Chapter II
“Here Comes Santa
Claus, Here Comes Santa Claus right down Santa Claus lane.” They were about
three hours into their five hour ride.
Alex had slept for the first two hours next to Diesel and had woken up
in great spirits. After stopping at
Mcdonalds, Nico had found a holiday station and they had been singing ever
since.
“Mom, do you think
that grandpa really is gonna have dinner ready for s?”
“I don’t know,
baby, why?”
“I don’t think I
could eat another bite and I don’t want to be rude.”
“Oh sweetheart,”
Sam turned around and looked at alex. “I wouldn’t worry about that. He’s just gonna be so happy to see you!”
“Do you think so?”
“Of course sweetie!
He’s so excited! He got the downstairs
ready just for us!’
“and Tante Leena
and Uncle Jake are there?”
“ummhmm.’
“And Jenny,
Amanda, and Sean?”
“Yes, your cousins
are there too.”
“And we’re all
gonna live together.”
“yes, my darling,
is that okay? Remember we talked about this?
We’re all living at grandpa’s house until we find a place and Tante
Leena and Uncle jake are waiting for their house to get fixed.”
“so that means
nine of us in one house.”
“Whew.” Nico said
under his breath.
“Yes,” Sam shot
him a look.
“I like it!” alex
said suddenly. “It’s like teta’s Laura.”
That got Nico’s
attention. He looked at sam and then
chuckled. “Oui, c’est vrai.” Nico was trilingual and so was Alex due to the
fact that his dad was and also because of the school. Sam was the only one in the family who wasn’t
fluent in Arabic, French, though she did a pretty banging job with the English
language. She had studied Arabic in
order to make conversation with her in laws, but she was pretty hopeless with
French and Arabic. Alex, of course, took
to it flawlessly and he and his dad often had conversation which Sam understand
every tenth word.
“See?” Sam said to
both of them, meaning two totally different things. She knew that Nico was not thrilled at the
prospect of staying with her father. In
dubai they had owned a beautiful villa in the best part of town and the
prospect of sharing a house with another family and her dad, just wasn’t high
on the top of Nico’s list. But sam had convinced him to wait because it
would’ve been too difficult to rent something from overseas. And truthfully, she didn’t trust anyone one
else to choose a place for her. She had
to see it herself. As well, she had
spent the last five christmas’s with Nico’s family and was looking forward to
surrounding herself with her own.
Her sister was at
her dad’s house and her brother lived down the road. There were plenty of cousins for Alex to play
with and she couldn’t wait to catch up with her siblings and their partners.
A short hour
later, the three pulled down the private lane to sam’s dad’s house. She sighed.
The house was at the end of a cul de sac and was a sight to behold. The windows were light with range lights, the
trees outside adorned with white lights and the driveway was filled with cars,
a sight Sam always loved. She jumped out
of the car before Nico had even stopped and ran up to the front door.
“Merry Christmas!”
She burst in and was greeted by her two nieces.
“Auntie Sam!”
Jenny flung herself into Sam’s arms.
“Melly Sismas!”
Amanda toddled over. She was three.
Sam lifted her up
and gave her a kiss.
“cold.” Amanda
said and rubbed her cheek.
Woof! Diesel
bounded in excited by all the commotion.
“You have a dog?”
jenny patted him.
“doggy!” Amanda
said and tried to climb on his back.
“Hi.” Alex stood
in the doorway looking slightly unsure of himself. He looked so different than towheaded
cousins. Olive complexioned, dark, curly
hair and almond shaped eyes, he was a perfect combination of his Lebanese
father and Filipino mother.
“Alex!” Jenny
stood and gave him a huge hug.
“X!” Amanda copied
her sister and hugged him too.
Alex looked
surprised but then he busted out into a grin and hugged his cousin’s back.
“Wanna see the
tree? I think there’s some stuff under
there for you!”
Amanda tugged on
his hand and the three of them went down the hallway just as Sam’s dad poked
his head around the corner.
“Who’s that
heating the outside?” he boomed.
“Dad!” Sam ran to
her father and he enveloped her into a huge hug.
“Welcome home,
Sam,” he kissed the top of her head.
“Merry Christmas,
sir,” Nico said from behind Sam.
“Sir? Who’s
sir? I’ve told you a thousand times,
Nico, it’s James.”
“Merry Christmas,
James,” Nico said.
Sam and her dad both said, “Thanks!” and they laughed. Having the same name had always been a point
of pride for Samantha. She loved that
even though she had been adopted and was the youngest of all five kids in her
family, no one else had her dad’s name.
Not even any of the boys, which had always been a mystery, but her
mother had always said that they were saving the name for her.
“Well,
we should probably get all that stuff out of the car,” Nico said.
Sam
looked at her husband and she could see that he was exhausted. She went over and hugged him.
“Baby,
you’ve done such a phenomenal job today, thank you so much for bringing me
home.”
Nico
brightened and hugged Sam close. “I’m so
glad you’re happy.” He held her tight.
Things had been so strained, it was a huge deal for Nico that Sam looked
so happy here with her family.
“Why
don’t we call the boys and get you guys unpacked?” Dad asked.
“yes,
dad, that would be brilliant. We are
exhausted.”
“Done. Why don’t you two go take a load off? Fires on and we’re gonna order your favorite
tonight! We’ve been waiting.”
“what?
Naru?” Sam smiled, she got a little obsessive about food, a trait she shared
with her dad.
“Of
course!” he laughed.
At
that Alex looked over at her. He had
supersonic hearing.
She
smiled at him and then said, ‘dad, why don’t we order in, that way, we can eat
whatever we want and have leftover.
Besides, we can’t really eat there anyway.”
“Sounds
great. I’m going to call your
brother. He was planning to stop by to
say hi, but I’ll see if he can come over now to get your stuff downstairs. Your
sister and Jake should be home soon.”
Sam looked at his watch and then reached for his phone. “You two go relax and I’ll take care of
everything.
“thanks
dad, sam said gratefully. She took
Nico’s hand and joined the kids in the TV room.
