A Birth day

Aria and Ruby both heard Marcus and smiled to Abby " see they do still want you and love you very much." Ruby said " but lets get these cookies on the go while Marcus and Angus are out getting our tree" she said placing down three large balls of cookie dough and a cutter with three rolling pins fo0r every one to use. Now with Abby finished her breakfast Aria cleared the plates and walked her over to the table and lifted her onto a chair.

"there we go" she said as Ruby slid over a cutting board with some dough on it not far was some icing in different colours to decorate once they were cooked.

"okay lets getting to making kitty cookies" she said and picked up a rolling pin and rolled her ball flat before taking the cutter and placing it on it and pushing down . " these will look great once cooked and decorated." Ruby said smiling as she watched Abby cut her cookies placing them on the baking tray in front of her.

Andrew brought Elwood downstairs and refilled Elwood's tea, and then he lit a fire in the fireplace to warm the house and Abbey watched Aria cutting cookies, and she frowned.

"Not like that," Abbey told Aria. "No shaking the kitty cutter. It mooshes their ears. Do it like this." She used a different technique for using a cookie cutter that Abbey believed made a sharper, cleaner cut--one she learned by watching Angus. It made Elwood laugh.

"That child seems to be three going on 23," Elwood laughed. "At this rate, she'll have her own restaurant by age five."

marcus and Angsu found two trees that they believed were perfect. They chose two full bodied Fraser fir trees because of their soft needles. They didn't want the small children to be poked with the sharp needles on a pine tree. They chose a seven foot tree for the duplex because it was a little smaller, and wasn't as wide around and would be very impressive without taking up the whole living room. They chose a taller ten foot fir for the main house because the big house had taller ceilings. They cut both trees, tied ropes to both of them, and then slowly worked on dragging them back.

It was going smoothly until Angus accidently got the tree rope caught on a rock when he tripped on a tree root in the woods and fell. It yanked his bad shoulder hard. That was painful. He didnt think he honestly damaged it but it certainly wasnt' in the mood to drag anymore trees.

"Stop," marcus told him. "Let's not damage it. You do not need to risk one more surgery on that. I'll stay with the trees, and you go find Jack and see if he might lend us a hand after all."

Angus sighed, knowing marcus was right. He went up to the barn, hunting for Jack. He saw the boys there and Joseph, but there were times when Jack's muscles did definitely come in handy.

"What's up?" Victor asked.

"Where's Jack?"

"Up in the barn loft, I think."

"Thanks," Angus said. He walked over to the open part of the barn so he could look up towards the loft. "Jack? You up there?"

Aria cut her cat but frowned as she saw the ears , hearing Abby she watched her and smiled " thank you Abby" she said and cut it again using the technique Abby had showed her " wow much better" she said smiling as she showed Abby before placing them on the baking tray with the others. " that is a much better way of cutting them, did Angus teach you that?" Aria asked her as she cut a second.

Jack was checking the stock up in the loft when he heard a shout come up to him " Angus? " he said and moved to the edge to look down " yeah , what do you need?" he asked climbing down from the loft to stand in front of him. he could smell pin on Angus and smiled " Robert mentioned you'd gone tree hunting" he said smiling as he wiped his hands free of dirty and dust from the loft.

"I seed him do that lots of times," she nodded. "Gam made punkins one time and shook the tops right of 'em." Elwood laughed out loud thinking of Kate shaking the cutters and shimmying the stems right off the tops of the cookies, and it was even funnier to Elwood when he listened to a three year old talk about how cutting a cookie that way was so wrong.

"We found two nice ones--one for us and one for the main house," Angus told him, "but, long story short, I strained my shoulder, and marcus believes I shouldn't buggar it up. But he clearly can't drag two trees back by himself. So I've come to see if you or a couple of your lads could give him a hand. We have a seven footer and a ten footer. We're just about 25 feet straight south of that bend in the creek. I'm sure you know exactly where I'm talking about."

Aria and Ruby chuckled and nodded as Abby spoke " wow, that's not good" Ruby said with a smile " pumpkins need there tops its not a pumpkin without it" she said placing her cat cookie on the tray.

Jack listened to Angus and nodded " they sound perfect , hey boys Joseph got a job for you" he said calling them over " we're going with Angus to collect the trees they found" he said to Sam, Victor and Joseph. Hearing where they were he nodded " well lead the way" he said motioning for Angus to lead the way to the trees and Marcus.

Reaching the area Jack chuckled at Marcus as he took the rope of the larger tree " okay you boys get the smaller I'll handle this one." he said as he began to pull the tree like it was a sapling. Joseph looked at the tree and the boys and picked up a rope.

"come on guys lets do this " he said as he waited for them to pick up the other rope and begin pulling.

Once they had the trees in hand, Angus went back to the house and went down to the basement storage room to root out the Christmas decorations. Andrew went downstairs to see if he could lend him a hand and he caught Angus trying to massage his shoulder.

