The next week was a flurry of activity for the Hanson family. They trimmed the whole house with some fancy, some childish and many handed down homemade decorations of the Christmas spirit. Walker, Ike and Taylor climbed ladders and strung twinkling colored Christmas lights across the roof line. Zac and Jes and Avie strung white lights in the back yard, over the fences and trellis’s even in the almost complete tree house. The backyard decorations were the children’s favorites, brought from the old house. The younger kids felt that the old decorations couldn’t be abandoned simply because they had moved into more upscale housing. There were big plastic snowmen lit up on the back yard along with an assortment of elves and Santa’s and parts of a sled with only six reindeer left unbroken. They pulled out the old nativity set and although it was missing parts, that didn’t stop their enthusiasm. Zac and Jes foraged in the woods and brought back branches that they tied together to make a structure to cover the plastic replicas’ of the blessed couple. All they had left was Many, and Joseph and the baby Jesus, one shepherd and two wise men. Avie volunteered a pink plastic cradle and a stuffed lamb for the nativity scene. Jes volunteered a very tall doll that they draped in an old bathrobe and pretended it was another wise man. Mackie offered a stuffed donkey for their use, but wasn’t willing to give it up, so they made it a plastic raincoat and were careful to bring in at night or if rain threatened. The younger kids were happy with their results.

Diana and Walker were thrilled with their children’s labors, truly believing that their efforts were more beautiful than the new decorations they had purchased for the front of the house. The backyard represented their traditions. All the hard work and imagination that the younger children put into decorating the yard was a culmination of their memories of past Christmas’s. It was tacky, it was homemade and it was beautiful to them.

The front of house was decorated with very elegant wreaths done in gold and red and there was a new nativity scene. This one wasn’t made of plastic, but hand carved wood and hand-painted in various rich hues of gold, and purples and mauves. It fit the new neighborhood, but the family preferred the one in the back, hidden from the public view.

Every day the boys worked on their ‘punishment chores’ and they were enjoying every minute of it. Ike discussed his choice of song for his video treatment with Taylor. Taylor urged his brother to include Zac in the discussion but their younger brother had yet to talk to Ike about rejoining the band. Although, Taylor would have let Zac return without a word spoken, Ike was of an austere disposition. Until Zac talked to him one-to-one--he was still out as far as Ike was concerned. Taylor let it ride. His brothers would settle their differences soon enough. He knew they would, they always did. Ike and Zac were very much alike in personality, and because of it they often clashed heads. It was his job as middleman to try to make them settle their differences. Sometimes he got involved or was pulled into the middle of their differences, this time he was staying clear.

Zac was working every morning on his ‘job’ for his mother. Taylor would join him most mornings to follow his progress and watch, but Zac still wouldn’t let him help. His afternoons were spent working on the tree house with their father and decorating the house and snitching cookies. The last, which he was very good at, but he was also generous because he always snitched enough to share. 

Taylor was kept busy. His parents hadn’t forgotten their promise to give him driving lessons and to his surprise they were making up for lost time. He was averaging two a day, one from his Mom a one from his Dad, somehow sandwiched between their busy schedules of visiting and Christmas shopping. He had to be ready at the spur of the moment, whenever one of them would yell, but learned to drop what he was working on in a second. His early mornings he still spent working on his music. The rest of his spare time he spent sketching drawings on the studio walls. He had completed all the outline sketches on one long wall. The pictures were varying in size, but not dependent on their contributions to Rock and Roll, but more by how they fit on the wall and how much he and his brothers appreciated their work. The icons started with Chuck Berry and in the middle of wall was a three-quarters real size Elvis, and it ended with the Beetles. A decade of rock on one wall. 

Sometimes Zac or Ike would join him in painting the mural. Sometimes, Ike would come into the studio and work on his songs, using his brother as a sounding board and audience and getting his valued opinion. Twice, Zac came in and played the drums until he’d worked out whatever problem or aggression he was having a problem with and then he disappeared. 

