Free Wrapping Up (Novella) Mitchell Family 4.5 (Wrapping Up Novella 4.5) by Jennifer Foor

Noah it reminded me of my father showing me how to do those same things. Holidays are a hard time to spend without the people that we love, but I’ve learned to keep the ones with me close and remind them every day just how important they are to me.
    In a few short months, we would be welcoming another addition to our growing family and when I thought about their future, I hoped that they would be as close as I was with my cousins. Noah and Bella were already off to a good start, seeing as they were already the best of friends.
    I reached under the table and grabbed my wife’s hand. As her fingers intertwined with mine, she threw me a smile just as I winked. With the exception of a few mishaps, her Thanksgiving had gone off without anyone having to go to the hospital again.  We still had someone with a black eye from a turkey attack, two cousins with chiggers, two little brown painted Indians, and Savanna and I being caught in the closet without pants, to remember how special this year was.
    I couldn’t be more thankful.
    End of Part 1
     
     
     

Part Two
    Christmas at the Mitchell’s
    Hosted By: Tyler and Miranda Mitchell
     
    Chapter 1
    Miranda
    The chaos of the Christmas holiday started on Black Friday for Ty and I. Van had talked us into staying up all night and heading for a late night shop-a-thon. Since she was pregnant and I was breastfeeding, we were the only two that hadn’t been drinking.
    Not Colt, Ty or even my brother had ever gone out and experienced what it was like at a popular large store on the day after Thanksgiving.  Van piled us all into her SUV and we headed out. The Three Stooges sat in the back filling the whole vehicle with loud bantering. Poor Van and I needed earplugs to be able to deal with them for a long period of time.
    Sure enough, we pulled up to a local superstore and noted the lines of people just waiting for them to open their doors. Most of the people were in groups and some even held flyers and lists of what they were going to make a run for.
    Now, I knew that Van was too pregnant to deal with pushy people and I also knew that if anyone even bumped into her, they would have three grown men kicking their asses. I wasn’t worried too much about myself. All three of the guys knew I wasn’t one to take anyone’s shit. People could be rude around the holidays and I had no problem kicking a pervert in his jewels.
    We all climbed out of the vehicle and headed toward the crowd of people. Luckily, the guys were too involved in themselves to really notice the tension in the air. They just didn’t get that people were vicious when it came to Black Friday shopping.
    The guys continued to fool around, drawing attention from the shoppers around us and even getting a few eye rolls when they were talking about and doing things that seemed inappropriate, like trying to punch each other between the legs and playing the hand slap game.
    What grown men still do that?
    Scratch that…..
    My husband still did.
    About fifteen minutes after we arrived, we heard cheering as the mob of people started moving. Conner walked ahead of all of us while Ty and I walked behind Colt and Van. I noticed that when Colt got a glimpse of the crazies, he grabbed ahold of his wife and didn’t let her go.
    Since Ty and I were in the back of the crowd, he found it to be impertinent to pick out weirdo’s and point to them. For a second I was sure my brother was going to hit him, but he ended up turning around and laughing with him. Our first thirty seconds in the store and two women were fighting over some baby doll. We made our way past them and in the next isle was a tower of the same doll for sale. Ty found an empty cart that someone left sitting and took it for his own. He grabbed as many as he could put in the cart and went running around, passing the two bickering women. They froze as they saw him. It didn’t help that he was acting like a fool running circles around them screaming, “I love baby dolls!”,