“Mommy, can you tell us a story from your past after dinner?” Little Jessica Caffrey asks me on Christmas. She always loves to hear those kinds of stories.

“Alright, I will tell you a couple of stories. I will tell you guys’ only four stories tonight. If I do tell the stories from my past, then your sister gets to pick out the book that I am going to read to you tonight,” I say to my two beautiful daughters. Their names are Jessica Lin Caffrey, and Hannah Marie Caffrey. Jessica is six years old, and Hannah is 4 years old.
They are the cutest little girls that you will ever meet in your life. My husband, Neal, and I call Jessica our little Jezebel, she loves that name. Hannah is not too interested in nicknames. She will like them one day, and the next she won’t want one.
“Alright, that sounds like a good deal mom,” Jessica says as she runs to hers and Hannah’s room. “Hannah, you get to pick the story tonight,” She yells while she runs to their room.
I laugh as I started to walk to toward my daughter’s room. The girls were so excited about Christmas that they didn’t want it to end. And their father was going to walk through the front door any minute, so they wanted to run right to him.
I turn around when I hear the door lock turn. I stop and waited for one of the girls to scream “Daddy’ home!”
“Daddy’s home!” Hannah screams at the top of her lungs. She comes running out of the room, she zooms passed her sister, and runs to the door just as her father opens it. “Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!” Hannah screams as she holds her arms up, which means that she wants him to pick her up.
“Hello, my baby girl,” Neal says as he picks Hannah up and spins her around.
“What about me Daddy? Do I get a turn?” Jessica asks as she looks up at her father. She has those big puppy dog eyes on, and her lip is quivering.
“Of course you can. You are my big girl.” Neal says as he puts Hannah down and picks up Jessica. Both Hannah and Jessica are laughing.
“Do I get a chance too?” I ask as Neal starts to put Jessica down.
Neal looks up at me and kisses me. He picks me up and spins me around. We were all laughing, and having fun when we hear someone clean their throat behind us, and we all turn around and see who it is.
“Uncle Peter, Aunt Elizabeth!” Jessica and Hannah scream while running to them. Neal puts me down and we stand side by side, Neal’s arm wrapped around my waist, my hand on his back.
“Well, hello my two little precious nieces, how are you guys? It has been forever since I have seen you two.” Peter says as he picks up both of the girls.
Elizabeth joins in and starts to hug the girls. “I agree with Uncle Peter. We miss you girls so much, you should come over more often.” She says adding a kiss to both of the girl’s foreheads. They were both laughing.
“That can be arranged,” I say leaving Neal. I walk over and hug Elizabeth and then Peter and say “Merry Christmas.”
“Actually Elizabeth, we do need someone to watch the kids next weekend. Are you guys up for the challenge of watching these two trouble makers?” Neal says as he starts to tickle both of the girls.
“Well, Neal, we are always looking for a good challenge.” Peter says, and we all start to laugh.

“Alright, it’s time for dinner. Neal and Peter, will you two help Jessica and Hannah set the table please. Elizabeth would you like to help me in the kitchen?”
“Sure, I love to work in the kitchen,” Elizabeth says as she and I start to walk to the kitchen.

While we are working in the kitchen, we can hear how much fun Neal, Peter and the girls are having; it makes me laugh.

“Will you tell me something Miley, are you having another girl, or are you having a boy?” Elizabeth asks me while I am pulling dinner out of the oven.

“I am having a boy,” I say as I put everything down on the counter. “Neal is so happy; his last name isn’t going to end with him.” I say as I smile and we both laughed.
Neal must have known that we were talking about him because he walked into the kitchen saying “Were you two talking about me?”

Elizabeth and I started to laugh again. We picked up the food and walked out into the dining room.
“I will tell you later dear,” I tell Neal, and then I kiss him.
The table was seat, and I look at the girls; they know that it is time to wash their hands. They run to the bathroom, Neal followed them so that he can help them.
“So, Peter, when are you and Elizabeth going to have some kids of your own?” I ask Peter. He stopped what he was doing and he looked up at me. He was shocked to hear me ask that question.
“Well, we were thing that we were going to start trying again in a couple of days.” Peter said looking up at Elizabeth, and they both smiled at each other, and then they kissed.
Neal walked back in with the kids, they were all laughing. Neal came over to me, and he stood next to me.
“Okay guys,” Neal said, “it is time for dinner.” He said as he took my hand, and led me to the table.
