Chapter 19

It was now the holiday season and Mariah was getting close to her due date. She was now on bed rest, which annoyed her, since she loved doing her Christmas baking, wrapping gifts, and decorating the house, things she had done with Leif as he grew up.

Mariah was even planning to take him ice skating on Christmas Eve with Michael and Kira, something she and Montana had done every year since the boys were preschoolers and Kira in elementary school.

Naomi and Mac usually opted out of the ice skating, preferring to go to New Mexico with their father to visit their grandmother and partake in the Mexican Christmas Eve tradition of Noche Buena. An essentially family day, it would begin with the last posada and end with dinner, with the adults exchanging presents afterward. The Misa de Gallo mass was at midnight.

Now Mariah figured, along with her nagging backache, she would have the additional aggravation of the thought of Brian in charge of the whole Christmas Eve thing with Leif, not to mention he'd ordered five dozen cookies from the bakery instead of the effort of attempting to make them himself.

At least Mariah and Leif had gotten the decorations and tree up before she was ordered to bed rest. Lord knows what mess it would have been otherwise.

Well, maybe the cookie part wasn't so bad, she thought. Knowing Brian, he'd probably burn the house down trying to make them anyway.

Leif came upstairs bringing her a tray, grinning. "Here's dinner, Mom."

"Don't tell me you let your dad into the kitchen alone," Mariah replied.

"No, he went to Boston Market. That's kind of hard to screw up. I sneaked you a few cookies, though."

"Thanks, sweetheart," Mariah said gratefully. "Exactly what is he doing down there?"

"Getting stuff together for skating. Wonder if he'll fall on his butt again this year? That was really funny, especially when he said he got a big bruise there."

"Leif, really."

"I can't figure out how Dad can dance around in a ring like a moron and beat people up, yet he can't stand on a pair of ice skates."

"Give him credit for trying," Mariah answered. "He may surprise you kids this year, who knows?"

"Yeah. Anyway, we're waiting for Gran to get here to stay with you. Dad's kind of paranoid leaving you by yourself."

"Not that I can do much anyway," Mariah shrugged. "I'll be pretty boring company."

"Nah, I'm sure Gran will find something for you guys to do," Leif nodded. "She was pretty good when I had chicken pox, remember?"

"Sure, but there's quite a difference between chicken pox and having twins."

"Boy do I know it!" Leif said. "Shouldn't you have had them by now?"

"It's getting close to that time. Believe me, if I were you, I'd enjoy these last days of peace and quiet we will all have for awhile."

Meanwhile:

"Come on, you two," Montana called upstairs. "We have to meet Brian in half an hour."

"Mariah's not coming with us?" Kira asked, coming down with skates slung over her shouder. "We always go together every year."

"She's on bed rest with the twins, remember?"

"Oh right, silly me. Of course, it will be more fun seeing Uncle Spanky make a doofus of himself."

"Kira, that wasn't funny. That poor man's behind was bruised for a week."

"Yeah, you're right, Mami. It could have been worse, like when Papi messed up his ankle the one year he went with us when I was six and Naomi was a baby. That had to hurt."

"A clean break would have hurt less," Montana nodded. "Notice that was the last time he went with us. Of course, your sisters have no interest in ice skating either, hence them going with your father to Abuelita's every year thereafter."

"Well, at least they have fun too," Kira smiled.

"By the way, where's your brother?"

"In the bathroom. Mikey said he wanted 'to do his business' before we left."

"Good for him."

"Are we going to the rink we went to last year?"

Montana shook her head. "It's too warm to maintain the ice. We're going to that indoor rink."

"God, I hope that place isn't crowded with a bunch of creepy boys." Kira turned up her nose.

"I think it will be mostly families tonight, sweetie."

"Good, maybe Mikey will find a little girlfriend."

"Eww, Kira, stop!" Michael said, coming downstairs. "I heard that and you're gross!"

Montana laughed. "So much for my little man of the house," she teased as the phone rang.

She spoke for a few minutes as Kira and Michael teased and shoved each other, laughing.

"All right, you two monkeys," Montana said, hanging up. "That was Brian and he's on his way over. Here we go for a night of skating and fun."

"And Uncle Spanky landing on his butt again," Michael said, laughing. "This is going to be so cool."