"Mom? Dad? We're here" Blaine called as he and his husband entered the home he had grown up in.
"Blaine? Kurt?" they heard from the kitchen. "I'm in here, dinner is almost ready. Your Dad and sister ran to the store for wine and will be back shortly."
The two men left their suitcases at the base of the stairs and headed into the kitchen to say hi to the woman they both loved before taking the luggage up to the room they would be staying in. "Mmmmm, smells delicious," Blaine said, wrapping his arms around his mother, who was standing at the stove, stirring something in a pot.
"I should hope so, as long as I have been cooking" Janet Fisher joked. She looked over at her Son-in-Law. "Hey sweetie," she said, holding an arm out to him. Kurt stepped in and placed a kiss on her cheek, while she wrapped her free hand around his waist.
"Hi Janet, what can I do to help?" Kurt asked, remembering the time he had spent in this kitchen during his senior year of high school, bonding with the woman who would eventually become his Mother-In-Law.
Blaine stepped back, knowing he would be kicked out of the kitchen if there was help needed. Not that he couldn't cook, but he didn't have quite the talent his mother and husband did, and they had long ago developed a system when working together. He loved seeing how perfectly Kurt fit into his family.
"Nothing hon," she answered. " We're going fairly simple tonight. I found this soup recipe that I wanted to try and it suggested using it as a first course for an Italian meal, so the Lasagna is almost done, and dessert is over there. It just sounded like a perfect winter meal"
Just as she finished her sentence, the door opened. "Did I see the boy's rental car in the driveway?" Richard, Blaine's step father asked, carrying in a bag containing a few bottles of wine.
"Hey Dad." Blaine said from his perch on a bar stool at the counter.
"Blainey! Kurt!" Casey, Blaine's younger sister said, bursting into the kitchen.
The next few minutes were a blur of people talking and greeting the two men who had just flown in from their home in New York for a long vacation for Christmas. They were spending part of the trip with Blaine's parents and part of it with Kurt's parents, including a large Christmas dinner with both families, that had become a tradition when Kurt and Blaine were still in college and had limited time at home for the holiday break. Suddenly Janet's voice broke through the din. "If you heathens can go wash up, dinner is ready."
Richard moved to place the wine on the counter while their children moved toward their bedrooms. He heard Blaine and Kurt gathering their luggage while Casey talked their ears off the whole way up the stairs. He silently came up behind his wife, wrapping his arms around her waist, kissing the side of her neck. "I love having you to myself, but, doesn't the house feel more like a home with our kids back home, even if it's just for a week?"
Janet smiled, understanding him perfectly. "I know. I wish we could have them all here all the time." She turned in her husband's arms, placing a gentle kiss on his lips. "And, I know I say it every time we have this conversation, but, thank you. I see how so many of my friends have had it with their kids and their second husbands. I am so lucky to have found someone who truly loves my children as much as I do, and as much as I wish their father did."
"Mom! Dad!" Casey laughed, entering the room again. "Stop making out and let's get the meal on the table!"
Janet grabbed a pot holder and swatted at her insolent 25 year old daughter's arm. "Hey, I could make you cook for yourself for the whole time you're here." She teased.
"Nah, you won't do that," the girl retorted. "You just remodeled the kitchen and know I won't be able to cook without breaking something, or catching something on fire." She reached in front of her mother and picked up the tureen that the soup had been poured into as Janet used the pot holders to carry in the steaming tray of lasagna.
As the women placed the food on the table, Richard was pouring the wine and Kurt and Blaine were sitting down beside each other at the table. They quickly dished up dinner and began discussing the travels of the three younger members of the family at the table. Kurt and Blaine had some issues due to weather causing some flight delays coming in from New York, but luckily their rental car was right for once, and they had no problems on the trip from the airport to the house. Casey however, had no flight problems as she was flying in from Florida, but her rental car was not a good situation. As the meal progressed Casey was sharing stories from Gainesville, where she was getting ready to begin the final semester at University of Florida where she was working on her masters degree in education. Kurt and Blaine were sharing stories from work, Kurt as art director for an up and coming fashion magazine and Blaine as an associate at a law firm that is known for it's work in gay rights cases, especially discrimination in the workplace.
Finally, the men were clearing the table as Janet was getting dessert ready. Casey was staring into space, knowing something was up with her brother, but not sure if it was something to worry about. He was a bit distracted. She was determined to get it out of him by the end of the meal, before they all moved into the family room for the traditional viewing of Christmas specials. Every year since Blaine started college, they always sat down to watch the animated Grinch, Charlie Brown Christmas special, Rudolph and Frosty after dinner, before decorating the tree that was standing in front of the window covered in lights and nothing else.
Soon everyone was back at the table and Janet was serving them all tiramisu, to keep with her Italian theme on the evening. Casey waited for the perfect moment before beginning her attack on Blaine. Just as he put a bite in his mouth she smirked. "So, Blainers, what's got you so distracted?"
Blaine choked, trying to swallow so he could speak without covering the table in custard. "I don't know what you mean." He finally said, blushing and not meeting anyone's eyes.
Janet looked at her son, knowing the signs of lying. "Blaine, what's wrong sweetie?" she asked of her first born.
Blaine and Kurt looked at each other, Kurt giving a gentle nod to encourage Blaine. "Well, we were going to tell you all on Christmas so we could tell all of our parents at the same time, but, Kurt and I have an appointment when we get home with a lawyer who specializes in homosexual adoptions. We are wanting to start a family."
Janet and Richard beamed at each other while Casey had a million questions racing through her mind. She had to get some out. "Wait, are you going to adopt or do you want to try for a surrogate so at least one of you is genetically related to the baby? If you are adopting, do you want an infant or an older child? If you are using a surrogate, do you have someone picked out? Are you going to use an egg donor and a surrogate who would just carry the baby?"
Kurt and Blaine laughed as she spit out all of the questions. Kurt decided to answer this one. "Well, that's why we want to talk to the lawyer first. We would love to do the surrogate route, but it can be harder sometimes than the adoption route. Typically surrogates are relatives or friends who want to help the gay couple out, but not always, and, as much as we love our friends, none of them are at a point in their careers or marriages that they could help us, so we would have to find a stranger to do it, which, is possible, but not easy."
The rest of the family discussed various options and issues with both methods of the couple getting their family while Casey started thinking. She was trying to stop her mind from where it was going, not sure if it was even possible, but she would see.