Their evenings were spent visiting family and catching up with old friends. Since Ike had use of his car back, he was gone most evenings, out with his friends. Sometimes, because they shared the some of the same friends, Taylor would go with him. Some evenings were designated as family only. Those were the evenings that they visited family or family members came to their house. One of Taylor favorite things about his extended family was that all of them had big families with lots of kids and they all liked to eat. When the doorbell rang it was almost always opened up to smiling faces and delicious aromas, as almost everyone came with food. Food was another one of his favorite things and Christmas cakes, cookies and candy disappeared faster in the Hanson household almost faster than it came in.

Taylor was busy working on his mural when Avie and Jes came into the studio. Jes handed him a glass of milk and Avie handed him several sugar cookies wrapped up in a napkins. He accepted the snack, putting it down on top of the piano and went back to painting. 

"How come the piano is on fire?" Avie asked.

Taylor looked up to find his two sisters sitting on the bottom step watching him. 

"What?" he asked distracted.

"How come the piano is on fire?" she repeated.

"Oh," Taylor exclaimed and backed up a few feet to view his drawing. "That’s Jerry Lee Lewis playing a piano. He was a wild man on the piano, and he would get so crazy that he would set his piano on fire!"

"But, if it burned up, he wouldn’t have a piano anymore," Avie said with her seven year old pragmatic logic.

"That’s true," Taylor admitted. He motioned his sisters into the room and he sat down at the piano. "This is ‘Great Balls of Fire’." He launched into the jazzy honky-tonk tune with his fingers moving over the keys at a ridiculously speed, while he sang some of the songs lyrics in between trying to explain Jerry Lee Lewis craziness to his sisters. Within a few seconds his sisters were laughing and dancing with him. Taylor jumped up from the bench, pounded on the keys and did a very bad imitation of the icon and finished the song with a flourish. 

"And then, the piano would burst into flames," he exclaimed flopping back down on the bench with sweat beads dampening his forehead from exertion. "Jerry had bright red hair and he was wild! That’s why I painted him with orangy-red hair and made the flames the same color."

"WOW!" Avie exclaimed jumping up and down with excitement.

"I think your picture looks really cool," Jessica said looking at the wall. 

"Would you like to help?" Taylor asked impulsively and then instantly wished he’d kept his mouth shut. He was working very hard on the mural, he didn’t want his little sisters to ruin it. But, then he looked at their faces and he knew he couldn’t take it back. Both of his sisters’ faces had lit up instantly with smiles.

"Really, you would let us help?" Jes questioned, with Avie parroting her words with excitement. "Really?"

Taylor looked back over his wall. He was only painting the top three-quarters of the wall with his mural. The bottom part was separated from the top by a decorative chair railing. He suddenly smiled and looked down at his sisters as an idea formulated in his head.

"Okay, this is the deal." Taylor explained. "I’ll let you help, but everything above the chair railing is for me to paint and I’ll let you paint everything below the rail."

"What can we paint?" Avie asked.

Taylor grabbed a piece of paper and he started drawing large musical notes on it. "How about big musical notes. I’ll draw them and you fill them in."

Jessica looked disappointed for a second but then she offered her opinion. "It would be easier to stamp them on, like Mommy did with the teddy bears in Zoe’s room."

"Like a stencil?" Taylor asked because he hadn’t been home when his Mom had decorated his little sisters room.

"No," Jes explained carefully to her brother because it wasn’t often that she knew something that he didn’t, "You draw a picture. Then you lay it down on a piece of sponge and cut it out. Then you paint the sponge and press it on the wall."

"Wow, Jes," Taylor marveled. "That sounds really cool. If we use all the musical notes though we’ll probably use up all Moms kitchen sponges."

Jessica giggled at her brother ignorance. "You don’t use kitchen sponges. You use a sponge that you get at the craft store. Come on, I’ll show you," she said and she lead her brother to the laundry room where their mother kept her craft materials on a shelf. She pointed out the special sponges, but her brother was eyeing all the other neat stuff in the clear plastic boxes, his mind spinning with possibilities.

"Let’s ask Mom if we can use this stuff," Taylor exclaimed picking up a tube of gold glitter and a tube of multi-colored glitter in each of his hands.

Avie made a run for the stairs and Jes and Taylor were right behind her. 

