The family started getting ready for Hanukkah. It was in two weeks. David and Brie had started their shopping in Israel. They just needed to finish it while they were there. They had eight days of presents to buy for a few of their young grandchildren. The older ones could fend for themselves. The only other person they needed to buy for was Delilah. That was going to be a one night thing. They wanted to get her something special for getting the worrywarts off their asses. They debated on it for a couple of days and decided that they would get her a nice necklace. She wasn’t one to accept a massage- much like Brie, she preferred to give them- but she deserved something nice.
As they holiday crept closer, the wrapped and packaged so that would be ready for the festival to begin. The morning of the day the festival started, Jake sat down with his father. “Hey Dad, who’s singing the prayers tonight?”
“Up to you, Jacob. I’ve relinquished that responsibility to you. You can do it yourself or you can assign it to one of your brothers.”
“Do you and Mom need to do any more shopping before tonight?”
He looked at his wife, who was making them breakfast. “Do we need to shop anymore, love?”
“Did we want to get gifts for Miranda’s baby? I mean, that is the first great- grandchild.”
“We can if you want. We’ll have to go out to shop today if you wanted to buy for our great- granddaughter.”
“Then we need to go out today and shop for our great-granddaughter.”
David laughed. “You got it, baby.” He looked at Jake. “You heard your mother, Jacob. We need to go shopping today before tonight to get things for your great- niece to be.”
“I’ll have James take you, unless you wanted to drive yourself.”
David and Brie both looked at Jake in shock. “Did you just offer to let us go without a baby- sitter?” Brie asked. As she was cooking, she paused for several moments in shock.
“Yes Mom. You two can go without a ‘baby- sitter’ as you call it. And you might want to pay a little more attention what you have in that skillet before it starts to burn.”
Brie looked down quickly and silently cursed under her breath as she started stirring again. “Wow, I’m still in shock”, she said as she grabbed the plates that were sitting next to her so that she and David could eat.
“Sorry to nearly give you a myocardial infarction there, Mom.”
“No need to worry, Jacob. My heart is just fine. You shocked me, but I’m good. How are we going to get there?”
“You could take my Porsche. I don’t need it today. I have the next eight days off. The clinic is actually closed; my neurology clinic and the massage clinic.”
“Are we expecting the Mason’s to join us? If so, I think that we need to pick up something for Skyler and Kaylian while we’re at it.” At the beginning she was talking to Jacob. At the end, she was talking to David.
“They will be joining us”, Jake said.
“We’ll shop for Skyler and Kaylian”, David said with a chuckled as he sipped his coffee.
She grinned brightly as she set David’s plate in front of him. “It’s nice to know that you both see things my way. Cuts back on the hassle.”
---------------
Callan caught a MAC flight from 29 Palms to the Air Force Base outside Colorado Springs. From there, he grabbed a cab to Malachai Draiman’s house so that he could see Miranda. She wasn’t expecting him for several hours. As a matter of fact, they were supposed to be picking him up in Denver two hours before sunset and the beginning of Hanukkah. His early arrival was a Hanukkah surprise for her lovely fiancée. He couldn’t wait to see her.
Once they pulled up to the gate, he paid the cabby and hopped out with is C-bag over his shoulder, spotting Malachai at his truck. He was cleaning it up so that they could pick him up once that evening. “MALACHAI!”, he shouted.
Malachai looked at the gate and grinned. “You slick son of a bitch!” he shouted back. “Does Miranda know you’re here early?” He walked toward the gate to let Callan into the property.
“No, this is a surprise. I wanted to surprise her so I set up to catch a MAC flight while telling her I was going to catch the latest possible flight to be here before Hanukkah.”
Malachai punched in the code to let Callan in as he shook his head laughing. “What a Hanukkah this is going to be. Miranda’s going to flip when she sees you and I walking up to the house together. She’s currently in the kitchen with her mother.”
“What are they up to?”
“Making a dish for Hanukkah dinner tonight. It’s become quite the tradition since there are so many of us Draiman’s.”
“How many are there, if I may ask?”
“Fifty plus.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah. There are ten kids- all but one is married- and twenty seven grandkids. My parents had their hands full until Dad retired fifteen years ago.”
“Nice. Then, I take it that the family went BOOM and exploded to massive proportions.”
“Yeah. Something like that.”
