THREE

“It's been ten years ago,” Jinyoung said, sighing wistfully as he hung a snowflake ornament onto their Christmas tree. “Did you remember?”

“Of course I remembered,” Mark said, and for once in his life he wasn't lying. “Ten years ago, I met a certain guy at Allison's and wound up inviting him to decorate our Christmas tree the next day. And here you are, still decorating it. You really did such a good job, I couldn't let you slip away. Plus, look at all the new ornaments you brought to this household.”

“Seems like just yesterday,” Jinyoung mused. “Except the part where Lou was three and actually helping with the decorating. Now we have a new three-year-old helper.” He hefted Ginger up into his arms and helped her place a reindeer ornament on a high branch.

Lou looked up from where he was sitting on the couch, texting. “I told you to wait a sec. Kit's live tweeting from his Christmas cruise.”

“Live tweeting?” Mark repeated blankly.

“Is anything that fascinating happening on the cruise?” Jinyoung asked.

“He's going to slide down the banisters in the middle of the ball room dance,” Lou reported.

“Thrilling,” Mark said dryly. “I see how it is. Make your elderly parents and little sister do all the work to hear about your friend being dumb instead.”

“I can do it, Daddy,” Ginger informed him confidently. She looped a Christmas elf ornament onto a bottom branch. “See?”

“Of course you can, sweetie. Great job.”

She ran over to Lou and stuck her tongue out, then ran back to the tree.

“You little...” Lou grinned and got to his feet. “Was that a challenge?”

“I can ornament best!” Ginger declared. “Lou is lazy!”

“Excuse me, but I've been doing this for years. Just you watch!” He grabbed a Santa ornament and hung it on the top branch, then stuck out his tongue. He still had to stand on his tip-toes; his Mark-Allison genes hadn't given him a huge height advantage, and puberty had only just started on him. He was steadily growing, his voice was cracking, and the moodiness was just barely beginning to manifest, but he had a ways to go. Mark was praying he'd be an easy teen to deal with. He didn't even want to think about the potential troubles and temptations waiting for him when he started high school next year.

Ginger had pouted a little at Lou's use of his superior height, so Jinyoung lifted her up again, this time giving her the gingerbread angel to put on the very top of the tree. She slipped it onto the high branch, then gave Lou a triumphant smile on the way down. Lou shrugged in defeat. There was a limit to how competitive he'd get with his little sisters, and mini-firecracker Regina was more likely to stretch that limit than the gentle Ginger.

Lou glanced down at his cell phone again. “Dude, he actually did it!” he said. “He sent a proof video.” And sure enough, there was a shaky video of someone hurtling towards a ballroom floor on his phone.

Kit was in high school, and was already proving not to be an easy teen to deal with due to his rambunctious personality and taste for causing trouble. If anything, Lou remained a calmer influence on him. Lou had his own share of rambunctiousness, but was much quicker to calm himself down and only got fired up in the first place over things he considered worth his while. And since Kit still seemed determined to remain the number one most cool to his best friend as the older of the two, if Lou didn't like something, he tended to drop it immediately. However, sliding down banisters in front of super rich cruise goers ballroom dancing in their gowns and suits was completely within Lou's realm of cool.

“BamBam must be so proud,” Jinyoung said.

“BamBam can't get a girlfriend,” Lou said. Poor BamBam, Mark thought. Where Lou and Kit always listened to Mark and Jinyoung with a minimum of sass, taking them as authority figures, BamBam only earned eyerolling from the kids.

“It's not like you have a girlfriend either,” Mark teased.

Jinyoung gave Mark a look. Lou simply shrugged. “Don't want one,” he said.

We'll see how that one changes over the next few years, Mark thought. Not that he was too excited at the prospect. A greedy part of him didn't want to put himself in the position of having to think about his kids eventually flying out of the nest one day.

After they were done with the tree, they went to the kitchen to bake the gingerbread dough they'd left in the fridge that morning into cookies . With Kit's excitement out of the way, Lou was quick to go into his sterling older brother role for Ginger. He was a decent baker, so he could walk Ginger through the majority of it without Mark and Jinyoung stepping in to help. They handled the stove, but the two kids did all the cookie cutter work as a team.

