For some reason I wanted to write another story about Sam, Freddie and their growing family. Their kids are the same as I've used in other stories.
Seven year old Stephanie bounded in the door from school. "Mom!"
Sam was no where to be seen and the little girl called toward the kitchen where her mother spent a fair amount of time. "Hey, Mom! I'm home!"
Sam came down the steps quickly. "Sshhhh! Stephie, come on. You know better than to shout inside. I just got your brother settled down for his nap."
The second grader huffed a little to herself. Since her parents reunited several years earlier the little, blonde girl's life had changed a lot. First, there was the move to Seattle. Luckily, she had nearly daily contact with her beloved aunt, her mother's twin sister, in L.A. via online chat.
She and her mother had pulled up stakes and moved into her grandmother Puckett's house along with her dad right after the young couple got back together and he broke off his relationship with 'Aunt' Carly. That was an awesome road trip, three days in the rented moving truck with her dad, while her mother followed behind on her motorcycle, the three of them staying at motels along the way until they finally reached Seattle.
Freddie insisted that the little girl attend pre-school as soon as they got settled in order to get a jump on her education even though she was doing fine with the at home pre-schooling her mother and aunt provided in Venice. It was there that she made several new friends, including her BFF, Sarah, who lived only a few blocks away. Sarah's mom, also a stay at home parent, and Sam took turns shuttling the girls back and forth to school and to various other activities.
Her parents had gotten married on Valentine's Day, just before she turned five and it was time to register her for school. The wedding was fun and there was really good food but the house was a huge mess around that time from the remodeling that her father, and 'Uncles' Spencer and Gibby undertook to purge the home of all the musty, cigarette scented carpeting, worn paint and decades old, worn out furniture that Pam Puckett lived with. The best part of the new look around the house was the huge family room and home theater in the basement which was equipped with several gaming systems, theater seating, a gigantic big-screen TV and several of the best computers that Pear made.
The hardest adjustment was when the girl became a big sister a little over 2 years ago, while she was in kindergarten. This meant being super quiet when her little brother was napping, not always eating regularly because her mom was, at least for the first year and a half of the baby's life, at the beckon call of his hunger or stinky diapers. To say the little girl learned to fend for her own stomach was an understatement, she was truly Sam junior in that respect.
Even the past year her mom seemed to prioritize the baby's needs to keep him from crying, whining, or fussing. The absolute worst part was having to be quiet, though. Not many second graders can do that for long and Stephanie was no exception, especially when she had something important to tell her mother.
"Sorry, Mom. I need to show you this." By now the girl had shed her school backpack and was pulling out her homework folder.
"Is it math? If it's math, you might as well wait until your dad gets home." Sam quietly said. "I hate math."
"It's not homework. I printed this out at school today." The girl produced a stack of nearly a dozen papers. "We had to have inside recess because it was pouring and Sarah and I shared one of the computers to do some shopping."
"Hope you didn't spend too much." Sam smirked, knowing how much her daughter liked to fantasy shop almost as much as play video games or watch funny videos. "What's all this then?"
"This is what I want for Christmas. Can we maybe just mail all this to Santa so he knows and has time to get her or make her or whatever he does?"
"It's not even Halloween yet baby, what's the hurry?." Sam told the girl. "Speaking of which. You never did pick out your costume. You'd better hurry up or we'll have to hunt all over Seattle."
"Ooh, can I be a Velociraptor?"
"You sure you don't want to be a super hero, like Super-Gal or Bat-Lady? Or maybe some pop star like Arianna Grande or something?"
"Ew, no.!" The girl sneered. "I mean, Super Gal's cool, but not as cool as a dinosaur. I want to be something different. All the other girls are going to be either super heroes or princesses. Wait, maybe I can be a Power Stranger. Or, or someone from Galaxy Wars."
"Yeah that's happening." Sam mumbled before she drew in a deep breath and caved. "OK, kiddo. I'll do some checking online tonight and we'll decide tomorrow. So about all the paper?" Sam flipped through the pile of printouts.
"This is my very own Fresno Girl." The girl announced so matter-of-factly, like her mother should have known. "These are all her outfits. She can be a lawyer or a doctor or a race car driver and then I can get the same outfits and she can dress just like me. Sarah has a Fresno Girl and she has the same outfits, it's so cool when they're dressed alike."
