Chapter 279:

While Seb was on an important phone call, Lisa sat at her computer writing Alex an email, telling her of their perfect Christmas day here in Paris. She not only wrote it to tell Alex. But also so she could remember the events of the day herself dozens of years from now when the children were all grown and she wanted to look back on memories of their childhood.

First she told Alex about Jeremy and Holly's reaction at actually getting Christmas gifts for the first time that they could remember. Every little thing, right down to the large apples they found in their Christmas stockings had been a treasured gift.

She wrote how she, Seb and Maman had delighted in watching the faces of their children light up as they unveiled each new gift.

Kayti, of course, was still young enough that she was almost more interested in the act of the unwrapping, tearing the paper to shreds, than the actual gift inside of the package. But the other three had taken their time with each gift, having to have one of the adults remove their new toy from its package so they could really see it.

They let the older children help Lauren and Jessica with the opening of their presents. They were all just as excited about the baby's gifts as they were of their own.

Lisa still choked up as she told Alex about how when the new Legos and wooden building blocks had been opened, that Holly had told them that Santa must not have known that they already had lots of blocks at home so they should give some of them to some children that don't have any toys.

They had gotten the new sets of blocks to leave here in Paris for when they were here to visit.

She remembered when her tears had fallen as they sat with the children, Sammy had climbed into her lap and hugged her.

"Don't cry Mommy."

"I'm not sad Baby. Mommy is just so happy to have so many wonderful children. You are all the best Christmas presents I could ever get." She told him as she gave him a squeeze.

Seb had reached over and wiped the tears from her cheeks as Sammy climbed down and went digging under the tree.

"But we got you presents too. Papa helped us. Wanna see?"

"I sure do."

Seb had bought items that each had the name of one of their children on them as the giver. Lisa had done the same for him. And big or small, each gift had been chosen with love and the children were so excited to see their parents open their gifts.

As she sat typing away in the email, she was also thinking that Holly had a good idea. When they returned home, they would find a place like the children's hospital to take some gifts and she would let her children learn early how good it felt to give to those less fortunate. She didn't ever want them to become complacent now that they themselves had all they needed.

She finished up the email by telling Alex of the closing of the Bastille and said that she would call tomorrow to find out how their Christmas had been. Then she sent it and went to make sure that Maman wasn't being overrun by the children in the other room.

She shouldn't have been concerned. When she stepped into the room she smiled at the scene. Grandmere was sitting on the sofa, holding Jessica and was surrounded by the children, Lauren sitting in Holly's lap as Jeremy read from one of their new Christmas books.

After capturing the scene with her camera, Lisa went to the kitchen to begin preparing their dinner. Seb sure had been gone into his study a long time on that phone call, she thought. She hoped that nothing was wrong. There had been a lot of phone calls flying back and forth about some details of their promotions for the new CD and the upcoming tour that would begin near the end of February.

Since their Christmas dinner had been so big, she didn't feel as if it was necessary to have too much for their late meal, only preparing sandwiches and a veggie tray, with some of their Christmas desserts that had been brought by Maman and Aunt Cecile to finish it off.

Not wanting to disturb Seb, she gathered the children and got them settled at the table to eat. Maman helped her to serve them. Lisa sat and fed Jessica while the children ate. She'd decided to wait to eat with Seb when he'd finished on the phone.

He finally emerged from the study and she searched his face for any sign that something was wrong but couldn't read anything either way.

"Is everything alright?" she asked him.

"Everything is perfect, My Love." he answered and Lisa thought for just a second that she saw a mysterious twinkle in his eyes but it was only there for a moment and she thought that maybe she'd imagined it.

*

"Mama, Papa, come see, quick!" Jeremy hollered and took both of their hands dragging them along with him.

When they reached the foyer, Sammy, Holly and Kayti had their faces pressed tightly to the windows, looking out into the yard. Jeremy let go of their hands and stepped up next to Holly and joined her in staring outside.

Seb and Lisa stood over their children and watched as snow had begun to fall slowly in large flakes, coming to rest on the ground. It was cold enough outside that they were not melting.

"Can we go play out in the snow, Papa?" Sammy asked.

It was getting dark and cold outside but as he looked at Lisa to see how she felt about it, he knew that they couldn't pass up on this opportunity. Even though they had the snow machine, living in Florida, the children were unlikely to get the chance to be outside during the real thing.

So they bundled up the older children, leaving Lauren and Jessica inside with Grandmere and by the time they got outside, there was actually a good layer of snow covering everything.

Seb skimmed his hand along the top step and gathered enough snow to make a small snowball. He packed it in his hand and looked at Lisa and winked at her just before throwing it and hitting her with it. The children thought it was hilarious and were all laughing. She picked up some snow and returned fire, hitting Seb right in the center of his chest.

The children all began making small snowballs and tried to throw them at Lisa and Seb as well as each other. More often than not, they missed their target but they were having so much fun trying.

