“I don’t understand…” Snowie mumbled. “Surely what’s wrong with Noel is more than genetics, I mean, I was nearly a teenager when he was born.” Snowie’s finger went to her chin. “I want to research this…hmmm.”“Well, Rudy will be joining you in the Science career, as my heir I gave him an assignment. He’s not happy about it but what choice does he have?”

“Rudolph is your heir?”Claus shrugged. “This will teach him responsibility and probably keep him out of prison.”“Claus, you realize that this is a huge responsibility, the fate of our family now rests on Rudy’s shoulders and…I’m scared.”“The worst that can happen is if he messes up one of his brothers will take over. Speaking of, Chauncy let’s go! The last thing I need is for Ice to call me again, he’s so excited about this birthday.”

“Hey dude, your tux actually kinda fits this occasion.” Chauncy laughed at his cousin.“Whatever, I was thinking the swimsuit would have been over the top, you know.”Chauncy chuckled.

“Right, let’s do this then.” Chauncy leaned in and blew on his candles.

Chauncy grew up into a Mortimer look-alike which had his uncle wondering if perhaps his older cousin had an affair…

Later that night Claus stood alone in the bedroom. Another child had grown and left the house. Now he was down to three children still at home.

Regan was taken aback when she entered the bedroom. “Babe, what’s going on?”Claus shrugged. “Nothing.”Regan smiled knowingly. “You miss your kids don’t you?”“It’s weird, I couldn’t wait for them to grow up and leave the house and now that they are…”

Regan changed into her nightgown, crawled onto the bed and opened her arms for her husband. “I used to have a hard time with the kids not being babies anymore, then I realized that the faster they become adults, the sooner I’ll have grandbabies to play with.”Claus couldn’t help but smile.

“What do you think about our heir? Snowie nearly had a heart attack.”“Rudy? I’m glad, that way he’ll be stuck here with us and I can keep an eye on him.”Claus chuckled. “Can you imagine little Rudies running around?”“I can’t wait.”

Navidad on the other hand prayed that he was out of the house before there were any little Rudolphs running around. His brother was disgusting. “Dude! We wash dishes in that.” He complained.Rudolph game him an annoyed look. “No, we use the dishwasher, now get out of here.”

Soon it was time for the heir’s birthday. Rudolph wanted nothing to do with this legacy thing, he stood in front of the cake half-heartedly, frowning at the glowing candles.

The kitchen was a hive of activity, it could hardly hold the many guests, most of them were Rudolph’s parents’ friends and his siblings.

Leia Dewey stood out to Rudolph, she was a friend of Feliz’s and even with his mother in the room she was the darkest person there, he couldn’t help but stare at her blond weave and her bleached eyebrows and made a mental note to ask her about those later. He figured if he had to get married, Leia was as good as anyone.

“That Leia is a looker isn’t she?” Mortimer asked his cousin’s son.“Yeah, I guess.”“I don’t think your parents will agree to you marrying her because of her age though.” Mortimer saw the boy’s eyebrows shoot up from below his shades. “She’s more than twenty years older than you…Rudy? Are you listening?”Rudolph was done listening, the fact that marrying Leia would upset his parents and the thrill of her being an older woman was enticing to Rudolph.

Rudolph began a secret relationship with Leia, when she came over to the house she was introduced as his friend.

One morning when they were alone, Rudolph presented her with a black velvet box. Leia immediately clamped her hand over the box. “Rudy, what are you doing? Are you crazy?”“Look, my parents disapprove but they’re not in this relationship are they?” He had given her a story that his parents disapproved of their relationship that was why he told them she was just a friend.“No! No. I can’t, this is wrong.” Leia suddenly had a headache.

Rudolph decided that maybe he should try another way of convincing her, one she could not argue with. The young man was quite confident in his bedroom skills.

Apparently he had reason to be confident when his girlfriend immediately agreed to become his fiancée, she even agreed to a night time wedding in a few hours.