"Oh, um, yeah. I guess that's pretty neat." Sam gulped, remembering the Fresno Girl incident with that one odd little girl when she lived in Venice with Cat. "Is that seriously what her clothes cost?" The doll's clothes were more than Sam's and Stephanie's put together.
"They're not that much." Steph argued. "See the doctor outfit is only $175. It's not like she'll grow out of them like I do. They'll last forever." The fact that in a few short years, the girl would no longer care about dolls escaped her, but not Sam.
"Yeah, I guess that's good news." Sam replied with a snark that the child didn't catch. The young mother knew that Freddie would not be happy with the price of the doll not to mention her accessories. He had a good job and they were financially well off, but he didn't like to waste money. He fought tooth and nail with the car salesman over a few hundred dollars and nickel and dimed the contractor who built their garage until the man was ready to walk off and let him finish it himself.
"I'm gonna go start on my letter to Santa. Daddy can mail it for me in the morning." With that, the child ran toward the stairs only to be stopped by her mom, grabbing the hood of her sweatshirt.
"Nuh-uh!" Sam protested. "Your brother is asleep and I don't need him being woken up all grumpy before I get dinner started. Come on, you still need your after school snack and then it's homework time."
"But mooo-ommmm!" Stephanie whined. "This is important."
"No buts. You know your dad's rule. Homework first. Homework before anything. Um, except food. That's my rule. Now come on to the kitchen, I'll heat up some leftover mashed potatoes from last night for you and you can get on the homework."
"What about meat loaf?"
"There was no meat loaf left." Sam replied. There wasn't. After Sam's own midnight snack of two meatloaf sandwiches.
"I guess I'll stick with the mashed potatoes then."
"Good plan." Sam nodded.
Later that afternoon, Freddie returned home from work. Stephanie was in the living room with her favorite pony cartoon playing while she "watched over" her little brother entertaining himself in his play pen. Her job, which she took very seriously, was to let her mother know if he did anything he shouldn't or that he could get doing. Sam was, of course, in the kitchen preparing their dinner which was almost ready, while keeping one eye on them both.
He greeted his daughter who wasted no time in shoving the handful of printouts at him while he tried to pick the little boy up. Sam came into the living room for a second.
"Did you want to go wash up. Dinner's almost ready. I'll put the baby in his high chair." She reached for the toddler. "And Steph, give daddy a break. He just got home, he doesn't want to look at all that stuff right now." She turned to take the youngest Benson to the kitchen. "There will be plenty of time for that after dinner."
Stephanie pouted and dropped herself onto the sofa.
Seeing her dejected look, Freddie sat down beside her. "Whatcha have, baby girl?" He reached for the package of paper. He never liked to see her upset and if she thought it was important, he'd at least act interested, despite the fact that he knew Sam would be upset if dinner got cold.
She began to explain all the minute little details of Fresno Girls to her father and go over all the fine points about her doll and each outfit. Freddie winced at the pricing listed on some of the sheets and wondered why her tastes had suddenly changed.
"I thought you loved the ponies?" He questioned. "Ever since your birthday, your world had revolved around Pony-opolis."
As the girl continued, bestowing her knowledge of all things Fresno Girl upon her father, Sam was growing impatient for dinner. "Hey you two, dinner's ready. Hurry up." She called from the kitchen.
He left the little girl talk for another minute before encouraging her to go to eat. "I guess we'll have to continue all this later. You know if we don't soon get in there, your mom will eat our dinner for us. Smells like home made fried chicken. We don't want to miss that."
"Chicken!" The girl suddenly found something more interesting than the doll. No doubt, she had inherited her mother's love of food. Thank goodness she also seemed to have Sam's metabolism, too. Except when it came to bedtime when she never wanted to settle down.
After their dinner and some evening time relaxing, it was time to put kids down to sleep. Freddie made sure his daughter had brushed her teeth and was all ready for school the next morning while Sam took care of the baby's needs and got him ready to settle down as well.
"So, if I get my letter for Santa ready can we put the printouts with it and mail it?"
"Uh, yeah. Sure, sweetheart. But don't you think that's going to be a lot to mail? Maybe we should just stick with the letter. You know, keep it simple. You don't want Santa's whole sleigh to be full of nothing but your dolls and stuff. That's not fair to the other kids."