Holly laid in the snow covered grass and made a snow angel and Seb lifted her out of it so she wouldn't mess it up when she stepped out of it. He turned her around so she could see the perfect snow angel.

They played with the children a few more mintues, then ushered them inside for a warm bath and some hot chocolate that Grandmere had ready for them all.

"That was the funnest, Papa. I like the snow."

"It was fun Sammy. We'll have to take some trips to where it snows a lot so you can see some really big piles of snow."

"I want to ride on a sleigh in the snow." Jeremy announced.

"Okay, we'll do that someday." Seb answered him and ruffled his hair.

Later when the children were mostly settled in bed for the night, Lisa saw Seb speaking quietly to Maman, reinforcing her thought from earlier that he was up to something or something was bothering him.

He turned and approached her, taking her face in his hands and kissed her so soundly that she had thoughts of them turning in early and having the perfect end to their Christmas by loving each other until they fell asleep.

Seb put an abrupt end to that line of thought when he ended the kiss and asked her if she would go for a ride with him.

"You want to go out now?.. Everything is closed isn't it?"

"Yes, but I want to show you something."

"It can't wait until tomorrow?"

"I suppose it could but, I would rather go now."

Lisa saw the flash of disappointment on his face and was immediately sorry for giving him a hard time.

"Of course we can go. Let's just make sure that it is okay with Maman." she said and softly kissed his lips and was relieved when the full smile returned to his face.

"I've already asked her and she said it was fine."

"Alright then, let's go."

Seb slipped into his heavy coat and held hers while she slid her arms into it. He handed her her hat and put his on.

"Bye Maman, we'll be back in a while." he said to his mother.

"Don't hurry. We'll be fine." she told them with a smile as they headed out the door.

"I'm sorry that I'm dragging you out so late when I know you are probably tired."

"It's not that, I just had other plans in mind for the rest of our evening. It's nothing we can't still do when we get home." she said and blinked her lashes at him, letting him know exactly what she'd had in mind and then he understood her disappointment in going out.

"Oh well, you're right. We'll make sure to be home in plenty of time so we can put a wonderful end to our day." He took her hand in his as he drove through the nearly deserted streets of Paris.

He saw the sad look come across her face as The Bastille came into view. She looked at him quizzically as he pulled into a parking spot in front of it.

She sat there staring at the cafe, wondering why he would bring her here. It really only made her sad to be here now that she knew that the next time they came to Paris, their cafe would be gone, leaving them only with their memories.

Seb stepped out of the car and came around and opened her door. He held out his hand to her.

"Come walk with me."

She gave him her hand as he helped her out of the car.

"Be careful. The ground is slippery." he said and placed his hand around her waist.

As much as she tried, Lisa couldn't avoid looking whistfully at the now empty patio that had once held the tables and chairs where they had sat the two times they'd been here together before. She could also now fully see the large sign on the door.

"ENDROIT FERME´, EN FAILLITE" and in English underneath,

"CLOSED, GONE OUT OF BUSINESS"

"Why are we here, Seb?" she said with a long sigh.

"I wanted to give you your Christmas gift."

"Seb, you have already given me plenty."

"Maybe, but this last gift is very special and I wanted you to have it." he said as he pulled her close and kissed her.

"And you had to bring me here to give it to me?"

"Well, yes. Usually people get to see the gifts they are getting, don't they?"

Lisa was really confused, but then all of a sudden his meaning and all of the secrecy over the last few hours became clear.

"You bought it? You bought the Bastille?"

"Yes, I know how much it meant to you and I've arranged for the former manager to stay on and rehire the employees they had been forced to let go in the closing. He will be here first thing in the morning for us to meet with him and begin ordering what he needs to reopen. But this is not my place, Baby. It's yours. Your name is on the papers as sole owner of The Bastille. Also you may change the name if you wish and anything else you want to."

"I wouldn't change a thing." She said through her sobs as she held tightly to him. "Thank you, Seb. This is truly the best gift ever. Now it will always be here for us when we come to Paris.

Lisa was oblivious to the cold now as they looked through the windows at the empty counter and shelves that would soon be full again.

Seb lost count of the hugs and kisses she gave him while they were there. It had taken some doing to get the transaction done in such a short amount of time. There were papers to be signed tomorrow but it was basically done. But the look on her face was worth every bit of hassle he'd gone through to accomplish his goal.

Lisa wanted so badly to be able to go inside but they would have to wait until tomorrow to get a set of keys to the building. She finally told Seb they could go home and was thrilled to get into the car and thaw her toes under the heater. She smiled all the way home as she thought about what a wonderful gift this was and how happy she was that they would always be able to come back to their special place.

As they lay in bed that night, Lisa more than showed her appreciation for his thoughtfulness and Seb decided that he would have to find lots of things that made her this happy.