FicWad

Christmas that year was a busy one. We had Bronx for Christmas and it was going to be the last Christmas we would have him unless he decided to spend it with us. Next year he would be in college and we didn’t know where he was going yet, or if he was going to come home on his breaks. And even if he did, he might spend it with his Mom.

Pete’s family had asked us to spend Christmas with them in Chicago. But it would take a lot of time and effort for us to go there. There are seven of us, two adults, one teenager, two little kids and two babies. I didn’t want to fly out there. My Dad and stepmom Amy had extended an invitation to spend it with them on the farm. But again, a big family to take out there. My Mom had been behaving better but I was still not ready to spend much time with her. So, we decided to spend the holidays at home. Besides, we’ve invited all the family to the twins' first birthday at the end of January.

However, my brother Scott, his wife Lisa, and their teenage daughter Abby, were invited to spend Christmas with us. Pete and I had talked about it around Thanksgiving. He loves Scott and Lisa. They got along so well together. And he adored Abby. Bronx and her had stayed in touch for the last year and a half, they were very good friends. Saint and Marvel loved them too and had been asking when we would see my family again. Since Abby would be in school when the twins turned one, they weren’t planning on coming out for that. But we wanted to see them and let them meet the twins.

We decided to invite them out as a family for Christmas. When I called Scott to ask him to come out, I offered to pay for the flight. But we wanted to take them and our family to Disneyland for Christmas day. He said he needed to talk with Lisa and see if they could get the time off, but he loved the idea and wanted to come out. They did what they needed to do to get the time off and were going to be in L.A. from December 20th to January 3rd.

I went into planning mode and had almost everything planned out the week before I was asking for Q&A questions on my channel. We were going to have an epic Christmas. I saw it as an amazing adventure, and I was really looking forward to it. Scott had insisted on paying for their flights, but I had assured him I would take care of their lodging. When Pete and I were talking it over we had decided on getting an AirBnB for them. It had worked for our parents and we knew of a house in our neighborhood not too far from the house that we had rented before. However, Bronx overheard us talking about it and offered to give up his room if it meant they could stay at our house. He said he could either bunk with Saint for the week or, sleep at his Mom’s house and spend the days with us. That way Scott and Lisa could sleep in his room and Abby could stay in the den. He really wanted to spend time with Abby and was willing to give up his privacy for the week if it meant more time with her.

We talked it over with the kids, and they were happy to do that because they all wanted to spend as much time with their Aunt, Uncle, and cousin as possible. I called Scott and asked if they would be comfortable with that. They were very happy with the idea and agreed to stay with us. We were all looking forward to Christmas.

When the day came, I went to pick up my family at the airport. I met them in baggage claim. Abby saw me first.

“Aunt Gracie!” She called out when she saw me.

“Hi Abby!” I said as I hugged her. Scott and Lisa were right behind her. I got hugs from them as well.

“I’m so glad you’re here!” I told them as we headed to pick up their luggage. “How was the flight?”

“Fine. Pretty uneventful. But it was full. Lots of people are traveling for the holidays.” Scott was telling me.

“Well, let’s get your bags and I’ll take you home. The kids are so excited, they can’t wait to see you guys. Marvel’s been asking every day for a week how many days were left before you got here. She wanted to come with me to pick you up. I made her stay home with Pete. She would have just stressed me out.” I told them as I laughed.

“Are we really going to spend Christmas at Disneyland? Like all day there?” Abby asked as we took their luggage off the conveyor belt.

“We are. I’ve booked rooms for all of us to stay Christmas Eve night at one of the resorts. We’ll check in on Christmas Eve, then wake up and head out on Christmas morning and spend the day in the park. Then we’ll stay Christmas night at the resort and go home the day after. From what I’ve read, we’re in for a fun day.”

I took them out to the car and got everyone in. I took them back to our house where the rest of the family was waiting for us. Pete had dinner cooking so we didn’t have to wait to eat. The kids were bursting with excitement. Bronx, Saint, and Marvel all ran out to greet us when we pulled in.

“Abby! Abby! You’re here!” Marvel squealed as she ran out and greeted her. Abby was just as excited to see my kids as they were to see her. Saint was next to greet her. Then Bronx got his hug. He was very excited to see her. They had been in touch and were very good friends.

Pete came to the door and helped with the luggage. But the babies were awake so he didn’t want to leave them alone as they played on the floor of the living room.

“Scott! Lisa! I’m so glad you’re here!” He greeted them both with big hugs and big smiles.

“Hey Pete!” Scott said as they met in the driveway. Lisa got a hug and asked where the twins were.