“I can't wait to see how Ginger is going to decorate these,” Jinyoung said. “I wonder if she stacks up to what Lou did ten years ago.”

“At the very least, she'll beat the cinnamon and ginger cookies you made.”

“I'm going to make them again this year just because you said that.”

“I hope you also enjoy eating them by yourself.”

After they baked the cookies and let them cool, they showed Ginger how to use the frosting tubes and little decorations they'd bought to design the cookies. Lou did a sample version for her, which turned out beautifully—it was truly amazing, the changes ten years brought. Ginger did her best to imitate him, but the results were a bit like Lou's cookies when he'd been a three-year-old: messy, but still cute.

Ginger found a pair of gingerbread cookies where their hands had baked together and concentrated hard on decorating them. She gave them what looked like short hair cuts, and put them in clothes. One was wearing what looked like jeans and a pink sweatshirt, a little bit like the NBA hoodie Mark was wearing that day. The other was wearing sky blue frosting all over.

“Daddy,” Ginger said, pointing to cookie in the pink sweatshirt. “Papa,” she said, pointing to the one in blue. “Cuz the hands are holding.”

Mark and Jinyoung glanced at each other, squeezing each others hands underneath the table. Ten years really had brought so many beautiful, priceless things to them. The blessings they'd opened their hearts to when falling in love with each other just kept blessing them over and over again. It was going to be another beautiful Christmas season.

0

Regina threw open the door to the Wang house when they arrived on Christmas morning. “Santa came,” she announced. “He knew you were coming to spend the holiday with us, Ginger, and left your presents here too.”

“Merry Christmas, Regina,” Jinyoung said as Ginger wrapped her older cousin in a bear hug. Regina was wearing a velvety Christmas dress with white tights, but she'd already bunched the dress up and rolled the sleeves. Her brown hair was half yanked out of the ribbon it had been tied in. Mark wondered why Allison even bothered to get Regina dresses. Lou had raised her to be a tomboy, and she remained one still.

Brendan, on the other hand, looked perfectly natural dressed to the nines in Christmas best, especially his impeccably neat black-and-white checked vest and bowtie. Lou was also bringing him up on the same racecar-and-running-around diet on which he'd played with Regina, but Brendan seemed to have a naturally reserved personality compared to his older siblings, which was a bit surprising considering how much he resembled Jackson through the face. His personality definitely favored his mother's collectedness rather than his father's wildness.

“Dan-Dan!” Ginger yelled, waving to him.

“Presents,” Brendan simply, summing up what was on all the children's minds.

Mark had seen the awe-inspiring haul in the Wangs' sitting room since he'd dropped his share of the presents off the night before, but it was impressive to see it again in the daylight. All the children had a sizable stack of things to open, and it was driving Regina and Brendan, who'd been awake all morning waiting for the Tuan half of the family to arrive, bonkers.

Regina made a beeline for Jackson as soon as they got into the room. “Can we open them now pleasepleaseplease?”

“Take a deep breath, Regina,” Jackson advised, pulling out her pointless ribbon. “Count to ten. We can survive this.”

“At least let us greet your uncles and cousin, sweetie,” Allison said, shaking her head. “Merry Christmas, Ginger. Are you excited?”

Ginger nodded. “I met Santa,” she informed her aunt. “He said he get me lots.”

“And it looks like he delivered!” Allison turned to Mark and Jinyoung. “Did you have a nice Christmas Eve?”

“Jinyoung did the turkey all by himself this year, and it turned out great,” Mark boasted.

“And yet you still won't praise my gingerbread cookies,” Jinyoung sighed.

“As someone who has had your gingerbread cookies, I can confirm they taste like death,” Allison said. “But congrats on the turkey.”

“Dad, I wanna open the presents nownownow,” Regina persisted, squirming from where Jackson had her pinned down to restrain her a little.

“Jackson, you're messing up her dress!” Allison fussed.

“It was like that already!” Jackson said, but he still relented and released his daughter. She went straight for her presents.

“Mom, can I open?” she asked, pouting. “I wanna see if Santa got me roller skates.”

“Patience, sweetheart. I want to take a picture of everyone in front of the presents, first.”

