2022

It was the day after Christmas. Troy managed to sleep in – a rarity for him, however his regimented routine of waking up early for practice had been thrown out the window once he and Gabriella had become parents. He'd kept it up with Joshua, however with Sophia now in the picture, both he and Gabriella had learnt the ability of sleeping whenever they got the chance to sleep. When he woke up and wandered out into the living area, he found Maria at the dining table with Joshua while he ate some breakfast, while his father was with Sophia, feeding her some baby food. His mother was in the kitchen tidying up, and Gabriella was in the lounge room, crawling around and collecting toys from the floor. Every effort that they made to keep the mass of toys under control was pretty much awash.

"Morning," Troy greeted everyone.

"Morning!" the chorus came back.

"Daddy!" Josh began to wriggle around in his high chair.

"Woah, buddy, finish your toast."

"Do you want some coffee?" Lucille asked.

"Yes thanks."

Troy went into the lounge area, bending over to kiss Gabriella lightly on the lips. "Assessing the haul?"

She nodded. Between presents they'd bought, that Maria, Jack and Lucille had brought to New York and others sent from other family members and friends, they'd wound up with a mountain of toys and clothes.

"It's kind of ridiculous. I always said I wanted our kids to be grounded and unspoiled but... look at all this!"

"We're gonna have to do a cull of their old things," Troy said, observing the scene.

Gabriella pouted. She found it so hard to get rid of things. One of the greatest regrets that she had from the years she and her mother had moved around was that every time they'd packed up and moved, Maria had been fairly strict on what they packed up. Gabriella liked having all the mementos and memories. To the unknowing eye it might just be a teddy bear, but to her, it was the teddy bear that Joshua was clutching onto the first time he'd said 'Mommy, look!' and combined two words into a phrase.

"We can keep some things, can't we?"

Troy knew how she felt about wanting to keep things for sentimental reasons. He smiled. "Of course, some. And there will be lots of things that were Jack's that we can keep for Sophia."

"Hope Sophia likes playing with trucks and army men," Jack chuckled. Lucille set down a coffee for Troy at the dining table and he went over to sit down, taking a tentative sip to test the temperature.

"And who knows, maybe you'll be able to keep passing them down the line again?" Maria asked, raising her eyebrows.

Gabriella rose to her feet, and from behind Troy, shook her head and made a scissors motion with her fingers. The parents all smirked, and Troy knew instinctively what Gabriella had done behind him.

"We have not made any decisions about that yet."

"Yes we have," Gabriella countered. She grinned, coming over to stand behind Troy, her hands gently rubbing at his shoulders.

Troy made a silly face at Sophia from across the table, and she giggled.

"See! Sophia thinks mommy is being silly!" Troy cooed, and went over to pick up his daughter from the high chair.

"Daddy, up!" Joshua insisted, as he typically did, becoming jealous whenever his mom or dad were holding Sophia and leaving him unattended.

"Just a minute buddy, I think your sister needs a diaper change."

"Seriously? I just did it!" Lucille exclaimed. "Here, let me." Places were exchanged, with Troy happy to hand off his daughter for nappy duty and turned to focus on Joshua.

"Hey, how do you feel about being a big brother to two siblings?" Troy asked his son, as he playfully swung him around.

Joshua clearly didn't understand the question, and was just giggling.

"Good luck trying to have another one without my consent," Gabriella remarked.

"She has an excellent point there," Jack said with a laugh.

"But we need to use Taylor's book," Troy remarked, setting Joshua down, and keeping an eye on him as he toddled over to where a pile of blocks were in the corner.

Gabriella gave her husband a thwack on the arm and a look. Taylor had sent Gabriella a Christmas present with a little gift tag that instructed to not open in the presence of parents. It was a book entitled 'Great Sex for Moms.'

Fortunately, Lucille re-entered the room with perfect timing. "Nope, no nappy change needed! I was going to dress her but wasn't sure what you fellows have planned for today."

Gabriella, Lucille and Maria were planning to head into the city to check out some post-holiday sales, leaving Jack and Troy with the kids. Troy shrugged. "Not sure yet. We might go to the park. Leave her, I'll sort it out."

"You want to take the little basketball set, don't you?" Gabriella asked.

"I hadn't even thought of that," Troy said, deadpan. Jack laughed, and exchanged a fist bump with his son. Jack had bought Joshua a toddler basketball hoop and ball for Christmas.

"I really should be staying here to finish cleaning up," Gabriella said with a sigh, looking around at where there were still piles of things to organise and a lot of cleaning to do.

"Nope. It's practically a holiday today too. I hereby declare today a cleaning free zone!" Troy declared.

"Your husband is right," Maria said with a wink. "Come on, let's go, you need to finish getting ready. The bargains are waiting!"

"Yes, this is the best time to get Christmas things ready for next year, it's all reduced to cost price!" Lucille added.

"Don't even start talking about Christmas for next year," Troy groaned.

Gabriella shrugged. "What are we going to do for Christmas next year?"

"That might depend on whether Troy talks you around about Number 3," Jack said with a laugh.

Regardless of what plans they would make, one thing was for certain - the holiday season in the household of Troy and Gabriella Bolton was bound to be merry and bright.

~ fin