All familiar characters belong to Janet. The mistakes are mine alone.

"Olive, do you want to show your Uncles what you learned this morning?" Stephanie asked our daughter.

Olivia, never one to disappoint a captive audience, twirled around in a small circle to make her dress flare out before she stopped mid-pivot and pointed to the small turkey acting as a period to the words 'Thankful Babe' on the top part of her holiday outfit.

"What's that on your dress?" I prompted.

"Turby!" She declared, her little finger accurately zeroing in again on the bird in question.

"Very good, Olive," her Mama said. "What a smart girl you are."

"Let's see just how smart our girl is," Brown commented. "What do turkeys do, Olive-Pit?"

"Don't answer," Steph advised our daughter. "I can smell a trap a mile away, and Uncle Bobby reeks of one right now."

He smiled in a way that proved my wife right. "Your answering time is up. Turkeys gobble. Do you know what that means?" He asked, taking a mock-menacing step towards them. "I'm going to gobble you right up."

Steph took one of Olivia's hands as she said … "Run, Olive! Mama will save you from the gobble monster."

"Mama's going to have to grow six inches and spend more time on a treadmill to outrun me," Brown said, snaking an arm around both of my women. "Hey, knock it off."

"It looks like you'll have to grow six more legs and some longer canines to stand a chance against our two," I commented, watching with amusement as Gunny got a decent tooth-grip on the hem at the back of Bobby's T-shirt, while Mo sank his set of teeth into the fabric of Brown's left pant leg.

"Damn skippy! Looks like we got here at the right time!" Edna shouted. "What am I missin' out on? And who wants to be the lucky one to grab me?"

I whistled and Gunner and Ammo let go of Brown, who was decidedly less quick in releasing his captives as our dogs were in letting go of theirs. Bobby got in enough 'gobbles' to Olivia's little stomach to make her walk the line of hyperventilating with the amount of laughing at him she was doing. Stephanie was all smiles as well as she watched her.

"I'd grab you Edna," Lester said, stepping front and center and carefully dropping an arm on Grandma Mazur's bony shoulders, "but I don't think I could handle you."

Edna blushed as he'd intended her to. "Oh, you," she said, with a playful swat to his forearm. "See, Frank? You can be a shameless flirt, and not be shy in loving your daughters and granddaughters, and still be a man. Unless you don't believe these guys are real men."

"You don't think that, do you?" Santos asked, with a meant-to-be-intimidating arm-cross over his chest.

"Santos," I said as a warning.

We all know Frank is on the cusp of committing to fighting for himself and his daughters. That isn't the kind of push he needs at this time.

"Real men aren't scared of showing those they care about, that they love them," Brown tacked on, trying to help the situation and also Stephanie. "We'd do anything for Olive and Steph ..."

"What about me?" Grandma Mazur asked.

We were expecting her presence a little closer to our holiday lunch, but I could've kissed her for showing up when she did.

"You didn't let me finish, Edna," Bobby told her. "I pity anyone who messes with you too."

"I'm happy you got here early," Steph said to her grandmother, shaking her head at how Olive recovered from her Uncle-ordeal and plopped down to start rolling one of Ella's decorations towards Mo. "And while I was hoping you'd come, Dad, I wasn't sure I expected you to."

"Your mother has been in a snit since Valerie told her that she, Kloughn, and the girls were having Thanksgiving in Newark with you this year," Grandma Mazur said before Frank opened his mouth.

"She isn't getting over it," Frank added after a beat. "She said since there's no one to cook for, she wasn't bothering to."

"How mature of her," Steph said, clearly irritated. "Last I checked, you're someone she's always been happy to cook for. But of course she'd choose to punish everyone for not getting what she wants."

Edna moved her dentures around in her mouth before giving us a grin that showcased them. "I may have waited until that moment to tell her that I had a date here at Rangeman and wasn't going to be around either. After she threw her fit about me abandoning her just like Valerie had done, I told Frank he don't need no Thanksgiving dinner there. He could tag along and give me a lift here while he's at it."

"We're glad you both came," Steph generously said. "I would say the more the merrier, but the more people who show up, the more you have to fight Lester, Junior, and Hal, for sides and dessert."

