Chapter 275:

The van had barely stopped in front of the house when Maman stepped out onto the front steps. Her face showed just how happy she was. Her family was home for Christmas.

The outside of the house was all lit up with Christmas lights and they could see a decorated Christmas tree through the window with its lights on welcoming them home. Seb hadn't wanted to take anything away from the children's Christmas by coming to Paris. They loved all of their decorations at home in Florida. So he'd asked his friends and family here in Paris to help him prepare the house for thier visit.

"Welcome Home. I'm so glad that you are all here." she said before they were even out of the van.

Jeremy and Holly easily unbuckled themselves and hopped out of the van and rushed over to hug her. Sammy was having trouble reaching his buckle to release himself and when Seb had unbuckled Lauren's seat, he leaned over and unbuckled Sammy who got a huge look of relief on his face. He slid off of his seat and hopped down out of the van, hitting the ground running until he was scooped up into his Grandmere's arms.

"I missed you so much Grandmere."

"I missed you too, Sammy, all of you. Come inside. You must all be tired."

"Not me Grandmere, cuz I sleeped on the plane." Kayti said as she finally got her hug."

"Wow you are talking very well, Kayti."

"She is Maman." Seb said as he crushed his mother to him. "And they are all wide awake.We'll have to try to get them to lay down in a while and get their body clocks adjusted."

"Lisa how did you and the babies do on the flight?"

"We did fine. Jessica just ate and slept as normal. Lauren and Kayti got a bit irritated sometimes at being confined so long but we managed. Holly and the boys were wonderful."

"Is anyone hungry? I made some things that just need to be heated up."

"Thank you, Maman" Lisa said and hugged her again.

They found the children still in the hall looking at the tree and all of the different decorations on it. Holly was holding Kayti back to keep her from pulling things off of the tree.

"I'm going to go now and let you all get settled in. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Where are you going, Grandmere?" Sammy asked, wrapping his arms around her waist.

"I'm going home, Sammy. I'll be back after I sleep."

She crouched down and gave him a tight hug and a kiss, promising to be back before he knew it.

Sammy wasn't happy when she left. They'd just gotten there and he had been looking forward to spending a lot of time with her. He hadn't realized that she wouldn't live with them here like she did in Florida.

Pierre stayed a short time then got into his car that had been left here and headed home to let the family settle in.

Over the next couple of hours, luggage was brought in, those that were hungry ate and the children actually settled in and laid down, most of them falling asleep. Jeremy couldn't fall asleep so Lisa told him to take his backpack downstairs to the sofa and he could play quietly. She didn't want him waking the other children up.

Neither Seb nor Lisa had been able to sleep much on the planes with three very young children needing attention. He told her to go up and get some sleep and he'd listen for the children. They probably wouldn't sleep long.

"What about you? I know you have to be tired too."

"I'll sleep for a while when you wake up. I'm used to the traveling, well as much as you can be anyway."

He followed her into their bedroom and she quietly got undressed so the babies wouldn't wake up. Seb kissed her before leaving her to rest.

*

As they figured. The children only slept a few hours after sleeping so much on the flights.
Lisa got up and let Sebastien go upstairs for some sleep. She had found him asleep on one of the sofa's downstairs, right across from Jeremy who had fallen asleep where he was playing one of his games.

After feeding the children, she took them on a tour of the house inside and out now that it was daylight. She could now see the whole fence surrounding the property and was thankful not to have to worry about the children and the river.

This house wasn't as child friendly as their Florida home, not yet anyway. All of the rooms were pretty formal and while decorated beautifully, they were not inviting to a child. They hadn't been here long enough to do anything last time but this time, they would be able to make at least some of the rooms a place where the children could play without worrying about breaking anything.

They hadn't made any specific plans for today, knowing that they would all be tired. Seb came downstairs while Lisa was checking the kitchen cupboards to see what was stocked and if they would need anything from the shops today.

"It looks like whoever did the shopping knew just what to get for all of the children. It had to have been Maman. I don't think we'll need anything at least for a few days." she told him.

