The oldest two Sterling-Duval children proceeded with a huff to remove their jackets and then remove those of their three younger siblings. They knew from experience that what was about to happen could take a long time. Ariel their oldest daughter removed the coats of the youngest pair who were twins and Damien removed the coat of his little sister. In age order they stood Ariel at age 14, Damien at 12, Lillian (or Lilly as she preferred) at 7 and a half, (the half was very important) and then twins oldest James and younger (but by only 12 minutes) Sara who were almost five.

They were meant to be heading to their Grandparents home in Florida for the Christmas holiday but for as long as Ariel and Damien could remember the trip always got delayed at least two hours as their fathers argued heatedly over finding their way. The trip always began three days before Christmas and from their home in LA took the family three days across the country with their day trip stops in Phoenix to see Trent and Hunter and their daughter Julie, Austin Texas to see their friend Wes and his partner Olivia and daughters Brooklyn and Jade at her parents' family Ranch and a final stop in Tallahassee to see Thad and Sebastian and their daughter Annabella and son Andrew. It was a relatively new stop as Sebastian had been asked to head his father's new branch down there, so the trip had been extended in the last few years to see them.

Ariel re-stacked their bags in the hallway as Damien put on a DVD to keep the younger three occupied and out the way of the arguments happening upstairs. The older siblings shared a look as they turned up the volume as voices rose further. "Hey guys why don't we make the most of this snow and build a snowman?" Ariel suggested slipping on her gloves. The three children cheered and Damien and his sister put the children's winter coats on over their Christmas Sweaters.

Meanwhile upstairs…

"For the last time Jeff, just tell me where the SatNav is." Nick groaned frustrated as he began searching through their closet and Jeff's past hiding places.

"No Nicky, we don't need the stupid SatNav, we have a map." He said holding it up, with their route highlighted.

"Jeff we have been over this a thousand times we are not using the map, the map gets us lost."

"That was one time."

"Give it over Jeff."

"No Nick we don't need the stupid thing" Jeff argued stubbornly.

"Yes we do Jeff now tell me where it is."

"Nick we have a perfectly good map."

"And while I drive who will read that map?" Nick said stopping his searching through their draws and turning to face his husband who had his arms folded in the doorway.

"I will." Jeff replied like it was the most obvious answer in the world.

"Do you remember when we first moved to LA, straight out of college?"

"I remember."

"I picked you up after I left Yale and you mapped out the directions straight New York to here. It shouldn't have taken us all week to get here Jeff, it should have been two, or three days max."

"It wasn't that bad."

"We took a three day detour through Dallas and then the desert and Vegas, Jeff I'm not even sure that's possible, it was a more or less straight route. Or what about our trip to Italy, Rome to Venice, six or seven hours, we were driving for 13 hours." Nick went on, "Gap year over Europe, we missed so many of our stops, in fact you had the map upside down so instead of Paris to Berlin we ended up in Milan. That is why we are going to be using the SatNav."

"You say that like you didn't have fun Nicky." Nick turned around to see Jeff had sunk onto the chair by the window. "Like you regret them."

"Please don't say that Jeffy, you know I loved our trips and I had fun on all of them but we aren't kids anymore and we have to be at these places on time." Nick sat in the other chair, a smile on his lips, "remember when we realised we weren't even in Germany?"

Jeff let out a chuckle, "you spent three hours trying to talk to people in German then that kind old lady took pity on us, let us use the spare room in her house when it got dark."

"She made us cookies for traveling."

"Remember when we ended up in Vegas and we had forgotten it was your birthday because we were stressed about moving and the bouncer tipped off the manager who let us have everything on the house."

"You felt terrible for forgetting then surprised me when we got here with that Spa day."

"And in Italy when the car broke down and we ended up camping in the mountains, remember the pictures were took that trip?"

"Definitely, they're in the closet," Nick said getting up to find the album. "Look this is the Castle, the Lakes, I did love that trip, all of them," Nick smiled remembering.