Diana was removing warm cookies from the oven when three sets of thundering footsteps and three voices all talking at the time bombarded her kitchen at the same time.

She held up her hand and smiled when two sets of blue eyes and one set brown eyes all obeyed her without her speaking a word.

"One at a time, please,"

"Go, Jes, you know what you’re talking about," Taylor urged.

Jessica explained to their mother that she and Avie were going to stamp musical notes on the bottom half of the studio walls and that they needed to use some of her craft supplies.

"I think that’s a great idea," Diana exclaimed. "Use anything you need, just let me know what you use so I can replace it."

"Thanks, Mom!" three voices echoed. Jessica and Avie rushed back out of the kitchen towards the laundry room to gather up their supplies.

"Don’t start without me," Taylor hollered after them. Looking at his mother, he held up the tubes of glitter. "I think we might need some more of these. Thanks, Mom."

"Tay," Diana halted her son’s retreat from the kitchen. She walked over to him, looking into his questioning eyes, and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you,"

"What for?"

"For including your sisters. I know that they feel left out sometimes and it’s lovely that you’re letting them help you."

Taylor grinned at his mother pleased at her words but was embarrassed at the same time. "Jeez, Mom. It’s a ‘punishment chore’," he complained. "The more they do, the less I’ll have to do," he claimed.

Diana laughed at his words and tried to ruffle his hair, but Taylor ducked out of her way to quickly. Enough of ‘mushy’ stuff already!

Three days after Taylor’s infamous phone call a package was delivered to their house by Special Delivery. Luckily, he was baby-sitting while his parents had gone shopping. Ike and Zac were off visiting friends so it was just him and the little kids. Taylor took the script upstairs to his room and hid it under masses of paper on his desk. He didn’t mention it to anyone, just as he hadn’t mentioned the phone call to anyone. Only Ike knew and he said it wasn’t any of his business to tell. So, after the day was ended, and everyone was asleep, he stretched out on the floor of his room and read the script from beginning to end. Reading the script was different from reading a book. It was broken down by character dialog and direction notes were used instead of narration. Taylor thought it was a pretty good script. He didn’t know for sure, because it was totally alien from everything he knew in his own life experiences. It was about a kid from a dysfunctional family, who was abandoned by his mother and basically lived with a father that didn’t seem to be even aware of his existence. So the kid turned to his best friends’ family for support and he was turning out to be a pretty good kid when all of a sudden the best friend committed suicide. From that point on it was about the kid going a little crazy and learning about all kinds of things about his life were based on lies and how he came to grips with it. The last scene was really emotional with the kid and his father facing each other. 

Taylor knew that even if he’d wanted to be an actor, that he couldn’t have followed this script. The profanity used between the father and son was so excessive and graphic that he automatically allowed his eyes to skip over the words. He felt slightly embarrassed and guilty even reading the words. He wondered vaguely if other kids really did speak to their parents like that, because he knew if he did he would be one dead kid!

Exactly seven days before Christmas, Walker decided it was time to get the Christmas tree. His announcement was greeted by cheers from Avie, Mackie and Jes who all thought that Christmas couldn’t really start without one. Diana was already planning a shopping excursion so they split up by volunteers. Ike already had plans so, Zac volunteered to go with their Mom and help with Zoe and Taylor volunteered to go with his Dad and help keep the younger siblings under control. 

When all the kids were strapped in, Walker asked for their opinions. "Okay, guys what kind of a tree do you want?"

"Big!" Avie announced.

"Real big, Mackie shouted.

"One with a lot of little branches, like last year," Jes offered.

Walker looked over to his co-pilot. "Do you remember what kind of tree we got last year?"

"Green," Taylor admitted with a grin and a shake of his head. "I think Mom got the tree last year. Let Jes pick it out, she knows what she wants."

"Is that okay with you, Jss?" Walker asked his daughter and was delighted and she nodded happily.

