Rizzoli-Isles Family New Year's Party
New Year's Eve
Karen and Dan had come back to Boston to spend New Year's with Constance and Arthur and the rest of the family. They arrived at about ten in the morning and Constance showed them to their room so they could put their things away. They would be staying at the house until they went back to Paris.
Constance had planned a small party for the Rizzoli and Isles families with Karen and Dan. They had worked for the Isles Foundation as their pilots for many years. They loved working for Constance and she took very good care of them financially.
Constance wanted the event to be a black-tie event. She wanted everyone to dress up. She told Jane she could wear a tuxedo as she knew that Jane would be more comfortable in a tuxedo then a dress. She knew that Tommy and TJ had tuxedos because of their recent dinner with Jane and Maura. Mario was fitted for a new tuxedo as soon as he arrived. Jane, Maura and Arianna had taken Nicky and Giana to get new formal attire before Christmas so they were all set. Jane took the kids home and Arianna and Maura then had a special dress shopping day all their own. They both were getting new dresses for the New Year's Eve party.
Constance was having the event catered as she didn't want Angela to be fussing over any of the arrangements. Chloe's restaurant was actually catering the event, and that had been arranged long before Constance knew that Chloe was dating Tommy. So, Chloe had been the one fussing over all the arrangements. She had catered events for Constance in the past and Constance had always been impressed with Chloe. This would be different having Chloe as a guest of a family member. She was happy that things were going well with her and Tommy. They both deserved to be happy.
Maura had used the occasion to buy herself a new dress and wouldn't let Jane see it until they arrived at her parent's house. So, Maura wore an older dress to her parent's house and changed after her arrival. Jane thought it was silly at first but Maura knew what she was doing. She wanted to keep some spark in their marriage. A new dress that would drive her wife crazy was just what she had planned.
They headed over to her parent's house around 3 PM. Maura had also picked up a new shirt for Jane that would match her dress. Jane knew nothing about the new shirt and was surprised when Maura told her that she needed to change her shirt. Jane followed Maura to their room so they could change. Jane had a few other ideas once Maura was down to only her underwear. Maura knew she should have had Arianna help her get dressed. After a brief, very brief love making session and a very quick shower they were changed and ready to join the rest of their family. Everybody was busy and really didn't notice that it took Jane and Maura over an hour to get changed.
Jane was very impressed with Maura's new dress. It was a sleeveless dark green sheath gown that hugged her in all the right places and had shimmering small gold jewels on the bodice and down the front. The color of the dress brought out the green in Maura's hazel eyes. The gold jewels made her eyes have the appearance of gold specks. Jane loved when Maura's eyes had the appearance of gold specks in them. She knew Maura was beautiful, but in that gown, she was even more beautiful. Jane couldn't take her eyes off of her. "Jane, I feel like you are undressing me with your eyes." Maura stated as she caught Jane staring at her.
"What?" Jane said as she shook her head coming out of her daze of admiring her wife's beauty.
"I said, I feel like you are undressing me with your eyes, you were staring at me." Maura said.
"I always stare at you Maur, you are truly beautiful when you are all decked out in your fancy clothes. I love this gown. It is stunning, almost as stunning as you." Jane added as she pulled Maura in for a hug.
"We need to go back downstairs before we end up back in our bed." Maura said as she tried to break the embrace.
"That's not a bad idea Maur. I could go for bringing in the new year by making love with you." Jane said as she smirked at Maura.
"Jane, we have friends and family downstairs waiting on us. We have already been up here …" Maura paused and looked at her watch and almost panicked as she said, "Oh my God, Jane it has been over an hour."
"It's fine Maur, I'm sure nobody really missed us, they are too busy with each other. Frankie, Nina, Korsak, Kiki, Frost and Susie all arrived as we headed upstairs. I'm sure Constance has introduced everybody to Karen and Dan, well for those that don't know them already. I'm sure Tommy and the kids are playing and Chloe was probably checking in on her staff. Yes, okay they might be wondering what happened to us, but they knew we were coming upstairs to get changed." Jane tried explaining.
"I knew I should've had Arianna help me get dressed. I would have been downstairs to greet everybody already." Maura said as she tried to break the embrace again. Jane let her go this time but kept a hold of one of her hands as they walked downstairs together. There was a staff photographer from MDI Photography taking candid shots and caught them as they came down the staircase hand-in-hand.
Arianna was the first to greet them when they arrived downstairs. "Took you long enough." Arianna said and Jane just gave her a huge smirk. Arianna shook her head, "Jane, you are terrible. I'm sure you could have waited." Maura was a little embarrassed and Arianna said, "Maura, it's fine. I know my cousin and she just can't help herself. I have to say if I was into women, I would probably be the same way around you." Maura didn't know how to respond to that comment so she didn't. She just smiled. "You look gorgeous in that dress. It looks better now on you here than it did at the boutique." Maura smiled and Jane led her into the living room where most of the guests were.
