Post Thanksgiving Tradition
Part 4 of the 8th annual marathon
"Good mornin'," Angie greeted Catherine while pushing her hair out of her eyes.
"Good morning." She kissed the little cheek. "Are you ready for breakfast? DJ and Daddy are downstairs in the kitchen."
Angie nodded and reached to kiss Cammie good morning. "Dey cooking all da food? I can help with da beans again!" She tossed over her shoulder as she padded to the bathroom.
"We don't have to cook more green bean casserole, we have plenty left over." Catherine took up the conversation as the four year old finished brushing her teeth.
Wiping her mouth, Angie looked up. "Did Daddy put da turkey in da oven?"
Catherine realized where she was headed and smiled. "It's leftover day, baby girl. We don't cook another big meal like yesterday. We eat all the yummy leftovers," she explained as they headed down the stairs. "That's a post thanksgiving tradition."
"Like what, Mommy?"
"Like Nonna's antipasto."
They'd reached the kitchen and Steve had heard part of the conversation. "Good morning. Are you going to have a hot turkey sandwich later?" he asked as he kissed her cheek.
"Morning, Angie," her brother said from his place at the island next to Steve. "What do you want to try on your turkey sandwich for lunch? I remember from last year, it was so good. I'm gonna have stuffing and gravy on mine."
"I wanna try ever'thing on mine," Angie said as she climbed up on her chair. "We have dem now?"
"We'll have them for lunch," Steve told her with a grin for his wife. "For breakfast, we have turkey quiche." The oven timer dinged as if on demand.
"It's ready, Daddy," DJ supplied with a smile. "I helped Daddy shred the cheese," he told his sister as Catherine removed the hot quiche from the oven and Steve placed glasses of milk and two coffees on the table. "Doesn't it smell good?"
Angie nodded. She was hungry and interested in the new breakfast food she hadn't tried before. "It smells very yummy!" She returned her brother's smile and scooted closer to the table, ready to eat. Echoing what she often heard from the adults when she accomplished something, she looked between DJ and Steve and complimented, "Good job, DJ and Daddy!"
After cleaning up the breakfast table, Catherine took Cammie for a game of fetch in the yard while Steve and the kids gathered what they'd need for surfing.
"Mommy! We gonna surf now!" Angie called from the deck as they came outside.
"That's a post-Thanksgiving island tradition," her father said as he held his own board, Catherine's and steadied the back of Angie's - that she'd wanted to carry herself.
"A super fun one," DJ noted as they reached the end of the dry sand and planted the boards.
Steve anchored two umbrellas while Cathering spread a blanket after rubbing in a stray bit of sunblock on Angie's cheek.
Cammie settled for a post-exercise nap after a bowl of water, as her humans headed into the surf.
An hour later, the family had just dropped onto the blanket for a water break, when Steve's phone went off. Grabbing it up, he answered, "McGarrett", and both kids knew by his expression the task force was being called into action.
"You caught a case." It wasn't a question. DJ looked to his father for confirmation. "It's good we got to surf a long time first."
"Daddy you gotta get some bad guys now." Angie's phrase was also a statement.
Steve nodded and bent to kiss each one on the head. Catherine stood and pecked his lips. "What's up?"
As he moved towards the house she followed him a few feet, and he dropped his voice. "Hostage situation in Wahiawa. Lou's en route with SWAT."
"Be careful," she said quietly and squeezed his biceps as she leaned up to kiss him again. Raising her voice for the kids to hear, she added, "We'll save you leftovers."
Smiling for a wave at the children, Steve said, "I'm counting on it,' as he turned and jogged towards the house.
"Daddy's back!" DJ exclaimed excitedly when Cammie alerted at the familiar sound of Danny's car pulling up outside.
Both he and Angie jumped up from their seats on the couch and turned to look out the window.
In the Camaro, Steve and Danny exchanged a look. "At least the scum in the armpit of the island took the day off yesterday," the detective said with a smirk. "I'm going home to inhale some manicotti right now."
"Tell Nonna Cath and I ate a quarter of the leftover tray last night." Steve said with a grin.
Waving towards the window, Danny said, "Go eat with your family, and hopefully the serial killers and arms dealers take the weekend off as well."
"Let's hope," Steve agreed, patting his partner's arm before getting out of the car. Danny exited as well to come around to the driver's side.
Angie and DJ had left their perch in the window and when Catherine opened the door, they were flanked by her and Cammie. Even Pumpkin was there in Catherine's arms.
Danny waved before getting into the car, exchanging quick greetings before backing the car out of the driveway to head home.
"Daddy, you' back!" Angie said as Steve came up the walk to the porch. "Did you catch da bad guys?"
"Got 'em all, baby girl," he said, leaning down to kiss her and DJ hello. He straightened and smiled at Catherine, leaning over the kids to greet her with a kiss as well.
"We saved you some turkey, Daddy," DJ said, taking his hand to pull him inside. "And there's still gravy so you can have a hot turkey sandwich."
"Excellent, I haven't had anything since breakfast," Steve said.
"We made a game, Daddy!" Angie burst out, unable to contain her excitement anymore.
"A game?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at Catherine with a grin. "Well, you know I love games."
Angie and DJ ran back to the coffee table which had been cleared off and now contained lots of construction paper and a large paper dice.
"Come see, Daddy!" DJ said. "It's a Thanksgiving Turkey game!"
Steve smiled. "How do you play?"
"Mommy printed this paper with a dice on it and me and Angie drew turkey pieces on it," DJ explained, holding up the dice.
"Dere's da turkey's head and da body, and da feets and da nose and all da feathers," Angie continued.
"Don't forget the wattle," DJ said, pointing to the red bit on one side of the dice that hung below the turkey's beak.
Steve grinned. "Who could forget the wattle?"
"So you gotta roll the dice and you get whatever part you rolled," DJ went on.
"Here's all da parts," Angie said, picking up a brown turkey body and a head with googly eyes glued on. She ran her hand over an array of colorful feathers. "You gotta get 5 feathers, Daddy," she informed him seriously, holding up five fingers.
"Yeah, but if you roll a part and you already got that part, you lose your turn," DJ said.
Angie nodded. "You lose you' tu'n."
"And the first person to build their whole turkey wins!" DJ finished.
"Yay!" Angie cheered.
"That's pretty awesome," Steve said. "It's like the snowman-building game at one of the Shop with a Cop activity stations."
DJ beamed. "That's where we got the idea!"
Catherine smiled, running a hand over his hair. "They came up with it themselves," she said proudly.
"Do you want to play, Daddy?" DJ asked.
"We made you turkey pieces so you can play wif us," Angie added.
Steve smiled. "Well, how can I say no to an offer like that."
"Why don't we let Daddy get cleaned up and have something to eat, then we'll have time for one more game before bed," Catherine suggested.
DJ and Angie nodded, then looked up at Steve hopefully. He knelt to wrap an arm around both.
"The day after Thanksgiving, there is nothing I'd rather do."
# End. Thanks for reading!
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