"Hey look at these, this is when Lilly was two and we took the trip to mom and dads', and we got lost in that freak storm."

"We found that Diner through the snow and had hot chocolates in the car on Christmas morning."

"Hey look it's before we let Ariel wear makeup." They both laughed, she certainly got her Aunt's style, Jeff's sister even taught her how to apply the stuff since both of her dads were clueless. "Then my sister got her eye makeup for Christmas." Jeff shook his head.

"Isn't that the visit we first took Lilly on a horse?"

"You mean I took Lilly on a horse?" Jeff smirked, Nick was not good with the horses, nor did he like them, he had tried but they seemed to dislike him in equal measure.

"No need to rub it in, some of us didn't grow up riding. Look at this one the twin's first Christmas, the year we attempted Christmas Dinner for everyone."

"Don't remind me," Jeff grimaced. Nick and Jeff we no longer allowed to do a big Christmas dinner as the last time they burnt the roast veg but somehow undercooked everything else. The result was abandonment of dinner for a take-away. "When was that one taken?"

"Which?"

"The one in front of the ranch."

"Oh that was two years ago, when we used the SatNav. I don't remember that trip."

"Me either. Maybe it wasn't that fun."

"I think it was pretty boring, Trent, Hunter and Julie were in New Haven with Trent's mom."

"Wes, Olivia and the girls were in England that year."

"Bas, Thad and the kids went to see his mother in Paris; we drove all the way there, no map, no 'Mystery Tour' no excitement." Nick said sadly. Nick sighed, "Alright; get the map, get the kids and let's get lost."

"You mean it?" Jeff grinned, excitedly.

"I mean in."

"Love you 3."

"Always 6," they grinned and kissed deeply, "mm," Nick said breaking the kiss, "come on, we gotta go if we want to attempt making it to Trent and Hunter by this evening."

"Mmm I don't wanna go yet," Jeff whispered sliding his hands under Nick's jeans and boxers.

"Now?"

"Now," Jeff grinned.

Jeff smirked scooping up the map he jogged down the stairs to, shouting the kids inside. "Kids get in the car we are going and we are using the map."

"Dad never wins unless…" Damien whispered to Ariel who was sniffing the air, seeing her father's wet hair.

"Did you guys use my shampoo?"

"We'll buy you a new bottle sweetie I promise, but ours was empty, we used it up this morning." Horrified Ariel gathered the twins' hands into hers, leading them out to the car without another word while Nick and Jeff fought off giggles.

"Jeff," Nick paused, parking at a gas pump, "we're lost aren't we?"

"Oh yeah," Jeff nodded.

"Having fun yet kids?"

"Always dad," Damien answered unclipping his seatbelt, wanting a drink from inside. The older kids went inside Jeff watched the little ones who were sleeping and Nick pumped the gas. Damien and Ariel got directions, pleased to find they weren't that far from their route this time. Nick paid for the gas and the drinks and only three hours late they arrived at Trent and Hunter's in time for dinner. Their daughter Julie was 17 and preparing to leave for College in the fall, she wanted to go to Yale, like Nick had and even though Trent knew she would be safe and in walking distance of his mother he was worried about her going. Probably due to what he did at College when she was born. Something Hunter still liked to tease him about to this day that he got drunk and slept with her mother. It was at these moments when Trent would remind him of what he used to say when they roomed down the hall from each other at Dalton, "so what happened to being not remotely Bi-curious?" They would then laugh and move on.

The next day they managed to get to Austin without any problems and with remaining daylight. Brooklyn and Ariel went to the Mall to one of their favourite stores, Damien and Jade played video games together under her mother's supervision while Wes, Nick and Jeff took the younger three to the Christmas Carnival. The older kids would return later but the little ones would be in bed. While Nick and Jeff played a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spoc to determine who was babysitting Ariel read to the twins and Damien read to Lilly.

Nick stayed behind to babysit having lost 3/5 to his husband. The adults gave the kids enough tickets to ride everything twice and some spending money for the games, knowing they were lucky at them. Jeff and Wes went on a few rides while his wife avoided them. "What's the matter Olivia?"

