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The Rogers’ Christmas dinner had become a sort of pot-luck since the children had grown up and moved out. Traditionally, Steve had always cooked the Christmas dinner, mixing his own traditions with the recipes he’d borrowed from Peggy’s mother. But as they got older, and the children decided he deserved a break, they’d begun to bring a few dishes each, which, cobbled together, made for a rather lovely Christmas dinner.
Michael had inherited his father’s cooking skills, neither could be called a natural in the kitchen, but over time their determination and practice paid off. He brought the turkey, stuffing and roast potatoes, while his wife Nancy had whipped up some sweet biscuits that she’d had the children ice. The adorable smudges of icing, presumably Robert’s attempt–he was only three, after all–were mixed with Elizabeth’s neatly piped hearts.
“I made a Christmas card for you and grandad,” Elizabeth grinned, showing the gap where her two front teeth should be, and offered Peggy the folded piece of card. Glitter fell to the floor, stuck to her hands, and clung to the front of her dress, but her smile didn’t falter as she examined the card from her eldest grandchild.
“You made this all by yourself?” Peggy gasped in wonder, admiring the neatly written note inside. “It’s beautiful my darling, you’ll have to show your grandad, he’ll be ever so pleased with it.” She skipped off to show Steve, giving Peggy a moment to quietly wash her hands of the glitter.
By the time she returned to the dining room, James, their second eldest, had arrived with his family. They’d brought the vegetables, gravy, and pigs in blankets, as well as an enormous Christmas pudding.
“Linda, sweetheart, how are you feeling?” Peggy pulled her daughter-in-law into a crushing hug.
“I’m well,” she pulled back and grinned tiredly. “But I’ll be glad to have a break while the children keep their grandparents on their toes.”
“Oh I’m sure we can handle them, where’s the baby?”
Linda nodded towards Steve, who already had baby Grace on his hip.
“Of course,” Peggy shook her head fondly. Just as she was about to ask after the twins, she felt one of them crash into her legs. She turned to see Nicholas giggling, hands reaching up to her in a request to be picked up.
Peggy scooped him up and covered him in kisses, but they were interrupted by a piercing wail. She looked up to see his twin–George–toddling towards them, arms reached out towards her, red in the face and screeching.
Linda sighed, “they always want what the other one has.”
“I think I can manage both,” Peggy replied, although they’d grown a fair bit since she’d last held them both. With Nicholas tightly in her left arm, she reached for George and pulled him up. She could comfortably manage one on each hip, even at her age. “See, there was no need for all that fuss,” she told George as she kissed his tears away.
James and Michael were busy setting their food out on the table, their blonde and brown heads together as they made bets on how late their sister was going to be.
“She’ll get here when she gets here,” Steve chimed in from the corner. He was sat on the floor, and somehow had managed to fit Robert, Elizabeth and Grace on his lap. When Peggy finally put the twins down, they toddled over to Steve’s corner. He’d already started reading books to the children.
Peggy sat down at the table with her sons and daughters-in-law, and checked her watch.
“She promised she’d be here before the dessert,” Michael reassured her, before pouring her a glass of wine.
The five of them polished off the appetisers Peggy had laid out–they were store bought, but she’d arranged them neatly on expensive plates–and finished a bottle of wine. Then it was time for the main event.
While her sons carved the turkey and plated up, Peggy helped seat the children at their little table. They were given their small portions of Christmas dinner, Peggy put bibs on the twins, and helped Robert by cutting up his turkey. By the time she returned to the table her plate was full and her glass of wine replenished. Just as she took a long sip, the doorbell rang.
Michael and James exchanged confused looks, as Steve stood, Grace still in his arms.
“It can’t be,” Michael said.
“This has to be a record,” James replied.
But sure enough, Steve returned beaming, an arm around his daughter’s shoulders.
“Sarah! You made it!” Peggy stood, almost tipping her chair over as she embraced her youngest.
Sarah was the only one of their children who had followed in their footsteps and joined their line of work, despite years of both Steve and Peggy trying to convince her otherwise. As a result, her schedule was erratic.
Her brother plated up another Christmas dinner, still looking stunned, and before long they were all tucking in.
“Are you sure you won’t join us darling?” Peggy called over to Steve, who was sat at the kids table, knees folded up to his chest.
“I’m great here,” he said around a mouthful of potato. How he managed to eat with a baby in one arm and a toddler in the other, she had no idea, but he seemed perfectly in his element.