They drove to Boys Scout lot and spent a half-hour looking at the trees, but Jessica shook her head. Her tree wasn’t on that lot. At the next lot, they had the kind of tree she was looking for, which turned out to be a Blue Spruce, but Avie vetoed them because they were too small. At the third lot, again they had no luck, because they were out of Blue Spruce. Walker was trying to be patience, but he had many other things he would rather do, than spend a day running around looking for the perfect Christmas tree. He hadn’t expected the selection to be such a big deal to his daughters.

"Try the lot over by the Super Saver grocery store," Taylor suggested picking up on his fathers aggravation. 

It was a good suggestion because the lot must have just received a shipment of trees because there were plenty of every variety. The girls were holding hands running through the tree lot trying to inspect every single tree.

"Can you keep track of them for a minute," Walker suggested. "I’ll run over to the store and pick up a few things." 

"Sure, Dad," Taylor agreed letting his father off the hook and taking Mackie by the hand. 

Walker had only been gone for a few minutes when Jes and Avie came running with their news. They had found the ‘most perfect’ tree in the whole world.

Taylor followed his sisters to inspect this awesome tree and he had to agree it was perfect. It was also at least fourteen feet high, four feet higher than their ceilings. He gently and patiently explained to them that it was too big and finally he convinced them to try to find another one.

"I’m cold!" Mackie complained flapping his arms.

"Me too," Taylor exclaimed picking his little brother up in his arms. "Jes, five more minutes," he warned. "And, hold onto Avie,"

"I will," Jessica retorted a little angry that her brother was trying to hurry her. "It’s not easy to find the ‘perfect tree."

"Perfect," Taylor mumbled as he watched his breath freeze in the cold air. Typical, Tulsa weather. One day it was cold enough to freeze and the next it was warm enough to melt everything. 

"Hi!"

Taylor looked down and recognized the little boy.

"Well, hello Marcus. Are you going to sell me a tree?"

"Yep!" the little boy exclaimed.

"Who’s that?" Mackie whispered shyly into his brothers’ ear.

Taylor kneeled down and set Mackie back on his feet. The two little boys were almost the same size. Their differences being that they were opposites in coloring and temperaments. Mackie was trying to shyly bury his head in his coat collar while Marcus was aggressively outgoing and a little salesman. 

"Mackie this is Marcus. Marcus this is my little brother Mackie."

Marcus waved a nonchalant wave at Mackie, but Mackie was in one of his shy moods and retreated further into his brothers shoulder.

"Okay," Taylor exclaimed, lifting his brother up again. "Marcus we need to find two little girls, one with a pink coat and one with purple coat. They are my sisters and they’re picking out the tree."

"You got any more brothers?" Marcus asked bluntly looking up.

"Yup," Taylor said. "Two more brothers, one more sister."

Marcus was counting on his fingers. He smiled when he finished his count successfully. "Six. Then you buy six trees?"

Taylor shook his head at the little salesman. "Nope. One tree for all of us." The little boys looked disappointed so Taylor added. "But it will be a big one."

Jessica and Avery came running through the trees claiming they had found another tree that was even more perfect than the previous find. Taylor followed them through the stacks, looked it over with a critical eye and gave them his approval. Marcus ran off and came back with two men to help them carry the tree back to the van. Taylor described their van and they said they take it over and when he showed up with the receipt they would tie it onto the top. 

Just then their Dad showed up and Taylor let him complete the deal. Passing Mackie off into his fathers arms, Taylor wandered around the lot shack for a minute looking at the arts and crafts that were displayed. He found an angel that he thought his Mom would like and he took it up to the counter. Marcus was sitting up on the counter watching the transactions and talking to the woman that he had pointed out as his grandmother before. 

"Okay, Marcus, here’s another sale," Taylor exclaimed putting his purchase on the counter. The older woman looked at Taylor suspiciously when he called her grandson by name but he just smiled at her and dropped several bills in the ‘tip box’. When the woman turned her back to write up his purchase, Taylor leaned over and whispered to the little boy. "Is the tip box good enough this year for you to get your bike?"

Marcus nodded his head happily and whispered back rather loudly, "Yeah, and just in case, I told Santa at the Salvation Army pot. Now I know I’m going to get my bike."

