Rob's P.O.V.
Picking up my little girl, laughing as she squealed in excitement when I threw her over my shoulder. Jerome looked up from his phone for a moment and laughed, picking up our girls coat and shoes, taking her from my arms to wrestle her into said items of clothing. I stuffed my feet into my own shoes, picking up my bag.
"Ready to go?" Jerome asked, our daughter still in his arms. I nodded.
"I'm driving!" I called as I managed to get out of the front door ahead of the two, but I couldn't help shivering as the cold wind bit at my nose and ears. "Do you have a hat for Bailey?"
Jerome nodded, pulling said woolly beanie from his back pocket and pushing it over her red curls. I heard her whine a little but then again she was only three years old, she whined about everything- putting on her coat, being buckled into her car seat, not being allowed candy at the supermarket, almost anything that didn't go her way you could expect a massive fit and tantrum. We were learning though through practise and mistakes, making up for them when we could.
The process of adoption was ridiculously complicated, especially for Jerome and I since we were a same sex couple, and for the other two couples in our lives with adopted children. But somehow, after years of trying, we had ended up with our beautiful, bubbly, redhead daughter.
Christmas was one of the best times of the year for us, meeting up with the six of us and the three kids at one house and having a massive Christmas lunch, exchanging presents and small gifts and just having time together as one massive, crazy family. But now that wasn't our only tradition.
Preston had first suggested it the year before, when his son was 4, and everyone else had readily accepted. Now, our tradition was to go to the House of Lights every year.
-------------------------------------------------
Bailey was quiet for the short car journey, occupying herself with a toy or something in the backseat, while I drove. Jerome was texting the other boys about where we would be meeting up, if they had left yet, that sort of thing, and he was silent for the journey as well.
Our daughter lit up the second she caught site of the light when we drove past them, trying to find somewhere to park.
"Are we going to the lights!?" She crowed excitedly, hands pressed on the window like paws.
"Yes we are Bailey." I laughed. "And Uncle Vikk and Uncle Lachy and Uncle Rob and Uncle Preston and Sam and Aubrey are all coming too."
"Yay!"
Vikk and Lachlan were already there, their squirming daughter in the blondes arms. She had only just had her first birthday though and wasn't yet walking so they didn't exactly have any option but to carry her- taking a pram through the crowded area would be nigh impossible. Vikk smiled at me, scooping Bailey up into his arms when she ran at him.
"Uncle Vikky!" She cheered.
Preston and Mitch arrived a few minutes later and their son, the oldest of the children, barrelled towards us and crashed into my legs.
"Slow down Sam!" Preston called warningly, his arm around his husbands waist. "There's snow on the ground."
Sam didn't seem to care, however, because he continued to cling to me and babble away something random that made no sense. He could talk perfectly fine when he wanted to, he was almost 4, but he tended to slip back into a language no one but him understood when he was excited or angry.
"Ready?" I asked the other boys, and they nodded. Aubrey had calmed down a little and was waving at me over Lachlan's shoulder, so I made funny faces at her, earning a cheeky smile. Sam continued to cling to me and Bailey to Vikk.
Preston came and pried his son off me, nudging him forward with his hip and falling into step beside me. We hadn't seen each other in a few days due to the kids school and having to work so much and I was glad to talk to him again while Mitch and Jerome talked, Vikk and Lachlan carrying the youngest two. We fell into an easy rhythm that had been around for years, uninterrupted even after we got the kids. They fell into it too.
"How you been?" He asked as we lined up in front of the gate, a few families giving their donations to get in.
"Good." I said, keeping a careful eye on Sam. He was known to run off if something caught his attention. "Bailey's been doing well in kindergarten, still a little clingy but I think she's getting over that phase."
"That great." He smiled. "Sam got over it pretty quickly but then again he's a lot more outgoing that she is. I think Aubrey'll grow to be more like Sam honestly, she already seems pretty out there."
I nodded. This was something we had discussed many times but it was nice to go over it again with someone that wasn't Jerome because we knew everything about our child and talking about it with someone else who had a child further along in development, in person, as it provided a little bit of comfort that we were doing the right thing.
"Ready for the lights?" I asked Sam as he came bouncing back in my direction. He nodded excitedly.
"Yeah! Lights!"
-----------------------------------------------
"This should become a tradition." Preston mused as he nudged Sam into the back of their car. The boy wasn't asleep yet but he was close to it, moving like a slug and yawning everyone couple of moments. "The kids loved it and they ran themselves ragged."
Bailey was asleep on my shoulder. She had passed out a couple of minutes before we left and I had carried her the rest of the way and Preston was right- the kids had worn themselves out running back and forth, at least Bailey and Sam had. Aubrey couldn't walk, of course, but she was asleep in Lachlan's arms after such an adventure.
"I could see that happening." Jerome said with a yawning, resting his head on my other shoulder himself. "But we'll talk about it later because we need to get the kids to bed and maybe ourselves to bed too."
Vikk nodded, as did Mitch, and they both gave me and Jerome quick hugs goodbye as Lachlan strapped his daughter into his car seat.
"We'll see you soon." I said, one hand behind Bailey's head as I moved to put her in the car. "Bye guys!"
In the car I took a glance in the mirror at our sleeping daughter.
"We should do it again next year." I said. "It was fun."
"I'd be down." Jerome leaned across to peck my cheek. "Love you."
"Love you too."