“So, mom,” James looked at Peggy, “now that you’ve officially retired, can we finally hear all the stories you could never tell us growing up–the ones you were sworn to secrecy about?”
“Heavens no,” Peggy finished her glass of wine. “I’d like to hear about your life, tell me what’s new in the world of advertising, I find it all terribly fascinating.”
James rolled his eyes, but gave her a rundown of his new project nonetheless.
Michael followed, then Nancy, and Peggy truly was fascinated by Nancy’s tales of nursing. The dessert was scoffed down in record time, and several children put down for naps, before they ended up back at the dinner table opening another bottle of wine.
Steve was still at the children's table with Elizabeth, who was too old for naps, teaching her some sort of card game.
“There’s one thing I’d like to know,” Michael said, giving James a look, “how did the ever elusive Sarah Rogers manage to get away from her work to join us for Christmas?”
“That’s classified,” she responded, a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth.
The boys groaned in unison. “Don’t you start, we’ve had a lifetime of that from mom.”
Sarah laughed, before giving a serious answer. “Alright, someone owed me a favour, so I decided to cash it in.”
“So you swapped shifts with a colleague?” Nancy asked. There was laughter around the table.
“Exactly,” Sarah smiled, “but it doesn’t sound quite so mysterious when you put it like that.”
Sarah could share a lot more details about her work than Peggy could, since she was still fairly low in the ranks. It seemed that although things had improved greatly, she still had to deal with ignorant men who thought they ran the workplace.
“The new guy asked me to make him a coffee in front of the whole meeting room, it was humiliating.”
“Darling, I’m sure it was ten times more humiliating for him when you sat down at the head of the table.”
“How did you deal with men like that?” Sarah asked her.
Peggy took a sip of her drink, before answering “I’m afraid that’s classified.”
There were groans from her children and laughter from their partners.
“But in all seriousness, I dealt with it by proving myself time and time again.”
Sarah raised an eyebrow, and Peggy had the feeling, as she often did when talking to her daughter, that she was looking in a mirror.
“Well,” she added, “the occasional right hook does serve to remind them they’re not quite as powerful as they think they are.”
Peggy felt a pair of warm hands on her shoulders. “That was the moment I fell in love with your mother.”
Once again, their children groaned, while their partners cooed at Steve’s sweet admission.
Peggy patted Steve’s hand, “I’m sure they don’t want to hear that story again, darling.”
“No, let’s hear it!” Linda pleaded.
Steve didn’t need any convincing. “Well, it was my first day at basic, and the new recruits were lined up, waiting for our superior to arrive. Then the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen in my life approached us,” Peggy rolled her eyes, not that it stopped Steve, “and welcomed us to the army. I could barely think straight with her standing in front of me, but some wise guy made a stupid remark, and Peggy knocked him straight to the ground.”
“You didn’t?” Linda gasped.
“You’ve got to nip that type of behaviour in the bud,” Peggy explained.
While Steve was telling the story, Elizabeth had climbed into her mother’s lap.
Peggy turned to look up at him. “Have you decided to join the grown-ups now?”
“Yeah,” he smiled. “Those little chairs are hell on my knees.”
Steve reached over her, crowding her, and grabbed her glass of wine. He downed it in a few sips, then put the empty glass on the table, but his body stayed where it was, possessively draped over her. She could feel the heat of his body, and wanted nothing more than to pull his lips down to hers.
Michael cleared his throat, and Steve planted a kiss on Peggy’s cheek before reluctantly pulling away and taking the seat next to her.
“Sorry, darling,” she mouthed to Michael.
The wine flowed, and Steve’s hand came to rest on Peggy’s thigh under the table. Their children either didn’t notice, or chose to ignore it. Besides, Michael and James had each scooted their chairs closer to their partners and had arms around them.
Elizabeth had moved to her Aunt Sarah’s lap, and was being quizzed about school. By all accounts she was fantastic at art, which made Steve beam with pride.
“Now that you’re both retired, how are you going to fill your days?” Nancy asked politely.
“Surely you’ll be bored to death,” Sarah added.
“Oh I’m sure we’ll find plenty of things to keep us occupied.” Peggy met Steve’s gaze and they shared a look. “The details of which are classified.”
As Steve leaned down to kiss her lips, Peggy did her best to ignore the protests and dramatic gags of their children.