"Grandma!"

"Pa!"

"We're here!"

It was almost a given that their children would arrive home at the same time. The twins told them it was caused by their twin telepathy, and Melody coordinated with them, apparently. And it was a given that their seven grandchildren would come screaming towards the house, arms flailing and waiting to be caught by their grandparents.

"You're here!" Jesse enthused, trying to wrap his arms around them all at once. "You're all here!"

"Grandpa!"

"Pa!"

"Hi Grandma!"

"You're here!" Beca laughed, squeezing them tight. "Come inside, its freezing!"

"Hey Mum", Henry said with a grin, squeezing his wife's hand as he greeted his parents.

Melody Swanson, despite Jesse's worries, had married the man from work. Melody Swanson was now Melody Lipstein, wife and mother of three. Seven year old Zoe was a spitting image of her mother and grandmother at the same age, proving that the genes were strong. Five year old Toby had the same cheeky grin that she and her brothers had sported on so many occasions, and three year old Noah's eyes sparkled like his grandfather's.

Zac Swanson, the boy who swore girls were gross (making Beca and Jesse laugh) was now a husband to Alexis and father to three year old identical twin girls, Charlotte and Bethany (Charlie and Beth, respectively). And just like his sister had Jesse wrapped around his finger, his girls were curled very tightly around his pinkies. Beth and Charlie believed that Toby hung the moon and the stars in the sky just for them, and Toby was happy to let them believe that.

And Henry Swanson (while Melody had never admitted it, she and their cousin Maddie had a bet going that Henry would be the bachelor), the younger of the twins, was a wife to Alison and father to three. Noah and Joel, born just thirteen months apart, were as thick as thieves and closer than Henry and Toby had been as children. At six and five, they were mischievous and always plotting things against their cousins- but were the first to protect three year old Alice.

Christmas with their grandchildren was even crazier than it had been when Beca and Jesse were raising their own kids… but neither of them would change it for the world.

Beca had thought that Melody and the twins were up early.

They were up late in comparison to their own offspring.

"Santa came!" Toby hollered at the top of his lungs.

"Beca", Jesse murmured, nudging his wife. "Santa came".

"Get lost its three in the morning", she murmured back.

"Grandpa!" and Alice bounded into the room, wearing her brand new Christmas Eve pyjamas (because their kids had carried out their Christmas Eve box tradition), leaping between her grandparents on the bed.

"Get up, Becs".

"Get up, Jess".

By that night, the kids were passed out on the living room floor, among wrapping paper and boxes and their gifts, stuffed full of turkey and all the trimmings. The fire was roaring and It's a Wonderful Life, their Christmas Day tradition, was playing on the television.

"And just think, Becs", Jesse said brightly, as Beca held their youngest grandson to her chest, Noah's chest rising and falling in his sleep. "It feels like just yesterday you were fighting the inevitable. And Christmas sweaters".

Melody laughed, and Beca groaned.

"You are such a weirdo!"