Ryan chose a pen from among the girls’ coloring stash in the family room and, with his usual easy grace that extended from sports to everything else he did, he began to draw on the branch. When he was done making his illustrations, he stuck several pine needles into holes on either side of the stick.

A few minutes later Ryan walked back into the kitchen, where Mary was peeling potatoes for dinner, and showed her what he’d made. The reindeer was rather primitive looking, but it was unique. And fun. Just like her easygoing son. Most people never saw beyond Ryan’s athletic talents, but Mary had always known he was bright and funny and quite artistic, as well. Now, as a grown man, he brought all of that to his career as a Major League Baseball pitcher.

After making sure she hung his reindeer so that it wouldn’t blend in with the rest of the branches on the tree, Mary reached back into the box and drew out the next ornament.

Her other middle son, Zach, had always been a practical joker. From birth he’d been such a shockingly beautiful boy that he could get away with anything simply by smiling. He had all the girls in his class under his spell, his teachers wound around his little finger and the other boys clamoring to be his friend. Now he ran a chain of auto repair shops throughout California and raced cars in his spare time.

One Christmas, Mary had just finished making a large tray of gingerbread cookies and had left them on the counter to go and help bandage one of the little ones who had fallen off their tricycle in the backyard. That was when one of the kids snuck into the kitchen and took a bite out of each cookie.

How could she do anything but laugh when she returned to the kitchen? None of the kids would fess up to the Christmas crime but, come Christmas Eve, when Zach announced he had one more ornament for the tree, lo and behold, it was one of the gingerbread men with a bite taken out of him. Zach had coated the cookie in a thick layer of rubber cement so it wouldn’t fall apart and had pushed a paperclip through the center of its forehead to use as a makeshift hanger.

Life with her kids had never been dull, that was for sure, she thought with a chuckle as she hung the fun ornament on the tree. And she wouldn’t have traded a minute of those crazy years when they were all together in the ranch house in Palo Alto for anything in the world.

The next set of ornaments was also in its very own box and Mary made sure to pull each one out with extreme care. Her youngest son Gabe had always been intrigued by fire, so it was fitting that he’d become a firefighter. He’d barely been four when Jack brought home a little Bunsen burner and suggested they try to blow some glass ornaments by hand. Mary had loved the way Jack had told the history of the first-ever Christmas ornaments to the kids, explaining that they had been made just like this.

Mary remembered the two of them, standing side by side, focused intently on the job at hand. She recalled how Jack took absolute care to make sure his son didn’t get hurt, just as he always had with all of his children and her, as well.

The resulting small glass ornaments were lopsided and imperfect…and utterly precious to her as she hung them on the tree now and every year.

When Mary returned to the box and pulled out a large ball wrapped in pink paper that rattled in her hands, she knew exactly whose this was. Lori—aka “Naughty”—was one of her twin girls. Mary and Jack had already had six boys, who were more than enough to keep them busy from sunup to sundown, but that didn’t stop both of them from longing for a girl.

She stopped unwrapping the ornament as she thought about that Saturday morning so long ago when Jack had realized Mary was pregnant again. The house was still quiet—an amazing and rare feat with so many rowdy kids. Jack woke her with his sinfully sweet lovemaking, and, oh, how she’d loved those sleepy moments in his arms, when pleasure would drift over and through her in gentle waves.

She had almost fallen asleep again in his arms, when she heard Gabe call out from his bedroom down the hall. Only two years old, he was the earliest riser in the house, especially when he was hungry. And as a little firefighter in training, he was always hungry.

She was just climbing out of bed when Jack stopped her with a gentle arm around her waist. His dark eyes were full of so much love it stopped her breath.

“You’re pregnant.”

She had been so busy with her six boys that she suddenly realized she’d missed the signs this time around. Now she could see that her br**sts were fuller, her waist slightly thicker.

Jack splayed his hands over her belly. “You’ve always glowed during pregnancy, but this time you’re more beautiful than ever.” He drew her close and whispered against her lips, with utter certainty, “We’re finally going to have a girl.” It was crazy, but she swore she felt it, too—the slightly different energy inside of her compared to the six boys she’d carried.

But there were more miracles to come when they found out they were having twins! And what lucky little girls Lori and Sophie were to have six older brothers to protect and care for them.

A gust of wind through the trees outside the cabin brought Mary back to the present. Realizing she was still holding Lori’s wrapped ornament in her hands, she laughed with delight when she finished opening it.

Dozens of plastic goggle eyes stared out at her from the round ball. Only Lori would think to glue moving eyeballs all over an ornament. As a professional dancer and choreographer, Lori was always in motion—but, at the same time, she didn’t miss a thing. More often than not, she was the one moving from one sibling to the other giving expert advice. Neither her twin sister nor her older brothers escaped her notice. Her intuitive comments were always delivered in her typically sassy way, of course.

Mary hung Lori’s ornament on the tree, then moved back to the box to take out a small, white felt bag. Sophie—aka “Nice,” as Chase had christened her so many years ago—had quite possibly put the most thought into her ornaments. Sophie was now a librarian, but even as a small child she’d think things over for a long time before taking action. She was quiet enough that people sometimes made the mistake of discounting her. But Mary never had. Sophie was incredibly sweet, extremely wise, and she’d always had a gentle patience that Mary still worked hard to attain most days.

She remembered the day Sophie had asked to be taken to the local sewing shop, right before Christmas. Mary had tried to teach all of her kids to sew, but the only two who had any interested in needles and thread had been Smith and Lori, probably because they were always putting together costumes for plays, musicals and dance recitals. Of all her kids, Sophie had had the least interest in sewing, so when Sophie made her request Mary wondered if her daughter could have had a sudden change of heart.