Pete grinned at her and said, “Inside. Come in and meet them.” He ushered them into the house.

Everyone, even Marvel, helped bring in the bags. And then I took my brother, sister in law, and niece to meet my children.

Jupiter was sitting on the floor with some toys, chewing on one of them. Star was standing next to the couch. She still hadn’t started walking, but I was sure it would be any minute. She was going to be the first to walk. Jupiter had been the first to talk, and he was adding words already.

Pete and I took the three of them into the living room to meet the twins.

“Star, Jupiter, your Aunt and Uncle are here.” I said to them as we entered the room.

Jupiter looked up at me and said, “Mum! Tttsss ba mmmu da.”

I smiled at my son and picked him up. I turned to look at my brother and his family. “This talkative little man is Jupiter. And Star is the one about to walk.”

Lisa held out her hands to Jupiter. “Oh my goodness! Jupiter you look so much like your Pops!”

Jupiter went willingly to Lisa. He smiled at her and babbled to her as she cuddled him.

“I think he looks like Pete and Dad.” I said.

Pete had picked up Star and was handing her to Scott. “I think he looks like John too. But Grace says he looks like me.”

“Star, you look just like your mother.” Scott said to her once he had her in his arms.

“I think so too. She’s just as beautiful as her Mother.” Pete said, and then flashed me his grin. I grinned back at him.

“She looks like me but with Pete’s coloring. His dark hair and golden skin. But she has my eyes.”

Jupiter reached for Pete and said, “Da, Da.” He reached out with his chubby little hands and made grabbing motions. Pete reached over and picked our son up.

“He’s talking?!?” Lisa asked as she handed the baby to Pete.

“For a few weeks now. He says Mum for Grace and Da for me. And he says Aint for Saint. He’s trying to get Bronx and Marvel. But they’re harder to say.”

We sat on the couch and let Scott, Lisa, and Abby hold the twins and get to know them a little.

We got them settled in and after looking at both Bronx’s room and the den, Scott and Lisa opted to take the den as the pull out couch was bigger than Bronx’s bed. Abby stayed in his room. I think they both liked that better. They could hang out together there.

Dinner was ready not too long after we got everyone settled. We all sat and enjoyed the meal together. We had the chance to catch up with my brother and family. Abby was top in her class and was going to sing in the school talent show in the spring. She was so excited for it.

“I don’t know what I’m going to sing yet.” She confessed to us. “It’d be really cool if you guys could come out and see it.”

“I can’t make any promises, but I would love to see you sing.” Pete told her. “I’m not too sure what the band’s schedule is going to be yet.”

This made Abby grin. “No one at school believes me that my Uncle Pete is really the same Pete in Fall Out Boy. Even when I showed them pictures from the wedding.” Abby told us.

Pete looked at me and gave me a smile that I knew could be trouble. I know this man well enough to know he was already up to something.

“Well, then maybe I need to make an appearance at your school to prove you’re telling the truth.” Pete told her. Abby looked beside herself.

“Oh, Uncle Pete, that would be awesome. Then I can prove I’m not a liar.”

“You just let Grace and I know when the performance is.” Pete grinned at her as he said that.

I knew we would end up at her high school to support her. And knowing Pete the way I did, I knew that if the band was anywhere close to New York he would have all of them come.

That evening we all hung out and let our guests get adjusted to west coast time. I had plans for the next day. Nothing too crazy, but I didn’t want to have nothing for them to do.

Bronx and Abby went and played video games in his room after the babies and little kids were in bed. I was sorry we didn’t live closer to them so those two could hang out together more often. But they talked, FaceTimed, and commented on each other’s social media posts.

The next day, I had planned on taking everyone out to the beach since Abby had asked if we could. She had never seen the Pacific ocean before. It was too cold to go swimming, but she and Scott were able to get their feet wet. Lisa wasn’t interested in that, she said it was too cold for her. And she had been to the West Coast before.

Bronx kept getting calls that he didn’t bother to answer. At one point I noticed him sending a text and he looked pissed off. He grumbled something and put his phone in his pocket. But as soon as his phone was away, he flashed his fathers grin at Abby and went back to whatever they were talking about.

That evening as we ate dinner, our doorbell rang. Pete got up to answer it. It was Rob, Bronx’s boyfriend. Pete invited him in and asked if he had had dinner yet. When Rob shook his head, Pete invited him to sit and join us.

“Hi Rob. I’ll get you a plate.” I said as he came into the dining room.

“Thanks Mrs. Wentz.” He said as he sat in between Abby and Bronx.

