The Tropical Dream

Chapter 87 - Home Again

Susan off-loaded some bags into a chair and set Melody down on the floor in the center of their library with a sigh. After two weeks away, she was finally home and she walked into their house from the cave feeling relieved and excited just to be there. Melody cooed, looking pleased too. Greg was right behind them with his own armload of bags, and though he was happy to be home too, he could see for his wife and daughter, this was an especially good thing.

"I am so happy to be here!" Susan told him enthusiastically. "I really loved seeing everyone over the holidays and attending the party for work and everything, but it's time to be home."

Greg grinned. "I believe the last time we spent the December holidays away from home, you said nearly the exact same thing once we got here."

Susan smiled. "I like being home, Greg. We live in a great place."

"Yeah, we do," Matthew agreed as he walked into the house behind them, also carrying things.

Zack and Jessie were right behind him. Everyone was carrying something, and nearly everyone set them down in the library as soon as they walked through the door. Susan regarded the growing pile with a thoughtful expression as she considered what they still had in the car.

"We still need to go back for more, don't we?" Zack remarked as he too looked at the pile.

"We do, but we also need to start putting things in here away," Susan said. "Who wants to do what?"

The chores for unloading and unpacking were quickly divided up, and by three that afternoon, they had everything unloaded from the car and all the bags were in the right rooms, if not unpacked all the way. Unloading alone had taken them an hour to do, and so even though they'd started out early from the hotel near Julie's house, between the travel to the church, attending services and visiting with Pastor Wilbury in the valley, completing the drive home, and now unloading the car, it had taken them nearly all day.

"I'm going for groceries," Susan announced once the car was empty. "Can someone watch Melody?"

"I can, Mom," Matt said. "Can I take her to my room?"

"Sure," Susan said. And she grabbed her purse and headed out the door.

"Let's see what we can do to finish the unpacking while your mother is away," Greg suggested.

"Sure Greg."

"Okay Papa," the rest of the children more or less agreed.

Susan was back relatively quickly, and began to plan supper for the evening. Everything was unpacked and more-or-less put away before they ate and every one of them was happy to be home.

"So what does everyone have going on this coming week?" Susan asked the family as they ate supper together that evening.

"I'm working, every day except Thursday, New Year's Day," Greg told her.

"I am too, except I'm also working on Thursday," Matt said.

"Well I'm not, and we've got another week before you kids have to go back to school, so maybe the rest of us should take this opportunity to relax and enjoy being here?" Susan asked looking between Zack and Jessie.

"Yeah, that'd be okay; except I was thinking about calling Ian. Maybe we could go bike riding," Zackary suggested.

"And I want to play with Eddy. Mama, can I?" Jessie asked.

"It's okay with me. We can call her mother after supper and ask," Susan suggested.

"Yeah!" Jessie cheered.