As they approached the house, Callan spotted Miranda and grinned. He was hoping that she would see him and come running out to greet him. He couldn’t wait to see how big she’d gotten. She was sure that he was getting big.
And he got his wish. She looked out the window by chance and did a double take. She spoke briefly to her mother and took off for the door. She came out the door and she was huge. Being nearly six months pregnant looked good on her. She was so beautiful that she glowed. His breath caught in his throat. “Hey beautiful”, he said after he relearned to breathe.
“Hey handsome”, she said with a smile as tears came to her eyes. “What are you doing here so early?”
“I wanted to surprise you. Happy Hanukkah, baby girl.”
The tears in her eyes flowed down her cheeks. “God, I hate being pregnant. I cry at the drop of a hat.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. “I’m so happy you’re here. Now we don’t have to explain to Grampa why we were late if that had happened. This is the best Hanukkah gift I’ve ever gotten.”
He pulled back and wiped the tears from her face. “Baby, I love you so much. I’m glad that I could make the holiday for you. I wanted nothing more than to see you smile today.”
“I love you too, baby. I’m so excited to have you here. And we get a month together? I’m all a twitter with anticipation.”
“Good. Now, why don’t we get you back inside the house so that you don’t catch a cold and get sick, and let me get warmed up? The MAC flight here was a bitch and I’d love to relax for a little while before we go to your Uncle’s house for the beginning of the festival.”
---------------
Miri, Connie, Rina, and Sammi had gone out to check on Ranger. Miri wanted to see her equine buddy again. She hadn’t really seen him since the summer. “I’ve taken really good care of him, Miri”, Rina said. “Sammi helped a lot.”
“Good”, Miri said. “So he’ll be well groomed and taken care of, right?”
“Yes, Miri”, Sammi said. “I’ve been getting up at the crack of dawn to help Rina with the horse. He’s hard headed and thinks he runs things, but we’re shown him otherwise.”
“You haven’t hit him, have you?” Miri sounded nearly panicked.
“No. We’ve just been stern with him.”
“Ok. I’m relieved. I was worried about that for a minute. I know Rina’s temper.”
“I’ve been good about not losing my cool with Ranger though”, Rina said. “He’s been a good lesson in patience, Mama said.”
“What about your Daddy?”
Rina hung her head. “Dad threatened to sell him to B’s grandparents at one point.”
“Yeah, it was the day before Gramma and Grampa went back to Israel”, Sammi said.
“Why was it that Uncle Jeremiah wanted to sell Ranger?”
“Because Rina didn’t want to get out of bed to come out here one morning.”
“Ah-ha. Ranger is still here so I take it that’s changed.”
“Yep”, Rina said happily. “I’m up every morning to take care of him.”
“Good.”
“Is there any way I can ride him?” Connie asked.
“If he’ll let you. He’s temperamental.”
“He’ll like me. Animals like me and I’m an experienced rider. Abuelo has been paying for lessons since I was five.”
“Abuelo?” Rina asked.
“Grampa JJ. Abuelo is Spanish for grandpa.”
“Learn something new every day.”
Miri opened the gate to the stable and called the horse. “Ranger!” The horse trotted out and whinnied happily when he saw the girls. “Are you happy to see me, Mr. Stubborn Hooves?” she laughed as she patted his side. “Ranger, have you met Connie?”
Connie came up and let him give her a sniff. “Hi there, Ranger. What’s up, buddy?” she asked. When he lowered his head, she petted him. “Would you be ok with me giving you a ride through the woods? Maybe run you up to the house and back?” He nodded. “Cool. We’ll get your saddle on, get your bit and we’ll run to the house and back.”
The girls set about putting the saddle blanket on and securing the saddle to the horse’s back. “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” Miri asked.
“Miri, please. I’ve been riding for eight years now and Abuelo bought me a horse when he started paying for the lessons. My horse is an Arabian, but I have a mare rather than a stallion. Her name is Tiffany; named for the Cult Classic Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” She rolled her eyes as she mounted the horse. “Having my dad and one of my grandfather’s both in the movie industry really sucks because I know more about the history of Hollywood than I care to.”
“Always fun. Much like Sammi and I know more about the human brain than we care to or Rina knows more about history or religion than she cares to?”
“Something like that. Well, give me about ten minutes. I want to see how fast he can go. I’m going to start him slow and run him back.”
“Good luck and have fun.”
Connie grinned. “Always do. I am my father’s daughter after all.”
