Chapter 270:

The day before the open house, the last of the cleaning and the advanced food preparation was getting done but their biggest project of the day was going to be decorating the sixteen foot Christmas tree that had already been set up and secured to the walls the day before to prevent it from falling over, perhaps injuring one of the children.

All of the decorations for it were in the ballroom, ready to be put on the tree. Seb and Jim were doing the lights and then they would gather everyone in the ballroom to finish the decorating.

Lisa and Mary saw to it that the youngest children had a nap so they would not get cranky. This tree would take some time to finish. It was more than double the size of the tree she'd had last year in the guest house.

"Mama can we decorate the tree now?" Sammy came into her bedroom a while later and asked her.

Lisa looked up from where she was putting a dry outfit on Jessica since she had leaked through the one she had on before her nap. She didn't answer him right off because she was just taking in the fact that he had called her Mama and not Mommy like he always had.

"Yes, Sammy as soon as I finish dressing the baby we'll go down and decorate the tree....So, you like to call me Mama now?" she asked, grinning down at him.

"Yup cuz Jeremy said Mommy sounds like baby talk. I'm not a baby." he said standing very rigid with his arms crossed as if to make his point.

"No you are definitely not a baby but you can call me Mommy or Mama. It doesn't make any difference. Would you go around and make sure that all of the children and Mary are in the Ballroom now. Then we'll be ready."

"Ok Mama. I'll hurry cuz I like to put the decorations on the tree." he said as he ran down the hall checking the bedrooms for any of his siblings.

What a difference from last year when we decorated the tree. Sammy wasn't even here yet and Kayti was still such a baby. Now she is talking in sentences. What will next year be like when we decorate the tree? Lauren will be running around and even Jessica should be just starting to walk steadily. Will we have any more children? That doesn't matter so much either way, but I just hope that we are as happy as we are now, Lisa thought to herself.

She had just come down the stairs when Jim came in the front door carrying a large plastic trash bag.

"Hi Jim. What have you got there?"

"Umm, do you know where Seb is." he asked without answering her question. She saw how he was avoiding eye contact and his lip was twitching

"He should be in the ballroom. We're just about to decorate the tree. Would you like me to get him for you?"

"Yes, Please."

Before walking away, she gave him another look as he stood there holding the bag. She was very curious about what could be in the bag but as she had been telling all of the children, Christmas time sometimes holds secrets and it was okay to have those kind of secrets from one another. But she wished she didn't have to stick to it herself.

When Seb heard that Jim was back, he hurried out to the foyer with a huge grin on his face.

Jim wordlessly handed him the bag so Lisa figured that Seb knew exactly what it was.

"Sweetheart, would you excuse Jim and I for a minute, Please?"

She gave them a long look and then she retreated to the ballroom to join the waiting children. She looked at the tree which had many strings of lights wound around it, followed by gold garland. It was ready and waiting for them to put the ornaments on it.

While they were waiting for Seb, she opened a bag that she had laid on a chair. Across the top of the chair she laid out the brand new Christmas stockings that she had purchased last week for all of the new members of the family that had not been here last year. Then she skimmed through a box of last years Christmas decorations and found hers, Sammy's and Kayti's and added them to the pile. Seb was going to hang them from the large mantle over the fireplace in the living room.

"Baby, come here please." Seb called to her.

As she got closer, Lisa heard the two men whispering to each other like two conspirators.

"Okay stop there and close your eyes." he instructed her just before she entered the foyer near the front door.

Then she felt his hand in hers and he guided her the rest of the way in. With his hands laying lightly on her shoulders, he turned her about a quarter of a turn to her left and then told her that she could open her eyes.

She blinked a couple of times to get her eyes in focus and then she stood as still as a rock as she looked upon her gift. Again, she looked back and forth between the two men. She knew that Jim had made this creation as much as she knew the gift was from Seb.

She stepped forward and gently touched the hand carved wood of the new stable that was large enough to fit Auntie's porcelain nativity set, and this was no small set either.

The detail that Jim had put into it was so beautiful. It wasn't only the three walls and a roof. He had made segregated stalls for the different animal pieces and it even had real straw spread over the floor and he had bound small bundles of the hay with twine to match the scale of the set and they were stacked in the corners as if they were waiting for it to be feeding time for the animals.

He had carved out of one solid piece of wood, a new manger for the baby Jesus to lie in. A thick layer of straw had been placed underneath the porcelain baby.

The roof had some of their abundant Spanish moss glued to it to add color and a realistic look. And somewhere inside the ceiling it was wired with electricity so that when it was plugged in an unseen light shown down on the Holy Family.

Lisa was beginning to have a hard time seeing it as her eyes filled with tears.

"This is so beautiful. Jim, you have such a gift. Auntie would have loved this. It is just perfect. Every detail is just as I would have imaginied it to be." She knew that she was babbling but she was overcome with emotion.

She hugged Jim and thanked him and then she wrapped her arms around Seb and melted into his arms, letting him hold her while she got herself under control.

"Don't tell Debbie, But I am making her one as well and buying her a nice set for Christmas."

