Destiny:Woo Woo!!! You're right...
LilLoucfer:Very unconventional but I wanted to make a statement without being over bearing...I thought it turned out cute...
Ken:Thank you...I know it's turning into a "Chick Flick" but my brother liked it so I guess it's okay.
Kate:I'm sure you'll find the right person to give you away...Hey, how about an ex---now there's a plot!!!
Natalie: I think, when I figure out the sequel, the Nancy drama will be addressed.Once Liz becomes a mother feelings will start to change within her I believe.
Jan:Thanks, I don't know where the idea came from but when I thought of it I loved it. I think it made a nice statement without throwing stones at her dad by choosing another adult male to walk her down the aisle. I felt this was more subtle...maybe? Hell, I don't know!!!
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Chapter: 52
Max took Liz to the Mediterranean for their honeymoon…he was the only one who knew where they were going besides his travel agent and Liz was flabbergasted. She didn’t think they would be taking a honeymoon until some later date being it was so close to Christmas.
“Don’t you want to go Liz?” Max asked in an almost disappointed voice.
“Of course I want to go Max…but what about Christmas?” She was Concerned…
“Liz, Christmas is going to come around whether we’re here or there or elsewhere. It’s only for 2 weeks…you can shop to your hearts content while we’re there…just think of the unique Christmas presents you can buy.” He added very enthusiastically. That did it! It didn’t take her long at all to get packed when they got home from the reception. She could hardly sleep she was so excited…and then, on Friday afternoon they were on their way.
They bid the family good bye and Liz gave her Mom an extra special hug and told her to nose around the house… she said…
“It’s absolutely amazing.” Liz knew that her mother was trying and if she could try to improve herself Liz would do her best to help her. After all that is what she and Max intended to do…although there would always be some restrictions, Liz couldn’t help it.
Nancy said “I can see that, and I will Liz…thank you.” Nancy knew she didn’t deserve the attention that Liz was giving her but she truly loved it and was beginning to feel very good about it all.
Liz looked at her mother and told her the same thing Max had said to her…”Mom you don’t have to thank me…just enjoy.” And with that Max and Liz were on their way.
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When Max and Liz returned home from their honeymoon they were amazed at how many wedding presents were in the entry. You couldn’t get through the place for packages. Liz looked at Max and said…
”I thought we made it clear that we didn’t want any presents.” Max looked at her and grinned…
“I guess people didn’t give a shit what we wanted.” Max returned…
And Liz started laughing…”where are we going to put all of this stuff Max?”
“I have no clue Liz.”
And then Olivia came through the door with another big box… She set it down and went over and gave Liz a great big hug and Max got one as well…
”You two look happy and rested.”
“Well, we were until we saw all of this…My God we’re going to have to hire someone to open all of these.”
Olivia laughed at her and said, “I didn’t know where else to put them.”
Then Liz suggested…”why don’t we put them up in the attic and then we can go through them at our leisure and write thank you notes as we open them?”
“Great, I’ll get Charley and Johnny to come over and haul them up there for you…how’s that?” Max said with a grin…
“God Max, it sounds so blasé but I don’t know what else to do about all of it.” Liz was feeling guilty about the whole ordeal…
“Liz, it’s not blasé, it’s realistic. Now let’s get our bags upstairs and get settled okay?”
“Okay…and Liv…it’s so good to see you, thank you for taking care of all of this for us.” Liz sighed, ‘what a mess’ she thought to herself.
“You’re welcome Liz and I never got a chance to tell you at the wedding but I thought you were the most beautiful bride I have ever seen.”
“Amen to that…” Max added and Liz blushed and thanked both of them…”I think you’re both prejudiced.”
And Max agreed with her and then he took their suitcases upstairs and Liz followed.
After they got all unpacked Liz asked Max what they were going to do for Christmas and he asked her what she would like to do…
“I don’t know…at first I thought I might like to go to Roswell but now that we’re home I think I want to celebrate Christmas here. Can we invite everybody back for Christmas too?” She asked with a little sigh in her voice.
