The doorbell jarred her out of her reverie.
“I’ll get it,” Sophie said, jumping up, and startling Mia awake.
“Look out the window and make sure it’s someone we know,” Arianna said, even as she set aside her throw.
“Alden!” Sophie cried, and threw the door open wide.
“Gobble, gobble,” he said, ruffling her hair. Buster, who was with him, raced into the room and began jumping on Sophie’s leg, begging for attention.
“You were at your parents’,” Arianna said, confused.
“We finished dinner and Mom said to get out of her hair.” He held up a half gallon of ice cream. “Who wants pumpkin ice cream?”
“Me!” cried Sophie, her attention diverted from the dog.
“I didn’t think you’d have time,” Arianna said as he slipped off his coat.
“I’ll always have time for you,” he said. The look in his eyes warmed her better than any cozy fireplace fire ever could.
They settled in with their ice cream and went back to watching the Grinch do his best to ruin Christmas. It felt so greeting-card perfect. Arianna tightened her hold again, this time on Alden’s hand.
Between work and spending as much time with Reggie as possible, Molly was pooped, but she still gathered up her leftover pumpkin rolls from the day before and went with her daughter and granddaughter to Arianna’s house to celebrate Christmas in November.
The celebrating started with lunch, which featured a turkey casserole Arianna had concocted and her butternut bisque, along with everyone else’s leftovers and was followed by baking pumpkin cookies to distribute at the rehab center while the kids all designed Merry-Christmas-in-November cards for Reggie. Next came white elephant gift stealing, with the prizes piled under Arianna’s tree, which Sophie had decorated with cutout turkeys. Dylan was thrilled with his Whoopee cushion, which nobody wanted, and Molly and Sunny fought hard over the Frango mints.
They’d just finished when Alden arrived, freshly showered after getting in some sleep after working his shift and ready to spend the rest of the day partying. “Did I miss all the fun?” he asked Sunny.
“Not quite. We have one more game,” she said.
“Yay!” chorused Sophie and Paisley.
“I want everyone to write something you’re thankful for on a slip of paper and then put it in this Santa hat,” she instructed, holding up her favorite hat withI’ve Been Goodembroidered on it. “I’ll read them and we’ll see if we can guess who wrote what.”
Dylan’s was easy enough to guess. His slip merely saidpizza.
My kids and my wifewas Travis.Grammywas Sophie. Paisley had writtenmy grandma and mom.
Getting to be part of all thistook a couple of guesses.
“Alden?” Arianna ventured and he grinned.
“I thought this sounded kind of out there when you all started it, but it’s been great. This whole getting together and finding a reason to celebrate every month—that needs to catch on,” he said.
“I’m happy we’ve been able to focus on appreciating each other,” Sunny told him, and smiled at Bella, who smiled back.
The list of things everyone was thankful for continued. Sunny pulled out a slip of paper that was not limited to one thing. “My mother,” she began. “My daughter, the amazing man in my life.”
“Oh, that’s Arianna,” Rae said with a grin.
“Yep,” Arianna said, and blushed.
“There’s more,” Sunny said, and read, “My friends.”
“We’re thankful for you, too,” Molly told her. “And you, Mia. Watching how you’ve dealt with your health challenges has been inspiring.”
“It’s not like I had much choice in the matter,” Mia replied.
“You did. There’s always a choice,” Molly said. “You can complain and be bitter or you can get on with it. We’ve all seen how you’ve used what you’re going through to help other women. That’s what I call turning a negative into a positive.”