"Good for you," Taylor exclaimed and then when he saw the boy’s grandmother glaring at him he just took his change, waved his fingers goodbye and left. "Have a Merry Christmas, Marcus!" he said loudly as he went out the door.

"Merry Christmas, Taylor!" Marcus called out after him and Taylor grinned realizing the little boy remembered his name.

Diana insisted that everyone had to be home before they could start to decorate the tree. The only thing that she would allow, was for Walker to put the lights on first. Jes offered to help her Dad. Taylor was smart enough to disappear into the studio. He’d been through that experience enough to know to stay clear until the lights were on, plugged and proven to work.

By bedtime, the tree was completely decorated, although it was more of an accomplishment for Diana and the girls than the boys. Ike’s idea of decorating was to throw large handfuls of tinsel like he was trying to make a hook shot with a basketball. Zac contribution was to torment his sisters and threaten to eat the cookie ornaments that they had spent hours decorating with icing. Taylor wound up with the most awkward job of trimming the lower ‘underneath’ branches. So, he and Mackie laid on their backs under the tree, with their legs sticking out in everyone’s way and hooked ornaments to the lower branches, pinched cookies and ate them grinning at each other. By the time they crawled out most of work was done. 

The entire Hanson family drifted off to bed humming Christmas carols and very satisfied and happy with their efforts for the day.

Zac sat at his drums with a determined look on his face. Ike was standing in front of him with an equally determined look on his face and he had his hand gripped over the top half of his brothers’ drumsticks and he was pulling on them. Zac was holding on to the lower half of his drumsticks and he wasn’t letting go.

Taylor was watching the war of wills wishing he was somewhere else. Just a few minutes before, their Dad had informed them that the plans for their giving a mini concert at the Pascell Center were solid. He had made all the arrangements with the center and it would be three days before Christmas. Walker had suggested that they ‘get prepared’, and they knew that meant practicing. The three of them had not practiced together since Zac had dropped his bombshell. 

Ike and Taylor had immediately retreated to the studio. Ike had picked up his guitar and Taylor sat down at the drums. Thirty seconds into the song, Zac had shown up. Taylor had stopped and shifted over to the piano and Zac had taken his position at the drums. But, he hadn’t gotten in one beat before Ike grabbed the sticks. 

"Who says you’re going to play?" Ike demanded pulling on the sticks.

"It was my idea to give the concert!" Zac shouted not giving up his grip.

"You quit!" Ike snarled.

"Well, I rejoined!" Zac yelled back.

"No,"

"You can’t stop me," Zac yelled, but with one finally pull, Ike jerked the drumsticks out of his brothers’ hand.

"Guys," Taylor interrupted.

"Tay, I need to talk to Zac. Alone," Ike commanded. 

"But,"

"Please," Ike said, but although his word was a plee, his eyes were angry and demanding non-interference. Taylor nodded and tried to avoid looking at Zac because Zac’s eyes were silently begging him not to leave. Taylor just threw his hands up in the air and left. Sometimes he just couldn’t get in the middle. Sometimes Ike and Zac had to sort out their differences by themselves. He just wished he could have talked to Zac first, because belligerence was not the best tactic to use on Ike when he was angry. He knew Zac would break down and apologize eventually and he hoped it came before Ike clobbered him.

Taylor went upstairs to the family room, picked up the phone and called the Pascall Center. He had tried to call Arlene several times before but each time she had not been able to answer the phone. This time when he got through he was able to talk to Nurse Sullivan. He told her that Hanson was coming back for a Christmas concert in two days and asked to talk to Arleen. Margaret Sullivan thanked Taylor in advance of their coming to the center and told him that Arleen was in a treatment and couldn’t be disturbed and she promised to get the message to her.

Taylor was disappointed but he didn’t have time to dwell on it. Walker Hanson walked into the family room with a scowl on his face and pointed to his son and said, "Jordan Taylor, I want to speak to you. In the den now!"

Taylor’s stomach flipped, but he followed his father obediently. When full names were used you were in big trouble and he couldn’t think of anything that he’d done wrong. 

"What’s wrong?" Taylor asked his tone worried and wary while he desperately searched his memory for something that he’d screwed up on bad enough to tick his father off.