“What are you doing here? I told you we had family in town for Christmas.” Bronx asked him.

“I wanted to meet your family. You talk about Abby so much, I wanted to meet her.” Rob told him.

I fixed Rob a plate and was bringing it back in as Bronx introduced him to Abby.

“It’s nice to meet you Rob.” Abby said politely.

“Yeah, nice to meet you too.” Rob said. But it didn’t sound like he was happy about meeting Abby.

Bronx then introduced Scott and Lisa to Rob. “Rob, this is my Uncle Scott and Aunt Lisa. Scott is Moon’s brother. Uncle Scott, Aunt Lisa, this is my boyfriend Rob.”

“Hi Rob, nice to meet you.” Scott said and smiled at him. Lisa also greeted Rob and we went back to eating. But Bronx did not seem happy to have Rob there.

After dinner the kids wanted to play with Abby. Since Rob was there she wasn’t very interested in hanging out with Bronx and Rob, so she went and played with the younger kids. I overheard Bronx telling Rob he shouldn’t have come over.

“But you always talk about Abby and I wanted to meet her.” Rob complained.

“You didn’t want to just meet her. You wanted a reason to bitch and moan about her. You’ve been jealous of her from the start. She’s my cousin and my friend. You don’t have anything to worry about.” Bronx told him in an exasperated tone.

“Only by marriage it’s not like you share blood. You could date her if you wanted to. And I know you want to.” Rob said in a nasty tone.

“Go home, Rob. I’ll call you later.” Bronx told him as he opened the front door.

“But, you can’t be serious.” Rob said.

“Go home. I am going to spend the next week with my family that I haven’t seen in over a year. I already told you I was going to be busy this week. I don’t know why you didn’t believe me.” Bronx sounded very angry at this point.

I heard Rob grumbling and then Bronx said, “I think we’re done. I can’t deal with you when you’re like this. Go home. I’ll call you next week when they leave. But I don’t want to hear from you until then.” And then the front door slammed.

Pete and I looked at each other. We were both surprised at this. We liked Rob, and Bronx seemed happy with the relationship. He came into the living room where we were all sitting and chatting.

“Everything ok?” Pete asked him.

“Yeah. Rob needed to go home. Abby, wanna go play some games?”

Abby agreed and the two of them went up to his room to play on the PS5.

“Well, that was interesting.” Lisa said. “Is he always like that?”

“Rob? Kind of. He wasn’t like this when they first started dating. But I’ve noticed he doesn’t like it much when Bronx hangs out with his other friends. And he really hates it when Bronx hangs out with girls. I think that’s mostly because Bronx had a girlfriend before he and Rob started dating.” I said.

“I don’t think this is gonna last much longer. I noticed Bronx ignoring his calls today. Didn’t you?” Pete said.

“I did. And I hate to admit it, but I hope you’re right. Rob’s jealousy is getting out of hand. Bronx has the right to spend his time with anyone he wants to. And setting the boundary of, my family is here, I’m spending time with them, is a reasonable one.” As much as I liked Rob, I didn’t think the relationship was healthy anymore.

We let it go after that. This was Bronx’s life and he was the one that would have to decide what to do. We were there if he needed us, but I wasn’t going to interfere. If Pete wanted to talk with Bronx about it, that was up to him.

We stayed up late with Scott and Lisa enjoying their company. All the kids ended up in bed a bit later than normal, but it was the Christmas break and they were having fun with their cousin.

We spent most of the week doing sightseeing things and just showing my family around the area. They had never been here before and wanted to see all the tourist spots.

The night before Christmas Eve we had a big dinner together. It was the big meal I was making for Christmas. We ate too much, but were happier for it. We had a great time together.

The morning of Christmas Eve, I made a huge breakfast for the family. As much as we adults would have liked to sit around the table and sip on our coffee, the kids were far too interested in opening up their gifts. After eating and putting the dishes in the sink, we let them at the presents under the tree. We didn’t have the usual haul since the big gift to everyone was the two nights at the resort and the day in Disneyland.

The kids were getting so excited about it. Saint was chattering away to anyone that would listen to him about what rides he wanted to go on. And what he wanted to do. Marvel and Abby were booked for a Princess experience. They were going to get dressed up as the princess of their choice, and have high tea with some of the princesses from the park. Marvel wanted to be Elsa. Abby wasn’t sure yet which one she wanted to be yet. But Marvel was beyond excited for it.

