Claus had set up the front yard in preparation for another birthday. He was torn, on one side he was excited to get another child out of the way, on the other he did not want to lose another baby, especially if that baby was his final little girl.

It wasn’t long before all of the guests came over to see another one of the Winter children become a teen. Many had predicted that Feliz would grow into a skateboarding tomboy, after all, the girl had been rough-and-tumble since she could move around on her own.

Feliz faced the crowd loving being the center of attention. She felt as if she had been living in her sister’s shadow for her entire life, she was ready to embrace her independence.

Claus had never yelled at any of his children, not even Rudolph but when Feliz sauntered past him he couldn’t help but rave about the amount of makeup she wore and demand to know where Feliz thought she was going in those jeans and without the rest of her shirt. “Daddy!” Feliz whined but she was quite pleased with her father’s reaction, he never said anything about Mistletoe’s appearance. Feliz was sexy and she knew it, finally she had something her sister didn’t.

In a few days it was time for another birthday. Navidad was excited to be joining his older siblings at high school. Ice looked at his sister tooting the horn and wondered what she was so excited about, her and Navidad, despite how closely they were born were surprisingly not close. He already had competition for females from Rudolph and now he would have to out flirt Navidad too.

“How are we going to initiate our little brother into being a teenager?” Ice asked.“I say we string him up a tree.” Rudolph put in. The two older Winter boys bumped fists and turned back to the TV.

While her youngest sibling was growing up, Mistletoe and Noel had begun moving her things over to the Crumplebottom house. She took time to speak about moon men with her uncle, making his giggle.

Regan had started working at the Day Spa after Navidad became a child and she was in the process of buying the place out. She was in her bedroom contemplating her next move when she smelled smoke. She raced into the kitchen and turned around sniffing deeply.

Suddenly the stove burst into flames and the alarm began beeping annoyingly. “Damnit Ice!” She hollered, she had not gotten used to having two insane children but they really did some off the wall things sometimes.

By the time the firefighter showed up, the fire had already spread to the counter and the wall. “Where did you just come from?” Regan demanded in frustration, and then changed her mind, she should not take it out on the poor woman who had come to save her life. They lived some miles from town, price you paid for living in a neighborhood with a bunch of rich people.

Once the fire was out and Regan got the kitchen cleaned up and the items replaced she immediately upgraded the stove to fireproof, of course her two insane children will be leaving soon but Regan wanted to take no chances.

Late that day there was yet another birthday. The very first second generation child was becoming an adult. Claus thought that he would relish this moment, but tears burnt the back of his eyes, he had promised his brother that Mistletoe would move in with him, but he didn’t think he could let her go.

Mistletoe turned out rather beautiful, she was dressed from head to toe in her favorite color, she got her hair done up and put on more makeup, then she went back to the party.

After the party, Claus offered Snowie a ride home. His sister smiled at him. “Let’s see,” She mused, “You’ve stopped complaining about money, in fact you’re rather rich now if I’m not mistaken. You’ve gotten past the screaming babies, what’s wrong now?”

“My baby girl moved out, my son will in a few days…”“So will mine.” “But you’re getting married in a few days.”“But I’ve only got one child…and he’s going to be leaving to live with his girlfriend…and Ice…and then…oh my God! Did you ever think we would be having this conversation? I guess we’re really getting old Claus.”

“What are you talking about? I’m younger than you are.” Claus laughed, his older sister smirked. “We’ll get through this, we’ll probably cry a lot but we’ll get through this.”“Yeah…I guess we will.” Snowie sighed. “I just don’t feel like I had him long enough you know. I waited forever to have a child and now he’s leaving me so quickly.”“Snowie….”

“I completely understand.” Claus snorted, “We’re old.” He busted up laughing, Snowie grinned at how this chuckling Claus was so much like the Claus she grew up with. “I’ve got to go home to my old wife and grown children.”

Snowie did get married to a coworker she continued to call Broussard—which is his last name—even after they got married. He affectionately called her Wife or Mrs. Broussard.

Broussard and Snowie’s union didn’t last long though. She was four months pregnant with his babies when she found out that there was another woman he had been seeing throughout their relationship. Snowie immediately filed for divorce and kicked him out of her house.

Claus immediately jumped in to be Snowie’s support system. He accompanied her to her lamas classes and loan her is ear whenever she needed to vent.

But when Snowie went into labor she was all alone, even Chauncy was not there.

SnowflakeChanel

CoCo

SNOWIE’S BUNDLES OF

JOY

Regan was also there for Snowie, she and Chauncy were a good help to Snowie. Snowie had waited her entire life to experience a pregnancy and the birthing process, and finally at fifty-three she had three baby girls. She was in over her head but Regan was a child rearing pro and was happy to have three new babies to take care of.

After the Winters got over the craziness of having newborn triplets, Claus decided that it was time to pay Mistletoe a visit. Even before he could even greet her, he read her face and knew something was wrong.“Daddy, you and Aunty are older than Uncle Noel aren’t you?”“Yeah. By more than a decade actually.”

Claus found his brother in the master bedroom to say he was shocked would be an understatement. “Noel? What the…how?” Noel was an old man, wrinkles, white hair and all. Noel shrugged. “Momma didn’t have good genes you know that.”“This doesn’t make any sense!”