" said Lewis. "How did that work out?"

"I was assigned to their senior professor as my doctoral advisor, and I was her teaching aid. She hated me. I couldn't do anything good enough for her."

"So what happened?" asked Lewis.

"I eventually married him," said Macy and the room burst into laughter.

"Our poor mom, she said, 'I sent John out to come back with a black cassock and he came back with a black wife.' Mom had no filter at all," said Paul.

"None," agreed Macy. "That is why I loved her. She held nothing back, but she never spoke in anger or hate."

"She loved Macy," said John. "If she had lived to see Macy and Andi together. They are truly sisters."

"So, we are here to talk about a baptism," said Lewis.

"Is there a difference in baptism's?" asked Paul. "I mean, is the messianic Jewish baptism the same as a Christian baptism? Or are there differences?"

"The goal is the same, to declare your faith, so they can be as similar or as different as you would like, just as long as the goal is met, and you are submerged to symbolize the washing away of the old you. We normally have it down in Cattaraugus Creek, but it's far too cold for that."

"That's why we volunteered our hot tub," said Paul. "It's quite large, it's warm, and it can be as private as you want."

"I would like to be baptized also," said Andi.

"Are you sure?" asked Paul as he held her close.

"Yes, I'm sure, will you baptize me ma sœur? (my sister)" asked Andi.

"How can I say no, now that you pronounce it right?"

They spent the evening sipping coffee or egg nog and making plans for the baptism. Madeline and Sandy eventually walked out of the dining room wearing fake white beards made from construction paper and cotton balls and a bishop's miter made from red construction paper. "What is this?" asked Andi in surprise.

"Mikołajki!" (St. Nicholas Day!) they cried.

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

The next evening, Yi and Paul made a wonderful dinner for everyone assembled in the dining room, a hearty pasta fagioli and lasagna. The pasta fagioli was a tomato-based soup with kidney beans, cannellini beans, ground beef, onion, celery, carrots and pasta shells. The lasagna was Mama Giardini's recipe, and Paul claimed that his life was in jeopardy for sharing it with the world.

Rabbi Blustein joined John and Macy, Andi and Paul, Gus and Lucy, Heather and Harold, Yi and Kenny, and the twins for dinner at Paul and Andi's house. He found the house to be huge, pretentious, and oddly comfortable.

Rabbi Blustein was fascinated with Paul's stories of his service in the Air Force and was shocked at his mentioning Melony's death. But most of the conversation was filled with tales of Christmases past. "This big old house was made for big old Christmases," said John. "We all lived here at one time, Mom, dad, me, Macy, and Paul. On Christmas eve Gus would stay here with us and we had a gigantic party."

As he did the dishes after dinner, Andi noticed Paul looked sad. "What's the matter hon?" she asked.

"Nothing."

"Ok. you got the lie out of the way, now talk to me," she demanded quietly.

"Everything... I'm just being selfish..."

"Come on baby, talk to me," she cooed as she hugged her husband. "Danny wants to know what's up," she said, and she held Danny, so his nose touched Paul's nose.

"Whoever thought that this big old house would run out of room," said Paul a bit sadly.

"What do you mean?" asked Andi. "There's still an open bedroom."

"All our rooms are full when Kit gets here." He turned to Andi and dried his hands, then took Danny. "Everything has changed. Christmas eve used to be me, John, Macy, and Gus. We'd wrap gifts and prepare for boxing day... It was our tradition... Now they're all gone."

"Aww, honey, that's not selfish, that's missing your old traditions and your friends. It's time to make new ones and sometimes that's scary," said Andi.

"You're right, that's not really selfish. The selfish part is this. Christmas Eve is our wedding anniversary, and we can't have sex."

"No," said Andi. "Doctor Sauter said no sex for twelve weeks... and that's... that's... aw shit. I miscounted didn't I."

"Well, when we go on our cruise, we'll be rockin' the boat."

"Come on you two, the guests are here, let's get going," called Heather.

For her part, Andi was wearing a white shift and a bathrobe, and they joined the small crowd of people out at the hot tub on Paul and Andi's back patio. It was cold and snowing gently. Steam rose off the surface of the crystal clear water and Rabbi Blustein nudged John. "Why didn't my church think of a hot tub for a baptismal pool?"

"Because your church doesn't have my brother Paul," said John, with a combination of admiration and humor.

Andi and Lucy, who were both wearing a white shift, along with Macy, got into the tub and Macy whispered, "Just like we practiced this afternoon."

Andi and Lucy nodded, and Andi giggled nervously.

Then Macy addressed the small but growing crowd. Veronica and Josh had joined them, as did Julissa and Ayato and most of the church board. "Welcome! Baptism is deeply personal, but never private. It is a communal action of the gathered congregation, friends, and relatives. Today Lucy and Andi, sisters professionally and dear friends, have chosen to enter into the covenant through the celebration of baptism."

"Our friend Lucy, a messianic Jew, has asked Rabbi Blustein to take part in the celebration. Rabbi?" With that, Lewis began praying in Hebrew, and as he prayed, Macy baptized first Lucy, then Andi. When they completed the ceremony, Lucy and Andi clung together. "Bienvenue dans la congrégation! Uh, Welcome to the congregation!" cried Macy.

"Congratulations," said John. "As far as I know this was the first December baptism in our churches history," which caused the crown to chuckle.

"I messed up, I said the welcome in French," said Macy as John hugged her over the side of the hot tub.

"It was your first time, I did the same thing at my first baptism," said John.

"Where's the baby?" asked Macy. John pointed and there, on the patio out of the snow, was Yi holding both babies and cooing to them both.

The crowd applauded Lucy and Andi as they climbed out of the hot tub. "A free glass of wine for everyone that got baptized today," said Ayato as a soaked Lucy and Andy climbed out of the tub and began drying off.

"They're wearing bathing suits under their robes," Josh whispered to Veronica. "Is that allowed?"

"Yes," she whispered hoarsely. "But pointing it out isn't."