The next couple of days flew by for the family as they settled into something of a routine and became more accustomed to one another until finally Christmas morning dawned and for Lee and Amanda, much earlier than they'd planned.

"Santa was here! Santa was here!" Ivy was cheering loudly as she shook Amanda awake.

"He was?" Amanda asked in surprise while Lee grumbled beside her, "'Santa' was up late doing last minute wrapping.

"Let's go see!" Amanda told her excited little girl as she climbed out of bed and pulled on her robe and then took Ivy by the hand.

When they entered the living room, she found that not only Ivy, but all five children were gathered around the tree shaking and poking packages.

"Okay, guys, you can open one...and only one, but then breakfast." There was a chorus of disappointed sighs and groans, to which she replied, "But I'll let you pick which one." Lee emerged from the master bedroom, looking sleepy, but almost as excited as the kids.

Sunny looked at both of the adults with watery eyes. "I can't believe there's stuff here with our names on them too," she said gratefully.

"Well, of course there is. You didn't think Santa would forget you, did you?"

"There's no-' the teen began, but off Amanda's stern look and a nod to Ivy, she shook her head. "No, I guess not."

"Go on," Amanda urged. "Pick which one you want to open now, then we'll go fix some breakfast."

"I want this big, heavy one right now," Sunny decided as she pulled the package in question toward her while the other children did the same.

"This one is mine!" Ivy whooped as she ran her finger across her name. "See? I-V-Y," she spelled out as she tapped each letter.

"Why don't you go ahead and open it?"Lee told her. He recognized the package because he'd not only wrapped it, but suggested it to Amanda before her shopping trip.

The little girl clapped her hands together in delight when she saw what it was. "A baby doll!"

"Yeah, and she cries real tears," Lee informed her, remembering all too well how a doll just like it had saved their lives last Christmas.

Amanda beamed at him for making the perfect gift suggestion and then turned her attention to Sunny. "What did Santa bring you?"

"New books," Sunny answered as she read the back covers of each one. "The Babysitters Club. I read some of these from the school library. How'd you know I liked them?"

Amanda shrugged. "I didn't. I just hoped you would since they're about girls right around your age and since you've been so good about looking after your brother and sister, I thought they might appeal to you since the girls in the books are constantly babysitting." She tapped the one on the bottom of the stack of books. "There are eight books there total and I talked to the clerk at the bookstore and she said this one is the newest one in the series. It just came out last month. But she also said there are more to be released soon, so I thought what we might do is just add to your collection as the new ones come out. How does that sound?"

"Awesome!" Sunny hugged her. "Thank you so much!"

"Thanks for the new camera," Jamie said. "I can't wait to start taking pictures with it."

"Glenn, what did you get?" Lee asked the youngest boy, though he already knew the answer.

"A new baseball mitt," he answered with a smile.

"Good. Santa must really know his stuff," he replied with a wink at Amanda. "We were just talking about getting you signed up for Little League next summer. Whaddya' say?"

"That is SO cool!" Glenn gushed.

"Phillip, what about you?"Amanda asked her oldest son.

"It's a model car just like Lee's cool Corvette," he gushed.

"And that's as close as you're ever getting to the real one," Lee teased. "But when we get home, we can make it a project to put it together, just you and me."

"Rad!" Phillip whooped.

He glanced at Amanda questioningly. "Is that a good thing?"

Amanda nodded. "Yes, it's very good." She rose and in a firm tone, announced, "Okay guys. More presents later, but now, let's clean up the mess we just made and then you all need to get out of your PJs and put some real clothes on while I work on breakfast." Amid the expected groans and complaints, she added, "Go on! Scoot!"

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"I can't believe how well things worked out today," Lee mused as he and Amanda were getting ready for bed. "And if things continue to go the way we want, I...uh...I guess that means we can...I don't know...table the baby talk...you know...for good."

"Oh, I don't know about that," she replied.

"Oh? I thought you were dead-set against it," he looked at her in surprise.

"Well, I wasn't really totally against it," she confessed. "I just wasn't sure if I was totally for it, but with everything that's happened, it's kind of re-awakened that urge to have another baby."

"Okay, I'm really confused now. What about all your arguments against it?"

"Well, those still stand. It would still be complicated, especially with work, but I've been thinking about it just like I said I would and what I think now is with taking on these three children, what better way could there be to bridge our two families than by giving them all a new sibling that they'd share?"

"You're a constant surprise. So, does that mean you're considering it now more than you were?"

"What I was considering was at least giving it a shot, especially since the older we get, the harder it's going to be. And I also thought that I'm still a long ways off from the mandatory retirement age for field agents so I've still got time to do all that stuff. I mean, it's not like everything I've been learning is just going to disappear from my brain when I studied so hard to retain it all. So, I have a proposal for you, let's give it a year...you know...of trying to get pregnant...and if it doesn't happen by this time next year, THEN we table it for good. How does that sound?"