"She will love it Jim. This is such a beautifully personal gift when you have put so much of yourself into it. This must have taken you so many hours." She said as she went back to studying the detail in the carvings.

Jim said goodnight with a last thank you from both Lisa and Seb. He said he needed to get back to the boys. Hannah and Debbie were driving back from Kissimmee after picking Amanda up. Then Lisa rewarded Seb with a kiss that told him how much she loved the thoughtful gift. They finally both dragged themselves away and back into the ballroom to begin the tree.

Amelia was with them tonight and Lisa watched as she was chatting away with Holly. Then her eyes fell on a tree decoration that had a piece of holly on top of it.

"Oh My God." she said.

"What Baby?"

"I just thought of something. I'll be right back. Let the kids start putting things on the tree." she said as she hurried from the room.

She rushed into the office and rifled through the file cabinet until she found the papers that they had received when they had taken custody of Holly and Jeremy. She pulled them out and sat in the chair and read through them looking for what she wanted to find out.

"Yup, there it is and we almost missed it."

She went back and pulled Seb aside.

"What is it? Is something wrong?"

"No not now but there would have been. Monday is Holly's birthday. When I first spoke to her, she told me that her birthday was near Christmas and I remember thinking that it made sense with her name and all. She couldn't remember the date and I forgot to look."

"Well, you remembered now and we haven't missed it so we will have to do something fun for her. School is out for Christmas break too, so we will have all day. Let's finish the tree and then we'll put our heads together and think of how to celebrate.

The decorations were added to the tree by the children with help on the higher branches. Lisa helped Kayti with the three ornaments that Anna had given her and then each of the children had new ornaments with their first name and the year engraved on them. Each one was a different design to compliment the personality of its owner.

Lisa presented Mary with her own new ornament to celebrate her first Christmas with them and she almost cried.

Lastly, she handed Seb an ornament with his name and the year engraved on it and they went to the tree and put their ornaments on the tree together finishing the last of the ornaments.

They stood back and looked at the tree, both going back a couple of time to spread out bunches of ornaments where the children had put too many right together, but they didn't make a big deal out of it, just spread them out and then told everyone what a fantastic job they had all done.

Mary slipped away to put the finishing touches on their dinner and Seb and Lisa sat on a chair with her sitting in his lap as they watched their children stare in wonder at the beautiful tree, probably imagining what might be found underneath it on Christmas morning.

"I know they are excited about giving and getting gifts, but I think they are also enjoying all of the fun things we have included around the season." Lisa said as she laid her head on his shoulder.

*

Seb came into the bedroom after saying goodnight to the children. He took the brush from Lisa's hand and continued to brush her hair for her, letting his free hand slide down her hair after the brush.

"I had an idea but if you think it will be too much after the party on Saturday, just tell me." Seb said.

"Okay, what is it?"

"I know it hasn't been all that long since we went to Busch Gardens but I know it will probably be decorated for Christmas and Jeremy and Holly have never been there. I heard Blake and Brandon telling Jeremy about our trip there and he sounded very excited about it."

"That sounds like a terrific idea we can make Holly the princess of the day. If we can get out on Sunday and do some birthday shopping for her, we could let her open her gifts before we go on Monday morning."

"The only thing I can't figure out how to do is her birthday cake." he said.

"Well, let's sleep on it. We still have a couple of days to work that out."

She got comfortable in the chair and he handed Jessica to her to have her last meal before they would hopefully sleep for the night. She had been doing pretty good sleeping through and if there was one night that they would like to have a full night's sleep , it was tonight. Tomorrow would be a long day.

Seb sat in the chair beside them as he did as often as he could to watch his daughter get her nourishment from his wife's body. It still amazed him that Lisa's body held everything Jessica needed to survive for several months before she would need additional food.

He had tasted the milk and while it wasn't something he would like to drink a glass of, it wasn't an unpleasant flavor either.

While Lisa went to speak to Mary about their probable plans for Monday, Seb did diaper and pajama duty then snuggled Jessica against his chest, not willing to lay her down until Lisa came back.

"As I suspected, Mary will stay here on Monday. But I told her we were taking all of the children with us. She has packing to do anyway. Do you think that Jim and Debbie will want to go again? This time they could really have fun without the tension they felt the last time."

"There's no harm in asking. I'll speak to Jim tomorrow."

Mary would be leaving on the weekend to go spend Christmas with her daughter and her family. Debbie would step in and do some of the cooking and Hannah and Amanda were going to earn some spending money helping out as well, keeping the children occupied during the day.

Jessica was finished with her dinner and was all tucked in to her cradle. She wasn't quite asleep but was warm and dry and had a full belly, so it wouldn't be long before sleep would claim her.

As they they snuggled together in bed, they talked for a while about the party tomorrow and their plans for Holly's birthday and then when Seb had heard Lisa yawn for the third time, he pulled her closer and told her they could talk about the rest tomorrow and that they should go to sleep.

He pressed soft kisses to the side of her face and leaned over to claim her lips in a kiss before he wraped his arm around her and held her head against his chest, where he loved for her to sleep.

"Goodnight Ma Cherie."

"Bonn Nuit, Mon Couer" she answered sleepily, earning herself another squeeze before they went to sleep.