"Did you buggar that thing up again?"

"No, not really. I think I just strained a muscle."

"Let me see," Andrew said. He checked it briefly. "I think you're right. I don't see any real injury. You've just pissed it off, that's all. We'll do some heat and ice on it, and it'll straighten itself out."

"Can we do that later?"

"Sure. It might ache but you're used to that. So it'll be fine."

"Agreed," Angus laughed. They found the tree stand and the decorations and brought them upstairs.
"They should be back any time now with the tree," Angus told Ruby and Aria. "How are your cookies coming? They smell good."

"Abbey's been giving them baking lessons," Elwood laughed.

"Abs? Are you teaching them?" Angus asked.

"I told them not to shake the cookies."

"Shaking the cookies?" he frowned. Abbey motioned to him, and he went over to the counter. She took a cookie cutter and laid it on the counter and did the shaking motion that most bakers did with their cutters.

"It mooshes their ears," she told him.

"She said she learned to cut them straight by watching you," Elwood said.

"You probably did," Angus laughed. "You were with me all the time when you were little."

"I miss you all the time, Aggie," she said quietly. "You too busy for me now."

"What? Too busy for you? Never," Angus frowned. "You're my best girl, you know that, right?"

"Noooo. That's Roobie."

"She's my other best girl," Angus laughed. "I will always, always have time for you."

Ruby saw Angus return and head down to the basement then Andrew followed him down she checked the cookies and lifted them out of the oven once they were a golden brown " just have to wait till they are cold now so we can have the fun bit, decorating them" she said smiling but she paused hearing Abby , walking over she sat facing her " Abby your welcome here anytime, one day the babies will be old enough you can play with them too and teach them things " she said " but don't ever think you can't come round, if Angus isn't here I will be" she said softly to her " besides you have to teach Aria how to make cookies the right way" she added seeing the look of sunrise on Aria face making her chuckle along with Aria.

Aria chuckled and looked at Abby " yeah, got to do it the right way, right" Aria said hoping to have cheered Abby up.

Abbey smiled. At that moment, Robert knocked and went in.

"Abbey," he sighed, relieved. "I looked for you everywhere til marcus told me you were here." He swept her off her feet, picking her up and wrapping her close in a tight hug. "You worried me. Why didn't you come see me before you ran off."

"Mama said no," she said quietly.

"I'm sorry," he sighed. "I'll try to fix that with mama, okay?" She nodded, and he kissed her cheek.

"I stay with Aggie and Roobie today," she told him. "I gots my jammas to stay over."

"You don't need to stay over."

"I no stay there and have bad dreams by myself," she told him. "I stay with Aggie. He gots bad dreams too sometimes."

"I think I should fix this with mama first. And then I'll be back," He looked at Ruby. "Should I presume its okay if she's here for awhile?"

Ruby saw Abby smile then heard Robert enter turning to look at him she smiled then nodded to him when he asked if it was okay for her to stay " its fine, we'd love to have her stay, we still have cookies to decorate and Angus tree to decorate too, don't we Abby" she said smiling as she brought the tray from the kitchen to the table now cooled enough to decurtate.

It was now that Jack knocked with their tree on his shoulder " tree delivery, hey Abby" he said smiling " you going to help decorate the tree?" he asked as he placed the tree in its holder and made sure it was secure before stepping back to look at it " that's a fine tree you got Angus" he said smiling. He then saw the boys bring the smaller one to the back door " I'd better go those boys will just leave it there given half a chance, save me a cookie Abby." he said with a chuckle as he left and walked over to the main house picking up the tree and carrying it inside " grab the stand from the store room Sam" he said as he entered.

"I'll leave her here with you," Robert said. "Abbey's been having nightmares, and when she does, she's been coming into our room and climbing into our bed with Kate and me. We don't mind, but I just haven't gotten round to telling Khaat yet. So I think i need to clear that little business up and then I think things will repair themselves between her and Abbey. Its just one of those misunderstandings that happen when you have multiple generations in the same house."

"Unca Jack. You gots the tree? Good. Means Santa coming soon. You come back when the cookies are done. They naky cookies now." Angus laughed when Abbey said the cookies were naked still.

"You'll have to come back when they're properly dressed, Jack," Angus teased.

"What are your dreams about, Abs?" Angus asked her.

"Doggies," she muttered. "Red doggies."

"Ah. well, fortunately, we only know one red doggie, and I don't think she's going to be around for a little. So maybe you'll be able to sleep tonight," Angus said.

"Did you hurt her bad?" Abbey looked at him, scowling.

"Wanna see?" Angus asked. He got out a llttle ziplock baggie from the desk drawer that had moira's teeth in it. He handed her the baggie. Abbey looked at the teeth and began to laugh.

"Doggy's got no teefs," she giggled, showing Angus a gumming motion.

"That's right. That's about all she's got now," Angus laughed.