A/N First of two parts. The Hebrew text is not right-justified (not an option), but I figure the center-justified at least indicates the right to left reading of written Hebrew.
Chapter 15, A Christmas to Remember: December 2025
"It's snowing! It's snowing!" Four-year-old LJ ran through the house shouting out the news. Tony opened his eyes and looked at the clock; 0545. Saturday mornings were for sleeping in, or so he thought. Ziva rolled over next to him and groaned, "Tony, what time is it?"
"0545; too early for me!" Tony groaned back. "This one is on you. He has your early rising genes." Ziva swatted Tony with a pillow. LJ burst into his parents' room.
"Ima! Abba! It's snowing! Can we go outside?" LJ crawled up on the bed between Tony and Ziva. Tony rolled towards LJ and reminded him that it was too early to go out. "But, Abba, what if the snow melts before we can go outside?"
Tony pulled his son under the covers and put an arm around him. "It's supposed to snow all day today, LJ. There will be plenty of time to go out and play in the snow." LJ snuggled into his Abba. Within ten minutes the little boy was back asleep, as were his parents.
When the household finally got going for the day around 0830, the ground was covered in about a foot of snow. Ziva made pancakes for breakfast, while Tony made coffee for himself and Ziva and hot chocolate for the children. Tali and Anthony were discussing the depth of the snow and how much they would need to make a snow ramp in the back yard. Beth and Rivka listened to their older sister and brother, and asked why they wanted a snow ramp. Tali explained that they could use it as a sledding hill, as she once had done in Grandpa Gibbs' yard when she was younger. LJ kept asking when he could go outside to play in the snow.
Ziva turned the TV to the Weather Channel to view the forecast. The prediction was for snow to fall all weekend with a total of twenty four to thirty inches when the storm finally moved out of the area. Full blizzard conditions were expected for most of the day and then to taper off in the early morning hours of the next day.
"I have an idea," Ziva looked at her family, "we can decorate for Christmas, since today is the twentieth. We can all help get the decorations out of the garage and then put up the tree. The only thing we can't do is the outside trees." The kids all agreed to help, and Tony volunteered to start the project by getting totes and boxes off of shelves to be carried inside. Since Chanukah had started on Sunday, the menorahs were already out.
"Abba?" LJ tugged at Tony's sleeve. "When can we go outside?" Ziva smiled; LJ was almost as persistent as Tony when he wanted something.
Tony picked LJ up and explained that with the storm getting worse, and all the blowing snow and cold air, that they would be better off waiting until the weather died back some before going out. LJ nodded, "Okay, Abba. Does Santa celebrate Chanukah?"
Tony looked to Ziva, hoping she would have a satisfactory answer for their curious little boy. Beth and Rivka looked expectantly at their parents. Tali saved the day. "Of course Santa celebrates Chanukah, LJ. This time of year is all about miracles and how they give us hope, even in the worst of times. Santa certainly believes in miracles!" LJ was satisfied with his sister's explanation, as were Beth and Rivka.
Tony pulled Tali to him and kissed her forehead. "Tals, that was great; thank you! I am so proud of you." Ziva squeezed Tali's hand and looked at Tony. They were so lucky to have such wonderful and caring children. Their moment of reflection was cut short by a crash from the garage.
Tony, Ziva, Tali, Beth, Rivka and LJ went running to the garage. Anthony was on the floor with totes and boxes all around him. He looked stunned, but Ziva didn't see any blood. "What happened? Are you okay? Sit still and let me check you over." Ziva's "momma-bear" kicked into full protect mode. Tony and Ziva moved to their son, waving the other children back. "Where does it hurt, Anthony?"
"Ima, I'm sorry; Abba, I'm sorry. I tried to get the Christmas tree box down off the shelf and everything came crashing down. My arm hurts, Abba. Ima, it hurts a lot!" Ziva checked Anthony's eyes and felt other limbs. She went to touch his arm and he pulled back. "No, Ima, it hurts."
Tony scooped Anthony into his arms and carried him inside. He was crying now, and trying to keep his arm still. Tali took Beth, Rivka and LJ into the family room and put on a Disney movie. Tony checked Anthony's arm. "It might be broken, Zi. Get his coat and something to make a sling to keep the arm from moving. I'll warm up my truck and take him to the ER."
Three hours, one cast and one set of worried parents later, Anthony was discharged from the ER with a broken arm. Tony sent a text message to Ziva that they were on the way home. She sent a message back to be careful as the roads were getting slippery near the house. The DiNozzos had watched one of the neighbor's cars slide off their driveway into the front yard, nearly hitting the house.
What normally would have taken fifteen minutes to drive took almost an hour for Tony to get home. Ziva had a large pot of soup on the stove and was baking bread to go with the soup. Tali had helped keep the three younger children occupied while waiting for news about Anthony. All four had also helped Ziva with kneading the bread, washing and cutting the vegetables for the soup, and choosing what meat to add.
Anthony walked in from the garage looking tired. His siblings wanted to see his cast and sling. He had chosen bright green for the cast, which prompted LJ to declare that his brother had a "Christmas cast." Each of the others signed the cast, with LJ putting a BIG L next to Anthony's thumb and a big J by his pinkie. "You can fill in the rest of my name," he told Anthony, as the others laughed.