Lou helped gather all of his siblings together, and even straightened Regina's rumpled dress a little. “Gotta look classy for the pictures, Gi,” he said. Brendan tugged on his pant leg, and Lou lifted him up, groaning a little. “When did you get big?”

“I'm a big kid now,” Brendan reminded him. “Three years old.”

“Yeah, sure. But just wait until you're four.”

Regina and Ginger posed kneeling on the floor, their dresses spreading out around them, and Lou stood behind them, holding Brendan in his arms. They all held the image in the frames of their cameras. Lou, a growing teenager with a shaggier haircut starting to cover his hazel eyes. Brendan, sharply dressed and smiling with his dimpled, pudgy cheeks. Regina, still a bit in a disarray but looking bright and lovely all the same. Ginger, curling her hands on her lap and smiling sweetly into the camera, her black curls spilling around her shoulders.

Mark felt a familiar surge of pride that this was his family and they were all lovely and loving and kind. He wanted to bow down at the altar of whatever fate had made them be together and belong with each other.

With the pictures taken, the children were finally allowed to tear into their presents. Lou had mainly asked for RC cars, model car kits, and clothes for starting high school next year, but Jinyoung had also managed to slip in some more educational gifts like books in there so “his brain doesn't rot.” One of the books included an official NASCAR handbook and a guide to how stock cars for racing were designed and what made the winning cars and drivers succeed, so Lou was still beyond pleased.

Regina got her roller skates, and also a big collection of craft and activity books from making homemade lanyards and jewelry to a giant bubble blowing kit. Allison (Santa) also got her The Daring Book for Girls, which promised to teach her everything from how to build a campfire to opening her own lemonade stand. Attached was also a notice about the next Girl Scouts enrollment. Regina announced she definitely wanted to sign up.

Brendan got an array of toys and picture books, just like Regina. His favorite was a toy piano, while Ginger's was a Fisher Price castle dollhouse, complete with its own stable for the prince and princess to keep their horse. She immediately got to work demanding Mark to set up for her so she could start playing as soon as possible.

Before he did, Mark gave her one last present that had arrived from Ethiopia a few weeks ago. She opened it, pulling out a bright purple and gold piece of cloth. “Dress?” she asked.

“It's called a sari,” Mark explained. “It's a traditional dress from India. Maybe you can try it on later?”

“Pretty,” Ginger said, running her hand against it. Mei Hui had chosen well for her. Ginger didn't know or understand yet about her heritage, but they wanted to teach her little by little to love where she was, but still respect the background from which she came.

“Did you have a happy Christmas?” Jinyoung asked, gently twirling one of her curls.

“Happy happy!” Ginger said, tucking her sari into her arms. “Thank you, Santa!”

FOUR

“I want a col-maj,” Ginger announced one afternoon.

“A col-maj?” Mark repeated blankly. “Er...what would that be?”

“Like Domenicia has on her door,” she explained. “With letters and pictures.”

Mark hadn't been to the house of Domenicia, Ginger's new neighborhood friend, so that didn't really help much.

“Collage?” Jinyoung guessed.

“Yes!” Ginger said. “I want.”

Mark turned to Jinyoung. “I'm assuming you know how to make this, too?”

“Yeah, it's easy,” he said. “Just cut out words and pictures from magazines and arrange them in a jumble.”

“OK, but do we actually have magazines around here?”

“Lou should have some old Motor Trend issues...I have my parenting magazines...”

“Would that make for a pretty collage?”

“Maybe? I could run up to the convenience store and buy Vogue or something.”

“I don't think that's at the right age level. How about the Sears and Toys R Us catalogs? I think I have them in the closet from Christmas.”

“Sure, let's try that.”

Jinyoung got the kiddie scissors and supplies ready, while Mark hunted for Lou, who was upstairs in his room playing Need for Speed on his Playstation with Kit.

“Hey, Lou, do you have any Motor Trend magazines you're willing to part with?” Mark asked. “Ginger's making a collage.”

“Maybe I can let her have some of them,” Lou said, a little reluctantly. “But I have to supervise. I don't want her cutting up certain car photo spreads.”

