Author's Note: I guess I'd better get busy if this is going to be wrapping up by the holidays! Cookie points to the person who can guess what kind of animals we've gotten this year…

Chapter III: Sorting Things Out

The morning after their picnic, Jake announced that he had an errand to run, and would be gone most of the day. Heather, having only welcomed her husband home 48 hours before, was less than happy.

"But we were going to decorate for Christmas today," Heather said, disappointment obvious in her voice.

"Do you think we can work on that this evening? And finish tomorrow?" Jake asked, understanding her dismay. "I need to take Chip with me, but we can both help as soon as we get back. I think you'll be happy we went on this errand," Jake added mysteriously.

Heather nodded, knowing better than to continue her displeasure. If she had learned one thing since the bombs, it was flexibility.

Jake and Chip left right after breakfast. Heather busied herself and the younger children cleaning the great room and retrieving totes of decorations from the attic. They put out the antique nativity set which had come from Germany, and Heather told them again of its significance. By that time, it was time for lunch and naps.

As the younger children were waking up from their naps, and Heather was just done feeding Ellie, she heard the sound of Jake's truck wheels in the gravel driveway below. She also heard the yip of a puppy as Jake and Chip got out of the truck and closed the doors. She and the children rushed down the stairs in time to see Chip carry into the house a 20 pound Saint Bernard puppy.

"Oh, Jake, you didn't!" Heather exclaimed as she laid the sleeping baby into the bassinet. Heather had had a Saint Bernard as a child, and had spoken several times of what a wonderful dog she had been, and how she would like another one day. That was before having 5 children and before having bombs change her life, of course.

Jake grinned at her. "I know it probably isn't the best timing, with a new baby and all, but it was a situation too good to pass up. I had done some consulting work in a town south of Cedar Brook, and heard about a Saint Bernard having puppies. I requested a female, like you wanted. Good thing I did because the litter was five males and only one female! I'll be home now to help train her."

By this point, Aunt Eleanor had come in from the back yard and seated herself on the floor with the children. The puppy had climbed into her lap and was licking her face. "Oh, aren't you a beautiful girl," Aunt Eleanor asked, nose-to-nose with the puppy. "What is your name? You look like a Duchess, to me."

This statement was met with a chorus of "Can we name her Duchess?", "Please, can we call her Duchess?" from the children.

Heather sat down on the floor, and the puppy clamored into her lap, now content to lick her face. "Well, you aren't much of a regal Duchess yet, but I'll bet you will be one day. Duchess it is!" The puppy wiggled happily in her lap.

Jake had stepped out to the truck, and soon returned with a crate and a worn blanket. "The family sent along a blanket that smelled like her mother. Hopefully she won't feel as lonely here," he explained, setting the crate on the tiled floor beside the back door and putting the blanket into it.

Heather snorted in an unladylike fashion, "Lonely? In this house? Not a chance," she laughed as the children surrounded her and the puppy. "But, I think she does need a quiet place where she can go to rest. Alone. Without any children." She gave the children one of her best teacher looks. They giggled, understanding the meaning of that look, and backed off a little.

The puppy was deposited into her crate, where she promptly curled up and went to sleep. All of the excitement had worn her out. The adults tiptoed into the kitchen to start lunch. When Heather checked back a short time later to call the children for lunch, she was met with the adorable sight of 4 small Green children, laying on their stomachs on the tile, chins propped on their hands, quietly watching the puppy sleep. Heather backed into the kitchen to call Jake and Eleanor, and to grab her camera from the kitchen drawer. She was thankful, yet again, that she had finally found an old camera that worked despite the EMP.

After lunch, Jake and Heather shepherded the children out the back door with the puppy once they were bundled up. The weather had turned bitterly cold, but there wasn't any snow in sight. It was crystal clear and crisp, with the sun shining brightly even though it wasn't warming anything. The children romped with the puppy while Jake and Heather sat on the picnic bench and laughed at their antics. They had a wonderful time as a family, happy to have Jake with them again.

As the puppy and children ran out of his field of vision, Jake turned himself around and now had a view of the pond as about a dozen Pekin ducks swam into view. Jake did a double-take, and then turned to Heather. "We have ducks?" he asked.

Heather laughed nervously. "Didn't I mention them? Gil was given a young pair in the spring in exchange for services rendered. Since they don't have a pond and we do, they came to live here."

"That explains two…" Jake said curiously.

"Well, the Mama duck finally began laying eggs. It was like an Easter egg hunt every day for the kids! Then the Mama duck disappeared. We thought a predator had gotten her. We looked everywhere but couldn't find her. About three weeks later, she came waddling out of the brush with 10 babies! The have kids really enjoyed watching them grow up." Heather explained.

Jake just laughed. "Should they be on the lake in this cold weather?" Jake asked. "I've never had ducks before."

"Gil says they're OK. They're each wearing down coats, after all. I asked Wes to arrange some kind of shelter for them to use if the weather gets really bad, so he made them a place in the back barn. We feed them there. Right now, they go in to eat, then scurry right back out again. Apparently, ducks don't like change. Hopefully they'll get used to it if they need it!"

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Later, they went back into the house and finished decorating for Christmas. Eleanor had found the baby gates they had recently retired as young E.J. had no longer needed them (actually, he had learned to pole-vault over them). They would work perfectly to keep the puppy from knocking over the Christmas tree and otherwise off of the carpet. They all enjoyed hot chocolate and popcorn as they took turns telling stories of Christmas past while warming up in front of the fire. Then Heather, who kept a running child count in her head left over from teaching, noticed that one of the children was missing from the living room. With all of them searching, it only took a few moments to locate the errant E.J. He might have actually been gone longer than they had thought because he was already fast asleep, curled up in the dog crate with the new puppy. Heather snapped a quick picture while 'hushing' the older children, and then Jake carried the sleeping toddler upstairs and tucked him into bed.