“Yum,” Hannah said, “I can’t wait, I am starving.” She said as she ran to the table. Jessica raced Hannah to the table. Peter and Elizabeth followed them to the table they were laughing at the girls.
“Girls, what did I say about running in the house?” I said, they stopped running, but they still raced to the table.
“Miley, they are kids. Let them have some fun.” Neal says as we stopped walking to the table. I laugh and he looks at me. “What?” he asks as he stops and looks at me.
“Nothing, it’s just that I know that they are kids, and they do have fun.” I said to him while I looked up to see Peter and Elizabeth helping the girls get into their chairs. I smiled and told him, “We watched the Lion King today like three times. Then Jessica, and Hannah made a play about the Lion King, it was so cute. They are going to put it on for you later.” I said.
“Huh, they always tell me that they never have fun with their mommy,” Neal said in a jokingly voice. He looked at me and he could see the sad look I put on my face. “I am sorry Miley, I am joking, and they love spending time with you.” He said as he turned and hugged me. Man is he a sucker when I do my puppy dog eyes routine.
“Mommy, can we eat dinner now,” Hannah called to me; she had the cutest look on her face that just made me laugh.
“Yes honey, Daddy and I will be right there in just a second.” I call to her, then Neal takes my hand and we walk over to the table again.
After we finished dinner, Peter and Elizabeth played the card game “Go Fish” with the girls. Elizabeth and Peter were going to make great parents one day. While Peter and Elizabeth were playing, Neal and I were cleaning up after dinner.
“Penny for your thought,” Neal said as he put a penny in front of my face. I started to laugh, and then I took the penny out of his hand.
“I was just thinking that Peter and Elizabeth are going to make great parents,” I said while I watched Hannah jump up and do her happy dance (she does this every time she gets her wish), everyone laughed. “I also think that they are going to be parents sooner rather than later.” I said look back at Neal. “Oh, and you owe me another penny.”
Neal reached into his pocket to get a penny when I stopped him. “What? You said that I owed you another penny so I was going to get it for you.” He said with this big childish smile on his face.
“I know,” I said looking deep into his eyes, “I think I can settle for a kiss instead.” I said with a smile as Neal leans in a kisses me. We walk out of the kitchen and joined everyone in the dining room. We were all having such a good time, that I didn’t even feel the baby start to kick until I took the time to actually sit down.
“Well girls, what did you get for Christmas?” Elizabeth asks both of the girls. They both jump up from the table, run to their room, and return with an arm full of cool gadgets, books, and clothes.
“Wow, you girls got a lot of stuff,” Peter said as he looked at all of the stuff. “I loved reading this book when I was younger.” He said as he picked up one of Jessica’s books.
“Really, Uncle Peter,” Jessica asked him with excitement in her voice. “I love it too.”
“Jessica,” I say with a little question in my voice, “we haven’t read it yet. How do you know that you are going to like it?” I ask her as Peter hands the book over to Elizabeth, who was trying to see what the book title was.
“Well mom, I know that I am going to like it because the cover is so cool.” She said as she pointed to the book in Elizabeth’s hands. “Plus, Santa picked it out. That means that it is going to be a great book.
Neal and I started to laugh. We went over all of the Christmas presents the girls got. They had this look of pure enjoyment when they went over every present they had gotten. Neal was sitting next to me, he looked kind of scared, since my hand was on my stomach and I was making weird faces.
“Miley, are you okay you don’t look so good?” Peter asks me, he was looking just as scared as Neal was.
“I am fine,” I smiled as I looked at Neal and then to Peter, “the baby is just kicking that’s all. It not like I haven’t felt it before.” I say as I look from Peter to the girls.
“Hey, do you guys want to watch the play that Hannah and I put together with the help of mommy?” Jessica asked after she and Hannah had put their presents back in their room.
“We would love to see this play,” Neal says as he moved his attention from me to the girls.
It was nice; I didn’t feel like being watched all night. I mean, I already had two kids. I definitely know what is going to happen when you are pregnant. For the first couple of months you might have morning sickness. Luckily this time around, I didn’t have that much of it. You can also have wicked cravings for the most randomness things. I have the cravings for pickles and ice cream. Sometimes I have cravings for Chinese food, but that does not happen that much. Even though we woman have to go through so much to have a kid, I enjoy every second of it.
The girls started to do there play; when it was done we were all clapping.
“Bravo,” yelled Peter. Elizabeth actually started to cry. I mean it was a touching play. The girls did remember every line that they had come up with. I have such talented kids. I thought to myself.