~TIVA~
About an hour after Tony and Anthony came home, the wind started picking up, blowing the snow and making drifts. The snow was coming down rapidly, with big wet flakes. Tony checked that the generator was good to go should the power fail. He had plenty of fuel for about five days.
At dusk, Ziva lit the shammus candle on the menorah and she recited the blessings.
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה אֲדֹנָי אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו וְצִוָּנוּ לְהַדְלִיק נֵר חֲנֻכָּה
Ba-ruch A-tah Ado-nai E-lo-he-nu Me-lech ha-olam a-sher ki-de-sha-nu be-mitz-vo-tav ve-tzi-va-nu le-had-lik ner Cha-nu-kah.
Blessed are You, Lord our G‑d, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with His commandments, and commanded us to kindle the Chanukah light.
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה אֲדֹנָי אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם שֶׁעָשָׂה נִסִּים לַאֲבוֹתֵינוּ בַּיָּמִים הָהֵם בִּזְּמַן הַזֶּה
Ba-ruch A-tah Ado-nai E-lo-he-nu Me-lech Ha-olam she-a-sa ni-sim la-avo-te-nu ba-ya-mim ha-hem bi-zman ha-zeh.
Blessed are You, Lord our G‑d, King of the universe, who performed miracles for our forefathers in those days, at this time.
Tony lit the remaining seven candles with the shammus candle.
Then the family ate their dinner listening to the howling wind. Ziva told them about her first winter in DC and how the first snowfall had been a near blizzard. Tony picked up the story, telling them that their crazy ninja Ima had driven to his apartment in the blizzard to pick him up to go to work, not realizing that everything was closed for the day. Ziva glared at him at first, but then started laughing. Tony gave her a quizzical look and she picked up the story.
"Your crazy Abba decided that he would show me how to build a snowman in the middle of the blizzard. He took me outside his apartment building and started making the base of the snowman. As he was rolling the snow into a bigger and bigger ball, his feet slid out from under him and he went rolling down the hill, gathering snow on his coat and pants. When he got to the bottom, he looked like a snowman!" Ziva had the children laughing, and Tony had to chuckle with them.
"Yeah, but the best part is that Ima tried to get down the hill to help me, and she ended up doing the same thing. We looked like a snow couple!" Tony laughed harder and Ziva wiped tears from her face.
"And then, Abba tried to help me up and we ended up sliding down the hill even more together. We were both covered in snow from head to toe. One of the older ladies from one of the ground floor apartments stepped out of the front door and took one look at us and screamed. She thought we were a snow monster." Ziva was laughing so hard she could not continue the story.
Tony picked up the next part. "As she was screaming and yelling, people were coming out of their apartments to see what all the noise was about. Just then, the snowplow came through the street and sprayed even more snow on us. Your Ima swore she would be spending the rest of the winter indoors."
The children laughed with their parents, thinking that it had been a good story. Both Tony and Ziva remembered the aftermath, going back into Tony's apartment and shedding wet clothing. Ziva had to borrow one of Tony's OSU shirts and a pair of his sweats which they had to tie tightly to keep them from falling off her. Tony had made hot chocolate and they had wrapped together in a blanket on his sofa to warm up and watch a movie. Ziva met Tony's gaze and they smiled at the memory, each knowing what the other was thinking.
As the twins cleared the table, Tony wrapped his arms around Ziva's waist. He whispered in her ear, "Do you realize that was twenty years ago? You are still as sexy as you were then!" He kissed her lightly on the lips, and she wrapped her arms around his neck, returning the kiss, until Tali walked by and muttered "Get a room!" with a smirk on her face.
~TIVA~
Daylight on Sunday showed no let up in the storm, and about two feet of snow on the ground with drifts up to five feet high. Luckily, the power was still on, so the family decided to put up the Christmas decorations, finally!
Anthony was put in charge of the family's individual ornaments. Ziva and Tony had started the tradition with their first Christmas in back in DC as a family, with each family member adding an ornament for each year of Christmas. They had given Tali four and Anthony two for the first year, to get them "caught up." Each person had their own box to store the ornaments, hand-made by Grandpa Gibbs. The name was carved on the lid and the sides showed various Christmas and holiday scenes. Ziva brought out the new ornaments that each one had made, bought or been given for the new year.
Tony and Ziva set up the tree, pre-lit and sectioned. They had purchased the current tree after three years of stringing lights amid much cursing, (Tony learned several Hebrew curse words!) and griping. When Ziva had found the pre-lit tree on clearance, they agreed immediately that it would be perfect and make their Christmas decorating SO much easier. Each child took his or her box of ornaments and hung them on the tree. Tali had twelve, Anthony, nine, Rivka and Beth, six each and LJ, five. Ziva added her twenty one (one for each year she and Tony had known each other) and Tony added his. They then added an ornament for each family member from their extended family, including those who were no longer alive.
As the children helped Tony put the empty storage boxes and totes back in the garage, Ziva made hot chocolate for everyone. She took a box of homemade cookies out of the freezer to have as a snack; another DiNozzo family tradition that had been established when Tali and Anthony were small. The completion of decorating was celebrated with hot chocolate and cookies.