"I just got a call from Christopher." Walker exclaimed.

"Oh," Taylor breathed feeling a little relieved. 

"Oh," Walker repeated.

"Well, Dad, I didn’t mean to be rude to Mr. Spielburg," Taylor apologized. "And, I explained that to him. I thought he was a prank caller. Otherwise, I would have never hung up on him."

Walker was shaking his head in disbelief. "Son, I think fame has clogged up your sense of normal. One of the most renowned directors of our time calls here and offers you a part and you don’t even think its important enough to tell your parents about it."

"Oh," Taylor repeated. Now he had a better idea about why he was getting chewed out. His father was upset with him not for being rude but for not telling him about the call. "Dad, I was flattered, but I’m not an actor. I told him that."

"You turned him down," Walker said. "Tay, don’t you think that was a mighty big decision to make without even consulting your Mom and I?"

"I didn’t think he was that serious," Taylor mumbled. 

"Did a script come to the house in the mail?" Walker demanded. 

Taylor nodded his head. "I read it Dad, and you wouldn’t like it. Way too many cuss words in it."

"Bring me the script," Walker ordered.

Taylor jumped up and took the stairs two at a time. A minute later, he handed the envelope to his father. "Dad, I really didn’t think he was serious," he explained.

Walker picked up the script and weighted it in his hand. "This is proof that he is serious. Mr. Spielburg has called Christopher three times already about it. Tay, you can’t just dismiss opportunities like this without giving them some serious consideration."

"I’m sorry, but it’s acting. I don’t know anything about acting," 

"I’m not angry," Walker asserted patting his son on the back. "Perplexed maybe, but not angry. Let me read this and talk to Christopher about it. Then we’ll talk, again."

Taylor went to his room. He flipped on the intercom which he had set to the studio and he heard Ike and Zac yelling at each other. He flipped the button off and made a dive onto his bed, and pulled a pillow up over his head. He didn’t want to get involved in that fight. He had enough problems of his own. Lying facedown on his bed he tried to analyze his fathers words. He was mad. True he hadn’t yelled, but Taylor knew his Dad’s reactions and moods pretty well. Admit it or not, Walker was angry. Okay, maybe he should have told them about the phone call, but it was his decision. Wasn’t it? 

Zac leaned over his brother, lifted the pillow off his head and screamed. "Tay, wake up!"

Taylor shot up out of the bed like he’d received an electrical shock. "God, Zac, why do you do that?" he growled.

"Cause it’s fun to watch you jump," Zac exclaimed grinning. 

"Your day will come, brother," Taylor promised maniacally.

"But not today," Zac laughed. "Come on Tay, we’ve got a ton of stuff to do. You don’t have time to sleep!"

"What stuff?"

"First, we’ve got to practice, then we’re going to premier Zac Hanson’s directorial debute of the ‘Hanson Family Photo Album’ on account of, it’s finished and then Dad’s going to give us our Christmas money. Then Ike’s going to take us to the mall for Christmas shopping, and then later after the mall closes, Mr. Willis says he’ll reopen the arcade for us, so we can play laser tag." 

Taylor crawled out of the bed. "Breath, Zac," he suggested when his brother ran out of words. "Who won the fight?"

Zac scrunched up his face and looked up at the ceiling. "Ike, but only cause he’s bigger."

"It would have anything to do with him being right, would it?" Taylor asked grinning.

"I wouldn’t go that far," Zac debated.

"Can we ask our friends to meet us at the arcade tonight?" Taylor asked.

"I guess so, cause Ike’s already ask a couple of ‘girl’ friends to go tonight." Zac complained. "Girls can’t play laser tag!"

"Lindsey beats you every time she goes with us," Taylor reminded his brother. 

"Lindsey doesn’t count as a girl," Zac denied.

"How’s that?" Taylor asked. "I think she’s pretty."

"My Lindsey?" Zac croaked and stuck his finger down his throat like he was gagging.

"Fine, then I’ll ask her to come tonight," Taylor suggested.

"You stay away from Lindsey," Zac screeched.