Arianna looked spectacular in her Navy-blue gown. It was similar to Maura's but didn't have any jewels on the bodice. Hers had small sleeves and a belt around the waist. With her long raven colored hair Jane decided that Navy-blue was a great color choice for Arianna. Mario was very impressed with the dress also. He had a Navy-blue bow tie and handkerchief to match Arianna's dress.
Everyone looked stunning. Gianna's dress was a shade lighter than her mother's. At first Giana was upset when she found out that Maura was wearing green and she had to wear blue but then Maura explained how the dress color blended in and highlighted her hair and eye color. Maura explained the green dress brought out the green in her eyes. When Maura held the green up to her eyes Giana could see what she was saying. When Maura held the blue up to her Giana could see that it didn't do anything for her eyes.
Maura held up a mirror and showed Giana how the blue brought out the color of her eyes and look great with her raven hair. She showed her the green and it didn't do as much for her and then Giana understood and was okay with a blue dress. If Arianna would have tried that explanation it wouldn't have work but coming from Maura, Giana was okay with it.
There were plenty of appetizers to snack on until dinner. Dinner was set for 7 PM. There were several different types of charcuterie boards. One with different types of cheeses and crackers, one with mainly fruits and nuts, and one with different types of smoked meats. Chloe tried to appeal to the diverse tastes of these two families and their friends. There were fondues set up with different types of cheeses and chocolates. The children seemed to be enjoyed those. Chloe had put on strawberries, bananas, grapes and marshmallows for dipping. She truly was trying to cater to everybody's needs.
Jane hit on the macaroons. She loved macaroons. Maura was trying to keep her from eating too many before they sat down for dinner. Jane's eyes lit up when she saw the fondue with the marshmallows. Maura knew she was in trouble then. She just gave up, there was no way she was going to be able to keep Jane in check with all of those temptations. She normally didn't give up so easy but she wanted to enjoy herself. Jane would stop eating eventually. Today was about family and having fun and that is what she wanted to do. with Jane she almost always had fun but now she had her whole family and friends here to bring in the new year.
A little after 5 PM Chloe had arranged with Constance's approval a young lady to come over and do face paintings for the children. At 5:30 two clowns came to entertain the children. They did magic tricks and blew balloon animals. The children were having so much fun. The clowns only stayed for about an hour. The children had to get dressed for dinner. The children didn't arrive dressed as Constance knew they would want to play and that would just dirty their nice clothes so she had said at 6:30 the children needed to get ready for the party.
Nicky and Giana could dress themselves and they both helped TJ. Nicky had to fasten one item on Giana's dress but other than that the children were all dressed and ready for the party.
Dinner was served promptly at 7 PM. Chloe was seated with Tommy and her assistant handled the rest of the catering activities. It was time for Chloe to be a guest and not the chef in charge of the catering. Chloe's abilities were quite diverse as Constance had learned over the years. Right now, Constance was enjoying that Chloe could relinquish her responsibilities and sit down and enjoy the dinner.
The dinner consisted of five courses. The courses were not the normal pairing that Chloe would have chosen but this pairing fit for this guest list of people with such different palettes. The first course was soup. She and Constance had chosen a traditional potato soup followed by an appetizer of bruschetta. They selected a toasted Quinoa salad, knowing darn well that Jane wouldn't even try it, so Chloe gave her a small bowl of her mac and cheese that she had prepared for the children. Their main entrée was prime rib followed by cannoli for dessert.
The meal was well received by everyone and Jane was thankful for the mac and cheese instead of the dish of green salad, that Maura would have made her eat. Maura had just shaken her head. Chloe was already making accommodations for Jane with meals. She didn't know what she was going to do, except just accept that her wife would always eat only what she was comfortable with.
Before everyone left the table Constance asked, "Is it possible for everyone to state one positive thing they are looking forward to in the new year? I will start, I am looking forward to being around my daughter and her family more often."
Arthur went next, "I am looking forward to getting to know my daughter and daughter-in-law more as we invade their life more often." Arthur laughed with Jane and Maura. Maura feeling caught up in the moment said, "I am looking forward to my life being invaded by my parents. I love you both very much. Thank you for having us all over tonight for this family get together."
Jane looked at Maura and they silently said what they are looking forward to in the next year. Maura had made the appointment with the fertility doctor and they were going to start checking into the process of having a baby, but they were not going to share that with the family yet. Jane said, "Well, I don't want to be left out, I am looking forward to my in-laws invading my private time with my wife."
Constance batted Jane's arms and Jane said, "Ouch, isn't that child abuse now that I am your daughter-in-law?" They laughed and everyone continued with what they were looking forward to. Angela was the last to speak and she said, "I am looking forward to another year with this combined group of family and friends. You all mean so much to me, even you Chloe so don't feel left out. Now can we go outside and enjoy the fireworks or whatever is on the schedule?"
