Page 2 of Huge Christmas

Sharing a wife might not be for everyone, but it certainly seems to work for these families.

“You know, the last one through the door has to do a challenge,” Carrie says with a grin on her face.

“Leave the dude alone.” Nathan pinches his wife’s knee and his twin punches him on the shoulder.

“You trying to kill Carrie’s Christmas fun?” Ethan says.

“I think that would be an impossibility. Have you seen her?” Nathan laughs.

Everyone in the room chuckles because Carrie should be the poster girl for a Pinterest Christmas. She’s decked out in a silver and gold festive sweater, with mini tree baubles hanging from her ears and a silver holly festooned headband. Even her leggings have Christmas trees running up the sides. It’s hard to know where to look.

“Harrison would be happy to accept a challenge,” Jenna says from behind me. She pinches my ass at the same time, and I almost jump out of my skin. “My ex-quarterback husband is about as competitive as any man I’ve ever met.”

I make a grumbling noise, but she’s right. My old football instincts are still with me, even though I don’t play anymore.

“Yeah, Daddy!” Abbey says. “You can do it.”

I shove my hands in my pockets and shrug my shoulders. “Guess the women in this household have spoken. What’s the challenge?”

“Well,” Carrie says. “I’m going to line up all the children and youhave toname them all. If you can manage that, you can have a bowl of my famous tiramisu.”

My mouth waters at the thought of Carrie’s signature dessert, but I don’t think I’m going to be good at this challenge at all. It’s been a year since we all got together. A year of kids growing and my man-brain forgetting everything that hasn’t been necessary to remember.

“The poor man is sweating,” Katelin laughs.

“Half of them are our children and I’d struggle.” Matty shrugs his shoulders and I’m grateful for his support.

After this, I’m going to end up with no dessert and friends who think that I don’t care about their kids.

“I’m gonna try for the tiramisu,” I say.

Bethany, Carrie, and Katelin spring into action to try to gather the kids from around the house. They slowly line up, although the little ones keep trying to escape. The men are drafted in to help. I try to be clever by looking to see which man is dealing with which child, but I’m pretty sure they’re all muddled up, so that doesn’t help me.

“Right,” Carrie shouts. “All children stand like statues.” Abbey, who has also gotten into line, jumps into a scary monster pose. I suppose, with her there, I’m guaranteed to get one correct.

I know the tallest twin girls are Carrie’s. I touch their soft blonde heads. “These two princesses aredefinitely Emmaand Natalie. The girls chuckle. “You got us the wrong way round!”

I scowl. “Your own dad’s struggle to tell you apart.” Ethan and Nathan shrug as though that’s perfectly acceptable. It’s a twin thing, I guess.

There’s another little girl who’s just a little taller than Abbey. I gaze around and notice the little girl has Katelin’s eyes. That must be Isobel. “Issy,” I shout, feeling very pleased with myself.

“Three down,” Jenna says. Her eyes are sparkling as though she’s just waiting for me to trip up.

“Abbey!” Ipatmy baby-girl’s head and shelaughs.

“Of course I’m Abbey, Daddy. You couldn’t get me mixed up.”

“You’d hope,” Bryan laughs.

I gaze at the rest of the kids. There are three sets of boy twins and two more little girls who aredefinitely ofdifferent ages. The youngest has a little round bottom that tells me she’s still wearing a diaper. “Rachel.” I point at her and her little cherub face lights up.

“Dingding,” Ryan says, tugging his baby girl onto his lap and giving her rosy cheek a fierce kiss.

“That must mean that you’re Molly.” I’m guessing that she’s around three now and she’s already got that precocious little-girl vibe about her. “Little Miss Molly,” she says with her hands on her hips. Her papa, Matty, who is probably the most chilled out of all of us here, bursts out laughing. “Okay, Little Miss Molly. Go kiss your uncle Harrison.”

“No,” she says, and runs out of the room.

“You’re losing your touch,” Jenna laughs as I put my hands in the air.

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