Taylor just grinned as Zac made a dash out of the room to get to the telephone first. Zac was slowly becoming interested in girls but he had a hard recognizing his own friends as anything but the tomboys that he’d hung out with as a child. 

The brothers returned to the studio and Taylor was confused for a second as Zac sat down at the piano instead of the drums. 

"Part of our deal," Zac explained. "Ike said you’ve been practicing and you should get to play the drums for at least three songs. So, I get stuck with the keyboards."

"Enjoy. I’ve been stuck with them for years," Taylor said wryly.

"Yuck!"

Once they had gotten past their initial bickering, which was part of their normal setup procedure, the practice session went well. They picked out which songs they would perform at the Pascall Center, deciding on six Christmas songs and two of their regular set. It was a good session. Then they had a family lunch and settled down to watch the video that Zac had worked very hard to produce. It was long, two hours and thirty minutes long. He had combined still shots with background music from their personal collection of recorded songs from their early years right up to the present. He had even included a song sang by Jessica and Avery to accompany the section of film that included their pictures. Zac had also spliced in some of their home video clips, adding a little action to the video. 

Zac bowed and accepted his well deserved phases for his completed work. He also accepted the teasing from Ike and Taylor because viewing the film had lured Mackie to sleep. 

Then Walker Hanson handed out envelopes to his children containing their Christmas money for buying presents for the family. Ike and Taylor wandered back to their bedrooms and then met in Taylor’s bedroom because his bedroom was always middle ground. They had to discuss what they wanted to get their parents and brothers and sisters for presents. Until recently, it had been necessary to pool their money resources to manage to get better gifts for their siblings and decent presents for their parents. Now that their Christmas money had increased, it wasn’t strictly necessary, but they were used to doing it that way. 

Zac burst into Taylor’s bedroom with a huge smile on his face and two white envelopes, one in each hand, with his brothers names written on the outside. 

"Guess what?" he exclaimed handing first Ike and then Taylor an envelope.

"What?" Ike questioned and then he whistled when he opened his envelope and counted out ninety dollars. 

At his brothers’ reaction, Taylor opened his envelope and sat down on the bed when he saw four one hundred dollar bills and some twenty’s inside. "God, Zac! What did you do. Rob a bank?"

"No, I’m just paying you back what I owe you," Zac reported.

Ike’s eyebrows raised at the amount of bills that Taylor was pulling out of his envelope. "Did you loan him that much money?" he questioned in disbelief.

Taylor looked over to his brother and Zac nodded his head in acknowledgment. "Yep, he did." Zac admitted. "I didn’t realize it, but I added it all up. That’s why I wouldn’t let you work on the video with me Tay. Mom was paying me to do it so I could pay you back and it wouldn’t have been right if I had let you help."

"Mom paid you this much money to make the tape?’ Taylor exclaimed. "Dang, I’m going to ask if she wants another one made!"

"She does and I’ve already cornered the market on that deal," Zac exclaimed.

"Well, now that Tay is rich we won’t have a problem buying decent Christmas presents," Ike exclaimed.

"Do you mind if I look at it for a few minutes before you spend it?" Taylor complained cheerfully.

"Not at all," Ike retorted with a grin. "Pet it for all I care. Come on guys we have to come up with some ideas!"

"Well, I’m not buying anyone any Christmas presents this year," Zac claimed.

"Explain that, oh greedy one," Ike said.

"I’m not being greedy. I’m not keeping the money for myself," Zac protested. "I want to spent it on the kids at the Pascell Center. I want to buy some cassette players and some tapes and music and stuff. They don’t have hardly anything to play with at all. I already gathered up all my old tapes and games and everything to take over there."

"Well, Zac I think that’s a good idea, but I don’t think you thought it all the way through yet," Ike said and raised his hand when his brother looked like he was going to start arguing. "I mean it Zac. You can’t just decide to use your Christmas money on something other than what it was intended. It’s not fair to expect Jes, Avie and Mackie to do without presents, even if they were old enough to understand. You wouldn’t have been so understanding just a year ago, and they’re younger. I mean, Tay and I would go along with the idea, heck I’ll even pitch in part of my money to help you, but you need to talk to Mom and Dad first."

