Hey guys! This is the revised version of Thanks for the Family. It is quite a bit longer and quite a bit more descriptive. This is un-betaed so any mistakes are mine. I hope to have the Christmas fanfic back up by next Saturday evening. Hope you like!
"Wyatt and Waverly! Get away from those cookies right now!" I called at the twins. I swear those two are almost worse than me about sweets!
"Babe," my husband says with a smirk. He has been my husband for nine years and yet he still can't talk in sentences a quarter of the time. I have to admit it has gotten better though.
"Can you stop ogling the turkey and help me set the table?" I say. I have almost converted him from the health nut he was before we got married to a normal diet.
"Sure. Do you know what time everyone is going to get here?" he asks. Every year, we all have dinner at our house. "We" includes my parents, his parents, and some of the RangeMen and their significant others. Along with our four kids, it makes for a house full. This year Carlos and I's siblings will be here as well. That adds 12 more adults and a butt load of more kids to our dinner roster. This will probably be the craziest Thanksgiving we have ever had but I'm sure we will love every second of it.
"No idea. You know how the men run on RM-time, meaning that they will be here at a minimum of thirty minutes early. Your family will probably be here on time and my family will most likely be here thirty minutes late," I say. Since I'm a smart cookie, I told my family the wrong time to give them a chance at being on time. I told Carlos this much.
"That's my girl," he says, kissing me chastely on the lips while on the way to the dining room.
"Yep, kudos to you, Mom," my son, Nathanial, said while reaching for the cookie jar. "
Nat, are you kidding me?" I say. I know that he heard me bust Lele and Wyatt for the same thing not even five minutes ago. Nat only sighed and went back to the living room to play his video game.
"You can't deny those children, Babe," Carlos says.
If you had told me that I would be standing in this kitchen preparing Thanksgiving dinner, married to the love of my life with four kids ten years ago I would have tried to get you committed. But here I am as happy as I have ever been.
A little over ten years ago, I was in an on-and-off relationship with one Joseph Morelli. We couldn't commit to each other because we knew that we weren't right for each other but didn't want to admit it. After a long awaited conversation between the two of us, we decided that it would be best for us to go our separate ways.
A little while later, I was in a really bad car accident that I almost died from. That really opened the eyes of the other man in my life at that time, Carlos. As soon as I was out of the hospital, he made it his job to sweep my off of my feet. And that he did. Three months later, we were married and expecting our first child who we named Cassandra.
Cassie is now nine, Nat is eight, and the twins, Wyatt and Waverly, are five. We are expecting our fifth and sixth but no one else knows that. Cassie is pretty much a carbon copy of Carlos except for a lighter skin tone. Nat has my hair texture, his dad's hair color, my eyes, and skin a little lighter than Cassie's. But the latter is most likely because all he does is go pew-pew-pew-pew-pew with his thumbs all day and probably doesn't know what color the sun is. Wyatt and Lele look exactly alike and mostly like me with my hair, eyes, and skin color. The skin color surprised me since the other two came out darker but Carlos and I love them all the same.
"Everyone! Time to get dressed!" I yell out of the kitchen.
"Yes, ma'am," said my four angels. With a glance at each other, Carlos and I left to our room to get ready as well.
I put on my green sleeveless ruche dress, Christian Louboutin's (might as well wear them while I can), diamond studs, Ralph Lauren hoops, and Blue Nile tennis bracelet. Carlos put on his green and white stripped Abercrombie and Fitch shirt, black jeans, dress shoes, and the bracelet all three boys have.
"Mommy, Mommy, look at my pretty dress!" Lele said coming through the door. "Come on, Wyatt! You gotta show Mommy too!"
Poor Wyatt. He just can't catch a break with Lele. She is in a constant state of dragging Wyatt along with her. They love each other though. They are like the stereotypical twins. The attached-at-the-hip kind though not the must-kill-thou-womb-neighbor kind.
Lele looks stunning in her spaghetti strapped green dress with flowers on the bottom, black ballet flats, green stud earrings, and a green bracelet. I already know that Wyatt and Nathanial will be wearing the same thing. When we go to the mall, Wyatt always wants the same clothes Nat gets and has no doubt peeped in Nat's room to see what he's wearing. As I suspected, Nat follows the twins in wearing black jeans, black Converse, and a green plaid shirt just like Wyatt.
"Looking good, kids," I say ruffling Nat and Wyatt's hair and kissing Lele on her head.
"Let's go sit in the living room and watch some TV before everyone gets here," Carlos suggests, picking up both of the twins and carrying them out the door. On the way down stairs we meet Cassie coming out of her room.
"You look beautiful, Cas," I say pulling her into a side hug. She is wearing a black turtle neck, green skirt, black ballet flats, a bow bracelet, and diamond studs.
Soon after sitting down, the first of our guests arrive. "Hal and Connie! It has been too long!" I shout giving both of them hugs. "And how is little Jack-Jack?" I coo at their adorable son, Jackson. About three years after Carlos and I got married, Hal asked Connie out on their first date. Apparently he had had a huge crush on her for the longest time. They were married only six months later. They now have adorable Jackson who is three years old.