"But Daddy, there are specific clothes that she will need. And then there are the outfits for both of us so that we look the same."
"OK, OK, baby girl. I understand. Tell you what, you get your letter ready, I'll find a nice, big envelope and we can get in the mail right away, alright?" Freddie caved, as he typically did to the little girl. Sam, of course, overheard from the hallway.
A short while later, the parents were getting ready to settle down themselves. "Dude, you seriously need to quit being such a push over with Stephie." Sam told him as she hugged him from behind while he brushed his teeth. "I know you hate to say no but sooner or later you have to draw a line."
"Aw, Sam. Baby, you need to understand I missed so much the first part of her life, I just can't stand to see her disappointed." He excused after rinsing his mouth. "Besides, it's just a doll. And she is a little girl."
"Yeah, I know. And you're a great dad. But she's growing up fast and if you don't start to grow a spine now, you won't have one in a couple of years when she starts to really push our limits. She's over halfway to being a teenager you know."
"Oh, come on. She's in second grade for goodness sake. How many boundaries is she gonna push once she hits thirteen anyway?"
"Well, if she's anything like me, all of them." Sam smirked. "Did you see how much some of those goofy doll outfits cost? Man, I'm glad I was never into dolls and chiz."
"Honestly, I'm surprised she is." He shrugged. "I was counting on getting her more Pretty Ponies. Maybe we'll get lucky and by Christmas she'll fall in love with something else."
"Lucky? You don't know what you're wishing for, Fredhead. You want her to all of a sudden become obsessed with something else a couple of days before Christmas? I was through this once with her and it's not pretty." Sam huffed as she dropped down on her side of the bed.
"What do you mean?"
"When she was three, all she ever talked about was dinosaurs. I mean, sure she still loves them but it was an obsession. She ate, slept and breathed all things dino. Then, right on schedule, December 17, she decided to fall in love with some red and purple spotted critter on Poppy Seed Place. And it was the most popular thing going that year."
"So how did you handle it?" He asked.
"Well, I still had tons of dino stuff for her but Mel and I spent every waking moment scouring every department store within thirty miles of Venice looking for the stupid thing she had her heart set on, that's how. We searched every where, big stores, little stores, second hand stores, drug stores. I swear, I spent two days straight online. We had Dice and Cat and everybody we knew looking and we couldn't find the idiotic thing. And it was freaky anyhow."
"I remember the giggle me Elmer craze thing when we were kids. There were riots in the stores and everything. I can't believe you went through all that just for a silly doll."
"I vowed to myself the day I found out I was pregnant that I would be a better mom than I had. No matter what, I would I never give my kid a ham for her birthday or shove a pack of dry noodles and a can of lunch meat in her Christmas stocking."
"You are the best mom ever." He put an arm around her and kissed her cheek.
"I even bid on one online. I ran the damn thing up to like, three hundred bucks that I didn't have to spend and still didn't get it. I was seriously considering breaking into houses to look for one."
"Sam!" He scolded. "Well, she still has the doll. How did you ever find one?"
"Believe it or not, Pam! She sent one all wrapped up and everything."
"Your mom?" He gasped. "She saved the day?"
"Yep. Claimed it was the only thing she could find, too." Sam chuckled. "She must have bought it the second week in October or some chiz or she never would have found one."
The two slipped off to sleep and little more was thought about the doll situation until weeks after Halloween was over.
Sam and Carly were sharing a Saturday afternoon together in the Bensons' family room while Freddie, Spencer and Gibby took Stephanie and Matt and Spencer's kid to the mall to see a model train display and their conversation suddenly drew toward the holidays.
"Man, am I ever glad to have some quiet time." Sam sighed. "But I can't really relax either."
"Why not?" Carly asked. "It's just us, a tub of cookie dough and Webflix."
"Because Freddie is turning my kids into nubs. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to have some down time But, like, why would he think that a little girl could care less about trains?"
"I don't know, maybe because she loves to play trains with him. He's had that train setup in your garage since last Christmas. And she is her daddy's girl."
Sam sighed in resignation. "I guess you're right, she's a lost cause. Maybe there's still time for little Matt, though."
Carly quickly changed the subject. "Hey, did I tell you Brian invited me to meet his parents for Christmas?"
"Seriously? You guys have been dating for three, four months. You've never met his parents?"
"They live in Olympia. But I was starting to get worried that maybe he was ashamed of me or something."
