shimmerandsing | Tis the season!

The only thing better than Christmas at home with her husband and family was Christmas at home with her husband, family, and friends. Alison had been eagerly awaiting the return of Rogue and Dakota's bunch to the castle for the holidays. She had already picked out a Christmas tree, which Longshot and John hauled home for her. It had lights on -- mostly Miyuki and Lisa's doing with Alison's supervision -- but, no ornaments yet. She figured that Gloria Jean and the boys could help with that when they arrived.

And they were coming early! That made it even better.

Despite her decreased mobility, Alison had been up early on the day they were scheduled to arrive. The castle was generally kept pretty clean, but she straightened anyway. And then... the baking! She hadn't felt such a strong urge to bake since the early months of her pregnancy. But, now, it was back in full force. By the time she finally tired of it, she had sugar cookies, gingerbread men, a gingerbread house, snowball cupcakes, and chocolate dipped pretzels.

She sat down in the kitchen to rest her feet and nibble on some gingerbread. Her little tea pot sat on the stove, happily brewing some peppermint tea. It might not be Christmas yet, but it sure smelled like Christmas.

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Dakota was remaining quiet. The less things he got roped into the better. He didn't particularly have fond memories of Christmas and most times when he tried it blew up in his face. Though while they were all decorating, he was going to go out and get some Moosehead. He glanced around the kitchen to see if there was a bottle opener out.

The boys bustled into the kitchen and dropped into seats. They immediately had baked goods in their hands somehow. Will had plopped down in an open seat as close to Alison as he could get. Rodney just plopped down and started grazing.

"How we gonna get them?" Gloria Jean asked after they were done de-Silly Stringing each other. She started to head downstairs. She had heard her noisy brothers head down. If they didn't get down their soon, those icky boys would have eaten it all!

"Gotta be somethin' smart. Silly string's too easy. We gotta do somethin' better." She hummed thoughtfully as they headed down the stairs. It had to be something subtle.

Then she grinned. "You got any nail polish and perfume?"

Well, with Rogue hired, Longshot could... he didn't know. Hmm. He eyed Dakota looking around the room. He could keep Dakota out of trouble. or the other way around. Longshot was not too sure about Alison's holidays and didn't want to mess them up.

Miyuki, eventually, pulled back from Robbie a bit. She had heard the other two boys tromping down the steps. "We should go greet the guests."

She said it slowly. Like she didn't want to, but the Japanese hospitality imperative was kicking in.

Rogue leans forward a bit. "If Ah'm hired, what's the pay like?"

She gives Alison a wink before the boys invade the table. The Southerner glances to her husband to see if he thought the two bottomless pits were looking a little too smug for just putting luggage away. Except her husband is not paying attention. She shrugs and slaps Rodney's hand away from her pretzels.

"Getcher own there, boyo."

"I pay in baked goods. How does that sound?" She grinned. That was currency she had aplenty. Later, she might even have dinner to offer.

She reached over and patted Will's shoulder lightly. "Welcome back, boys." She smiled at Rodney, too. "I'm glad you all came."

Will blushed a little at the shoulder patting. "I'll work for free," he managed to comment around his mouthful of cupcake.

Rodney rolled his eyes at his brother. "I'll take double whatever Rogue's paid."

He would, too. he was a growing young man. The more food the better.

Dakota played with a sugar cookie in front of him.

Gloria jean shook her head sadly. "No. Daddy's not big on me having some." She suddenly brightened. "But Mama Rogue does!"

She only called Rogue that when her brothers were not around. They seemed to make her feel a little silly for it.

"Hmmmm. Think she'll let us borrow some? Or Alison, maybe. Just as long as they don't ask us what we want it for." Then she grinned. "Well, we can tell 'em it's for makeovers. Just not say who they're for."

Lisa bunny hopped down the last few steps to the main floor. "You like having Rogue for a mama now?" She was curious since she hadn't ever had another mother after her first one.

The kitchen was filling up with people! Well, people who hadn't been here in while. Five ye-uhm, five months or so ago. Longshot scratched his beard.

"'Scuse me," he said as he pushed away from the table. "I gotta pee."

All that milk this morning had finally decided it wanted to exit.

"Sounds fair," Rogue agrees with a nod. "Though y'all are gonna need a fair bit more with three teenage boys in the house. Where's Robbie?"

She catches Dakota being quiet and playing with a cookie out of the corner of her eye. She frowns slightly and decides they really need to talk sooner rather than later. If she can find an opportune moment in all the hustle and bustle.

"Oh, there's more to be had. As soon as my feet stop swelling, I'm going to get up and bake some more. I'm craving chocolate chip cookies all of the sudden."

She smiled and shrugged. "Better question might be, where is Miyuki?"

Both of Dakota's sons choked on their baked goods. They exchanged a glance that was probably unreadable to anybody else. Rodney gave a half-shrug. He went back to eating his cupcake.

Dakota looked up momentarily. Well, that was one girl he didn't have to worry about then. Good for Robbie. Bad for John. Though John probably didn't have a history of getting a girl pregnant when he was a teen.

Gloria Jean nodded. "I don't remember my real Mom. She died when I was very small. That's why I get along with Rogue better. I don't have memories that get in the way. She's real nice. And she makes Daddy happy."

Well, most of the time. She had heard a small snippet of the argument this morning. Before Dakota just went quiet and started getting the siblings ready to leave.

Somewhere, John just got a chill.

Lisa smiled at Gloria Jean. "That's good. Your Dad's nice and I like Rogue. And I like you, so you should all be happy." Because she said so.

She didn't figure she'd ever have another mom of her own, but that was okay. She had Tasha and Alison, so she had enough mom'ing to go around.

Robbie sighed and nodded to Miyuki. He didn't want to move, but he supposed he had to. His ingrained sense of politeness wouldn't let him ignore guests any more than Miyuki's would.

"Okay, you're right. But, two weeks is going to make for a long wait." He might have pouted just a little bit.

Longshot disappeared to the bathroom. Ahhhhh. Nice, relaxing pee. Though that wall behind the toilet was pretty boring to look at for more than five seconds.

Miyuki reached over and grabbed Robbie's hand. "We're ninja," she reminded him with a grin. "We will find way and place to be alone."

Longshot and Alison did it so often. There had to be a trick to it. Especially since Alison was nowhere near being a ninja.

"Need any help with the bakin', too?" Rogue asks. She starts a little distracted by her husband before getting back to paying attention to Alison by the end of the statement.

Then she blinks at the question she should have asked. "Well, Ah'll be damned," she mutters appreciatively.

"I always welcome help with the baking. More help means more baking." She grinned. Brownies seemed like they were in the works now, too. Yay! Or -- "How do you feel about gingerbread houses?"

She laughed at Rogue's expression. "I think it was inevitable. But, it's still adorable. I'll give you some of the more entertaining stories later."

Tis the season!

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