Merry Christmas - Happy Christmas to all our readers who celebrate!

Artistic License

"What are we singing next, Aunt Deb?" Joan leaned into her great aunt's side.

"How about Jingle Bells?" Deb said and the kids nodded.

"You can ring the sleigh bells, Cousin Angie!" Joan grabbed them from the coffee table and placed them in the three year old's hands.

"Ohhh." Mary winced and giggled, mouthing, "Sorry," to Steve, who chuckled.

"That was inevitable." He shrugged as Angie, Joan and DJ prepared to sing along with Deb.

"Totally was," Catherine agreed from her seat on the floor, where Cammie's head rested in her lap.

"You gotta shake the bells when we sing Jingle Bells," DJ told Angie, who began shaking as soon as they started to sing and continued throughout the song, only stopping to pass them to her cousin and brother in turn.

"Yay! Jinga bells!" She clapped as they finished. "Sing mo' songs, Ann Deb!"

When they did, and Angie rang the bells throughout, Danny grinned.

"You have another big fan. And I don't remember bells in Silent Night." He lifted Angie when she brought him the bells. She'd passed them around to everyone to "Ring da bells!" throughout the song.

"Artistic license," Deb said with a hand wave. "If my nieces and nephew want to accompany the vocals with bells, bells it is." She gathered all three close and into a group hug.

"We had lots of fish at your house last Christmas Eve, Nonna," Joan pointed out as she helped in the kitchen.

"We have some fish tonight, too," DJ said as he placed several different types of olives on an antipasto plate with Nonna.

"And this time DJ helped catch it." Nonna smiled and kissed his temple.

"It was fun. I caught three fish with Daddy and Uncle Chin caught a whole bunch."

Joan grinned at her cousin. "The pictures on the boat looked fun." She'd elected to stay at the beach house when they'd gone because her cousin Angie was staying home.

"Is my pumpkin going to try some fish?" Aaron said as he snuck an olive from the plate. Laughing, he added, "and I do mean my pumpkin as opposed to her furry namesake."

"Pun-kin likes fish," Angie supplied from where she stood on a chair next to Joan, helping make a salad under the watchful eye of Elizabeth.

Joan giggled. "Maybe a little."

"That's my girl." Her dad kissed her head. "Someone's getting better at trying new foods."

"I'm still a pokey eater, though." Joan's grin was unrepentant. "So I'm trying to get less picky."

"That's wonderful, angel." Nonna beamed.

"We're having a sleepover," she reported excitedly. "I told Santa I'd be staying with my cousins tonight and he said he'd deliver my presents here."

Nonna winked at her. "Then you better get to sleep early."

"How come you make so much fish on Christmas Eve?" DJ asked as he arranged cherry tomatoes on the plate.

"Good question, pronipote. We call it the feast of the seven fishes, but most people make other dishes, too. And not everyone makes seven kinds of fish these days.

"It started back in Italy, a long, long time ago. It's part of an Italian-American celebration, although it is not called the seven fishes in Italy. Christmas Eve is a fasting day and we eat seafood because we didn't eat meat until Christmas."

"Kaitlyn never eats meat or fish, either," DJ said with a head shake. "So we have eggplant parm …" His brow furrowed as he tried to think of the word. "Parmesan and pasta, and vegetarian sausage and some other stuff for tomorrow."

"Such a kind heart, that one," Nonna said. "And what a wonderful selection of foods you all planned for her."

"The seven fishes began in Southern Italy, if I remember what my mom told me," Joseph said as he lifted a tray of stuffed clams out of the oven.

"Exactly right." Nonna beamed. "The tradition comes from Southern Italy, where it's called La Vigilia - the vigil. It was to remind us of the wait for the midnight birth of the baby Jesus. It came to America with Italian immigrants. Can you guess where?" Her eyes sparkled as she glanced at Danny.

"Not New Jersey," he sighed exaggeratedly, making the kids chuckle. "But here's a hint, it's somewhere we all visited last year."

