A/N: This girl is beat, therefore slightly shorter adventure tonight. Been baking and decorating all day and an allergic reaction to boot! Typing with gloves is a little tough, I don't really recommend it.

Candyland With a Twist

Harm can faintly hear the sounds of his children in the hallway, but he doesn't have any desire to move from his current location. He is comfortably spooned behind the love of his life, both of them wearing absolutely nothing but a contented smile. As the storm had raged outside continuing to blanket their home with fallen snow, the temperature in their bedroom had more resembled an inferno. He had taken her to dizzying heights time and again last night starting by the windowsill, continuing in the shower, followed by the finale in their comfortable bed. He wasn't quite sure that he still had it in him to perform that many times in one night, but his ego had definitely gone up a notch when he found out he still could.

As he pulls Mac closer and nibbles lightly on the back of neck, she giggles. Making absolutely no attempt to dissuade him from his morning snack, she teases, "I think the rest of the house might object if we stay locked in here in bed all day, Flyboy."

Running his fingertips just underneath her breasts, he mumbles, "Don't care." As soon as his fingers trail over her stomach, it lets out a loud grumble, impolitely reminding them that it is past time for breakfast. Harm groans into his pillow, "One of these days your stomach will stop interrupting important things!"

She lightly pats his hand as she chuckles, "Not likely. All that exercise requires the body to be replenished. We aren't in our twenties anymore!"

Mac realizes immediately that she shouldn't have let that comment sneak out of her mouth. True to her thinking, she turns over to find that cocky aviator smirk gracing Harm's lips as he announces, "Sure felt like I was pretty young last night."

She swats him in the chest, "Pretty proud of yourself, are you? You are going to be impossible to live with now!"

He leans down and kisses her, "I'm only that way with you. What can I say? You bring out the best in me."

Before Mac can take the kiss any further, Matthew is banging on their door, "Mom, Dad, get up! It snowed again!"

Harm grumbles, "Oh good, more shoveling."

Mac rubs her hand along his chest, "It will give me a good reason to have to warm you up again later."

Harm slides his legs off the bed with a grin, suddenly very ready to begin his day, "We'll be down in just a few minutes, Matt."

By the time Mac and Harm arrive in the kitchen, the kids are already digging into their breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon. Harm takes a quick look at the thermometer on the pane which is reading a rather frigid seventeen degrees. He glances out the window to see not only more snow, but rather large snow drifts as well. It will be far too dangerous for the kids to go outside right now. Mac hands him a cup of coffee and sees the damage also remarking, "I didn't realize that the wind was so bad last night. I didn't even hear it!"

Harm gives her a sly grin, "I wonder why," as he watches her cheeks tinge crimson.

She continues loud enough for only him to hear, "I don't think you should be out there either. There is nowhere that we need to go."

He gives her a sad face, "But then I won't need to be warmed up."

She nudges his hip with hers, "We'll negotiate later, Sailor."

With a mouthful of food, Trisha mumbles, "Can we build another snowman today?"

Mac answers, "I'm afraid not sweetie. It's far too cold and dangerous out there right now. We are going to have to stay inside today."

Whines erupt from both of their children which Trish puts an immediate stop to, "We don't want you hurt. There are plenty of fun things we can do in here. I still have more craft kits if you want to make some of those, we can watch movies, we can play games. We will still have fun. In fact, I have a great idea of what we can do first."

Trisha asks, "What's that?"

Her grandmother replies, "We can play Candyland™ but with a little twist to go along with your Dad's surprise for today. You guys go find the game, and I will get the supplies together."

The kids have the game laid out when their grandmother walks in with three bowls. Once contains small spice drops, the second contains slightly larger ones, and the last contains toothpicks. She explains her "twist" as "When you land on a space, I want you to put a small spice drop on your toothpick. But you can only put three drops on each toothpick. If you already have three, then you can start another toothpick. Each turn, you can pick the color that you land on, or a different color if you want to. If you eat one of them, it will take us longer to get all that we need. We will play until each of us has at least six full toothpicks. If someone is lagging behind, you can offer one of your spice drops to them if you choose."

Everyone gets in on the fun and several hours pass with them playing multiple rounds of the game with soft Christmas carols playing in the background. When everyone has enough, Grandma Trish takes a large spice drop out of the bowl and hands one to each of them. She demonstrates, "I want you to place each of your toothpicks at an angle into the large spice drop." Everyone watches her with rapt attention and by the time she has connected all six of her toothpicks into the centerpiece, she has created a large snowflake made entirely of the gummy candy.

Trisha and Matthew loved their creations and decided that they wanted to continuing playing in order to make a few more. While the elder members of the family excused themselves to go make lunch, Harm and Mac were willing to continuing playing. As Mac gets them set for the next game, Harm follows his mom into the kitchen, "Thanks, Mom. That was a great way to get their minds off of going outside. I never would have thought of that to tie into what I had come up with."

Trish pats his cheek, "Just comes with years of experience. You will continue to think of new things as you watch them grow. Just remember that it is all the little moments that matter the most."