“Sweetheart, we can do whatever you want to do…now by everybody…do you mean everybody that was here for thanksgiving?”
“Yes…and I want to have a tree trimming party for the kids too. What do you say.”
“I say okay…but we’ll have to do it soon because I’m sure that Pete, Josh, John and Jay all have families they would like to spend time with too.”
“Okay, I’ll give Anne and Kadee a call right now and see what we can come up with.”
“Fair enough and I’ll give Charley a call and I’ll help load the presents upstairs… are you sure you’re up for all of this?”
“Of course I am Max…I’m fine.”
So Max got hold of Charley and between the three men they had the attic loaded with wedding presents in no time. Max read some of the cards as they carried boxes to the elevator and some of these people he hardly knew…he was beginning to wonder if maybe they hadn’t brought home the wrong people’s presents. God, I wonder if that’s what happened he thought…and then decided that Liz probably knew those other people. Good Lord, what if it really was true though. He ran that idea past Charley and Johnny and they started laughing at him…
”Max, for an intelligent man you surely do come up with some strange ideas.” Charley said as he continued to load the elevator for the third time.
In the meantime Liz had talked to Anne, Kadee, Susan and Marge and all four women said that this week-end would be the best time to have a tree trimming party and what time. Liz thought for a minute and wanted to know if they could come over about ten in the morning and plan on staying all day. The parents wouldn’t have to stay if they didn’t want to but she wanted the kids to decorate outside too. Anne told her she needed her head examined and Liz told her that the boys always listened to her and then Anne laughed…”yeah, like they did at the wedding?” And Liz really laughed at that…
”Oh Anne, that was priceless…they really thought they were being respectful…honest. They didn’t do that to be funny…I swear they didn’t. Jeremy was so sincere when he told me that he thought the monsignor should be honored. He just didn’t associate the words with the meanings …believe me I loved it. Honest!”
Anne said “Whatever Liz…I still think you’re nuts but yeah, they can come and spend the entire day…as a matter of fact I’ll be looking forward to it and I know the rest of the girls will as well. Maybe we can get some Christmas things done in peace. We’ll see you then.” And they signed off. Liz was elated.
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Liz went up to the attic and found Max, Charley and Johnny stacking wedding presents all over the place…
“Oh Max…leave room to get the Christmas decorations out of the other room honey…the boys will be here Saturday for a decorating party and we want to be able to get to the stuff easily.”
“Just how much decorating do you plan on doing Liz?”
“Just as much as I can Max…”
Charley and Johnny looked at Max and started to rearrange things so that there would be room for Christmas stuff…Max started to help, he knew it would be futile to argue with her. Today was Wednesday and they had til’ Saturday for her to get to the mall with the truck and buy everything in sight. This should be interesting to say the least.
When Charley and Max came back up with another load of boxes they saw a light on in the other room and when Max looked in Liz was on the floor with an extension cord and she was surrounded by strings of lights checking them all out. She had boxes of spare bulbs she managed to find and was replacing burned out bulbs as intensely as she used to conduct experiments in the lab in high school. Max just looked in, shook his head and walked off to get more boxes. Charley looked in and followed suit.
“You know Max…Margaret found that it was cheaper to just buy more lights than it was to buy just the bulbs.”
Max looked at Charley and winked…”Let her alone Charley, as long as she’s doing that she’s leaving us alone.”
Charley nodded and followed Max back to the elevator and started to help Johnny unload more presents…
”Johnny, how many more are down there?” Max asked and Johnny looked at Max and grinned…
”Well, I thought that this was the last load but the UPS guy just drove up as I was getting into the elevator. I don’t know what the guy had but there was a shit load of packages.”
“Oh for God’s sake”…then Max laughed…
”Liz bought some stuff while we were gone and had it shipped…maybe that’s what it is…Christ, I hope so…we’re going to have to hire a crew of stenographers to write thank you notes…either that or have carpal tunnel surgery when we’re done with this.”