It was 8:30 by the time they had finished dinner and the catering crew was all done with the cleanup by 9 PM and had left the premises. Everyone had gone to their rooms and changed into their matching pajamas. All guests were spending the night. The house had enough rooms to house everybody. Frost bunked with the children.
Constance had gotten everyone a set of matching pajamas. She picked out pajamas with a fireworks scene and the words 'Happy New Year' in cursive writing across the top. The bottoms were a simple plaid design. She figured they would be appropriate, she could have purchased some with the actual year printed on them but she figured this way they could be used again.
A light rain was falling and Constance wasn't sure if they would be able to light off the fireworks that they had planned. Jane told her, "As long as it doesn't rain any harder, we will be fine, this is simply a sprinkle and doesn't stop anything. The children can still enjoy their sparklers and lighting up the snakes and watching them grow. I know I will enjoy that. We got multi-colored snakes this year. So, it will be nice to see if there is a difference in the growth between the four different colors." Constance smiled and started getting things ready for their 10 PM show. Jane, Dan, Frankie and Tommy helped her and actually took over the preparations.
The children were allowed to start playing with the sparklers and snakes. Jane of course joined them in playing with the sparklers and snakes. They had an area set aside out back that was set up for easy clean up. The snakes make a mess and Jane and her brothers had lined the area that the children could use to light the snakes with foil, to keep the mess to a minimum.
It was nice to the see the children laughing and enjoying the sparklers and snakes. TJ was a little afraid of the sparklers and snakes at first but quickly caught on to how fun it was to play with them. Tommy had been out of town with TJ the last year and he hadn't experienced a lot of these things. Tommy had been trying to make his relationship with Lydia work but when it failed, he and TJ came home. Lydia let him have physical custody of TJ. Jane was sad that the relationship failed but she was happy that her nephew was back in her life on a more regular basis. She had missed him.
"Okay, I am going to sound like my wife here for only a minute, after much scientific experimentation, we, my team and I," Jane stopped and motioned with her hand at the children, "have discovered that there is no difference in the growth of the snakes based on the color of the snake tablet. They all grew about the same amount. Now maybe on the Fourth of July we can conduct another experiment with different depths and underlying materials and see if that makes a difference in the growth of the snake. So, our experiment is concluded for tonight. Thank you!" Jane stated with a very exaggerated serious face. Maura just shook her head at her wife's attempt at humor.
Susie said, "Jane, I'm sorry that is not how Maura would have said it. She would have …" Jane covered Susie's mouth with her hand preventing her from finishing her sentence. They both just laughed.
At 10 PM Frankie and Tommy along with Frost started lighting off the fireworks. The rain had stopped and the group had chairs set up out back to enjoy the show. They had on party hats and nearby were noise makers and glasses of champagne and apple cider to bring in the New Year. Their little fireworks displayed lasted about half an hour and then they turned on the television and projector.
The national show was on the TV which was projected out in the backyard so everyone could see the Apple drop in New York City, the Peach drop in Atlanta and the Orange drop in Miami. It was close to 40 degrees outside but they had arranged heat lamps around the yard to warm it up a bit. Everyone was still wearing their jackets.
The children were cuddled up with Jane and Maura. Frankie looked around and because no one was really interested in the national show he put on the movie, 'Winnie the Pooh: A Very Merry Pooh Year' while they were waiting for it to be closer to the time when the ball would drop. The children loved the movie and were watching it. He went inside and grabbed the big bowl of popcorn that Nina had popped while he put the movie in. Jane mouthed, 'thank you' to her brother and he went back in to see what else Nina was up to.
When the movie ended Frankie turned the national show back on. They still had about fifteen minutes before the big event. Frankie, Tommy and Frost all made sure that everyone had a beverage. Champagne for the adults and apple cider for Tommy and the children. The local station cut in and showed the ice sculptures that were on display at several Boston Harbor waterfront locations.
Constance had thought about taking everybody to see the ice sculptures but she wasn't sure how well TJ would fair and she wanted to be able to share this night with everybody. This was the first real time she felt like she deserved to have a family celebration. She knew after talking with Jane a while back what a terrible mother she had been and she was trying very hard to be a great mother now and even an honorary grandmother to the three children. Jane had told her that she was proud of the effort she and Arthur have been putting into getting to know Maura and be a part of their life. Maura deserved to have her parents in her life and that is why Jane had talked to Constance a while back to get the ball rolling. She would do almost anything for her wife.
At midnight it was so noisy, the neighborhood seemed to have come alive. There were additional fireworks going off and noise makers could be heard from neighboring houses. The children were having a blast blowing on the noise makers and shaking the clacking noise makers. Everybody was kissing and hugging each other. Maura passionately kissed Jane as all three children attached themselves to them wanting to give them a New Year's kiss. By 12:30 everyone had moved inside.