“Well, I am sorry to say that it is time for Aunt Elizabeth and I to leave.” Peter said as he got up from his spot.
“What! You guys can’t leave, we are not tired yet.” Jessica said. What she didn’t know was that behind her Hannah was rubbing her eyes, and yawning.
“Don’t worry Jessica,” Elizabeth said as she hugged her. “We will be back next weekend to babysit you two. We will have more fun then,” She said as she finished the hug.
“Okay, I guess I can wait a while till I can have more fun.” Jessica said as she went over and hugged Peter. “Goodbye Uncle Peter, goodbye Aunt Elizabeth,” Jessica said and then she ran over to me and sat on my lap so that I would rub her back.
“Come here Hannah,” Peter said as he picked her up. “Someone looks tired. Is it passed your bedtime?” Peter asked as he passed Hannah over to Elizabeth, and came over to hug me. Jessica went over and stood by her father so I could get up.
“Yes, it is past her bedtime.” I said as I hugged Peter. Then I went over and hugged Elizabeth, and took Hannah out of her arms. “We haven’t even read any bedtime stories yet,” I said as I push the hair out of Hannah’s face.
“Well, we won’t keep you guys any loner,” Elizabeth said as she hugged Neal. “We will babysit for you guys next weekend.” She said as she grabbed Peter’s hand, and led him to the door.
“Goodbye Uncle Peter and Aunt Elizabeth,” Hannah said right before they closed the door.
“Alright girls,” Neal said as he took Hannah out of my arms. “Let’s get ready for bed.” He said taking Jessica’s hand and leading her to the room. I followed behind them because it had been a long time since Neal has put the girls down for bed in a long time. Plus, this mother never breaks her promise.
After Neal had the girls changed into their pajamas he put Jessica into her bed, while I put Hannah into hers.
“Mommy, are you going to tell us some of the stories of when you were growing up?” Hannah asked me, she had the book that we were going to read that night in her arms.
“Yes Hannah,” I said as I kissed her on the head “How could I forget that?” I said as I played with her hair. I started to think of a good memory when the phone started to ring.
“I got it,” Neal said as he left the room.
“Well, do you want to hear about some of the things that your aunts, uncles, and I did when we were waiting for Santa to come?” I asked looking at both of the girls.
They both got really quite. They loved hearing stories from mine and Neal’s pasts. They heard my stories more often than they did their dads, because he didn’t want them to know about his past.
“Well, when we were younger we would wait for Neena and Papa to go to bed, then Aunt Marie, Uncle Warren, and I would sneak out of our rooms and we would hide under the tree. We were so determined to see Santa that we were going to stay up all night.” I said as I looked at the girls. They both had this look of enjoyment on their faces.
“Did you ever see Santa Mamma?” Jessica asked.
“No, we never stayed up long enough to see him.” I said with a laugh. “We would always fall asleep under the tree, and the next morning we would somehow end up back in out beds.”
“Hannah,” Jessica yelled at her, “we have to try this sometime. It sounds like so much fun.” Jessica was getting really excited.
“Actually, that’s not a smart idea,” I said as I look at Jessica.
“Why? You use to do it?” Hannah asked; she loved to ask questions about everything, and anything.
“Well, Santa knows when you are up to something.” I said turning my attention to Hannah. “And he tells mommy and daddy what you are doing,” I say as I look toward Jessica. “That’s how I think we got back to our beds that night,” I said as I smiled.
“Can you tell us another story mommy?” Hannah asked still holding onto the book for dear life.
“Okay, one more of my stories, then the bedtime book, then it is bedtime understand,” I said as I shifted my head back and forth between both of the girls.
“Okay,” they both say at the same time. They looked at each other, and then we all laughed.
“Okay, well we will keep the Christmas spirit going. One night we all went to bed, we use to sleep in bunk bed, well Aunt Marie heard this thud, she thought it came from the roof so she went running saying ‘Santa’s back, Santa’s back.’ She woke everyone up. We all went running out to the living room, where we keep the tree and Santa wasn’t there. Neena and Papa said that Santa wasn’t coming back till next year,” I paused to take a breath.
“Then what made the noise mommy?” both Jessica and Hannah asked at the same time.
“It was Uncle Raymond, he fell of his bed.” I said as I started to laugh, both of the girls joined in and laughed with me.
“Mommy can you tell us a couple more please.” Jessica asked. She had on her puppy dog face. I could never say no to that face.