Both men laughed at Max and headed back down in the elevator…Max told them they could go on home he could finish up with the new stuff…he peaked in at Liz who was still intent on checking out light bulbs and he bent over and kissed the top of her head and told her he was going down stairs for a minute…she said “uh huh” and kept on screwing in light bulbs. Max chuckled to himself and figured she would be busy for two days at the least.
*~*~*
When Max got down to the main floor he discovered that the boxes that had been delivered were in fact the things they had shipped home. Liz had done a lot of Christmas shopping in the Mediterranean and at least they didn’t have that to worry about so much now that they were home. All they had to do was wrap the stuff up and get the tree assembled.
He knew there was a huge 16 foot tree in the attic and it was one of those pre-lit things so all Liz would have to do would be to have the kids put the decorations on it. I wonder what she’ll put on it he thought…As a matter of fact there were several trees in the attic… or maybe she might want a real tree…we’ll see when she gets finished testing light bulbs. ‘As a matter of fact I’ll go up and help her and we can talk about it. That will be fun now that the entry is all cleared out.
It will be fun to have a Christmas decorating party with the kids too. I wonder what it will be like next Christmas with our own little one to share Christmas with…he or she will be about 6 months or so by then’…Max got a very far away look in his eyes and he couldn’t wait to get back upstairs to his little wife and her light bulbs.
Olivia poked her nose out into the entry and asked Max if they would be wanting lunch anytime soon and Max said he’d call her on the intercom as soon as he got back up to the attic…she smiled and said great…and Max loaded the elevator with the UPS delivery and headed back up to see Liz.
*~*~*
By Saturday Liz had the 16 foot tree set up in the grand hall as she called it and boxes of decorations sitting everywhere. She had a nice live 8 foot tree in the small living room and two 12 foot artificial trees on the veranda, one on each side of the double entry doors. She had a huge wreath on each of the entry doors and she had boxes of lights for the kids to drape all over the fence poles at the front gate. She had wreaths in all of the bedroom windows…she had Charley string lights all around the perimeter of the house…upstairs and down. Charley hired a construction crew of men to come in with a bucket to put up the lights around the roof and Max just shook his head and scratched behind his ear. She was definitely losing her mind he thought.
When Kadee dropped off all the kids on Saturday she just stood back and laughed at Max…
“You know she’s nuts don’t you?” And Max laughed with her…
”I’m beginning to think so.” He said. And she was off…
”have fun Max…and don’t kill anybody.”
“I won’t…enjoy your day off.” He said.
“Oh, I intend to, believe me…I’m off to the spa to have a massage and then a manicure and then a pedicure and then I may even get my hair done.” Max laughed at her and she drove off to enjoy her day. All of the women took turns watching all of the kids so that they could have a day of pampering but today they were all headed in the same direction to have a girls day and they were thrilled that Max and Liz wanted to spend the day with the boys. The boys were just as happy to be with Max and Liz too…they all liked Liz a lot and they’ve always liked Max.
The minute Liz saw them she gave them all a big hug and asked them what they should do first…they took one look at the humongous tree in the entry and asked what she wanted done with that. She showed them all of the boxes and then explained her plans for outside and thought maybe they should start out there before it got dark…the boys agreed and they each picked up a box of lights and headed to the front door. Liz asked if they would rather ride down to the gate because they needed to take a ladder with them and they thought about it for a minute and then asked,
“Can we sit in the back of the truck?”
Liz said “Sure, I’ll even sit back there with you.”
Now Max knew she was nuts…but then he thought about it for a minute and realized that there was no way she would let them ride back there alone so he got the truck out of the garage…loaded the boxes of lights inside the truck and loaded the kids and Liz in the truck bed with the ladder and headed down the driveway to the front gate.
