Tuesday, December 15

“This,” Molly said, sipping her cup of tea as she gazed at the magnificent Christmas tree, now fully decorated, that they had been working on all afternoon, “is pretty much the perfect day.”

And it’s hardly over, Schrodinger agreed. He’d dragged his cat bed under the branches of the tree and was snuggled there, looking up at the lights. We still have tonight to get through!

“Indeed,” Drew said, coming in and settling next to Molly on the couch. She touched his damp hair – he’d decided he needed a shower after setting up the tree. He yawned. “I hope I can stay awake.”

“Nap now?” Molly suggested. “I have to go and make the pies still, and the rolls. You have time.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

Molly got up and handed him a blanket. He was asleep before she hit the hallway.

I’ll nap too, Schrodinger decided, putting his head back down and closing his eyes. That sounds like a good thing.

Molly shook her head and went down to the kitchen, pausing only to refill her tea mug before she pulled out her mixer. The rolls first, I think, she thought, going into the pantry and pulling out the necessary ingredients. The rolls needed to proof before she could bake them, and she already had pie dough chilling in the refrigerator, so that was good.

The rolls came together quickly, and she set the bowl aside to rise. Then she collected another two bowls from the pantry and got to work on the pie fillings.

Drew had requested a pecan pie, but Molly knew that Lily’s favorite pie was chocolate cream, so she’d decided to make several pies. She mixed up the chocolate cream, and then the pecan filling. Rolling out the pie dough, she transferred the dough to pie pans and then blind-baked the shells.

By the time the pies were done, Molly had the rolls ready to go as well. The goose was in the other oven, finishing up, and she had the rest of the dinner ready to go.

Nathan and Corrine showed up first, carrying baby Kaylee as Lily and Jack ran in before them. “Molly! Schrodinger! Drew!” Lily shouted. “Merry Christmas!”

Merry Christmas! Schrodinger replied, running out from the living room. What did you think of the decorations outside?

“They’re lovely!” Lily assured him, stripping off her coat and gloves. “I love the faery lights!”

Wait until you see the tree! The CrossCat led them back to the living room, still chattering. Molly and Corrine exchanged grins.

“I’ll take this lovely,” Molly said, reaching for her niece. Kaylee burbled up at her, and Molly laughed. “I missed you too!”

“Watch out, she’s a handful,” Nathan warned, as he put several bottles into the refrigerator. “I have a feeling she’s going to have two speeds when she starts walking: fast and faster.”

“She’ll keep us on our toes,” Corrine agreed, sitting down at the kitchen table. “Where’s Drew?”

“Well, he was napping in the living room,” Molly said. “I doubt he’s still napping.”

“Let me go and rescue him,” Nathan offered, grabbing a pair of the bottles. “I want him to try this anyways.”

“He’s just uncorked a new cider,” Corrine said. “This one has been resting for a year, so we’ll see.”

Molly was about to answer when there was another knock on the door. “Come in!” she called, and Tim and Doug came in, carrying Ryan. In a few moments, they took fresh bottles of cider and joined the others in the living room.

“I’ve got to hand you back to Mom,” Molly told Kaylee regretfully. “I need to finish the rolls.”

“What needs to be done?” Corrine asked, getting up. “If you want to just tell me, I can do it, and you can keep snuggling the baby.”

“Take the rolls out,” Molly said. “Then, in the fridge, grab the two covered casserole dishes. Take the covers off, and slide them in to the oven.”

Corrine pulled the three sheets of rolls out. “Are we really going to eat that many?” she asked, raising her eyebrows.

“Schrodinger wants cream puff casserole for breakfast tomorrow, so I made extra,” Molly explained, moving her head slightly as Kaylee made a grab for her hair. “That’s what the third sheet is for.”

“Gotcha.” Corrine pulled out the two casserole pans from the fridge. When she pulled off the covers, she exposed the roasted brussel sprouts and the green beans with mushrooms and almonds that Molly had made earlier. “Do I need to change the temperature on the oven?”

“No, but after you put those in, we’ll need to pull the geese out of the other oven,” Molly said, glancing at the clock. “It needs to come out and rest.”

“Will do.” Corrine pulled the three geese out of the second oven, and the smell floated throughout the house. “When’s dinner again?”

“Not soon enough,” Molly agreed. “We’re just waiting for Pavel and his mother to show up.”

“What’s she like?” Corrine asked, pouring Molly a cup of cider and taking one for herself.

“She’s interesting,” Molly said, shifting Kaylee so she could take a sip of the drink. “Not what I expected, given what Pavel had said, but everything I would think Pavel’s mother would be.”

