"They will make it Del. Just relax why don't you".
Adeline glanced over at him. "That is easy for you to say when your boyfriend's family, whom he has not seen in a year and a half I may add, is coming over to America to visit".
"May I remind you that you were the one to invite them over to begin with?" Aiden raised his eyebrows.
"I did it to surprise Armo!" Del protested. "He has not been acting himself lately, and I think homesickness for his family may be the reason why, even though he would never admit it to me".
"Okay, okay, you win," Aiden said with a brotherly smile. "Just don't start complaining when eleven people in our tiny house gets to be too much".
Adeline rolled her eyes good naturedly. Sure, she was an introvert who tended to tire of company after extended periods of time. As far as she was concerned though, this would be one big sleepover, with her sister and Armo's sisters staying in her room, Armo and his brother staying with Aiden in his room, and his parents taking her little sister Avana's room. Sure, it was a tight squeeze, but it was all worth it if it would put a smile on her blond Finn's face.
Adeline smiled at the thought, and did not notice when the Takala's plane had landed and started to disembark until her brother pointed it out to her.
"It that them?" he asked as a family of five who all looked similar enough to Armo stepped into the terminal and started to glance about.
"Del!" the youngest girl, roughly about 12, shouted as she ran into the arms of who she considered to be an honorary big sister, especially since her and Armo started seeing each other.
"Janeka!" Adeline laughed in delight at the younger girl's greeting. She had of course met Armo's entire family over skype before, but this was the very first time they were getting to meet in person.
"Adeline!" Mrs. Takala greeted her enthusiastically, stepping in to hug her once Janeka let go of her grasp. "It is so nice to finally meet my son's future wife in person!"
Adeline blushed, and locked eyes with her brother over Mrs. Takala's shoulder. The smirk on his face told her that he was clearly finding her discomfort amusing.
"Now, now my dear, there you go embarrassing the poor girl," Mr. Takala gently admonished his wife, before turning to Adeline and extending his hand to her. "All in good time my girl, no?"
"Um, yeah," Del shook his hand, unsure of what to make of that statement. It was then she spotted two other of Armo's smiling watching the whole exchange behind their parents with no small degree of amusement.
"Kielo? Reijo?" she addressed the 15 and the 17-year-olds respectively.
"Nice to finally meet big brother's girl," Reijo said teasingly with a smile.
"To be honest," Kielo said, grinning. "He is so quiet most of the time that we did not think he would meet someone here in America".
"Kielo!" Mrs. Takala admonished, clearly embarrassed for her daughter's loose tongue. "Don't speak of your brother in that way".
"Well," for the first time, Aiden spoke up. "My sister here is pretty quiet herself. It is no wonder those two were able to catch each other".
Adeline glared daggers at her older brother, while he just shrugged good-naturedly. "It's the truth," he defended, causing everyone around her to laugh.
"Anyway," Del said, turning back to the Takalas. "We should collect your bags and head back to the house. No doubt Armo is already there by now, and he thinks my brother and I are out shopping for groceries.
"Well then, lead the way to the baggage claim!" Mr. Takala said flamboyantly. Del smiled back at him as she prepared to make way to be sure all their guests left home with their essential travel items.
______________________________________________________
Armo glanced outside for what seemed like the billionth time to the snow covered medical clinic in front of the Frakes' home. If Delly and her brother REALLY had gone out to get groceries, they certainly had been gone for a long time.
"Hey Armo," a young voice behind him said. "Can you please help me fold these towels?"
Armo smiled ruefully as he turned and faced Del's youngest sister, Ava. Ava was a diehard gymnast, top in her high school's division, and was set to go to Seattle Pacific University next year on a full ride athletic scholarship.
"Sure, Ava," he smiled. He did not mind helping out around the Frakes house. In fact, he demanded no special treatment as a condition of him staying over for break.
His mind was just currently otherwise occupied.
After what seemed like an eternity, after all the towels had been folded and put into their proper places, Armo finally heard Aiden's car pull up into the driveway.
"Oh good, they are back". Armo was curious as to why Mr. Frakes went rushing outside to greet them with his wife right at his heels.
"What going on?" he turned to Ava, who was carrying the laundry basket back down to the basement.
Ava shrugged. "They are probably just going to see if they are okay and got everything we will be needing for the next few days," she responded a bit too nonchalantly.
Armo narrowed his eyes at her retreating back as she scurried off down into the basement. Something was up. The question was, what?
He got his answer moments later when a set of familiar faces entered the front door.
"Aiti! Isa!" he exclaimed, bolting over to embrace his parents with tears in his eyes.
"Poikani!" his mother exclaimed, hugging him back as she openly embraced him.
"How are you my son?" his father asked as he pulled away.
"Fine, hyva, now that you all are here," Armo grinned as he embraced his younger sibilings.
"How are you here?" he asked.
"Well, your girl could not help notice you feeling down. She guss this may be reason why," his youngest sister stated factually.
Armo turned to Adeline, who was grinning like a cheshire cat. "Your welcome," she said as he hugged her.
"Oh, pupu," he said, calling her by her pet name. "I cannot tell you how much this mean to me".
"Your expression speaks volumes to me already".
"So," her older brother remarked nonchalantly after an awkward pause. "When's dinner?"
This brought a round of laughter from the entire group. Now, that both families were together, the Christmas festivities could truly start in earnest.
After all, that was the way it was supposed to be, was it not?
A/N: Thank you all for reading my blog during this 12 days of Christmas Linkup. I would like to thank Faith for hosting. I hope you all will continue to follow my blog and have a Merry Christmas!
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