Sammy's ANs: Mari and Ilna-you guys are the best. Thanks for all the love and support McRollers
Mari's ANs: Sammy and Ilna, love you to the moon. REAL McRollers and Readers, thanks doesn't seem like enough, but thank you always.
Not a Goat in Sight
Steve tilted his chin in the direction of Angie's bedroom when Catherine stepped into their room and closed the door. "She's asleep?"
She nodded. "When she said she wrote a follow up letter to Santa after dinner, I figured we'd better check and see if she asked for anything we should know about," she chuckled and took a seat next to him on their bed. "A follow up letter. Only Angie."
"That's our girl," Steve grinned. "Let's see," he leaned towards her and when Cammie uttered a contented sigh as she settled on her bed, said, "This is classified," to the dog, who chuffed at him with a knowing look before placing her head on her paws and closing her eyes.
Catherine unfolded the piece of stationary that featured 'A Note From Angie' across the top and cavorting goats along the margin. Holding the paper between herself and Steve, she read,
Hi Santa,
It's Angie again. I hope you are sleeping enuf before Christmas, cause you work very, very hard making toys and being in charge of the elves. Mommy and Daddy say it's imporantimportant to sleep so you can do your best.
I wrote you my leter but DJ helped so I am doing this one myself, cause I want to ask you for a prezent for my brother and have it be a suprize. He loves the Cubs like our whole family but him and Grandma Ang love them most.
We don't have a baseball team here, so the Cubs never come and play on the island. Can you bring my brother a suprize prezent that's from the Cubs, please? If it's a lot, you can bring me less prezents. I asked for three, reemember?
I will be very very thankful if DJ can see the Cubs play for real. It don't have to be in Chicago, if it is to far away. Maybee they will go to Californiya by Joanie's house and he can see them where we saw the Dogers?
Thank you Santa. DJ is the best big brother in the whol world and he will be very very happy. It's okay if you can't bring him tikets but if you can, thank you.
Hug Mrs. Clause and the elves and all the rain-deers for me.
I love you a lot xoxoxoxoxoxox - that is hugs and kisses,
Angie
Ms. Lane says it's good to put our whol name on a reel letter, so here is mine.
Angeline Elizabeth McGarrett
When Catherine sniffed, Steve kissed her temple and ran a hand over his face. "Okay, wow."
"We have the best kids," she said. "And I'm not being the tiniest bit biased." A smile danced in her eyes, even as they were shimmering with unshed tears.
"I see a couple of possibilities," Steve said as Catherine came out of the shower wrapped in a fluffy towel. He'd spent the last ten minutes checking out the Cubs' 2025 schedule on their website. "We could go see the Cubs when they play the Dodgers in April but there are a couple of problems there. Mostly taking the kids out of school."
"Plus, DJ has already gotten to see a game at Dodger Stadium," Catherine pointed out.
"True." Steve's eyes moved back to the schedule. "Obviously we could go and see a game in Chicago."
"I sense a but coming," Catherine said with a smile as she dropped the towel and slipped into a tank top and a pair of shorts.
Steve grinned. "You know me so well. The Cubs are playing the Phillies in Philadelphia in June. If we work it right we can get in a visit with Nonna and see a few games at the same time."
"That's a perfect idea!" Catherine said excitedly.
Steve moved to the Phillies website to see what tickets were available. "We'll have to call Nonna in the morning and see if she's on board with the idea."
Catherine barked a laugh. "What do you think the odds are that she won't be on board?"
"Pretty slight," Steve nodded. "Should we see if anyone wants to go along? Make it a vacation?"
"Danny will probably be in," Catherine said, moving into planning mode. "Gabby too since she'll have plenty of notice to get time off at work. Grace is a maybe. It depends on her schedule. Mom and Dad will probably be in. And Grandma Ang might not feel up to navigating a stadium she isn't familiar with but she'd love a visit with Nonna."
She grabbed a notebook and a pen and crawled into bed. She looked at Steve who was barely managing to hide a wide grin.
"What?" she asked. "This is gonna take some planning. We need to make lists."
Steve leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. "Don't ever change. I love watching you in mission planning mode."
"So we're thinking we could go for a whole week," Catherine said as she chatted by phone with Mary the next morning on the way to work. "We figured we can visit Nonna and the Jersey family, see a couple of games, and still have plenty of time to do a little sightseeing. I'd love to take the kids to see the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall."
"That's exactly what Joan is working on in history class right now," Mary said. "She'd be over the moon."
"And of course Susan and Ramon are welcome to come along. The more the merrier," Catherine said.
"That actually sounds like something they'd like," Mary replied. "But if we're all going our troop can get a hotel. It would make it easier on Nonna."
"You do what you feel like you need to." Catherine shook her head even though she knew Mary couldn't see her. "But you're the one who's gonna have to tell Nonna."
"But I thought maybe you could …" Mary started.
Catherine cut her off. "Not a chance."
"I'm just trying to save her the extra work," Mary insisted.
"She doesn't see it as work," Catherine said. "Besides I'm sure she'd love a chance to learn some authentic Mexican recipes from Susan." She turned into the parking lot. "Listen, I just got to the office. Why don't you talk to everybody on your end and call me back after you've talked to Aaron and his folks."
"Will do," Mary said. "Gotta hand it to Angie. She has excellent ideas. And this one doesn't even involve a goat."
# End Thanks for Reading
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