Chapter 19: Missing – 2067

Anthony and Tali watched their younger brother LJ paint the names on the tree-of-life wall hanging in the family room of the house in which they grew up. He added the five new great-grandchildren in the order in which they had been born over the previous year: Rebekkah Ann, 25 June to Elijah and Shoshanna; Samuel Anthony and Shawna Ariel, 24 July to Shannon and Michael; Sarah Miriam, 22 August to Kelly and Brian; and Aniyah Talia, 15 December to Noah and Deanna. Another was on the way who would make their sister Beth a first time grandmother in the first part of the coming year.

Tali thought about the circle of life; births and deaths, celebrations and mourning. She heard the song from The Lion King sung in her Abba's voice; a memory from when she was barely old enough to remember. That summer she and Abba were alone, waiting for Ima to come back to them… She must have hummed or sung a line out loud because her brothers both looked at her.

"What?" she asked the two men whom she'd known all their lives.

Anthony smirked, "Were you channeling Abba; you sang a line from The Lion King!"

"Yeah. 'Til we find our place on the path unwinding, it's the circle, the circle of life'," LJ sang. "Abba sang that to each of us…" his voice trailed off as the memories flooded in. He wiped at the corners of his eyes and noticed similar actions from his siblings.

"Yes," Tali replied softly. She motioned for LJ to join Anthony and her and the three shared a group hug with tears mixed in. "The best was when Ima joined in or when Abba played his guitar and they sang Numi, Numi together…"

LJ looked up at a sound on the hallway side of the family room; Rivka and Beth stood there with glistening eyes, watching their siblings. He motioned them over and the five embraced as a group, tears flowing freely. Anthony pulled a packet of tissues from his pocket and handed one to each of the others.

"Okay, if we're going to get this place ready for another Christmas celebration, we gotta go easy on the tears," he sniffled and tried to smile. "Who's going to get the tree?"

Riv grinned at her siblings, "Already have it picked out at that farm where Ima and Abba always bought the tree until two years ago. I came to get Abba's truck to bring it home."

"I'll start getting the decorations out of the garage," LJ offered. "Just don't let Anthony take stuff off the shelves," he teased his older brother. "No DiNozzo disaster this year, please!"

"Am I EVER going to live that one down? Geez, that was 2025, guys," Anthony groaned.

Beth lightly swatted her brother's arm, "But you are the one who started it all…" The others nodded and grinned at Anthony. "Broken arm and a snow storm ride home, if I remember correctly."

Tali smirked at her siblings, "And LJ and I were the only two who didn't get hurt somehow… " She high-fived her little brother and the two faced the other three. "Okay, we can reminisce as we go, but we got a lot to do to decorate the house. We have a tree now, decorations are in the garage; let's see, what else?"

"Stockings, for everyone. We'll have to add the new babies, and also find the older ones for Grandducky, Grandpa, and the others who are no longer here," Rivka was thinking out loud.

"Yes, ALL of them!" Tali nodded; she liked the idea of putting up all of the Christmas stockings her parents had collected over the years. "I'll start hunting down the personalized ornaments for everyone once we have the boxes inside. Again, we'll have to add some, but that's the easy part."

Anthony was looking around the family room and seemed lost in thought. "Mistletoe! I found Abba's list of places to hang sprigs of mistletoe on his computer. We'll have to put up at least some of the greenery."

Beth turned to her older brother, "All of it; I think we should hang mistletoe every place on Abba's list. Including the three sprigs over their bed!"

"Oh, yes," Tali nodded her agreement. "Do you know why it was always three sprigs?"

Her siblings looked at her to continue.

"I found the reason in Ima's computer journals. Abba told Ima there was one sprig for him, one for her, and the biggest one for them. He intertwined the three sprigs to symbolize from two became one. He started that tradition with the three sprigs even before they were an official thing. Ima's journal said it was 2009. And in 2012, Ima helped Abba hang the three sprigs in her apartment, where they were living together. The next time that Abba hung the three sprigs was in 2016 in Paris; and every year after Abba continued the tradition. One year, I think Ima wrote that it was in 2020, he forgot and Ima made him go out on Christmas Eve and get mistletoe. He didn't forget after that!"

Rivka grabbed the keys for the truck, "I'm going to get the tree. Anyone want to go with?" Anthony volunteered, reasoning that he could get the mistletoe from the same place; he knew he's need about forty to fifty sprigs to hang one in every one of Abba's locations.

LJ and Tali started carrying boxes of decorations in from the shelves in the garage. Beth logged on to her Ima's computer and printed the annual holiday checklist that Ziva put together back when LJ was still a baby. Very little had changed over the years; most of the changes were due to the increasing number of family members as the younger generations added to the family.

Riv and Anthony returned with the tree and a case of mistletoe. Anthony explained that when they told the owner of the tree farm who they were, the man had wondered why their father and mother had not come in yet to buy the mistletoe. He'd been tearful when Anthony explained that his parents had passed away right after the New Year. He'd given the siblings a case of the greenery, because Tony and Ziva had always been so caring and nice to him. Several years when money had been tight for the man and his family, the elder DiNozzos had shown up with food, toys and warm clothes for the man's kids, and one year, even with much needed medication and supplies for the man's critically ill mother-in-law who was not expected to live for another Christmas. Uncle Jimmy had seen that the woman got a hospital bed, a wheelchair, and other needed items to make her last Christmas as happy as possible.

After getting the man to promise to share his story in a taped interview, Anthony had slipped the man a hundred dollar bill and wished him a wonderful Christmas. "Ima and Abba touched a lot of lives," Anthony told his sisters and brother. "I want to bring that aspect of them into the follow-up program to SoulMates."