"I can't go on them this year Jeff." She told him smiling, "go on," she told her husband, "you can tell him."

"Come April I get a son." Wes told his friend while grinning ear to ear.

"Seriously? You're pregnant?"

"Five and a half months and still not visible, one of the many positives of wearing winter clothes, nobody can tell."

"How're the kids taking it?"

"Well Brooklyn has been through this before, Jade on the other hand… Well you've seen her around your twins and Lilly, she isn't exactly child-friendly. But she says she's happy."

Back on the road early the next day, December 23rd, Damien and Ariel slept in the back seats on the large car; the three younger ones were being entertained by the film playing from Damien's iPad, singing along at every opportunity.

At Thad and Sebastian's house Damien and Ariel were the oldest, by a fair few years. They were on babysitting duty tonight while their parents went out for dinner with their friends. It was easy enough sit, watch TV while the kids slept. Only problem was the children had other plans. Just getting them in their pjs was a battle, getting them to sleep; however, that was a full blown war. Andrew was easy, his parents made sure to wear him out the others however…

"Looks like Damien and Ariel won tonight," Thad commented finding the two teens on the couches asleep and not a child in sight.

"You sure about that?" Nick said nodding to the top of the stairs where they heard giggling as his friend covered his kids with a blanket.

"I'll put them to bed." Sebastian sighed.

"I'll help." Jeff added.

Christmas Eve on the road was quiet, the three little ones were completely knocked out but they did need to be woken up soon so they would sleep tonight. Damien and Ariel were listening to their respective iPods while Nick and Jeff were quietly playing a CD of the album their generation of Warblers had recorded. Luckily the last leg of the journey was easy for Nick to navigate without the map so they didn't get lost. They woke the kids to get some food in a Diner then made them stay awake for the remainder of the journey. Jeff's siblings had already arrived with their families and an army of nieces and nephews.

As usual the kids were all in the converted barn out back and every night a different team of spouses would sleep out and watch them. Nick and Jeff got kid duty that night as they were the last to arrive and as his sister was pregnant she wasn't allowed. The kids were put to bed by age group, followed by Nick and Jeff just before midnight.

In the morning Jeff's mother woke everyone by banging together pots and pans and a herd of excited children ate their breakfast in the warm sunshine before being whisked away for their Christmas ride with the moms and Nick stayed behind to work on the dishes and dinner. They sat down again outside in the sun for Christmas Dinner. Food was eaten, drinks were had, jokes were made and "I love you"s were said and whispered around the table. After dinner and the dishes were cleaned the mass of children were allowed into the lounge to open their presents which were under the tree. After a less than voluntary gig from the band of siblings the parents exchanged their gifts. Jeff waited in glee as Nick was handed the gift from his husband.

"What's so funny Jeff?" His sister whispered to him.

"You'll see." He grinned.

"Should I be afraid?" Nick asked his husband.

"Not at all."

Nick accepted this and pulled away the ribbon and paper, opening the box. "Is this what I think it is?"

"Maybe." Jeff replied as Ariel and Damien bit back grins and the youngest three giggled.

"No wonder I couldn't find it, you wrapped it Jeff?"

"Happy Christmas, what? You don't wanna get lost on the way home do you? Uh-oh," Jeff leapt from his seat and out of the room, pursued closely by Nick.

"Come on," Ariel grinned tugging the hands of the twins, Damien and Lilly. They were then followed by their cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents. As they arrived on the porch they saw Nick had Jeff pinned down as he tickled him.

"Get Daddy!" Cried Lilly racing ahead to help Nick followed by Damien and Ariel each leading a four year old. Eventually Jeff surrendered to the onslaught of his husband and children and let his head hit the dirt.

"Well how are we getting home?" He asked Nick.

"I don't know, though I do like the idea of getting lost. What about you kids?"

"Let's get lost," Ariel agreed and her siblings nodded, "well dad?" She asked Jeff.

"To get lost will be an awfully big adventure."