The next morning, the new Mr. and Mrs. Winter snuck downstairs, they decided to keep their union a secret for a while, but all mothers were psychic apparently and Regan immediately pounced on her second son’s new wife. She dropped a million questions on Leia who struggled to answer them. “Yes we’re married, we got married last night.”

“You married my son? Gaddamnit Leia how could you? I thought I could trust you, do you really thing my husband and I were so clueless as to what was going on with you and our son? He’s barely out of childhood! What is wrong with you? You’re old enough to be his mother.”“Regan shut up! Don’t you think I put some thought into our age difference? I considered, and I pondered. I even turned him down when he asked me the first time yesterday. But later I realized that I didn’t have only myself to think about anymore, Regan I’m pregnant, and I’m determined for my baby to have its father be a part of its life.

“You’re pr…” Regan couldn’t bring herself to say the word. “Do you expect me to congratulate you now? Did you think that I am so family oriented that I would swoon at the thought of having a grandchild? Why didn’t you use protection? You know, mentally you’re as much as a child as Rudy.” Frustrated Regan stormed off.

Claus’ and Rudolph’s argument spilled out into the living room, Feliz squinted at the noise of the two men yelling at each other, it was like a train wreck, she just couldn’t look away. Feliz listened as her father told Rudolph about how irresponsible he was, demanding to know how he could go and do such a stupid thing. Feliz wanted to ask her brother the same thing, because she and Navidad were the only ones who truly knew Rudolph and his many rendezvous, and that the woman he truly loved wasn’t the woman he married.

And they knew this because they were peeking out the window the night Rudolph had brought Sylvia home. They way Rudolph looked at that woman was the way their parents looked at each other. Feliz was going to give her brother a piece of her mind when she remembered that Navidad had begged her to keep their spying a secret.

Mistletoe could feel the tension the second she stepped into her parents’ yard. Something was wrong and before she left home she would find out exactly what. But there was a triple birthday being celebrated and she had much cake to eat and dances to dance.

Claus, Regan and Feliz prepared to blow out their candles as their guests crowded around, completely oblivious to the ill feelings inside the Winter household.

They clapped and cheered and blew party horns and swung noise makers as the Winters aged up.

Claus was glad to finally retire, he has spent his entire adult life working and would finally get some much needed R&R. Also he had no issues with his youngest daughter moving out because Feliz would be moving in with Snowie to help with the triplets. Snowie was the only other person beside Regan that Claus trusted with his children, especially his daughters.

Navidad was upset that Feliz was gone, the two had bonded over the strange happenings in their house. What made him uneasy was his new sister-in-law’s obvious infatuation with Claus. It was no secret that Regan did not like Leia, Navidad feared that if his mother caught onto the woman’s sly flirts Regan would surely kill her. Claus was clearly uncomfortable, he brushed off Leia’s flirts laughing half-heartedly and then looking around the room for an excuse to leave.

Navidad liked Regan, she paid attention to him, and lately he had been feeling a bit neglected. For this reason Navidad warned her to stop flirting with his father, “If you want to see your child grow up you will leave my dad alone.”“Why? What is Regan gonna do to hurt me? Not wash dishes?” Leia smirked boldly.Navidad knew that this was bound to cause trouble, he just hoped that when the shit hit the fan he was not around to witness the mess.

Things became awkward the following morning when Regan and Rudolph joined them in the living room, Regan chose to go on and on about her husband which made Navidad wonder if his mother knew what was up, she always seemed to know.

Some months later Rudolph found himself standing outside the hospital, his wife was having the baby. Rudolph was both excited to meet his baby and wondering if his duty to the legacy was done now. He still had to do that favor he promised his dad. He’s already joined the science career, now all he had to do was fish and garden and study.

On the ride home with baby Cupid, it hit Rudolph, he was married and working and now he had child. All his parents did all way every day was swoon over each other. Rudolph realized that he was now the head of this family, he was like the King! The question was, would he do his duty or would he do as he pleased despite the consequences…