"Well, good luck with that. Glad I never had to go through the whole 'meet the parents chiz', I mean Marissa knew and hated me since I was eleven."
"At least she doesn't hate you now."
"Why are we talking about Christmas anyway? First comes Thanksgiving. And that means turkey!" Sam threw her arms up in victory. "Speaking of which, I guess I need to get one."
"Sam! Thanksgiving is in five days. You didn't get a turkey yet? I swear you will never change. You always wait until the last minute for everything just like high school."
"Our freezer was full. Besides, mama's got connections." Sam pulled out her phone and sent a text. "I'll have a turkey by noon tomorrow. Guarantee it."
The show they were watching ended and Carly turned to Sam. "At least Freddie doesn't wait until the last second to do stuff. I hope he ordered that Fresno Girl doll that Stephie was all obsessed about."
"Nah, he's been working a lot of extra hours lately. I told him I'd handle it. I'll just buy one online. They'll probably go on sale for black Friday. Easy peasey."
Carly grabbed Sam's face in shock and stared into her eyes. "Oh! My! God! Samantha Benson!"
"What?" Sam looked funny "I have a big ol' zit or something on my face?"
"You seriously didn't order the doll yet?"
"Psh, no. I just told you I'm waiting until black Friday. Those silly dolls cost a fortune, maybe they'll have some good deal or at least free shipping. It's a dumb doll, how hard could it possible be to find one? I mean, Christmas is a month away, all they've got to do is shove the thing in a box, put a label on it and mail it to me."
"You have to order Fresno Girl dolls months in advance. They custom make those things! Not to mention the outfits."
Sam thought that sounded unlikely. "Aw, come on. I know I'm married to Freddie but how dang gullible do you think I am?"
"I'm dead serious." Carly protested. "This isn't like ordering a pair of sweat pants or a phone case."
"And how do you suddenly know so much about kids' dolls?" Sam raised an eyebrow.
"Sam! Everybody knows this! You'd have to live under a rock to not know this!"
Sam sneered. "Well then, welcome to my rock, because I didn't."
Carly jumped up and ran to one of the family's computers. "You've got to see if it's not too late. Maybe they have a way to pay extra and rush it or something. There's no time to waste."
"Extra? You have any idea how much those dolls cost to begin with?" Sam griped. "And I need to start dinner. You're still eating with us tonight?"
"I guess I have to stay and try to help you order the doll then?" Carly bargained.
Sam shrugged and started up the steps.
"Where are the pictures of the doll? There should be some kind of code on the printout."
"God, I don't know. Last I saw 'em, Freddie stuffed it all in a big ol' envelope and told Stephie he was going to mail it to Santa from work. He's probably got it squirreled away in his desk or maybe in his car or some chiz."
"Well, can we find it, please? I'm going on the site right now."
Sam just stood on the steps and shook her head. "So, I guess we won't be eating dinner on time. You know I hate rooting around in his stuff. He can always tell when I do and then he gets all pissy because a pencil is out of place or two paper clips aren't lined up with the others."
"I'll look for it then and he can blame me." Carly followed her up the steps to the main floor of the house and to the living room where Freddie's desk was.
It took a little hunting but the girls finally found the envelope and Carly set about to seeing what magic she could perform to order the gift for the child.
The brunette was still in the basement family room when the rest of the family returned home from the train show. Sam was in the kitchen and was soon assaulted by her little girl and Spencer's daughter who loved 'aunt' Sammy.
"Hi, girls." Sam greeted. "Bout time you got home, Fredlumps. How long's it take to look at some geeky trains? Dinner's almost ready and I'm starving. Can you get Matt changed and ready to eat, please?"
"Sure, baby. Say, where's Carly? Her car's still out front, she's not in the living room." He replied, setting the little boy down in the high chair and fastening his seat belt.
"Downstairs." Sam replied quietly. "Stephie, go wash up for dinner."
He found it odd that their dark haired friend wasn't in the same room as Sam but shrugged it off, figuring she was just talking on the phone to her boyfriend.
"Hey, Sam." Spencer greeted quickly. "Come on, kiddo. We'd better get going. Mommy's gonna think we got lost."
As soon as the little girl and Spencer left the room, Sam told her husband what their friend was really doing in the basement. Freddie was, of course, shocked that the doll wasn't already on her way.