"I know!" Joan's hand shot up. "New York City?"

"Yes, you're right." Nonna clapped as DJ high fived his cousin and Angie clapped as well, mimicking Joan. "New York Ci'y!"

"Where we saw Frozen!" Joan gushed. A full year not having dimmed the joy of her first Broadway show.

"Right, angel. And the feast began in New York's Little Italy, where many, many Italian families lived in the 1800's."

"That's cool, Nonna." DJ smiled, looking between her and smiling at Catherine. "You know so much cool stuff."

She grinned at Ang with a wink. "When you've been around a long time you learn all sorts of interesting things, sweet boy. And the best part is getting to share them with the next generation, and the one after that, and the one after that…"

After everyone else left and Grace drove Nonna to midnight mass where they'd meet up with Linda and Grandma Josie, Danny stepped inside once they'd pulled out of the driveway.

"What are you doing?" Steve pointed at his partner who was crossing the living room with a bag he'd retrieved from the car.

"What do you mean, what am I doing?"

"What's in the bag?"

"Bag?" Danny fought a smile.

"The bag in your hands, that you clearly snuck out to the car for."

"These, my nosy friend, are stocking stuffers."

"Danny, you already got …" Steve began.

"Oh, no no no…" He held a finger to his lips. "You can zip it right there. I have years to make up for. Ten years to be exact. Grace is eighteen and you," he waved at his best friend, "have been buying her stuff for ten years." The smile broke through. "It's Uncle Danno's turn."

"Ah ah ah," Catherine said as Steve moved towards the sofa after they put the last gift from Santa under the tree. "Are you forgetting something, Santa?" She nodded toward the plate of cookies, veggies for the reindeer, and glass of milk that Angie, DJ, and Joan had dutifully put out before bed.

"Oh right," he said with a little sigh. He went over and picked up the plate.

"Hey, it could be worse," she pointed out. "If Angie had her way there'd be over twelve dozen cookies there waiting for Santa."

He chuckled remembering Angie's confusion after Catherine had cleaned her up post cookie baking.

"But … all da cookies aw fo' Santa," she said, her small brow furrowed as she looked at the Giving Plates that had been prepared to deliver to friends and family.

"Oh, honey," Catherine said, kneeling down beside her. "That's a lot of cookies. Even Santa couldn't eat them all."

"We picked out the best one of each for the special Santa plate, Angie," DJ said. "See?"

She went over to her brother and stood on her tiptoes to look at the plate he was pointing at.

"One reindeer ball, one green thumbprint, one red thumbprint, one M&M cookie, one Santa hat, and the H that looks like Santa's red suit," Joan said, naming each cookie on the plate.

"And now we can take the other plates to our family and friends," Grace said encouragingly. "We made a list."

"Sharing what you make with people you love is the best part of baking, angel," Nonna said.

Angie looked between them and the plates of cookies, still clearly conflicted.

Steve smiled softly and knelt beside her. "We'll take a plate to Uncle Chin and Aunt Leilani, and Aunt Kono and Uncle Adam, and Aunt Carrie and Uncle John–"

Angie gasped, eyes wide. "Ann Cawwie?" She grabbed Steve's hand. "Le's go!"

Catherine chuckled, meeting Steve's eyes as he was tugged toward the door. "Apparently those were the magic words."

Still chuckling at the memory, Steve brought the plate and glass over to the sofa. "Twelve dozen. I'm gonna have to swim to Maui on the 26th as it is." He looked over at her expectantly. "You're gonna help me eat these, right?"

She grinned, walking over to join him on the sofa. Tucking her legs underneath her, she leaned into his side to reach for the M&M cookie and broke off half. She took a bite and smiled. "Mmm, I'll help you work 'em off, too," she added with a saucy smile.

He took the bite she offered him. "Mmm." He smiled as she turned his face towards her and met her lips in a kiss. "What do you know?" he murmured. "Didn't even need mistletoe."

# End. Thanks for reading!

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