On the weekend before the Thanksgiving holidays, Isaac Abrams was home, just in time to see Gianna starring in the 5th/6th grade production of Aladdin, Jr. Much to everyone's surprise, Evan Abrams was also in the show. He had no lines, as a palace guard, but he enjoyed being in the chase scenes with Aladdin and holding a sword.
The family took up most of the second row, Artie taking one end, with his parents, his older sister, her husband, and their only daughter, the other three Abrams children in the middle, and Tina at the other end, with her parents. Little did any of them know, this would be the last time the whole family was required to make the trip from Lima to Ithaca to see the kids in something. They would all be much, much happier, coming to the grandkids' various performances and sporting events, when they didn't require a plane ticket or a long road trip.
No one else had asked about Tina, who was able to hide her disappearing waist line behind a large jacket that she covertly removed after the lights had dimmed in the theatre.
Aladdin, Jr. opened with a scene of Genie introducing the main characters, leading into Arabian Nights and One Jump Ahead. It was a little while until Gianna, as Jasmine, was featured with a song called These Palace Walls. She was amazing, although maybe a little nervous in the first scene. She'd recovered, though, by the time they sang A Whole New World. Gianna stole the show with that song, and her voice was complimented by the talents of the boy playing Aladdin. Artie hoped she wasn't going to be crushed when she found out this was the only musical she'd be doing at her school. He made a mental note to be sure to find Gianna a school where she could be involved in something to showcase her incredible talent.
The show ended with families rushing onstage to bring flowers. Isaac and Sienna handed a large bouquet to Gianna, and Mae walked across the stage to Evan, handing him a huge Snicker's bar, since he'd been adamant earlier than none of the boys in the show would be given flowers.
After the show, they all headed back to the Abrams household, where the grandparents would be spending the night while the kids piled into each others' bedrooms. Artie felt sentimental, knowing this was one of the last times they'd all be in the house where they'd brought the last three of their children home. (For awhile, when they'd just had two children, they'd lived in a much smaller home in Ithaca.) This was the last time Grandma and Grandpa and Nana and Papa would all spend the night, and it was the last time they'd be together for Thanksgiving and Christmas in New York.
When the family had all settled down to enjoy the spare ribs that Artie had prepared for the crock pot, an old favorite recipe for when they were short of time, Tina disappeared to the bedroom to come back for their announcement. Artie stole a glance at his daughter, Sienna, who smiled knowingly. She'd done a good job keeping the secret for the past month and a half.
"Everyone hungry?" Tina came back in, jacket off, wearing a fitted blue top that had been in the back of her closet, a favorite from her last two pregnancies, over ten years ago. "I know I am, now that I'm eating for two again."
Chaos ensued as both sides of the family went crazy. Sienna eventually confessed that she had known, which made Gianna a little mad that she was somehow out of the loop. Isaac got kind of quiet, as he usually did when anything overwhelmed him, and Artie could tell that his oldest son wasn't mad or anything, but that he was understandably struggling to process being a college student with a baby brother or sister in the way. Evan was sweet and observant enough to notice that Mae was still confused and wasn't able to keep up with the conversation while everyone spoke all at once. He paused to sign an explanation to her. When she understood, Mae's eyes lit up and she ran to hug Tina around her midsection. It looked like they didn't have to worry about Mae being upset about not being the youngest one anymore.
"That's not all," Artie said, and he sat down at the head of their dining room table, freeing up his hands to sign as he spoke. "And well, I hope this news is also received just as well as the news about the baby, but I've take another job. I'll be an Associate Dean at OSU, starting in January. Kids, we're gonna be moving to Ohio. To Columbus."
"Well, that'll be easier." Isaac was the first to speak, and he was smiling now. "I felt bad about how many times you guys had to drop everything to come see me play, and I really hated when the rest of you couldn't come." He gestured to his siblings. Evan was clearly happy about it. It was no secret to anyone that he hadn't been happy with his new school, so he didn't mind starting over. Mae wasn't worried about school, either; she was clearly still over the moon about the baby. Sienna, of course, had already had time to adjust to the news, and she was adamant that she'd be fine with transferring right before senior year. That just left Gianna, who looked a little upset.
"But they're doing The Little Mermaid, Jr. in the spring," she said, sadly. "I was going to try out for Ursula."
"You'll live closer to us, though!" Amy's daughter, Lizzy, who was fourteen, spoke up just then. Amy Abrams Richards, husband Clint, and daughter lived in Dublin, Ohio, just north of Columbus. Lizzy and Gianna had always corresponded online.
"G, come here," Artie said, gesturing for her to come to him. When she did, he took her by the hands as she tried to hold back tears. "You were amazing tonight. I'm really sorry about the Little Mermaid, and I promise, we'll make sure to find you a school with a great musical theatre for sixth grade and up."
Gianna sniffled. "Thanks, Dad," she said. "That sounds good. And I will like living closer to Lizzy, Aunt Amy, and Uncle Clint. And Grandma and Grandpa and Nana and Papa."
Artie kissed her forehead. "Thank you, G," he said. "You're amazing. I promise we won't put you anywhere where that talent of yours will go to waste." Not to overlook or discount his son's small part in the show, he added, "You too, Evan."
"I just hope the current Valedictorian of my new school isn't too disappointed when I show up," said Sienna, who was joking, but possibly, not wrong.