“Then do you have time now to come downstairs? She's already starting.”

“Yeah, we can pause.” He set down his controller and got out of the bean bag chair to pull Kit up after him. Kit, being a year older, was further along in his puberty development, and had grown much like BamBam—a lanky string bean, with the same kind of charming baby face. Lou's height was slowly building, but he was much shorter than his friend, though his face was more mature. Jinyoung always said lou had inherited Mark's small and pretty face—there was still some awkwardness there, but he was a good looking kid.

Lou made a face as Kit stood up, hanging a head over him, and smacked him on the back. “Who asked you to grow so tall, bastard?”

“Language,” Mark warned.

“Get over it, shrimp-o,” Kit said. “It's so I can look down on you.”

“I'll grow taller than you, just watch.”

Kit cast a doubtful glance at Mark. “If you say so.”

Lou dug the magazines out of the closet and carried down them for Ginger. “What kind of words and letters are you looking for, Ginge?” he asked. “Kit and I will help find them for you.”

Ginger considered. “My name, Ginger.”

“And how do you spell that?” Jinyoung tested her.

“G-I-N-G-E-R.”

Jinyoung gave her a high five. “And what other words do you want to spell?”

“Mmmm...pretty! Jelly Beans! Owls! Sparkle! Heart! Glitter! Dance! Pinecones!”

“Looks like we'll be cutting out letters, then,” Kit said, flipping a Motor Trend open. “Unless you also want 'high performance,' 'fuel efficient,' 'compact,' or 'miles per hour'.”

“Nope, I want glitter,” Ginger said. She went through the catalogs and parenting magazine with Jinyoung, pointing to everything she wanted to cut out. At four, her interests were becoming more established with every day. Her favorite animals were still owls, and she loved Disney princess movies, and she enjoyed a lot of the outdoorsy activities she did with Regina, like pinecone collecting and scavenger hunts and learning about animals and butterflies and lightning bugs. Her new interest was dancing—after growing into the sari Mei Hui had gotten for her, she'd asked if she could do any special dances in it because it looked pretty for dancing. Jinyoung had showed her a Bollywood movie, and now she was obsessed with dancing around in her sari, pretending she was in a musical. For a four year old, she wasn't a half bad singer, too.

It took awhile to find some letters in Motor Trend that were different and bright enough for a little girls' mural, but Mark eventually found some promising looking script letters in a headline about NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson.

“How's this 'J' look for 'jelly'?” Mark asked Ginger. Before she could answer, Lou had barked, “You can't cut that!”

“Uhhh?” Mark said. “Oh wait, isn't that guy your favorite or something?”

“That guy? Jimmie Johnson is only one of the greatest modern stock car racers in the sport! He's talented and has a great car and an amazing pit crew and he's handsome, too. He's not just that guy.”

Kit abruptly sat up in his seat where he'd previously been slouching as if he'd received an electric shock. “What was that?”

“Don't you agree? You always said he was your favorite, too.”

“Yeah, but...” Kit narrowed his eyes. “You can't just say he's handsome!”

“Well, he is.”

“But like, he's not really! Not compared to other people...like at our school...people you know...”

“As if anyone at our school is as cool as a NASCAR driver,” Lou said, rolling his eyes. “Racers are like a whole other level of cool, and everyone at our school only cares about stupid football. Anyways, Jimmie Johnson talks about his pit crew in the article, so you can't cut it. My dream job is to be in a NASCAR pit crew.”

“Okay...” Mark said, flipping to the next article to appease his son. He knew Lou was huge into NASCAR these days, even more so than normal, but he was a little surprised by the extent of his devotion. “I'll spare Jimmie Johnson.”

“My job is gonna be actress and singer and dancer,” Ginger announced, going off Lou mentioning his dream job. “All three.”

“Good luck with that one,” Jinyoung said.

“Hey, could be possible,” Mark said. “On an alternate timeline, I think your Papa could have gone into that kind of thing. He's such a good singer.”

“Papa is good!” Ginger agreed.

“It's fine,” Jinyoung said modestly. “Because my dream was to be a teacher, I got meet your Daddy.”