"Good thing I sharpened my elbows just this mornin'," Edna assured us. "Bring on the beefcake."

"Behave, Grandma. The insides of our guys are just as amazing as the outsides. I don't want them to ever forget that."

"I ain't forgettin' none of that. I love 'em all ... inside, out, and all around. And they know it. Just like I love this little piggy-tailed princess. Olive is a cutie. Isn't she, Frank?"

He went still as all eyes turned to him. But he took two deep breaths and felt his way through the emotional brush.

"Olivia reminds me of you, Stephanie, when you were her age," Frank told my wife.

"Yeah, right. I bet I simultaneously had a butter knife prying at a light socket and my pigtails seconds away from being on fire," my wife said.

"No. You were a serious child. Even as a toddler. I used to joke to your Grandpa Harry that you knew something we didn't."

Edna sorted. "Yeah, like her family's crazy. I can tell you Olive ain't thinkin' that. She knows she's got it made here. So where's the grub?"

With that not-scripted prompt to get on with the meal we're all thankful we're able to share every year, I picked up Olivia and wrapped my free arm around my wife, leading them both to the feast awaiting us.

This is one meal I purposely have catered so Ella can enjoy the holiday with her family here before she and Louis head out to celebrate with their loved ones outside of the building. Cal had taken Raphael's shift just so he and Aubrey could make their rounds, which would include Kenzie later. Right now, the newly-engaged Kenzie chose to start the holiday off here with Cal where he's required to stay after selflessly allowing a friend to enjoy a holiday with his now wife and in-laws.

Despite this being a building centered around security and the men who are specialists in it, a large portion of the traditional Thanksgiving meal was spent with Steph and Edna scrutinizing Kenzie's ring and trying to get details out of the happy couple on when they're considering having their wedding take place.

"I swear we know nothing definitive yet," Kenzie told Steph. "Cal and I talked briefly about life beyond engagement, but we've only decided that when it feels right for both of us ... is when we'll do it."

"Good answer," Steph said, letting go of her hand after a thorough inspection of the four-sided, scalloped-edged, halo diamond setting that surround the cushion-cut diamond.

I know far more than I wanted to about it after getting a call of thanks for the sale. Cal had taken me up on my suggestion on who to go to for a reasonably-priced, ethically-sourced ring, and it appears no one is disappointed in what he gave Kenzie after he gave himself to her.

When the last of the turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce had been eaten or packed away into a convenient sandwich for later, Steph helped Olivia into her coat as I got Mo and Gunny's leashes for our ride to Newark. Once 'the kids' were set, I held Steph's dress coat for her to slip into. The dark green, long-sleeved, velvet dress she chose to wear solely because Olivia liked to 'pet' her when Steph had tried it on, was too short and decorative to keep her warm against the gusts of wind I can hear even from inside the building.

"You and Dad are coming with us to Newark, aren't you?" Steph asked Frank and Edna. "You'll have an hour or two to digest what we just ate. And to add seasoning to the stewpot, Mama Manoso took pity on us, since we went to a pre-Thanksgiving at Raphael and Aubrey's house last night, plus today's holiday lunch here, so she said she was going to add a few pasta and other-meat options so we won't completely overdose on turkey and dressing."

"Are there any conditions to going?" Frank asked.

My wife's eyes dimmed momentarily, but she fought back the annoyance. "No, Dad. You just have to want to eat more, and have more time with even more family, since Val will meet us there after they leave Kloughn's parents' place. You don't have to admit it, but even that twenty minutes you spent with Dr. Spill It ..."

"That's not his name, Babe," I had to remind her again.

"Maybe not, but it should be. My point being, hearing someone tell you that 'You're not crazy. You're human' does help when it's coming from someone who actually went to school to study the differences between normal and crazy."

My father-in-law didn't say anything more about that, but he did offer to drive Edna to Newark if there wasn't room for her in our vehicle.

"There is always room for Edna," I said, leaning down to scoop up Olivia again. She had stopped collecting the unrealistically-sized acorns to tug on the leg of my black dress pants, "but you're welcome to escort her and treat yourself to a celebration Newark-style."

After careful deliberation, and a nudge from Edna's sharpened elbow, he agreed to try out a Manoso Thanksgiving.

