Missing You (Sequel to Somewhere In Neverland)

Fool's Holiday

Alex's POV:

We had just gotten home from The Merrick's house. Peter quickly pranced upstairs, then down again. Tucker had followed him up. Yes, we had Tucker so maybe he could experience a happy Christmas for once. The other kiddos ran to their rooms as well to get dressed in the pjs. Marina had decided to get them each new pj sets. Each looked adorable. Jimmy was in a matching Doctor Who set. Stella was in a pretty snowflake print. Brian was in a tribal print onesie, laughing as he came down at Marina's adventurous choice. Peter and Tuck were in plaid print red and blue pants with matching shirts. Marina ran to our bedroom to put on Ravens sweats and a knit sweater. I smiled.

"Alright, who wants white hot chocolate?" She asked.

All five of them cheered and spread out across the living room floor. The three oldest boys chose the couch, two little ones on the shag, white rug. I had already moved the coffee table into the kitchen; God knows we'll need the space in the morning. The presents were currently so overflowing that I had to put some into my bathroom. As Marina started cooking, I grabbed her cookie platter and brought them out to the kiddos. I kept three for santa. Jimmy ran into the fridge and pulled out a beer, then put the cookies and beer on the end table. All of my kids were finally old enough to know he wasn't real, and he was just me. But still, it was tradition, and we all kept it up.

I went to our shelf of Christmas cards. We still got so many. One from Lisa and her family. Her oldest boy had knocked up a girl in high school, so now she was a grandma of a little baby girl. Then one from all the members of our band. A card from Cody and Josh, which Stella flipped out over. One from the Hemmings. Delilah and Dahlia turned out to be tall, thin, and absolutely beautiful. Delilah was a blonde like her daddy, Dahlia an auburn redhead like her mom. Colby had hardly aged, but Luke was looking tired. All those girls had given him gray hairs. A card from Don and Ella, Christina and Justin. Some from Marina's cousins. It was all so crazy how the years had passed.

I moved to the tree. We didn't do the shiny, round orbs like most people did. Instead, all of our ornaments mean something. Marina had bought many over the years, as well as the kids bringing home ones from school. I first saw this year's ornament. It was reindeer, each with a kid's name on it, and Tucker was included. I found it so interesting how we picked up strays over the years. I stumbled up one from years ago, all snowmen, when Jimmy wasn't even part of it yet. It must have been at least nine years old. I found one from Peter that was his second grade school picture glued onto a jar lid with red glitter. I looked at him now, with his shaggy hair and potty mouth- oh wait, he always had a potty mouth. 

I found Stella's from the same year. She was so small, with no front teeth and bangs she had cut herself. Marina always let her wear dresses to school. In this picture, the dress was black velvet with a red plaid skirt. Now, she was just budding into woman hood. She was an early bloomer, just like her mom. Taller than all the other kids at her age, but still lanky like I was. I saw Brian's from his kindergarten year. His handwriting was messy and disproportionate. To Mommy and Daddy, love Brain. He would constantly mix up the a and i in his name, making for funny papers. He always had jet black, curly hair. He was a skinny kid, always so subdued unless he was playing sports. He struggled with math, but was always picked first in gym class. Now, he was an incredible reader, soccer player, and baseball player. He did basketball in the winter just to keep busy, but it wasn't of much interest to him. I was blessed we only had him that was interested in sports. I see other parents struggle to bring their two kids to soccer games, let alone four (five if you count Tuck). Now, Brian was of medium height, and a bit stockier that lanky Peter. 

Lastly, I found Jimmy's first ever ornament. It was part of a rubber ducky nativity set Marina had from childhood. It was the baby Jesus. Marina wrote in sharpie on the bottom. As a baby, Jimmy was perfect. A little sprig of light hair, perfectly round head, only cried when he was hungry or needed a diaper change, and each of those cries sounded different. Now, he was the nerdiest kid you'd ever meet. He was obsessed with Harry Potter and Doctor Who and sci-fy. He was so smart and amazing, and looked like a perfect mix of Marina and I.