A nod to Tess Gerritsen and TNT: Thank you for creating these lovely characters that we love to play with at times.

Jane walks in the house sorting a handful of mail. "Hey, Maura? Did we ever order our Christmas cards yet?"

Maura closes the laptop she was working on to focus on Jane. "If I remember correctly, sweetheart, we were looking, but had to go out on a call and never completed the ordering."

Jane waves one red envelope, "Guess who this is from?"

Maura smiles, she knows what's coming. "Is it from your favorite cousin, Diane?"

Jane grins. "She really IS my favorite cousin and actually, she is a day late, we usually get the card the day after Thanksgiving. She loves being the first card of the season. I know! Let's get 2 sets of cards, one for this year and one for next year. We'll make sure ours are delivered the day before Thanksgiving!"

Maura is laughing. "Jane, it's not a competition."

"You don't know the Rizzoli clan! Hey, why don't we go shopping today? I think I saw one of those popup card and calendar stores in town."

"Can we stop at a shoe store?"

"That's not very Christmassy."

"It is if it's for a Christmas party."

Jane rolls her eyes, but she can't deny Maura anything.

The ladies browse through the store. Maura leads Jane to some very elegant cards. With each card Maura selects, Jane has a comment. "Pretty, but boring." "Eh, stuffy." "Come over here, Maura."

Jane is picking out sets that are making her laugh out loud. Maura is looking very doubtful at Jane's selections. "Maura, c'mon let's have fun. Our friends would love these."

Maura thinks of Frost and Korsak and nods in agreement. "But, I don't think my family or business associates will."

Jane thinks for a moment. "We won't do this every year, but this year I pick for the people that have a good sense of humor and you pick for the 'traditional' group.'

Jane's final pick is a card with snow people and a tiny carrot in a male place. This even had Maura smiling. Maura's choice was a silver foiled snowflake with smaller ones swirling around. Before heading to the register, Jane thinks of one more item they may need.

"Do we have Christmassy address labels?"

Maura thinks for one moment. "Yes, we bought them after Christmas last year when they were on sale."

"Excellent. Now I remember. And we have everyone's name in Excel so that we can print them off this weekend?"

"Of course, Jane."

"Booya! We are halfway done with our cards and we haven't even bought them yet." She laughs. "Ready to go buy some shoes?"

"I was born ready to buy shoes." Maura winks at her love.

Hi All! A new story that I will be updating mostly on weekends, more often if I can, but no promises. It's also Small Business Saturday, so if you are going out shopping, make sure you hit those small stores!