Laura, Jess and Charlie had decorated the entire house for Easter Sunday that year. Everywhere Neil looked there were plastic eggs, cartoon rabbits and other pastel Easter decorations. The logical part of his brain was telling the psychiatrist that his family was overcompensating to impress Scott. The other part of him was saying that it was a holiday and he shouldn't care why his wife and kids wanted to decorate the house so extravagantly.
"Coming through!" Jess yelled from the kitchen. Neil stepped to the side so she could passed by him with a bowl of steaming mashed potatoes. "Look alive Neil." She commanded over her shoulder. Placing the bowl at its designated spot on the table, Jess turned back to her stepdad with a smile. "Seriously Neil are you alright?"
"Hmm? Yeah, I was just thinking." He sighed.
"It's a holiday Neil, try to relax." Laura suggested as she entered the dining room with her own bowl of vegetables. "Can you help me with the ham?" She asked her husband. The two adults left the room to fetch the ham.
"Do you think Dad and Bernard will be here soon?" Charlie asked. He'd accepted the job of setting the table because it was very important to him that the table looked just right. Jess could understand why, not only was this the first time they'd seen Scott in weeks but it was also the first holiday that the Calvins and the Millers would be together.
"I hope..." There was a knock on the back door and Jess ran to answer it. Scott and Bernard were standing in the back deck, each with a bouquets of flowers. Scott greeted his daughter with a hug and a kiss before entering the house. Bernard stood outside awkwardly.
"Um, these are for you." He moved his arm forward stiffly, and offered the bouquet of sunflowers to Jessie. "The other elves informed me that it is polite to bring a gift for the hostess of a dinner party and Santa assured me that Sunflowers were your favorite."
"Thank you, Bernard." Jessie smiled as she accepted the flowers from him. "Why don't you come in?" The teenage girl and the elf joined the rest of the family in the dining room. Neil was already seated at the head of the table, all the Easter dinner fixings lined up before him. Laura was in the kitchen, putting the flowers Scott had given her in a vase. Charlie and his dad were also seated at the table talking. "Have a seat Bernard, I'll put these in water." Jessie joined her mother in the kitchen.
"You know," Laura said as she fluffed her own bouquet of flowers. "I think becoming Santa was the best thing that happened to your father."
"Yeah." Her daughter agreed as she reached for an empty vase. "I think it's been good for all of us."
"Well you and Bernard seem to be getting along well." Laura smiled. She'd finished arranging her own flowers and had begun helping Jess.
"We're just friends Mom." Jess rolled her eyes.
"Well I'm just saying you never invited any of your other friends to dinner before."
"Let's just eat." Jess sighed before dragging her mother into the dining room.
"That was a delicious meal, Mrs. Miller." Bernard appraised, leaning back in his chair.
"I'd forgotten how good your cooking was!" Scott agreed.
"Well I hope you saved room for dessert!" Jessie said as she stood from her chair.
"Santa always has room for dessert." Bernard joked from the seat next to her.
"This coming from the elf who won the cookie eating contest last week." Scott laughed.
"Cookie eating contest?" Neil and Charlie repeated. "When do you find time to get any work done?" The Psychiatrist asked. Jessie went into the kitchen for a minute before returning with a cheesecake.
"Now, I made this from scratch," The teenage girl said."So if it's terrible...keep it to yourselves." Everyone laughed while dinner plates were cleared and replaced by dessert ones.
"You know Jessie," Bernard said with his second forkful of cheesecake in his mouth. "This is delicious. I hope that when you come to stay with us at the pole you make this again."
"Stay at the pole?" Jessie asked with confusion. Bernard looked across the table to Santa, worried that he'd said something he shouldn't have.
"What Bernard means," Scott set his fork down. "Is that the elves have been hoping you and Charlie would want to spend you summer at the North Pole."
"The whole summer?" Charlie's eyes widened."Oh can we Mom?"
"Well I..." The suggestion had completely blindsided Laura.
"Charlie, I think you should give you mother time to think about it. She's going to miss you and your sister if you're gone for the whole summer." Scott tried to smooth things over. The last thing he wanted was for Laura to say no purely out of spite.
"I don't think it's such a bad idea." Neil said from the other side of the table. "As long as they finish out the school year..."
"Please mom! Please can we go?" Charlie begged.
"Well, what do you think Jess?" Laura looked at her Daughter. She would turn eighteen soon and was old enough to make her own decisions.
"I'd like to go." Jess replied quickly. "I can look after Charlie, and maybe help with the toys again."
"Cecilia would love to have back." Bernard agreed.
"Alright." Laura agreed. "Alright, you can spend the summer at the North Pole."