Another knock on the door pre-empted whatever Corrine was going to say, and they both laughed as Lily, Jack, and Schrodinger thundered down the hall to greet Pavel.

“You have to let us in!” Pavel boomed, and from the squeals of laughter, Molly surmised that he’d scooped up at least Lily. When he came into the kitchen, she saw he had both Lily and Schrodinger in his arms, and Jack barking and dancing around his feet. Behind him, Ella was laughing.

“Jack, get down!” Corrine said, but the hound ignored her. “Jack!”

“Pavel, take them out of the kitchen!” Ella said, and her son nodded.

“Everyone else is in the living room,” Molly told him. “Take them there.”

“Maybe I should dump them in a snowbank?” Pavel teased Lily, wagging his beard in her face, and she shrieked with joy. “What do you think?”

“I think I might go deaf in a moment,” Molly said, laughing. “Take them out of here!”

Pavel dragged his followers out of the room as Molly, Corrine and Ella laughed.
“I have never seen him like that,” Ella said, taking a chair after she took her coat off. “Now I know what he would be like as a father.”

“If you could keep him in one place, he’d be an amazing father,” Molly agreed, handing Kaylee (who had started to cry at all the noise) back to her mother. “It’s the keeping him in one place that I’d be worried about.”

“That, and finding him a good partner,” Corrine said.

“True.” Molly got up and looked around. “Ella, would you like something to drink? My brother made a sparkling cider, and there’s tea.”

“Cider sounds lovely,” Ella said, standing up. “But please, let me get it. I haven’t been waited on this much in my life, and if I don’t get to do something for myself, I’ll die.” She wrinkled her nose. “Pavel is a good son, but he hovers. I’m not an invalid!”

Molly pointed to where the glasses were, and then pulled out platters for the goose. “Drew!” she called. “Come and carve!”

However, it was his cousin Doug who came out. “He’s a bit busy at the moment,” he explained, taking the carving knife and fork from Molly. “He and Pavel have been buried under the kids. Including Ryan, who is laughing for all he’s worth. It’s adorable.”

“I can imagine,” Molly said, and Corrine got up to go and see.

Ella shook her head, taking her chair again. “This is a good house,” she told Molly, sipping at the cider. “Full of laughter and love.” She sighed. “I wish our house had been like this.”

“We have good friends, and good family,” Molly agreed. “And Pavel is a big part of that.”

“Well, what can I do to help?” Ella asked, getting up again. “I need to do something.”

With Ella’s help (and Corrine’s, once she came back, having left Kaylee with Nathan), they got the dinner on the large dining room table. Molly and Schrodinger had decorated the seldom-used room earlier in the day with more of the faery lights, holly branches from the holly trees out in the back, and red glass balls. A long red runner ran the length of the center of the table, and Molly had set small white votive candles in clear glass tumblers along it, with long strands of silk ivy leaves. As they all sat around the table, Molly sighed with happiness.

“Oh man, this looks amazing, Molly,” Tim said, gazing at the food. “I can’t wait.”

“Then don’t,” she suggested, handing him the rolls basket. “Everyone, please, help yourself.”

For the first part of dinner, there was only the sounds happy people make when given good food. After everyone had dealt with the edge of hunger, they started to talk, and naturally, the subject went to family meals of renown.

“Oh man, Molly, do you remember the Thanksgiving that Dad came home with a ‘medium-sized turkey’ from the Lewis’ farm?” Nathan asked her, gazing at the remains of one of the geese.

“Absolutely,” Molly said, laughing.

What happened? Schrodinger asked, eyes bright. I haven’t heard this one!

“So Dad comes home and puts the turkey on the back porch, like normal,” Molly said. “And then he comes in, and goes down cellar. Still normal – he wanted the big turkey pan, so that was fine. But then he comes in again, with nothing in his hands, and goes back downstairs.”

“And this is the day before Thanksgiving, mind,” Nathan chimed in. “So Mom’s freaking out a little, because Dad hasn’t SAID anything to anyone. We don’t know what’s going on.”

“So he comes back up with his hacksaw,” Molly finished. “Because the ‘medium-sized turkey’ turned out to be thirty-five pounds, and it wouldn’t fit, even in the biggest pan we could find. We had half for Thanksgiving, and half for Easter, if I remember correctly.”

“Thirty-five pounds?” Doug’s eyes widened. “How big was the large turkey?”

“We didn’t want to know,” Nathan said. “We didn’t ask. Probably big enough to stuff Kaylee into, to be honest.”

They all laughed, and Doug looked over at Drew. “Remember the Christmas that your mom decided we were having duck?”