It took the boys about two hours to string the lights around the poles and across the top of the gate while Max and Liz sat in the truck bed and watched. Liz had a couple of large thermoses filled with hot chocolate and the boys would ‘wet their whistle’ as Max said and when they were all finished Max and Liz stood back and were amazed at what a really nice job they had done. Each string was neatly wrapped around the poles in such a way that they looked like a candy cane…they even coordinated the colors so that both sides matched, using only red and white light bulbs. Liz was amazed at how much time and effort they put into the job that was given them. Max couldn’t believe it…he scratched his head and smiled at Liz…she just had a way with these kids that made them want to please her and he loved it.
By the time Anne came to pick the boys up at 9:00 p.m. the front gate was all lit up and Anne thought…boy Max must have come down here after the boys went up to the house and fixed this up … it really looks nice. When she got to the front of the house the entire house was lit and the two trees at the front entry were all lit up with miniature white lights and big green wreaths on the door but the kicker was when she walked into the entry way and the boys were all on the floor under the tree that was all decorated with stuffed animals of every size and variation imaginable. They were putting a huge electric train and a miniature city under the tree. She was amazed and Liz and Max were sitting on the steps watching them.
“When did you sneak down and redecorate the poles Max?”
“I didn’t redecorate anything…they did it all…I swear Anne, they did it all. Even the stuffed animals. Jeremy got to use the ladder because he’s the biggest and the rest stood on the stair steps and chairs. I helped by hanging over the banister with a couple of them but they told me where they would look the best and voila…we have a Christmas tree. I think they did a beautiful job and we will have everyone over for dinner when you can make it and let all of you see just how handy they are…and they work very well together…just like a well oiled machine.”
“Yes, just like their daddies.” Then Anne took a seat beside Max and Liz and watched the boys finish up their work of art.
Liz made Anne a cup of hot tea and asked her if she would like to sit somewhere else and Anne said “No way, this is fascinating.”
Then the boys apologized for not finishing the other tree but Liz assured them that it was alright, it was just a small tree and she was sure she could handle it with Max’s help. They all said “Okay” and got their jackets and were ready to go home. Max gave each one of them twenty dollars for being so helpful and they said thank you and told Max if he needed help with anything else to let them know…Max grinned at Anne and told them he definitely would and then they were off. Anne thanked Liz til Liz was becoming embarrassed,
“Anne, you have no idea how much fun I’ve had today…and if they tell you they got to ride in the truck bed it’s true…I rode with them.” Anne shook her head and said…”See you later.” And she took her crew of seven and headed home.
They were all spending the night with her and she thought she just might get her tree out for them tomorrow and put them to work at her house.
Max kissed Liz at the foot of the huge Christmas tree and told her how proud of her he was. “Liz, they did a beautiful job…I really had my doubts when you suggested this but I am truly amazed at what they did. It is beautiful.”
“Thank you Max…I knew they would do a good job…they just seem so willing to please. All they need is for someone to show a little faith in them. I just love it. Tomorrow we can do the little tree in the living room and put the presents we bought for everybody under it. What do you say?”
“Whatever you want sweetheart. Now, are you hungry at all? I think I could go for a piece of pie.”
“Well, maybe a little piece…what kind did you have Liv fix today?”
“I believe this one is apple.”
“Oh goodie…I love apple pie and ice cream…race you to the kitchen…”
And our newly weds were off to the kitchen…soon they were finished with their snack and headed up the back stairs to bed. Max had already checked all of the doors and lights and was groping Liz’s backside as she started up the steps…she just laughed at him and then she started to remove her sweater as she continued up … Max chuckled at her and by the time they reached the bedroom Liz was stripped naked from the waist up and merely stepped out of her slippers, unzipped her jeans and pulled her underpants and jeans down in one slick motion…Max just stood there and watched her and she raised one eyebrow and said…
”Come on Evans, what’s taking you so long…don’t shake the tree if you don’t want the peaches.” Max roared at her and then got just as naked as she was and growled as he laid her down on the big warm bed…”I’ll show you peaches you little imp…come here.” And she did as he commanded…oh life was good.
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