"That sounds like a fair compromise, but are you really sure?"

"Yeah, I really am." She grinned at him and in a teasing tone, added. "Besides, even with adding two girls to our family, you fellas still outnumber us," she teased. "Maybe we could try to even the score."

He shook his head. "Mm-mm."

"What? So, now you don't want a baby anymore?"

"That's not what I meant, I meant, we don't really outnumber you. You're forgetting about your mother."

She sat bolt upright in bed. "Oh my gosh! Mother! What on earth are we going to tell her when we come home with three new grandchildren for her?"

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Dotty entered the family room just as Amanda is settling Glenn down on the family room sofa while Lee was getting the girls situated on the pullout in the living room.

"Amanda, Lee, I'm ho-" She broke off abruptly when she saw the young boy and raised a curious eyebrow.

"Shhh..." Amanda lightly scolded her mother. "We're trying to get the kids to sleep." She nodded to the open living room doors where her husband was saying goodnight to the girls. She gestured to him as she hustled her mother toward the kitchen.

"Amanda, what's going on? Are the boys having some kind of sleepover I don't know about?" She waved her hand toward the girls just as Lee entered the room. "Because that's not like you to allow them to have a sleepover with girls. Besides that, the one little girl looks like she's much too young to be hanging out with them and it just doesn't make sen-"

"Mother, stop," Amanda cut off Dotty's ramble midstream. "I know this looks a little strange, but there's a perfectly logical explanation for all of this, which I will tell you all about in the morning when we're not trying to get the children comfortable sleeping in a new house."

"New house?" Her curiosity only increased.

"Yes, Dotty," Lee answered before she could get started on another barrage of questions. "Well, new to them anyway. It's a really long story, but like Amanda said, we'll give you all the details tomorrow, but for now-"

Dotty glared at both of them. "Well, shouldn't I know something about what's going on?" She interrupted. "I mean I do live here too, you know."

Amanda smiled brightly as she glanced at the children and then back to her mother. "We-ell, you know how you've been dropping not-so-subtle hints the past few months about us making you a grandmother again?"

"Of course, but what does that-" She stopped dead in her tracks as he mind began to put the pieces together. "You mean, you...?"

"It's not official yet, but we're working on it," Lee explained as he turned toward the family room and draped an arm across Amanda's shoulders. "But if everything works out, you're going to have not just one, but three new grandchildren very soon."

Dotty beamed and let out a tiny "Oh," of delight as she hugged them both. "This is wonderful and it solves the problem you two were having in discussing your family situation."

"That's what we thought too," Lee agreed.

"But I don't think I can wait until morning for that explanation. You two need to start talking and start talking now."

"I'll put on a pot of coffee," Lee responded with a resigned sigh as he strolled to the coffeemaker.

"But let's do it in the dining room where we can close the doors so we don't keep the children up," Amanda suggested.

The moment the coffee was made and the three adults were all settled in the dining room, Dotty immediately questioned, "So, my first question is how did you go from taking the boys on a Christmas vacation to bringing home three new children?"

"We-ell, it all began with finding out we had a trio of young squatters hiding out in the cabin we rented," Amanda began.

"No, it really started with Phillip being slugged by a girl," Lee corrected her with a laugh.

"Well, yes, but that's how we found out they were there," Amanda argued.

"Do you wanna' tell this story by yourself?" he challenged her. "I was there too, you know, and I was the one who had to have a serious talk with him about how to treat girls."

"But that's getting a little off-topic," Amanda replied.

"As if you're not the champion of getting off-topic," he teased with a mirthful grin.

"Ahem," Dotty cleared her throat loudly to get their attention. When they both turned back to her, she reminded them, "You were talking about the children."

"Oh, right. The kids," Lee nodded and couldn't help the little chuckle that escaped him.

"Right. Back on topic," Amanda added. "Well, when we found out the kids were there, we didn't have the heart to throw them out in the cold, but it took us some time to get them to open up about where they belonged."

"Then when we did, Amanda got arrested and we had to deal with that," Lee continued.

"Wait! Stop!" Dotty cut in. "Arrested?"

"I think you're getting ahead of yourself," Amanda scolded her husband.

He let out a sigh. "I was getting there," he defended himself.

"Well, I think we should just go back to the beginning," Amanda suggested.

"Oh, no, Missy." Her mother wagged a finger at her. "Not until you tell me why you were arrested."

Lee shook his head with a laugh. "I'm thinking this one pot of coffee just might not be enough. It's going to be a loooong night."