Drew nearly choked on the roll he’d just bitten, and Molly had to whack his back to stop him coughing. When he recovered, he threw the rest of the roll at his cousin. “Damn, I had successfully forgotten that!”

“Do tell,” Corrine said, then glanced at her daughter. “Unless it’s not—”

“Oh, it’s fine,” Drew said. “My mother went out and bought ducks for Christmas dinner, and had them all ready to go, when she got called away to the phone. I decided to go in and help her stuff them, but she didn’t realize it.”

“He put matchbox cars in each of them,” Doug said, grinning. “And by the time she came back from the phone, he was playing elsewhere, so she had no idea.”

“Oh no,” Molly said, covering her mouth with her hand. “And she put them in the oven?”

“Oh yes,” Drew said. “Didn’t realize it for about 20 minutes, and by then, it was too late.” He shook his head. “I was lucky that she didn’t tan my hide.”

So what did you have for dinner? Schrodinger asked.

“Lasagna,” Drew said. “Which made me very happy, because that was my favorite. I wasn’t sure I was going to like duck anyways.”

Ella looked over at Pavel, who winced. Molly saw and teased, “Come on, Pavel. What sort of trouble did you get into over Christmas dinner? I can’t believe you don’t have a good story!”

He started to respond, but Ella cut in. “My favorite Pavel story he probably doesn’t remember,” she said. “He was a very little boy at the time.”

“Pavel was a little boy?” Lily looked incredulously at him. “Really?”

“Really,” Ella told her, nodded. “And when he was about two, he managed to very nearly get himself cooked into our Christmas pudding.”

“You’re right,” Pavel said. “I have no memory of this.”

“Mother and I were making dinner,” Ella said. “Father was out getting the cart ready for the next day, when he was going to play Father Christmas for the children in the town.” She smiled. “You really, really wanted to help, so I stood you up on a chair and let you help me with the pudding. You were supposed to be dropping the raisins in. You very nearly went in yourself.”

Molly could picture it, but Pavel was staring at his mother. When he could finally speak, he said, “Grandfather as FATHER CHRISTMAS?”

“Oh yes,” Ella said. “When he was younger, before the accident that forced him to retire, he was a jolly man.” She smiled. “That’s why I always loved Christmas. Even when he was bad, I could remember him as he was before, and that helped.”

“I didn’t realize the old man had it in him,” Pavel said quietly.

“We had some good Christmases,” she said, and then smiled at everyone around her. “And it makes me happy to see what a good family you have found here. This is what Christmas should be.”

Agreed, Schrodinger said.

Molly raised her glass, and everyone else did the same. “To family, both born and chosen,” she said.

“To family,” everyone echoed.

After dinner, when they were all settled in the living room, Ella looked over at Pavel again.

“Can you get my bag?” she asked him.

“Of course.” Pavel went out to the hallway and came back with a knit bag that he handed to her.

“Lily, Jack, Schrodinger, I have a gift for you,” Ella said, and the three clustered around her eagerly. From the bag, she pulled three wrapped packages. “In our village, we have a tradition that I wanted to pass along to you.” She handed each one of them a package. “On Christmas Eve, everyone is given a new book. Every year, I have given Pavel a book, no matter where he was. Someday, I’d hoped to do this with my grandchildren,” and she winked at them, “but I don’t see that happening yet, so I want to do it with you.”

“Wow.” Lily looked down at the wrapped book, then at her mother. “Can we open it now?”

“Go ahead,” Ella said, before Corrine could answer. “Please.”

That was all they needed. Paper flew, and then there were squeals of delight. The books weren’t the mass-produced books that CrossWinds Books sold – these were one of a kind books, and Molly wondered if Ella had brought them with her.

“Christmas cookies!” Lily said, opening her book and looking at the lovely illustrations. “Molly, will you help me bake them?”

“All of them?” Molly laughed at her niece. “I’m sure we can work our way through the book.”

“These are Christmas cookies from our area of the world,” Ella told Lily, smiling. “And there are legends along with the cookies, so you know which ones to give to the brownies, and which ones to give to your family.”

“Does it have the right ones to give Father Christmas?” Lily asked.

“Of course!” Ella told her.

Jack’s book was one of sea stories, which Lily promised to read him, and Schrodinger’s was one of legends of the far north. They all thanked Ella effusively and then went to curl up on Schrodinger’s oversized bed under the tree to read.

“I like this tradition,” Molly said, leaning against Drew. “We should adopt it.”

“What, the big family dinner?” he said.

“Well, that too, but I meant the books. I really like that.”

“Me too.” Drew hugged her to him and let his gaze wander over the packed living room. “Me too.”

***

Just so you all know, the story about the Thanksgiving turkey? Absolutely true. We still laugh about it in our family.