"Oooooohhh," Olivia said in wonder, as we made our way up the driveway and she took in all the Christmas lights and decorations my parents had snuck in-between the cornucopias, pumpkins, and colorful fall leaves that are only a memory, seeing as all the trees in the neighborhood are now completely bare.

When the front door opened, I unhooked the dogs' leashes and let them blaze a trail for us inside. Edna soon followed, not needing an invitation to know she'll be instantly embraced in my parents' home.

"Don't worry, Dad," Steph said, as she tried to entangle Olivia's fingers from a turkey taking a load off on the front porch swing. "Like Gunny and Mo, the Manosos don't bite."

"But they do have teeth if they need them," I warned, before redirecting my attention to the battle of wills happening in front of me. "It's okay, Babe. No one will mind if Olivia brings her own turkey."

She shrugged. "Okay. I guess we'll just call that your door prize, Olive."

I have a sinking feeling that we'll also be buckling the bird in for the long drive home. Every holiday we spend here, Olivia takes a souvenir home with her from it. No matter the season, she has something representing it somewhere in our apartment.

By the time the Kloughn family appeared, Olivia had moved onto her own toys that are kept here for visits not unlike this one.

"Grandpa Plum?" Mary Alice asked, being the first one into the house and spotting someone she knew but hadn't expected to see.

"Dad?"Valerie said, the next one through the door. "You're having dinner here too?"

Typically being thought of as just part of his family's background for years, Frank is clearly uncomfortable with any attention on him. Olivia took care of that problem by raiding a wooden bowl filled with small fabric pumpkins and pitching one to Gunny.

"No, Olive," Steph said, as I made a one-handed catch before the jaws of life had a chance to close around it and make the inedible kind of stuffing fly, "those are decorations, not dog toys."

"You should know by now, Steph, that anything can be a dog toy," Valerie told her sister. "Shoes, furniture, garbage from knocked over trash cans ..."

"Not our dogs. Mo and Gunny have impeccable manners. Don't you, boys?"

I saw a familiar eyeroll, but this time it was executed by Valerie. "If you say so."

Steph leaned down to give Olivia and 'our boys' a hug. "Not only do I say it, I know for a fact it's true."

"Oh brother."

"Nope, no brothers. You're stuck with just having an amusing-as-heck sister," my wife said, using Olivia's hand to blow Valerie a smartassy kiss.

"A little sister, grandmother, and father, it looks like today."

"Your grandmother needed a ride here," Frank replied.

"You don't have to tell your daughters everything you're thinking, Frank, but you owe them the truth at least. Edna was going to be here whether or not you joined us."

"Alright," he said after a tense moment. "Truth is, I wanted to come."

Valerie nodded in understanding. "Mom isn't happy."

"When is that woman ever happy?" Edna asked.

"She's been less so lately," Frank told us, "but she's not why I'm here."

My head tipped in approval. His recovery is going to be a long and slow one, but so far he's shown an interest in making a full one.

"We're so glad you all could join us," my mother said. "Dinner will be served in about twenty-five minutes. Appetizers are everywhere. And if you're interested in sports, or heated discussions involving football, the television is on in the living room. Can I get you something to drink?"

"I'll get it, Mom," Steph told Mama Manoso. "Do you want coffee? A beer? Or a soda, Dad?"

"If it's a beer, make it two," Tank said.

He'd come in right behind us, not willing to disappoint my mother who wanted him here as often as he could manage it.

"Sorry, my hands are full of Olive, Tank. How about you get my Dad a beer and snag one for yourself while you're there?"

"You're lucky I like you," he told my wife.

"I know."

Not wanting to show how much she still affects him in front of everyone, he couldn't get to the kitchen fast enough. Once my grandparents and every one of my siblings arrived, the party was taken to the dining room and the meal now being plated up that's been four days in the making.

As conversation picked up, and our fathers found neutral ground discussing car care and mutually-liked and hated football teams, Steph wiped a chunk of mashed potatoes from Olivia's cheek, the result of our baby wanting to feed herself. The baby spoon missed her mouth and the potatoes are now in danger of falling into her lap. Steph kissed the now-clean spot and then met my eyes over our daughter's head. Her smile told me that she and I are thinking along similar lines. If everything goes well, this could be the beginning of a new family tradition.