Ginger clapped her hands together immediately. "Ooooh, Papa, tell me how you and Daddy fell in love!" Love stories and fairy tales were also high up among her interests, so Mark was a little bit surprised she hadn't asked up until now.

“Ugh, no,” Lou said, wrinkling his nose. “Come on, Ginge, that's embarrassing stuff."

“It's OK, Ginger, I'll tell you,” Kit said leaning forward. "Your Papa used to be your big brother's baby sitter. He and your Daddy bonded over cleaning up Little Lou's messes and wiping up his drool."

Lou threw Kit a murderous look, which only made Kit smirk smugly. "It's revenge," he said, folding his arms across his chest.

Ginger seemed uninterested in whatever new tiff Lou and Kit were getting themselves into. "Daddy, did you sweep Papa up into your arms and kiss him?" she wanted to know.

"Well...not right away," Mark said, thinking back to their mistletoe kiss. It had been a huge turning point for them, but it hadn't necessarily been dramatically executed. For as important as it had been, it had just been a tiny little peck.

"Then what was your first kiss?" Kit asked. Mark wondered if he was just pressing the matter to spite Lou at this point. The way Lou seemed to be holding his scissors in a threatening manner seemed to confirm that theory. He wondered what was making them fuss at each other so much compared to their usual much more evenly paced disses.

“It's not a good story,” Jinyoung said. “And by that, I mean it's not a good influence. When you love someone, you should tell them first, maybe, before you kiss them under the mistletoe. Twice.”

“Oh my god, I did not need to know this,” Lou said in dramatic deadpan.

“Niiiiice,” Kit said.

“So, yes, these things should be done in the right order,” Jinyoung said in a firm voice. “In case one or both of the people involved are a little slow.”

"It's romantic!" Ginger declared. "I want Aladdin to kiss me under the mistletoe!"

"I don't think Jasmine would like that, sweetie," Mark said gravely.

"Anyways, can we change the subject now?" Lou asked, his fingers still twitching on his scissors. "Enough about kissing."

“OK! Papa, cut this out for me,” Ginger said, pointing to an owl clock in the Toys R Us ad. “And thisthisthis.” It was a full page of owl merchandise, some of which Mark and Jinyoung had already gotten her for a birthday. Her room was definitely a triumph in theme interior designing.

Little by little, they started piecing the collage together. At the centerpiece, Kit and Lou provided the letters of her name G-I-N-G-E-R. There weren't very pretty letters in Motor Trend, so they colored over the plain white letters in leopard print and polka dots just for her.

“So pretty!” Ginger said, clapping. “I gotta show Domenicia!”

“You're going over to see her tomorrow, so you can bring it then,” Mark said. “And then we can hang it on your door.”

“Yay! Thank you!” She went up to Mark and Jinyoung and planted kisses on their cheeks. Lou also got a kiss, but Kit got a stuck out tongue and said “meh-rong,” just as Jinyoung had taught her in Korean. "That's for bothering my big brother!" she said. Kit merely laughed and ruffled her curly hair. 

With their jobs finished, Kit and Lou gathered up Lou's Motor Trends to get them back upstairs. “I can't believe you got protective over a Jimmie Johnson picture,” Kit grumbled.

“I can't believe your face, but you don't hear me complaining about it,” Lou shot back.

Ginger watched them go, giggling a little. “Boys are weird,” she said.

“Amen to that,” Jinyoung said. “Boys are the weirdest.”

0

That evening after Kit went home, they received a call from BamBam.

“Why the hell did Kit just come home and say that he's going to drop out of high school and become a stock car racer?” he yelled.

“You don't want to know,” Jinyoung said.

“He said that?” Mark asked.

“What are you teaching him over there?” BamBam asked.

“I don't know, why don't you monitor Kit and Lou when they come over and find out for yourself?” Jinyoung taunted. “Oh yeah, because we're always the ones watching them.”

“Yeah, and you better make sure he doesn't drop out, or I'm going to leave him at your house permanently when he drops out.”

“And how would that be different from normal?”

Mark pulled the phone away, and let BamBam and Jinyoung go at it. He glanced at Ginger. “Boys are indeed weird,” he said.

“I told you,” she said sagely. “Boys are crazy.”