It was about 5 o' clock on the evening of Thanksgiving. Hazel sat in her living room waiting impatiently for guests to arrive. Despite hosting every year, it still made her stressed whenever she had company. Dinner was finally ready and she had joined the Jackson family in the living room, who had arrived an hour earlier. Annabeth, Olivia, and Frank were playing Alias, trying to guess answers while Percy struggled to give clues for the words on his card.

"Come on, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth made fun of him while waving the timer tauntingly. "Hurry up!"

"Gah! Okay, uh..."

Hazel laughed and wandered to the front of the house to peak out the window. The others would be arriving any minute.

Right on cue, a Ford truck rolled down the long driveway and parked next to their own car. Leo, Calypso, and Anza got out. As Hazel opened the door to greet them, her ten-year-old son Nate came running around the side of the house to the front, chasing Bobby with a water gun.

"Die! Die! Die!" Nate shouted, squirting water at Bobby who was now lying on the grass, spraying water back at him.

"You can't kill me with water!" The eight-year-old defended. "Water makes me stronger!"

"Boys!" Hazel stepped outside. "Come inside now and change out of those wet clothes. Company is here!"

They put their water guns down and Hazel ushered them into the house, and they ran upstairs to change.

As Leo and his family approached the house, Frank came outside to join her. Hazel gave Leo and Calypso hugs.

"Uncle Frank!" Anza ran over to him and Frank picked her up.

"Oh you're so big!" He told her, shifting her onto his hip. "How old are you now? Five? Six?"

"I'm seven!" She said proudly.

"Seven! Wow!" Frank replied. "You're practically all grown up already!"

Nate came running to the door, now wearing a dry t-shirt. "Uncle Leo, you've gotta see the new shield I got-"

"Whoa, Nate," Frank grabbed his shoulder. "Give them a chance to walk in. And how about a hello?"

"Hi," he complied, giving the guests hugs.

Hazel moved everyone into the living room, where Olivia was sitting on the floor in the middle of a turn. Bobby had already joined them. At twelve, Livy was almost as good as her mother at this game. Anza ran over and put her arms around her neck.

"Grandpa, on Dad's side," Olivia gave as her clue, putting an arm around the younger girl.

Annabeth looked confused. "Paul?"

"Poseidon," Percy looked over at his wife from where he was lying on the couch, like he couldn't believe she missed that one. "Annabeth!"

"Sorry! She said Grandpa I thought-"

"Shush!" Olivia interrupted them. "Okay this is a Greek philosopher, not Aristotle-"

"Plato!" Bobby guessed. "Socrates!"

"No he came after them," Olivia said. "I think he was a cynic?"

"Diogenes," Annabeth said. "Or no, Antisthenes."

"Yes!" Olivia exclaimed. "The next one is where I go every morning, my favorite place-"

"The pool," the entire room answered easily.

"Okay one more, this is a car brand- or no a motorcycle brand that was super popular in like the 1960s..."

"Harley!" Anza answered.

"Yeah, Anza!" Olivia smiled at her, impressed. "Let me have a hug," she held her arms out, and the seven-year-old leaped happily into her lap.

"My turn! My turn!" Bobby said eagerly picking up another word card.

The game paused as everyone got up to say hello. Bobby continued playing on his own accord, and Anza guessed his words.

Hazel heard the doorbell ring. "That will be the remaining crew," she said as she got up to open the door.

Jason, Piper, and Jack entered the party, immediately joining in with all the hellos. Nico and Will came in behind them and greeted Hazel warmly.

"For you, my dear," Will said, presenting her with a wine bottle.

"Wow, I'm impressed Will," Hazel said. "I thought you didn't like encouraging others to drink alcohol."

"It's grape juice," Nico told her.

"It is actual wine," Will insisted, giving Nico a look. "I figured it's a special occasion, and you're allowed to make some health exceptions on occasions."

Behind him, Nico shook his head and made a cutting-neck gesture mouthing, It's not wine.

Hazel smiled. "Well thank you," she said, taking the bottle. "Come join us in the other room. The party is just starting."

Now the living room was full, the adults sitting on couches and chairs while the kids took the floor. Frank had already poured some drinks for everyone and put out the snacks (Hazel made a note to thank him later). The Alias game had been put away, replaced by lively chatter and laughter.

"Hazel," Piper scooted over on the couch. "Come sit down and have a drink."

Hazel accepted the invitation and joined the group, entering herself into a conversation with Piper and Calypso.

"You painted the walls!" Calypso admired. "It looks wonderful. The yellow makes the whole room feel so much more lively," she complimented.

"Yes, it looks much better to me too," Hazel responded. "My next project is the kitchen. I just hate the lighting in there and I need to replace the tiles..."

"Don't be so critical, Hazel," Piper interjected. "Your house is amazing."