"We should call and let them know at home that we made it safely."

"I did that. I called Mom and Alex while you were sleeping."

"Did you rest enough to feel up to an outing today or should we wait?"

"I wouldn't mind going out. What do you have planned?"

"You'll see. Let's go get the children ready to go out. I would wait for tomorrow but it looks like it will be a lot colder tomorrow and we'll be outside."

Then they piled into the van and Seb had a smile on his face the whole time he was driving. Lisa noticed that he had brought their digital camera with him so she figured it must be something fun for the children.

"Where are we going Papa?" Holly asked him.

"It's a surprise. We'll be there in just a few more minutes. You were all so good on the plane. I know it was hard sitting still so long." he said, not mentioning Kayti's occassional bouts of irritability. She hadn't been that bad considering the length of time she'd had to be confined.

Lisa's smile matched his when she saw where he was going. Up on a large sign in both French and English it read "SANTA'S VILLAGE. Already she could see the brightly colored buildings that looked like candy houses. One larger building stood between the smaller ones and looked like a small castle.

Lauren and Jessica were installed into the stroller and the rest of the children were paired up and instructed to keep a hold of their partner's hand. Jeremy and Sammy, Holly and Kayti hurried ahead of Seb and Lisa but were well within their vision.

Already they were excited as they saw the Christmas village with all of the brightly colored lights and tables full of all sorts of decorations and ornaments. Of course they wanted everything they saw but as they went on Lisa and Seb let them pick a few special ornaments a piece to take home with them.

"See the funny horsies, Papa."

Seb couldn't hold back his laughter. " Kayti, that isn't a horse. Those are reindeer. Do you remember our Santa and his sleigh on our roof at home? These are the reindeer that pull Santa's sleigh.

"Is Santa here, Papa?"

"I believe he is, Sammy. We'll have to keep looking to find out."

Lisa saw Jeremy's look of disbelief on his face, but he made no comment and Lisa was glad that he had remembered their talk about not spoiling the younger children's fun.

Steaming mugs of hot chocolate and large gingerbread cookies were given to everyone. They all sat so that Seb and Lisa could help the younger ones with their cocoa so they wouldn't burn themselves.

"That sure was good. It warmed my belly up. Can I have some more, Mama?" Jeremy asked.

"Why don't we walk some more and then get more cocoa before we leave.There's still lot's more to see."

"Okay." he said then made sure to get the last drop of his drink out of the cup.

Inside the buildings were statues of elves shown doing different tasks such as making toys or cookies and one building had the elves retrieving Santa's naughty and nice list from the large printer attached to the very large computer.

"They've moved Santa into the computer age I see." Lisa chuckled.

According to a sign they approached, every half hour the story of Pere Noel, the French version of the Santa story, was read and they were right on time for the next reading. Children were invited to come and sit on the wooden platform near the rather tall elf that was going to read the story.

The elf waited while all of the children got themselves seated then he opened an over-sized book with large lettering and placed it on his lap. He looked at the faces of each of the children, making sure that he had their attention.

The elf, having been told that there were several english speaking children in the audience, read each line in French, followed immediately by the english translation that was also in the book.


“Pere Noel is the name people call the gift giver who visits good children in France. The children fill their shoes with a carrot and hay for Pere Noel’s reindeer. The reindeer food is exchanged during the night with gifts.”

Sammy turned and smiled really big at Seb and Lisa. He was relieved that they wouldn't miss out on their Christmas gifts because they were in France. Even though Lisa had promised him that Santa would find them if they went to Paris, he had been a bit worried.

“Pere Noel is often seen traveling with Pre Fouettard. He is the one who lets Santa know if a child has been naughty or nice.”

“See Kayti. I told you. Santa will know if you have to go in time out. So you better be good if you want him to bring you presents.” Sammy informed her, again. Seb and Lisa laughed at the serious look Kayti had on her face. She was probably seriously worried with as many times as she wound up in the time out chair.

"Pere Noel is very busy during the month of December. For some good children, he brings gifts twice; once on December 6th, St. Nicholas Eve (December 6th), and once on Christmas Eve, December 24th."

