Chapter 9 – Movie Night Treats – 2055

"Christmas cookies and hot chocolate for everyone; eggnog for the adults is on the counter by the microwave. Kids' version is on the table with the cookies," Tony brought the tray of steaming mugs of hot chocolate from the kitchen to the family room where three generations had gathered to continue the DiNozzo Christmas Eve tradition of watching It's a Wonderful Life.

"Saba," five-year-old Jackson tugged at his grandfather's shirt hem. "Why is there a kids' version of eggnog?"

Tony bent down to the little boy's level, "Because…" He paused dramatically for emphasis as his five adult children and several of the older grandchildren rolled their eyes, "Santa makes the kid version extra-special for good boys and girls."

"Oh. I've been good this year. Mama says so," the boy replied. "Jet was good too. Jessica was bad when she ate all the candy at Halloween."

"I didn't eat all of the candy," his eight-year-old sister retorted. "Daddy tell Jackson to stop tattling. 'Specially when it is not the whole truth."

LJ stepped in between his older two children, "How about instead of arguing, you both tell Saba thank you for the hot chocolate and cookies?"

"Thank you, Saba," they chorused and ran off towards the table where Ziva was helping their cousins and little brother get some cookies. LJ looked over to his Abba.

"There are days when I swear that all those two want to do is get on each other's last nerve; how did you and Ima do it with five of us?"

Tony grinned at his youngest, "Seat of the pants winging it most of the time. Kids don't come with manuals unfortunately. One of the worst was when you five would argue over things like movie night treats or even the movies themselves. That's when Ima and I started the movie night rotation for picking movies and snacks."

Beth was nearby and overheard part of the conversation, "I always wondered why we did that. Makes sense though in retrospective. My favorite was root beer floats and popcorn for snack."

"Root beer floats and animal crackers!" Anthony added his favorite to the conversation. "The best was when Ima got all three kinds of animal crackers: plain, chocolate, and iced."

LJ shook his head, "Nope. The best movie night snacks were the waffle bowls or waffle cones with ice cream and sprinkles. We still do that at home with the kids."

"Whatcha talking about?" Rivka heard LJ's part of the conversation.

"Remembering our favorite movie night snacks," Anthony explained. "So far we all have different favorites."

"That's easy; root beer floats and soft pretzels!" his sister replied. "I really liked when Ima made her own soft pretzels; she gave me the recipe a few years back. My kids scarf them up like we did."

Ziva came over with a plate of cookies in hand. As she passed by, she joined the conversation, "Precisely why we switched to having one person choose which movies we watched, and one person choose the snacks for each movie night. If not, there was either a big argument over the two or we had all sorts of food out for one snack."

LJ turned to his mother, "So what was your favorite, Ima?"

Before Ziva could answer, Tali chimed in with her favorite. She'd been listening to the entire conversation from the sofa. "Mine was the time we made mocktails and hors d'oeuvres. We only did that one time, but it was a lot of fun. Lots of good memories too."

"I forgot about that one," Beth mused. "We need to ask Abba too."

Ziva nodded, "Yes, Tony, what is your favorite movie night snack?"

"You didn't answer, Ziva; what is yours?" he smirked at her, suspecting her answer would be akin to his own. He really didn't have much of a preference because all the various snacks for the family movie nights had fond memories attached to them.

"All of the variations of the movie night snack are my favorites. What matters is that we watched and snacked as a family, together. We made memories," Ziva locked gazes with her husband as she spoke. She could tell his answer was the same or nearly the same as her own. "Our weekly movie nights are some of my favorite memories from when you five were children."

"Ima's got it correct; I really don't have a favorite. The memories of spending time together are what is important," Tony echoed his soulmate's response. He leaned towards his wife whispering in her ear, "And that goes for our movie nights when you and I were getting to know each other as well…"