"So, what are you doing with all of these pictures you are taking?" Jake asked later when they had gotten the other children into bed. "Are you still putting them into scrapbooks?"

"Yes," Heather replied enthusiastically. "We meet at the Montgomery building the first Monday of the month. Elizabeth Summers also comes to the meetings, and apparently told her husband to be on the lookout for scrapbook stores when he went out with Jonah to collect supplies. They found an entire store that was intact in Rogue River and brought back all of the contents. We set it all up in the Montgomery building where we meet so we can use the supplies as needed. Aunt Eleanor has been working on a scrapbook of her travels as well."

"And do I get to see these scrapbooks?" Jake asked curiously.

"Sure, we can look at them tomorrow," Heather answered happily before the topic turned to other things.

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The following morning, Jake ran an errand before the troops woke up. He was returning just as they came downstairs for breakfast the following morning.

"What do you think about a little field trip after breakfast," he asked Heather, "Just your Mom and me," he concluded before the excitement of the troops got out of hand.

"Well…" Heather started tentatively.

"Just an hour or so, then I'll bring you back to do whatever you need to do. And I'll help you do whatever that is." Jake looked at her with exaggerated puppy-dog eyes, and the children laughed since they had all learned that look from Jake.

"I suppose so," Heather said, looking over the heads of the children to see Eleanor nodding in agreement from her post by the stove where she was frying bacon.

Breakfast went smoothly, and soon Jake and Heather were out the door and walking toward the truck with a chorus of "Have fun," and "Hurry back" coming from the children. Jake surprised Heather by driving toward the home of Gail and Johnston, but turned onto a different street at the last minute and parked by the curb near a cul-de-sac. Heather gave Jake a puzzled look, but he just smiled and asked her to wait in the truck for a minute. After stopping at the tailgate for several minutes, Jake came around to the passenger door. It was then that Heather could see that he was wearing black ice skates as would be used for hockey. In his hands were another pair of skates, white this time. He helped Heather slip off her winter boots and lace up the skates while she played 20 Questions with him. Upon closer inspection, she could see that the entire cul-de-sac was covered in a thick layer of ice.

"So, as we have discussed before, some winters have lots of snow, and some winters are really cold, but don't have much snow. Other years, there isn't much of either. It's been a few years since we had a really cold, clear one. When that happens, there's a Jericho tradition that involves releasing water from that fire hydrant into the cul-de-sac so it can freeze solid, so we can skate here. We have drain covers for each side so that most of the water stays where it's supposed to.

"Umm, who lives in the cul-de-sac," Heather asked, afraid that she and Jake might somehow get into trouble.

"There's only one family whose driveway opens onto the cul-de-sac," Jake said, pointing to the driveway. "They are usually at the front of the line to skate. They will probably be out in a bit when it gets a little warmer; or at least a little less cold. In the meantime, let's just enjoy ourselves, OK?

Heather nodded while trying to remember how to ice skate. She had ice skated while at school in up-state New York, and had roller skated as a child in New Bern. She would not win any figure skating trophies, but she and Jake certainly had fun trying.

By the end of the hour, they were out of breath from exerting themselves in the cold air. Other skaters were starting to accumulate in the periphery.

"Are they all here to skate?" Heather asked curiously.

"They're here to play hockey," Jake responded with a laugh. "Before the bombs, we went to the skating rink at Rogue River to play hockey. Pick-up games on weekends and breaks. The parents took turns driving a bunch of us over, doing a little shopping while we skated, and hauling us all home. You don't appreciate these things until you become a parent yourself."

Heather paused in changing her skates back to boots with a quizzical look. "Jake, why do they need to practice here rather on one of the many lakes around here?"

"A couple of kids died when they fell through the ice on a pond when I was really little. It just doesn't get cold enough here for long enough to freeze enough ice to support kids playing hockey. I think it was really cold for several weeks one year and some deputies measured the ice at Bass Lake. It stayed more than 5 inches for several weeks, and we all got to skate there until it started to warm up. Otherwise, we went to Rogue River, or used the cul-de-sac when it got cold."

"I'll have to include that in my notes about the history of Jericho," Heather said thoughtfully. "I've been in this town over a decade now, and sometimes I don't think I'll ever get all of the stories.

"You'll get them all eventually," Jake said, trying to encourage her. "Tell me how it's been going so far."

"Well," Heather started, "I was just doing a brief biography of the Green family members, then I decided to branch out to other members of the community. Starting with dates of birth and marriage, and death when appropriate. Then I added in what was going on in the country. Wars, The Great Depression, the stock market crash, Prohibition. Then I added in whatever memories I could find, either my own or from family members or letters or the newspaper. And whatever pictures I could find. It's a little cumbersome, but it gives a pretty good overall idea of the person."

"That sounds great," Jake said enthusiasticly. "I would like to see what you've gotten done so far. And when have you had time to do all of this with 5 kids and homeschooling all the kids at Green Ranch," he asked with a laugh.

"Oh, I work on it at night, after the kids have gone to sleep. That's when I scrapbook, too," Heather responded.

"This is different than scrapbooking?" Jake asked with a confused look.

"Well, I guess it's all kind of scrapbooking, in that I am cataloging memories," Heather said with a laugh. "Mostly I'm making layouts for the kids when I scrapbook. Elizabeth Sommers has been doing it the longest, and had a lot of supplies in storage that her husband was able to go back and get. Then, she found that scrapbook store in Rogue River. Then, they made the mistake of telling her there was also a Hobby Lobby in Rogue River. They only brought part of that store back, and some of it was fabric and notions for Aunt Sharon to use in the sewing room. We also work on our projects at home."