"That is the story of Pere Noel. Now you children make sure to be very good for your Maman and Papa so he can bring you all sorts of good things. Everyone line up. We have a special treat for you."

All of the children jumped up from where they were sitting. Seb and Lisa watched to make sure that Jeremy and Holly still had the hands of their partners and relaxed when they saw them immediately take the hands of their younger siblings.

When they came back out of the crowd of children, they each had a very large candy cane to take home with them.

"I like that story book Mommy. Can we buy that book to read at home?" Holly asked.

"We'll see if we can find it, Sweetheart."

As much as Holly liked the story, she was not yet convinced that Santa would bring gifts to her and to Jeremy. He hadn't found them before.

As they worked their way through the rest of the small buildings, they did find smaller versions of the story that had been read. So Lisa bought a copy for them to take home.

They got in the long line of children that were waiting to go into Santa's castle, each one hoping to see Santa inside. Lisa went and sat on a bench and discreetly fed Jessica and the other's around them were none the wiser. Then she pulled Lauren's bottle out of her bag and gave it to her. It was so much easier now that she held her own bottle. But she had also begun to throw it when she didn't want it. At home they had started getting her accustomed to a sippy cup to drink out of.

When the Izambard children were next in line, Seb stepped up and whispered into Santa's ear, telling him that his children mostly spoke English. He nodded then gestured for Kayti to come and sit on his lap. She came close but they weren't sure if she would sit on his lap.

"What is your name, little one?"

She looked up at Seb, making sure it was okay to speak to the strange man, even if it was Santa. She relaxed when Papa smiled and nodded at her so she figured it must be okay.

"Kayti."

"Allo Kayti. Would you like to come and sit on my lap and tell me what you would like for Christmas?"

"Okay." she let him lift her up but kept looking to be sure that Papa was still close by.

"So Kayti what would you like for Christmas?"

"A horsey. A pink horsey."

"A pink horsey?" he asked as his eyebrows shot up.

"Yup cuz I like to ride a horsey."

"And what else would you like?"

"I can have a house for my dollies to live in."

"Oh you want a doll house."

Kayti's blonde head of curls bounced as she nodded.

"You know that you need to be a good girl right?"

"Yup and not go in time out."

Santa laughed and sounded just as he was supposed to.

Sammy was next, telling Santa that he wanted a racecar and legos to build things with.

Holly was after Sammy but she almost wouldn't approach him. Jeremy took her hand and led her up and stayed with her.

"Allo, what are your names?"

"I'm Jeremy and this is my sister, Holly."

"Holly, what a wonderful Christmassy name."

"I just had a birthday. I'm seven now."

"Wow such a big girl. Can I lift you up?"

She let him but didn't let go of Jeremy's hand.

"What would you like for Christmas?"

"I would like a pretty necklace like Mommy 's and earrings."

"Jeremy you can come and sit on my other knee if you'd like."

Jeremy turned and let Santa slide him up onto his knee.

"And what about you, young man? You must have something you want for Christmas."

"Nope."

"There must be something you want."

"Nope, I just wanted a house and a Mom and Dad for me and my sister so we could stay together and not have to get separated again. We got that so I don't need nuthin'."

Seb was still close enough to hear what Jeremy said and couldn't hold back the tears at Jeremy's heart felt words. He saw Santa get teary too, so he wiped the tears away and went to rescue him.

"Thank you." Seb said to Santa as he guided his two older children back to their group.

Lisa saw the exchange but couldn't hear it. Seb whispered to her what Jeremy had said and she hugged him tight, trying to reign in her own emotions.

"Papa, we need to get carrots and hay for Pere Noel's reindeer."

"We'll be sure to do that, Sammy."

"We wasn't in France on December six, so he didn't get to bring us stuff that day."

"That's okay. I'm sure he'll make up for it on Christmas." Lisa told him.

They stopped for a last cup of cocoa and a cookie before they left Santa's Village. The children were all looking back wistfully as they drove away, each one with their thoughts of Christmas morning that was quickly approaching.