"What did we do to deserve such awesome kids?" Tina asked, taking a seat by her husband. "Just to fill you in all in on what's happened thus far with the move, we're going to be building. Our new house is going to be near some friends of ours, Matt and Mercedes. We managed to find a floor plan that's mostly all one story, just with an upstairs game room."
"I still don't really like stairs," Artie added. He could handle them now, sure, but it wasn't easy and he preferred to do as little of that as possible. "But I can deal with a game room upstairs. Just as long as Mae doesn't use it to hide from Daddy." This time, Sienna was the one signing to keep Mae informed. Mae just grinned slyly.
"Where am I going to school then?" Mae wanted to know, voicing her question. That was a little harder, of course, but Tina and Artie were already looking into that, too. Artie signed someplace really great, I promise and she looked satisified.
"We'll have to rent a house while we build," Artie added. "We went looked the last time we were in Columbus for one of Ike's games, and we found one, but it's kind of small. Just four bedrooms and two baths. Evan and Sienna can each have their own and the younger girls can share. I think we can make it work for a little while. We'll need more space than that pretty soon." And he glanced over at Tina.
"How soon?" Artie's sister, Amy, wanted to know, also looking at Tina.
"The baby's due in May," Tina replied. "Probably not as soon as it looks like, and no, before anyone asks, it's not twins. Just one baby." Artie reached over and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze under the table.
"And, like always, you don't want to know if it's a boy or a girl until it gets here, right?" Evan asked, and when his parents both nodded, he sighed. "Well, that's fine, except I don't like calling it it."
Gianna had stopped looking worried about the play and the new school. She grinned, ear to ear. "A baby and a new house, I can't wait!"
Christmas came and it was an especially sweet one for the family. It was to be the last holiday in their house in Ithaca, the one they'd moved into right before Evan was born, when it became clear they'd outgrown the three-bedroom-two-bath house near Cornell. They'd moved a bit further from campus, in order to have land. The first thing they did was put in the pool, for Artie loved swimming and so did the kids. And they still had plenty of yard left after that.
It was now the night after Christmas, and that post-Christmas nostalgia of having all of their children gathered in the family room one last time, under the tree, was getting to Artie. Tomorrow, when they took down the tree, instead of Isaac hauling it up to the attic, he'd be boxing it and loading it into the moving truck.
Evan, their idea machine, was having a long discussion with his mother about an idea he'd found online, that involved just wrapping the entire thing in plastic wrap, the idea being that you just unwrap it and the tree is ready to go, next Christmas. Tina tried to be kind as she told him that the idea just wouldn't work, especially since they'd have to be moving the Christmas tree twice before next year, once to their rent house and then again to the new build. But she kissed his head and told him it was sweet of him to want to save them the time and trouble of decorating again. She added that doing it together was fun for her, anyway, and she never minded.
All of the nostalgia really was too much. He would have stepped out onto the porch, had it not been covered with yet another fresh blanket of snow. He hated winter and snow was a hastle, but it sure was beautiful. He stared out the window and could not stop the tears from falling.
"Dad?" Sienna appeared beside him. "Are you crying?"
"I'm just sad about leaving, sweetheart," he told her. She put an arm around his shoulders. Sienna was already almost as tall as he was, something that took a bit of getting used to.
"Mae says she's worried our new house might not have a chimney," said Sienna. "For Santa. Our new house does have a chimney, right?"
As Artie nodded, she smiled. "Good, then I'm not worried about anything else, are you?" As Artie fixed her with a curious look, she smiled. "Dad, I know you think I'm giving up a lot by moving right before senior year, but I want you to know, I don't see it that way. I'm really happy about our new adventure. I guess I'm saying this because I don't want you to feel bad about taking a chance on something new, too."
"Well, there's definitely a lot of new happening around here," he said, taking in the site of Tina's beautiful silhouette, as she cupped her hand next to her fitted black shirt. Tina was very focused on something, and Artie knew that look, from four times before.
"Flutters?" he asked, interrupting her moment of intense concentration. She just nodded and continued rubbing her stomach. Artie knew it was still a little early on for anyone to feel the baby, besides Tina, but it was adorable when Gianna, Evan, and Mae all tried anyway. When it was explained fully to little Mae, her eyes lit up. She was already wearing the new Big Sister shirt she'd been given.
The doorbell rang and Evan and Mae hurried to bring Sam in. He hadn't moved from Syracuse just yet, but he would soon. He was here today to spend the night at Artie and Tina's and then help them with the getting the remainder of their things into the truck the next day.
"Hey, it's the Big Sister!" Sam scooped Mae up for a hug, signing big and then stumbling on the sign for sister, which prompted a quick demonstration from Evan.
"But I heard you anyway," Mae informed Sam, hands flying as she spoke. She wasn't too shy to talk in front of him. "And also, your mouth is big. That helps."
"I'm glad," said Sam, with a chuckle, as he joined the rest of the family in the family room. "Tina! You're looking... rounder."
"Well, you know, when this is the fifth pregnancy, you tend to show earlier." This was Tina's new line anytime someone brought it up. She was aware that she looked bigger than she "should" for the stage of pregnancy she was in. Artie had to continually reassure her of her beauty these days.
"I was also going to say, beautiful," Sam put in, saving face quickly. "Where do I room tonight?"
Artie was glad Sam was going to be moving to Columbus right after them, for their friendship with Sam was an important one and not something he wanted to lose. Even if the idea of Sam and Santana was taking some getting used to.