"Well with the constant visits from Frank's so very important colleagues, it's a bit of a stressor to make sure everything looks good, you know?"

Frank, who had been elected for a Senate position in New Rome the year before, often had obligatory social events with other politically important figures. Hazel was very happy for her husband, but it also put her in a position to have to host a lot of parties. She kind of liked it and was actually quite good at it; but she found herself stressing over image and self-presentation more than she would like to admit.

"Stop worrying so much," Piper calmed her, the charmspeak taking effect. "It looks beautiful."

"Thank you, Piper. I miss having you around all the time." Hazel glanced at her son as he crawled over to where Nico was sitting on her other side.

"Uncle Nico," Nate sat up on his knees and pulled out his mythomagic cards. "I'd like to make and exchange," he said with a business demeanor.

Nico shifted and reached into his back pocket, pulling out his own deck of cards.

Will laughed. "You didn't seriously bring those with you?"

"Hey it's not my fault my nephew is always looking to make deals," Nico answered defensively.

"Actually it kind of is," Hazel contradicted, making Will laugh harder.

"I'll give you my Minerva card if you let me have your Poseidon one," Nate suggested as the two of them examined their cards.

"You sure?" Nico asked. "'Cause I have a whole bunch of Manticore cards, and I'd be willing to give you three of them for your Mars."

Nate frowned in thought. "How about a Manticore and Ketos for my Mars," he negotiated.

Nico studied his cards. "Deal," he agreed, and they made the trade.

"You guys are ridiculous," Will chided lightheartedly. "I think your nephew is just your excuse for pretending like you're still ten years old."

Nico put his cards away and leaned back. "I'm not the one who brings grape juice to Thanksgiving dinner."

"It was wine!" Will insisted.

"Uh-huh."

Jason began making conversation with Will and Nico again, while across the room Percy and Frank were laughing at something Leo was saying. When Hazel looked back over to her previous conversation, she found that Calypso had taken to the floor and was helping Anza and Bobby build with Legos. Piper had wandered to the opposite side of the room where she was already engrossed in a conversation with Annabeth. It really was too bad that neither of them got to see Piper, Jason, or Leo very often. Despite the fact that the Grace and Valdez families were very happy in New Athens, living on opposite ends of the country had its down sides for sure.

"Aunt Hazel," Olivia came over to her with Jack. "Is it okay if we use the archery room?"

"Sure, for a little while. The key is hanging on the wall."

"Thanks," Olivia pulled on Jack's arm.

"And remember to clean up when you're done, sweetheart!" She called after them.

Hazel got up from the couch and approached Piper and Annabeth. "... biggest pain in my ass since he went to high school," Piper was saying. "Honestly! He hates doing his homework, he won't tell me what's bothering him, I don't even know if he has friends. How am I already old enough to have a teenage boy?" She complained.

Annabeth laughed. "Yeah, my days as a teenager feel too recent to almost be a parent of one," she agreed.

"Your preteen and teenager have already run off to the archery room," Hazel interjected. "They seemed eager to leave the chaos."

"Sounds about right," Piper sighed. "I told Jack he only gets to see all of you twice a year and that he should, you know, be social. Seems that only lasted about five minutes."

"Livy usually knows better," Annabeth added in annoyance.

"Please don't make me dread Nate becoming a teenager more than I already do," Hazel grimaced. "I'm enjoying ten as much as I can right now."

"As you should," Annabeth assured her. "Eight is wonderful," she smiled, watching Bobby build Lego submarines. He appeared to be mapping out some sort of attack plan while Anza attached engines to the toy boats. Nate had joined them, busily adding warriors to their battle scene.

"I think they're recreating the Trojan War," Hazel grinned as well. "My history nerdiness must be rubbing off on my son."

Piper laughed. "I'm pretty sure the Trojan War didn't have submarines though."

Hazel looked around at the rest of the group. Percy and Jason were talking animatedly about something, which made Hazel roll her eyes. It seemed their bro-bond had not been tainted by distance. Calypso sat in a chair talking to Nico and Will. Leo, who stood behind her, leaned down and said something in her ear that made her smile. She looked up and gave him a kiss.

Frank appeared next to Hazel and he put an arm on her waist. "Hello, my lovely hostess," he kissed her forehead. "Are you enjoying yourself?"

"I am, thank you," she leaned against his broad chest. "And you?"

"I love having everyone together, you know that."

She nodded. "It definitely is nice," Hazel replied.

"Noooo!" Anza screeched suddenly. "Give it back! Mommy, Nate took my elephant!"

"Aaand that's when it ends," Hazel said to Frank as Calypso went to calm her daughter.

"Okay, everyone to the dinner table!" Hazel called. "Nate, give her back the elephant!"

Thanks guys! I hope you liked it and please please review! If you enjoyed this sneak peak at each of their characters, definitely check out my family moments collection for The Valdez Family and The Jacksons as well.