“Okay, I will tell another two more.”I said rubbing Jessica’s head; she giggled as I rubbed it.
“Thank you, Mommy,” Jessica said.
“Let’s see, did I tell you guys about the time that Uncle Raymond and I were fighting, and we ended up calling the police on accident?” I asked both of them, while I tried to remember all of the details to that night.
“No, you never have,” Hannah said, “I would have remembered that story.” She said oh so confidently.
“Okay, well Uncle Raymond was hungry, and Neena and Papa were not home. So, he said that he was going to call them. I told him not to, because everyone needed their some alone time every now and then.” I said as I look up at the roof, trying to remember more details. “Well, he started to call them, so I keep hanging up the phone. I would yell at him saying that Mom and Dad needed some alone time. But Uncle Raymond would just keep dialing them. After a bout ten minutes, of this he finally gave up.” I paused so that I could take a breath.
“What happened after that mamma?” Both the girls asked.
“Well, the phone started to ring. So we answered it.” I said with a smile on my face. “It was the Police; they said that we had called them. We told them that we did it on accident, but they still sent a trooper over to our house to see if everyone was ok.” I started to laugh, “They took Aunt Marie’s information, and then they left. She was not happy at all, we were all so scared. After Neena and Papa came home, we told everything that happened. They weren’t happy with us, but at least we learned our lesson.” I said as I was still smiling.
“Do we get one more mommy?”
“Yes you do.” I smile at my two beautiful little girls. “Well, when your Aunts, Uncles, and I were growing up, Papa would pull us around on this big black plastic container, like the ones in the back of pickup trucks.” I said as I made a circular path with my hands. “Well, we would go around for hours, and hours. It was so much fun, but if you fell of the huge sled, than you had to run and catch up with Papa.” I said as I smiled at the memory.
“Did Papa ever stop for you guys?” Hannah asked.
“Yes, he would stop sometimes,” I said as I looked at her. “He would stop because no one was on the sled.” I finished with a laugh.
“Wow, ok Mommy you can read the book now.” Hannah said as she handed me the bedtime book.
I read them the bedtime book, kissed their heads, tucked them in, and then I left the room. They were fast asleep before I could close the door. It always made me laugh when they did that.
I walked into the living room surprised to see that Neal was talking to Mozzie. Mozzie was a great guy; he was Neal’s best friend. Mozzie was also my best friend too. Most of Neal’s friends ended up becoming my friends. I only did this so that if Neal didn’t come home one night, I would call them to see if he was with one of them.
I walked over to great Mozzie.
“Merry Christmas, Mozzie.” I said as I hugged him. “The girls missed you at dinner, I put some of the food in a container for you.” I said as I stepped back.
“Thank you Miley, I am looking forward to your lovely cooking.” He said as he smiled at me. Mozzie was a total suck up, but I did love hearing all of the complements that he always had to say to me.
“Mozzie was just telling me some wonderful news.” Neal said as he looked from me to Mozzie. “Are you going to tell Miley?”
“Yes,” Mozzie said looking at me. “I proposed to my girlfriend and she said yes.” Mozzie said; the smile was like a candle that was bright, and warm.
“Congratulations Mozzie,” I said as I hugged him. “I am so happy for you.”
“Yes, well I have to get going, Tammy said she had a surprise for me.” He said as he headed for the door.
“Wait,” I said as I went to the kitchen and came back out with a container full of food. “You almost forgot this.” I said as I gave him the container.
“Thank you Miley, have a nice night you two, tell the girls that Uncle Mozzie said Hello, and Merry Christmas.” He said as he left the house.
Neal walked out into the hallway with Mozzie, so I went over and sat down on the couch in the living room. It was nice and soft, considering I had been standing on my feet all day. This has been a great Christmas; I got to spend time with my friends and family. I didn’t think that it could get any better. Then Neal came in with this little box that was wrapped up with a cute bow on top.
“Merry Christmas, Miley,” he said as he kissed me on the head.
I opened the box and I saw a beautiful gold necklace that had all the girls, plus Neal’s birthstones in it. There was also an empty spot for a stone for our sons. I lied, this Christmas just got better.
“Oh my, Neal,” I said as I put my hand on my mouth, “this is so beautiful. I love it so much.”
“Nothing is too good for my wife.” Neal said as he put the necklace on me.
“Merry Christmas Neal, I love you” I said to him as I kissed him.
“I love you too, Miley,” Neal said back to me. This was a great Christmas indeed.