I’d called Mom from the airport so she wouldn’t have a fit when I showed up on the porch. As it was she’d screamed me nearly deaf when I told her where I was. Her sisters and their families were in town too; she could hardly believe her luck that everyone would be together.

Now here I was, thrown back in time, wandering the streets I had once ridden through on my bike. The houses all looked the same: beautiful colonials with picket fences and holiday wreaths on the front doors. Twinkling Christmas trees, probably harvested from the forest just north of here, glowed in each front window. I parked on the street in front of my parents’ place and smiled. Looked exactly the same, of course. Nothing here ever changed.

My mother threw the door open before I’d even gotten out of my car. Dad watched, beaming, as she threw herself at me on the walkway, and when we reached the porch he hugged me briefly—very uncharacteristic of him; I’d been expecting a handshake—and ushered me into the house.

It was like every Christmas I could remember. The tree was up in the bay window, with all our childhood ornaments hanging around the winking lights. Stockings hung from the mantel, carols murmured from the stereo in the basement, and a fire crackled in the fireplace. Mom’s sisters were there with their families, my cousins all adults now. Abby’s two girls were the only out-of-place elements that reminded me this was not a Christmas from twenty years ago. Well, that and the fact that I had a place at the adult table now for dinner.

Christmas Eve dinner was usually ultracasual since the next day’s meal would be a feast. We ordered Hank’s Pizza—unmatched by anything in LA—and sat around the dining room table talking mostly about me, much to my embarrassment. It was an odd mix of celebrity awe and familiarity; my own mother got stars in her eyes when I talked about the people I worked with.

Later in the evening as we talked and reminisced, Abby tapped on her glass and cleared her throat. “Doug and I were going to wait until tomorrow for this, but I just can’t keep a secret when everyone is here right now.” A smile split her face as she announced, “We’re pregnant!”

Mom let out a squeal and threw her arms around Abby, the twins bounced with excitement, and everyone shouted congratulations. “When are you due?” I asked when things had died down a bit.

“June 7,” she said with a grin as Doug planted another kiss on her forehead.