A few minutes later, Tank and Lula arrived with their three kids: Gregory, Danielle, and Maxwell. Tank and Lula got married a few months before Carlos and I and had already had little Greg. He is now 11, Dannie is 9, and Max is 7.
Next to arrive was Carlos's cousin and a close friend to the both of us, Lester and his wife, Annemarie. They have a set of two year old triplets, Myla, Marissa, and Monroe. They got married a few months ago and are just now getting back from their honeymoon. Knowing Lester, poor Anna is probably already pregnant again. "Hello, beautiful. What do you say we ditch the spouses and the kids and go get our groove on?"
"Oh quit it, Les! Get your butt inside!" Still a flirt as always.
"I'm thought we really had something special, Steph!" he replies with a mock hurt face. With a head shake at Anna, I lightly punched him in the arm. Chuckling, Lester, picked up Myla and Marissa and ushered them into the living room with the boys who were probably watching a football game or something.
"So how was your honeymoon?" I ask Anna, leading her and Monroe to the kitchen where Connie and Lula were waiting. "Oh my God it was amazing! We took a tour of Europe and I loved every second of it! We went to Cinque Terre and it was so beautiful. The houses near there were amazing and they were so colorful! We stayed in Tuscany for a while…" she says. We listened intently to her tale occasionally sharing stories about our own honeymoons until the door bell rang again.
This time it was two of Carlos's sisters and their families; his twin, Celia, her husband Marco, and their six kids, and his youngest sister, Annette, and her husband Robert. Annette is the youngest of the Manoso's and just got married a couple of years ago. Celia, however, is five minutes older than Carlos and never hesitates to rub it in his face that she is the oldest of the six. She has been married to Marc for 12 years.
"MJ! Get off that phone now!" she says.
"Mom," Marco Jr. says with a sigh. He was about to say something back but with a glare from Celia, he quickly closed his mouth and put his iPhone in his pocket.
"Now that's how you get that done, Steph!" she says giving me a hug. The Manoso family is big on physical interaction. That was quite a change from my family who only touch each other when absolutely necessary.
Within the next forty minutes, both Carlos and I's parents and our siblings with their spouses and children had arrived. Good thing that we have a big dining room and an even bigger house because if our house was any smaller, the almost 60 of us would not fit.
"You know the deal, kids under four with your parents, kids four to ten at the little kids table, kids eleven to thirteen at the big kids table and everybody else at the big table," I say once we are all gathered in the dining room after our prayer. Another thing that has changed in the ten years Carlos and I have been married, we became more religious.
"See, dear, I told you this table would come in handy someday!' my mother says, watching everyone pass to get to their seats.
"Never thought I'd see the day," I reply with a smile.
"I just wish Mother was here to see you so happy," Mom says wistfully. Grandma Edna died shortly after Cassandra was born at the ripe age of 95. There is not a day that goes by that I don't miss her, especially now that there will be two more of her great-grandchildren that she won't meet.
"Me too," I reply. "Come on, Mom, let's sit down."
Dinner was full of loud conversations and the scrape of silverware. I must say, I outdid myself this year. With green beans, collard greens, turkey, ham, chicken, macaroni and cheese, salad, corn on the cob, sweet potato casserole, broccoli casserole, mashed potatoes, and quite a bit more, I cooked more than enough food for the 60 of us.
An hour and a half later, we had finished eating and were sitting in the living room eating dessert. "The food was great, Stevie," my sister, Valerie, said eating her piece of pie.
"Thanks, Val! I can give you some of the recipes if you would like," I say. "Anyway, Carlos and I would like to make an announcement." Grabbing Carlos's hand, a huge smile appeared on my face and got bigger by the second. "Carlos and I are expecting again."
"Twins," Carlos adds.
At first there was silence. Suddenly Willonetta screamed. "OMG, hashtag twinzies!" "
Congrats, bro," Lester says, clapping Carlos on the back. "May your sperm live long and prosper." That addition was rewarded by a smack on the back of the head by Anna and Carlos's mother, Maria.
"What have I told you about saying those things in front of children, Lester?" Maria says threateningly. "Don't make me have to call your mother." Looking to Anna hopefully he shook his head when he realized that she would be no help. "Yes, ma'am," Lester say solemnly.
After a last round of congratulations, we passed out left over's. The kids said a quick goodbye to everyone and headed to bed. Once the last of the guest had left, Carlos and I settled in the bed for the night.
"Have I told you that I loved you today, Babe?" Carlos asks once we got comfortable in our normal spooning position.
"Yes, but it is always welcome if you would like to say it again," I say with a smile.
"Well, I love you. I love the two little lives growing inside of you as well," he replies, rubbing his hand soothingly over my barely there baby bump.
"I love you too, Carlos. I love you too," I say. And with that, we fall into a peaceful slumber.