The five siblings shared stories and memories of Christmases past as they decorated the Christmas tree. Many of the ornaments that were found in totes that had not been opened in many years also brought back memories. Ornaments for family long gone; ornaments that represented each of the years Ima and Abba had been together; ornaments that represented each of them, and other living family members of the generations forward from Ima and Abba.

LJ found an ornament dated 1983 in one of the boxes labelled 'T/Z.' He held it up for the others to see the year and looked to Tali. "1983? They were still kids then," he asked her. Tali nodded and smiled; she walked into Ima's office and the others could hear the printer seconds later. Tali returned with several pages in hand.

As the others continued decorating the tree, Tali read the story of the very first meeting between their parents, in Ima's words. (A/N 'Chocolate Pools and Crazy Curls') By the time she was on the last page, her brothers and sisters were sitting, mesmerized by the story they'd heard only in passing bits and pieces over the years.

"And as I hugged the American boy, I whispered to him, 'Remember me; I will always remember you.' He wrapped his arms around me and whispered back, 'I will remember.' He stayed in my heart forever." Tali looked up at her siblings; every one of them had tears threatening to spill.

LJ stood and used his knife to cut a small branch off the Christmas tree, from near the back, and grabbed the 1983 ornament and the 2066 ornament. He put the branch on the mantel next to the urn holding their parents ashes. He placed the two ornaments side by side on the branch. "Eighty-three years…" he spoke softly as he looked up at the portrait of his parents over the fireplace; their eyes locked on each other, lost in their own world. "No wonder they always seemed to be one soul in two bodies."

The five DiNozzos continued to decorate the house mostly silent, each one reflecting. When they did break the silence, it was to share a memory or two. Tali hung all of the Christmas stockings in the living room; her sisters helped her improvise to get all seventy-one stockings from the tote, plus the six for pets, plus the eight for new family members in 2066 hung around the living room fireplace. There would be at least one new one next year as well.

Anthony and LJ hung the last of the mistletoe in the living room as the women put up the last of the stockings. Tali found the tote of Chanukah decorations and menorahs. She dug into the tote and paused when she found a tiny menorah that brought back a flood of memories.

"What's that, sis?" Anthony noticed Tali staring at something in her hands. He could see the far-away look in her eyes; she was remembering something for sure.

Tali held up the menorah; none of the others recognized it, but for Tali it held a very significant memory. She smiled at the others through her tears, "None of you ever saw this menorah in use, because we only used it one year. 2016 in Paris; I didn't even know Ima and Abba still had it. This is the menorah we used the first year as a family, me, Ima, and Abba together. It was almost magical to have them together for the first time in my lifetime. I remember feeling so loved, but also that neither Ima nor Abba was sad any more. Until then, I could sense a sadness in Ima and then in Abba when it was just me and him for that summer. It was like alone, they were not whole, not complete. When they were finally together again, that missing piece was filled in."

The others were silent until LJ's stomach decided to rumble, loud enough for all to hear. The five broke out in laughter, noting that all were hungry. LJ ordered pizza, three large pizzas with extra cheese, pepperoni, and sausage, plus black olives and mushrooms, to be delivered. He put his phone on speaker when the man on the other end of the line asked him to repeat the order.

"Three large pizzas with extra cheese, pepperoni, sausage, black olives, and mushrooms; deliver to 781112…"

"Oh, you want the DiNozzo Special!" the man cut LJ off when he started to give the address. "Been a while since we had an order for that!"

"This is LJ; I have my brother and sisters on speaker. We're at our parents' house decorating for the annual holiday celebration. We decided to continue the traditions with the family even without Ima and Abba."

"Yeah, I heard about them back at the beginning of the year; sorry for your losses. Tell you what; since your parents were so kind to me over the years, I'm not going to charge you for the pizzas. It's my way of honoring them for Christmas! And I personally will deliver to you in about thirty minutes."

Tali spoke up, "You don't have to do that Mr. Canizio."

"I don't HAVE to, but I want to! Merry Christmas, DiNozzos! See you in about half an hour." He ended the call and the five looked at each other.

Anthony spoke first, "Another one to interview on tape; Ima and Abba have touched so many lives…" He moved to clean up the totes and put away the ladder from hanging mistletoe. By the time all the empty totes were stored away in the garage, the pizza was delivered. Anthony had Mr. Canizio promise to do an interview after the holidays.

"Merry Christmas, Tali, Anthony, Rivka, Beth, and LJ. And a blessed Christmas to your parents in the next life," he waved as he headed out.

"Merry Christmas to you!" all five called after him.

In the kitchen, the five filled paper plates with pizza and sat around the breakfast nook table. Tali raised her bottle of water to the others.

"Merry Christmas! To a long line of DiNozzo traditions for the foreseeable future," she grinned as the others raised their own water bottles.

"To Ima and Abba," Anthony added as they raised the water bottles upward. "We are DiNozzos…"

"And DiNozzos stick together like Superglue!" all five finished the family motto together. "Merry Christmas!"

A/N Many thanks to all who have commented, favorited, followed, and just read along over the past 19 days. May you all have a blessed holiday season, whatever holidays you celebrate. I hope that the message of family, traditions, and love in this TIVA universe spills into your lives in abundance. If nothing else, may the message of the importance of family, whether by blood, or by choice of the heart fill you with joy in 2020. Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad, Joyeux Noel, Buon Natale, Fröhliche Weihnachten, חג מולד שמח