Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 94624 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94624 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
I turned and hugged him then, just as Sam walked in.
“Hey, what’s going on?”
“Clearly I’m taking him since you get shot too much,” Duncan informed Sam.
“What? No… I had a coupon for that.” Sam whined.
“Are you drunk?” Duncan asked him, letting me go and facing my husband.
“Not yet,” Sam said, passing Duncan one of his bourbon slushes that he made with the good stuff that Aaron bought him.
“Oh thank you,” Duncan said happily, taking a sip. “This is excellent.”
Sam grunted and took hold of my wrist, pulling me back over to him, tucking me under his arm. He liked it best when I was right next to him.
The food was great, and since it was a giant potluck with me cooking the turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, and stuffing, which Hannah and the boys had helped me with, getting up early even after attending Midnight Mass with Sam the night before, we had everything we needed.
Aja brought her famous yams and marshmallows, as well as her cheesy squash. Dylan brought quiche and grape salad and green bean casserole that I actually liked. Aaron showed up with champagne and the pies that I’d asked for, as well as the stroopwafels for Sam. Dane brought Sam more bourbon, because everyone knew it was his favorite, and Carwood brought a huge chef salad that everyone gushed over, because really, there needed to be some roughage.
I told Hannah we were missing George and his partner, Kurt, psychiatrist extraordinaire, who all the kids talked to, and she explained that he was in Portland with Kurt’s family.
“Well, I hope he’s having a good time,” I told her.
“So do I. He deserves some downtime to just do some wintering.”
“Everyone needs some of that.”
Harper came over once his family gathering broke up and brought me a sweet potato pie that his mother made from scratch that I hid in the basement. Was I proud that I did that? Yes, I was. Her pie was my favorite, so I wanted a lot of it. I called her as I was hiding it.
“Are you squirreling it away?” she asked, chuckling.
“You know I am.”
It was fun.
We had the best time.
Later, much later, when everyone had been sent home with food, I heard Sam yell.
“What’s wrong?” Kola called up to him from the kitchen where we all were cleaning up. Sam was helping as well but had needed to change his sweater because he was done wearing the ugly Christmas one I’d insisted he wear so he matched the rest of us.
“Nothing,” he called back down. “Chilly just scared the crap out of me. I didn’t think he was breathing there for a second.”
“You can just look at his abdomen,” Kola reminded his father, shaking his head.
“You can just look at his abdomen,” Sam parroted back before returning to our bedroom.
“Everyone in this house is such a wiseass,” Kola muttered. “Why is that?”
“It’s their fault,” Hannah said, waving a slotted spoon she was drying at me and Sam as he walked into the kitchen. “They made us like this.”
“And me?” Jake asked.
“By osmosis,” Kola assured him.
“And me?” Harper, who was making conversation while everyone else cleaned, which I’d always found so helpful, asked as well.
“Same,” Kola told him. “It rubbed off on you.”
He nodded like yes, of course, that was it.
“So,” Sam said, smiling at me, “where did you put the pie Harper’s mother sent over?”
“What? I…what?”
“In the basement,” everyone said together.
“I’ll go get it,” Hannah volunteered.
“This was a really great day,” Sam said, grabbing me and hugging me. “I wish we could eat and drink like this all the time.”
“Like Vikings,” Kola suggested.
“I think that was more lots of bread and salted pork,” Jake offered. “I don’t know how much salad and veggies they had.”
“Probably more than you think, since they had a more paleo diet,” Hannah said, walking back into the room with the hidden pie.
“Someone needs to do some research,” I said, and as usual, Harper got right on that.
I started cutting his mother’s pie for Sam and me. The kids, even Harper, preferred pumpkin or some of the custard that Aaron brought. No one was allowed to mention that to his mother.
“Do these pies actually cost fifty bucks apiece?” Jake wanted to know.
Hannah cackled. “Fifty. You’re funny. But during the holidays, the bakery donates everything over twenty to charity, so there’s that.”
“Okay, I don’t feel so bad,” Kola said, having a slice of the chocolate mousse one.
“Merry Christmas, you all,” Sam sighed. “I love ya.”
It was the best way to end the day.
That’s all. I’ll entertain you with New Year’s stories next time. Stay safe and warm if you live somewhere like we do, and enjoy your temperate climate if you don’t. I will see you in February!
FEBRUARY 2024
Happy February, all. This is He Said, he said, and I’m just reintroducing myself because I know we get new folks to the column. I’m Jory Harcourt, and every month I share snippets from my family life. I know it sounds boring, and sometimes it is, but not all the time.