They split into two teams.

On team one – Andy, Carrie, Becky, Emily, Heather, Maggie, Nick, Grace, Stacey, Zoe, Lily, Justin and Louise.

On the other team – Erin, Leland, Clint, Jack, Bobby, Gibson, Sara, Amy, Lara-Jo, Annabelle, Tom, Robbie and Matthew.

"Batter up." Clint said.

Grace was the first up at bat.

With the adults at on the bases, and the kids and the remaining adults were fielding.

"You ready Gracie?" Bobby who was pitching asked.

"Bring it on Uncle Bobby."

Bobby pitched the ball, and it sailed into the hands of Jack who was playing catcher.

"Strike one." Jack announced

"Remember to keep your eye on the ball." Nick called to her.

"Uncle Nick, I play third base on my school softball team." Grace reminded him. "I know what I'm doing."

"Sorry." Nick held up his hands. "Since when has she been on the softball team." He whispered to Becky.

"Since the beginning of the season." Becky replied. "She's scored three home runs."

Bobby threw the ball again, this time Grace made contact and set it flying into left field.

Robbie ran after the ball and threw it to Lara-Jo who threw it to her mom who was on second base.

Zoe, Maggie, Carrie and Justin all managed to get to at least first base on their turns at bat.

Then it was Nick's turn.

"Hey Bobby wait a second." Sara ran over and whispered something to him.

"Oh really." Bobby smiled.

Sara nodded and ran back to her position in the outfield.

Nick wondered what Sara had told Bobby. It wasn't until he pitched that Warrick had shared Nick's problems with a certain kind of pitch with Sara, which she had told Bobby.

Nick was at two strikes.

He managed to hit the third pitch.

"I've got it." Sara ran after the ball. She managed to catch it and fall on her butt, but she still held on to it.

"You're out." Jack told him.

A round of "Whooh." and "Go Sara."'s came from Nick's brother-in-laws.

Matthew ran over to Sara as fast as his little legs could carry him.

"You okay?"

"I'm fine Matthew." Sara told him. "Do you want to take this to your Uncle Bobby?" She held the ball out to him.

"Okay."

Sara got to her feet and dusted herself off and got back in the game.

Considering how many of them there were playing they always played one inning. Everyone got a chance to bat and the team with the most runs won.

Sara's homerun when it was her turn to bat meant her team won.

"So your team won." Nick said when he walked over to Sara.

"It would seem that way." Sara stuffed her hands in her back pockets.

"Did you have fun?"

"Of course. This is definitely a good tradition."

"And it helps burn off a lot of calories from what we ate."

"That too." Sara smiled. "And it also means that your team has to do the dishes or so I'm been informed."

"They have a dishwasher." Nick pointed out.

"But I don't think it fits 28 place settings."

"I know." He paused. "So I guess you've been talking to Warrick."

"I talk to Warrick most days, you're going to have to be a little more specific."

"About my baseball swing."

"He may have mentioned something about one of your trips to the batting cages."

"It was a nice catch and home run."

"Thank you." Sara said. "Don't you have some dishes to do?"

"And what are you going to do?" Nick inquired.

"Talk to Erin and your mom." Sara replied.

TBC

A/N: I have no idea how to play softball; I'm figuring it's something like baseball or rounders. Sorry if I'm wrong.