Isaac had offered to let Lori have time off, but she simply replied that the only one she had to spend Christmas with was her son. Her parents were dead, she was an only child and she had never gotten along with her in-laws. Thanks to Isaac she was actually able to work and spend time with her son, so that wasn’t much of an issue.
“I’d much rather be able to have a big Christmas than a small one,” she told him. “Besides, there’s always need for a chef around Christmas time, and I suspect Zac’s housekeeper is not in the habit of cooking for such a large crowd.”
**********
Jacqueline was indeed happy for Lori’s presence. It was one thing for Zac to tell her that Taylor had eight – err, seven children and Isaac had twenty. That had been hard to swallow, but it had been even harder when she actually saw them!
Because there was absolutely no room in the house for their families, even with the new rooms being built (not that they were ready for anyone to move in yet), they would be sleeping in the buses. But that was okay, because everyone would be hanging out in the house during the day anyway.
“You’re here!” Zac yelled. “Long time no see bros!”
“It’s only been a year,” Taylor commented. “And a very peaceful year, I might add, without you.”
“Now who would have thought, after all those years of sharing a room, we’d end up so far apart,” Isaac mused. “Well, you from us anyway, seeing as me and Tay live on the same street.”
“You know we should do?” Kelsey commented. “We should just buy a house – or a couple of houses – in LA that you guys can stay in when you visit. We can rent them out when we’re not using them. Sure beats those tour buses of yours.”
“There’s an idea,” Zac agreed. “You guys have been renting out umm, Mom and Dad’s new old place, when we’re not there huh?”
“Yep. And when I think about how much more we could get for it if the holidayers knew it belongs to us...” Taylor began teasingly.
“Modest, ain’t he?” Kelsey commented to Rita.
Rita giggled.
“When you due?”
“Like, not soon enough!” She grinned. “April.”
Jacqueline came out then, her eyes goggling at the sight of all the kids. Zac grinned at her and then introduced her to everyone, bar Lori, whom he hadn’t formally met.
“Oh, this is Lori,” Isaac said, pulling her over. “She’s my chef.”
“And a fantastic one at that,” Taylor added. “It used to be that we didn’t have meals at Ike’s place because he had such a problem with cooks he couldn’t manage any more mouths to feed. Now we all make excuses to have meals over there.”
Lori looked a little embarrassed and Jacqueline looked hopeful.
“You’ll be able to help me then, with getting food together for this, uhh...”
“Mob?” Lori suggested with a smile. “I was planning to.”
The two women became instant friends, discussing everything from what to do for the upcoming feeds to how crazy it was working for Hansons to hair styling.
“Ooh!” Zac said suddenly. “I have Christmas presents for everyone. Well... except Lori’s kid. But I’m sure I can conjure up something so he doesn’t feel left out.”
From their stay in LA during the year, Zac easily found appropriate presents for Mike, Sam, Adam and Xavier. Morgan, Rose, Tina and Kyle had been a little harder. And as for the rest of Isaac’s kids...
“Furbies?” Isaac asked, giving him a strange look. “You got them all Furbies?”
Zac nodded vigorously.
“Hope they like ‘em. They sure look like they are.”
Kelsey was struggling not to laugh. Isaac took a deep breath and looked at Taylor, then at the kids, then back at Taylor.
“Why do I suddenly smell a big fat rat?”
“Da-ad make him stop!” Esme complained.
“Listen to this:” Cosmo said gleefully.
“Esmerelda sucks! Esmerelda sucks!” sang his Furby.
Zac cracked up laughing.