"You mean, you didn't order it yet?" He gasped.
"I was waiting for black Friday." She tried to explain. "How was I supposed to know the things take longer to arrive than a real kid. I guess I messed up, didn't I?"
"Let's not panic. Carly's a professional shopper, if anyone can figure out how to get one here by Christmas it's her." Freddie tried to sound hopeful, but he knew the chance of Stephanie getting the doll she wanted for Christmas were fading fast. "I'll go tell her dinner's almost ready and see how she's doing."
"Hey, Carls." Freddie called from the basement steps so not to startle her. "Sam says dinner's almost ready. How's it going?"
"Ugh! I think I can get the doll. Maybe. By paying extra, but the clothes are another story. You know what size your daughter is? I have to order some of the outfits at the same time and there are limited sizes of the kids' clothing."
"Well, thanks for helping with all this. When Sam said she was going to take care of it I thought she meant a month ago, not 'at some point'." He chuckled.
"How long have you known her?" Carly smirked. "When has Sam ever done anything before the last second? Remember the tenth grade biology thing? She literally did the project in homeroom the day it was due."
"Yep, and because her score was so bad, I wound up tutoring her so she didn't totally fail the whole class and have to do summer school." He replied. "I think Stephie's a size 5-6, but you'd have to ask Sam for sure. Come on, if we don't soon get upstairs, Sam and Steph will eat all the pork chops."
"Alright, just be sure to keep Stephie away from this computer until I finish up after dinner. I don't want to back out of the order process in case they make me start all over again. Oh, and I'm going to need a credit card."
"Sure. No problem. How much is this whole deal gonna cost anyway?" He asked, pulling one out and laying it on the desk. "I sure hope it's not one of those fad things that's more expensive than a decent used car."
"I'll let you know. For now, I'd say more than a couch, les than a refrigerator." She estimated as they headed up the steps.
"That's a broad path. You've seen the refrigerator Sam insisted on when we remodeled the kitchen."
After a few more hours of shopping, Carly assured the Bensons that their daughter's Christmas wish would come true. Luckily, none of them had to get up early for work the next morning because it was a very late evening for them all.
"So did Carls ever tell you exactly how much the doll, the clothes and matching outfits for Stephanie were going to set us back?" Sam asked as she and Freddie were getting ready for bed.
"Not exactly." He shrugged. "But she was kind of in a hurry to leave to talk to Brian."
"I guess we'll find out when we get the bank statement." Sam shrugged.
"I'm just glad she managed to get the doll. It would have been so disappointing for Stephie on Christmas morning if there was no Fresno Girl under the tree."
Over the next few weeks, the Benson household prepared for the holidays. The tree was put up in the living room, the front of the house was decorated and everyone was getting excited. There were family activities like viewing the light displays throughout town and visits to Spencer's, Marissa's and Gibby's.
Christmas Eve rolled around and Sam spent most of the day preparing all sorts of goodies for the holiday. That evening, after the kids were settled down, presents were placed under the tree and the young parents were finally able to get ready for bed themselves.
"The big day's finally here." Sam sighed and kissed Freddie goodnight. "And none too soon."
Freddie pulled his wife in tight and agreed. "Well, at least the doll and all her accessories finally arrived. I was sweating it until Tuesday when the Sped Ex truck arrived."
"I guess we owe Carls big time over this one." She smirked.
"I guess we do."
The next morning, the two were wakened earlier than usual by a little girl bouncing on their bed. "Wake up, wake up! Santa came. The living room is full of stuff!" The girl shouted.
The baby monitor soon came to life, indicating that her excitement had woken her little brother as well and he was ready to either get up or have a fresh diaper.
"I'll get him." Sam mumbled. "You get your camera and stuff ready."
Freddie agreed and gathered himself to take pictures of the kids' reactions to opening their presents. By the time Sam brought the toddler down the stairs, Freddie and Stephanie were ready to go. One by one the kids and the adults tore into their gifts.
Stephanie was excited to get the doll and all the accessories and by the time their holiday dinner was ready she had already played with the doll and moved on to the other toys.
"Do you think she would have even noticed if the doll didn't show up?" Sam asked quietly.
"I just hope she gets a little more out of it than this, given what the thing cost." He whined.
"Psh. You're telling me. That doll and all her clothes cost more than my mom's last three cars put together."