Everyone got at least one big gift that they had asked for. The babies had no idea what was going on, but Star had a blast playing with the bow on one of her gifts. Jupiter tried to eat his. I helped them both open what we had gotten for them. We didn’t go overboard, they’re not even one yet. They don’t know or care what they got for Christmas. But once I got the toys open for them, they played as the other kids opened the rest of their gifts.

We let the kids play and we adults went back to the kitchen for more coffee. We were sitting around the kitchen table and chatting when we heard Bronx and Abby in the other room start to call for me and Pete.

“Dad! Dad, Moon! Come quick!” Bronx shouted.

“Aunt Gracie, Uncle Pete! It’s Star! Come quick!!” Abby was saying.

We rushed in thinking something bad was happening to Star. We got in just in time to see her walking. Her steps were unsteady, and she only got about four steps before she fell and landed on her bottom. Her face screwed up like she was about to cry, but then she realized she wasn’t hurt. She flopped forward on her hands and knees, and then crawled to the table so she could pull herself up again. Once she was back on her feet, she turned to Marvel, let go of the table and walked to her sister. Marvel had her hands out to Star and was encouraging her.

“Come here Star. Come on, you can do it.” Marvel was telling her sister. With a grin on her face, Star toddled the 6 or 7 steps to her sister. The baby fell into Marvel’s arms and started to giggle.

“Oh my God, Star, you walked!” Pete exclaimed.

“Star, can you walk to me?” I was asking her as I got down on the floor a few feet from them. My daughter looked at me, smiled, and walked to me. I scooped her up when she got to me. “Star, that was the best Christmas present ever! I got to see your first steps. I’m so proud of you.” I said as I cuddled her to me.

Jupiter wasn’t happy about being left out of the excitement. He crawled over to me and wanted to be held too.

“Mum, Mum. Da. Ttsss phu, um tick.” He said as he pulled himself into my lap.

“Don’t worry Jupiter, I’m proud of you too.” I told my son as I scooped him into my lap too.

I sat with the babies for a little while before telling everyone that we needed to get up, get dressed and ready to head to the resort to check in. I already had the kids, Pete and I packed up. Bronx said he would take care of his own bags. I knew it would take a little while for everybody to get their things together. But once we were ready, we piled into my car and Pete’s and headed to Disneyland.

I had booked us two suites right next to each other. We split up the kids. Pete, the twins and I were in one room. Bronx and Saint were in the other room of our suite. Scott and Lisa took Marvel with them and she shared a room with Abby.

To kill some time before dinner, we took all the kids to the heated pool and let them swim for a few hours. My kids, even the babies, were all good swimmers. The babies had been in the pool since they were a few weeks old. We have a pool, both Pete and I wanted to be sure that all the kids knew how to swim. So we started them early.

We let the kids swim for a while. By the time we needed to go get cleaned up for dinner, all of the kids had gotten all their energy out. We headed back up to the rooms and got ready for dinner.

We had a reservation at the resort restaurant for dinner. Since it was Christmas Eve, they had a special menu. We dressed for it and had a delicious meal. Even the babies enjoyed it and were very well behaved.

By the time we were done with dinner and had made it back to the rooms, everyone was ready for bed. The boys and the babies went to sleep quickly. Pete and I stayed up a little while longer, but not too late. We had a long and full day ahead of us.

Christmas morning we had room service sent up so we could eat as we got the kids ready. Our plan was to spend the day at the park. Come back to the rooms mid-afternoon to let the babies and anyone else that needed it, get a nap. Then have dinner at the resort restaurant, then back to the park for the evening and to see the fireworks.

We got ready and headed to the park. We had the best time. The kids all had a lot of fun. The girls had a great time at the Princess tea. Abby decided on Belle as the princess she wanted to dress up as. The two of them stayed in their princess costumes for the rest of the day. Marvel was just so happy about it she didn’t stop talking about for weeks.

The boys went with Scott and Pete while the girls were having tea and went on all the roller coasters they could. We had arranged to meet back up at the resort.

By the time we all got back, most of us were ready for a nap. The babies were already asleep in their stroller. Marvel insisted on keeping her Elsa dress on. I didn’t want a meltdown so I let her. Even Saint said he needed a nap. I think all of us ended up getting a little bit of sleep.

Once we had all napped, we got something to eat at the resort and then went back to the park. We stayed there until the nightly fireworks were over. All of us were tired, happy, and ready to go to bed. I’m glad I had booked Christmas night at the resort. There was no way I was going to drive safely back home after such a long day.

Abby told me later that this was the best Christmas she had ever had. Spending the day in the park and being with my family was fun. But for her, the best part had been seeing her parents have fun and not stress. I was so happy we had decided to invite them out and that we did something so different and fun.