---------------
“Look at this, David”, Brie said as they looked the jewelry store at the mall to buy something for their daughter in law.
David looked at the pendant on the necklace she was looking at. It was empty of stones, but they could have stones set into the fixture and there were just the right amount of spaces for Delilah and Jacob’s four children. “It’s nice. We could have the kids’ birthstones set into it. Do you know what their stones are?”
She laughed. “Yes. Miri shares a stone with me, Ira’s is sapphire and the twins’ stone is amethyst, I believe.”
“They were born in February, right?”
“Yes.”
“All we can do is ask. Is this what you want to get for Delilah?”
“Yes. She’ll love it. She adores simple things like this.”
“Much like her mother in law. I’ve never understood it, but I accepted it a long time ago.”
“I’m just a simple person. I like the KISS method for pretty much everything.”
“The KISS method?”
“Oh David, close the door before I walk through it. You know what KISS is an acronym for.”
“I’m drawing a blank at the moment. Remind me.”
“Keep It Simple, Silly.”
“Oh yeah. Right.”
She shook her head. “Let’s get this done so that we can finish our shopping for the great- grandchild we have on the way. There are a couple of things I want to get for the baby.”
“Well, let’s get this necklace set so that you can finish spending my money on our great- granddaughter.”
“I thought it was our money.”
“It is, but I’m trying to get you to move along. If we hurry, we can get some lunch while we’re away from homestead.”
“And without baby-sitters?” she laughed as she started moving into the store so that they could purchase the necklace she’d been eyeballing.
He laughed with her. “Yeah. It’s nice to get away without baby-sitters. I’m surprised that Jake even made the offer to let us leave without one of the kids or grandkids that drive with us.”
“It’s certainly refreshing not to have the ever watchful eyes of our paranoid children as we shop. We do it all the time in Israel. It’s rather nice to have that same ability here.”
“And for you to have me driving you everywhere still?”
She laughed. “That’s always a plus. I enjoy having you as my personal driver.”
Once they were in the store, they caught one of the sales associates’ attentions and inquired about having the stones set in the heart shaped pendant that Brie had found. “What stones were you wanting to have set in the pendant?” the man asked.
“We were wanting birthstones. One for June, one for September, and two February”, Brie explained as David walked around the store looking at the jewelry. He was contemplating a gift for her as he strolled.
The associate pulled out a birthstone chart. They offered two stone selections for June. “Which stone for June did you want? The Alexandrite or the Pearl?”
“Let’s go with the pearl because of the pinkish color of the amethyst.”
“You have a good eye. You do this often?”
“No. I have far too many birthdates to remember. I have ten children and twenty- seven grandchildren.”
“No wonder you don’t do this a lot.”
“Yeah. This is for one of our daughters in law.”
“So you want the pearl, the sapphire, and two of the amethyst?”
“Yes please. How long will it take to set those?”
“About fifteen to thirty minutes, give or take.”
“We can come back for it. Please get that started.” She looked to David. “Do you want to go finish the shopping for little Grace?”
“You can go on ahead. I’ll stay and wait for the necklace.”
“Why are you going to stay here and wait?”
“I have one or two more gifts that I want to buy for you and I have a couple of ideas. You can’t be here when I buy your last two gifts.”
She laughed. “Ok, I can take a hint. I’ll go finish the shopping for Gracie and I’ll meet you back here?”
“That sounds good, dear.”
She wondered off and left him there to buy her remaining Hanukkah gifts. He looked at the salesman. “I love that woman to death, but she is so difficult to buy for. Do you have any suggestions?”
“What does she like?” he asked. They stood and discussed Brie’s likes and dislikes so that the salesman could make an informed suggestion to help David decide what to get for his very not picky wife. He settled on a bracelet and a nice pair of earrings. She kept a single set of holes open to wear earrings, but the rest of her piercings had all healed up. The bracelet and earrings went beautifully together but weren’t part of a set.
Once they were all paid for- including Delilah’s necklace- he paid for them and waited for his wife to come back. When she saw her, he smiled. “Are you ready to go get some lunch, love?”
“Of course. I have everything I wanted to get Miranda for Gracie.”
“Good. I have Delilah’s necklace as well as your final gifts, so let’s get the hell out of here. Shall we?” He held out his hand to her. She took it with a soft smile. “So, where do you want to eat lunch?” he asked.
“I don’t care, David. As long as I’m with you, I could honestly care less.”
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