"Zac, Ike’s right," Taylor agreed. "Plus you can’t just show up with all these Christmas presents without warning. People get really super sensitive if they think you’re handing out charity Plus, the doctors may not want them to have a lot of stuff. Maybe it makes them excitable or something. There might be a reason why there aren’t any toys. It’s better to be overly cautious than to be a totally insensitive jerk."

"You don’t think it’s a good idea?" Zac said somewhat disappointed.

"No, I think it’s a great idea," Ike disagreed. "I just think you’d better clear it through Mom and Dad first and that they need to clear it with the Pascell Center, before you go off half-cocked."

"Okay, I’ll go ask them," Zac agreed somewhat encouraged. "You coming with me?"

Ike shook his head. "No it’s your show. You explain it." 

Ike waited until Zac disappeared out the door and then he turned to his other brother. "How do you figure it? Just about the time I figure he’s a total waste of a perfectly good human body, he comes up with a real winner of an idea."

Taylor fingered the money and then he tossed it into the middle of his bed. "He’s just going through changes. Puberty wasn’t that cool for us either, remember? Cut him some slack."

"I have been. We managed to survive puberty without breaking up the band," Ike reminded his brother.

"Yeah, well he’s back now," Taylor commented. "Are you really going to make him play the keyboard at tomorrows concert?"

Ike grinned. "Yep. Paybacks are hell."

"Did you hear all the clinkers he hit today?" Taylor exclaimed.

Ike laughed. "Yeah, but he was doing that on purpose. He’ll be fine tomorrow, he plays pretty well when he wants too."

"If you want me back on keyboard, it’s okay," Taylor volunteered.

The bedroom door burst open and Zac jumped into the room. "Mom say she thinks it’s a cool idea and she called some guy at the Pascall Center and he gave her a whole list of stuff that they can use. He said we could get coloring books, crayons, coloring pens, paper, puzzles and movies and all kinds of games and stuff. Mom says we can give up to half of our Christmas money, but it’s up to us and I’m not supposed to pressure you guys at all, ‘cause, just because, it’s my idea doesn’t mean you have to do it. You were right, cause the guy said that the stuff should be given directly to the center and that way they can give it to the kids as they need it. Oh, and Mom said she’d take me to the Toy Emporium tomarrow."

"Anything else?" Ike asked grinning at his brothers’ habit of running off at the mouth until he ran out of breath.

"Yeah, how much are you gonna give me?" Zac demanded.

Ike handed over half his Christmas money, then he threw in the ninety dollars that Zac had given him and then opened his wallet and counted out some more bills. Taylor handed over half of his Christmas money and then took out one of the hundred dollar bills out of the envelope that Zac had given him and toss the rest into the pile. 

"Tay, that’s yours," Zac protested.

"I wasn’t expecting it, so I won’t miss it," Taylor laughed. "Besides if you hadn’t personally worked for it, you would have pestered it out of me anyway."

"Nope, my borrowing days are over!" Zac promised as he gathered up the money. "If it wasn’t for a good cause, I wouldn’t take it now, but..."

"You’d better give it to Mom for safekeeping," Ike suggested. "You don’t want to be carrying that around tonight at the arcade. Okay, guys let’s get serious. What are we going to get Mom and Dad for Christmas?"

That discussion carried through most of the evening as Ike drove them to the mall and they wandered around endlessly trying to agree on Christmas gifts. The little kids were fairly easy, but the quest for the best gift for their parents was far more time-consuming. By the time they finished their shopping, they drew straws on who would have to wrap it and Ike lost, so he was responsible for wrapping the Christmas presents. Then, Ike drove them over to the arcade and they waited in the parking lot for their friends to show up. One-by-one, their friends came. Ike’s were older so they were driving. Taylor and Zac’s had to be dropped off by their parents with promises that they would be back to pick them up or made arrangements for Ike to drop them off at their houses. Two hours later, eleven exhausted teenagers trouped out of the laser arcade and piled into vehicles. After hours of pretend warfare, they were happy and tired. It was the perfect ending to a great day.