The children went to bed. They were sharing the children's room that Constance and Arthur had set up with Frost. They took one of the larger guest bedrooms and relocated the King size bed to one side of the room and put in two sets of bunkbeds. Frost asked them where they wanted to sleep and they said they would like to sleep together in the big bed. He took one of the bottom bunks. The children decided to just sleep in the King size bed. Jane and Maura had a feeling the children would migrate to their room before the morning.
New Year's Day
The next morning the children woke up on New Year's day and discovered it was snowing and the snow had stuck to the ground. Giana immediately got out of bed and the boys followed her. They didn't even wake Jane and Maura. Giana went to find Constance, once she found her, she said, "Grand-mère, we can make snow angels. Can we do that after breakfast?"
Constance who was in the dining room sitting at the table with a cup of tea while Arthur read the paper said, "Of course darling, after breakfast we will do that." The children all sat at the table with them. Jane and Maura had felt the children get up and were surprised they didn't wake them up. They just snuggled back together and fell back asleep. They woke up an hour later and packed up their belongings. They took their bags downstairs and Jane couldn't find her Jeep keys. She knew she had placed them in the foyer where she always places them when she is at the Isles house.
Everyone had left already. Jane, Maura and the children were getting ready to leave. "Aunt Jane, we need to make snow angels with grand-mère before we go!" Giana said as she jumped up and down insisting that this must be done before they left.
"Okay, okay, get your things and we will load up the Jeep and then you can make your snow angels with your grandmother." Jane said as Giana ran upstairs to get all her things. The boys had heard the conversation and followed Giana.
"Jane, why don't you and Maura sit down and have breakfast while I make snow angels with the children." Constance said as she ushered Jane and Maura into the dining room. Arianna and Mario were sitting in their eating their breakfast. Jane and Maura joined them as Constance took the children outside. Arianna was finished so she went outside to take pictures of the snow angels. About half an hour later Jane and Maura came outside followed by Mario.
Without Jane or Maura knowing it Constance had taken Jane's Jeep keys and had Big Mo come by and take Jane's Jeep back to their Beacon Hill home and put it in the garage. Big Mo had delivered a brand new black Grand Wagoneer Obsidian 4x4 for Jane from Constance and Arthur, Maura knew nothing about it. Arianna helped Constance pick it out. Maura had wanted to get a new Range Rover but Jane loved her Jeep. She was a Jeep person. Her Jeep was getting old and in need of major repairs. Hence why Maura was looking at new Range Rovers. Constance knew how Jane felt about her Jeep and told Maura that she would take care of getting a new vehicle for them. Maura was surprise by her mother's offer and gave her mother permission to pick out their next vehicle. Maura had no idea that her mother had done that already.
When Jane and Maura went outside to load up their Jeep, Jane was surprised to see the new Jeep parked where she had parked her Jeep. The new Jeep had a great big red bow on it. Jane smiled and took Maura by the hand to look at the new Jeep. Maura spotted the card on the windshield and read it aloud, "To Jane and Maura, I know you are in a need of a new vehicle and we know how much Jane loves Jeeps so we figured this new Jeep would be loved by the both of you. It has all the features that Maura likes in an SUV and had the brand that Jane loves. Please accept this Grand Wagoneer as a gift from the two of us. May you both have a Happy New Year. Love Mother and Father.' Thank you, mother and father this is beautiful." Maura said as Jane stood there with tears in her eyes, no one had ever done anything like this for her before.
They loaded up the new Jeep. The children were excited. They climbed up into and took what they deemed as their seats. Jane was still in shock. Maura took her hand and lightly caressed her arm. Jane looked at her still with a look of shock on her face. "Maur?" Jane said not knowing how to express herself.
Maura walked them over to her parents and Maura hugged her mother and then her father and said, "Thank you, it is truly beautiful. Jane loves it, she is just in shock right now. When she is able to speak again, she will thank you herself."
Jane nodded and hugged both Arthur and Constance. You could still see the slight trail of tears. Constance hugged Jane again and said, "Happy New Year, Jane, we love you and we want you and Maura to start off your year with a new Jeep. You have given us so much just by being you and being honest with us."
"We didn't get you anything Constance." Jane said concerned that she didn't have a gift for her -in-laws.
"Jane, no gift was required. Your love for our family is enough, continue loving our daughter and making her happy, that is all we ask of you." Arthur answered.
"That, I will spend the rest of my life doing. Thank you! The Jeep is beautiful." Jane said as Arthur handed her the keys to her new Jeep. Jane took the keys and they said their goodbyes. Hugs and kisses were given and Jane and Maura hopped into the Jeep that held the children and they waved as they drove off.