“You’re a sucker; you know that don’t you?” Mark asked me as we got our bags out of the back of the SUV.

“I am not either,” I insisted. “Wanting to stay at a majestic hotel named after yourself is a perfectly reasonable request.”

“Umm, I am pretty sure the hotel was here first.”

“Not the point, Mark. The point is Emma has been wanting to stay here ever since we told her about it. Besides, I can’t imagine coming here and staying anywhere else.”

“That is so sweet,” he said, giving me a kiss. “But you are still a sucker.”

I couldn’t wait to see San Antonio lit up for Christmas, and I knew Emma was going to love it.

We grabbed Emma and headed inside.

I watched her face as we went through the lobby, and her expression was worth any trouble bringing a 5-year-old to an elegant hotel might be. Not that I expected any trouble from Emma. But it was decorated to the hilt and was so beautiful. We let her look around a little but then reminded her that if we didn’t hurry and get ready, we would miss the carriage ride, and that got her moving.

We’d just made it up to our room and started to get settled when Mark’s phone rang.

“Hey, Suzie. Is everything okay? Is it the baby? Do we need to come home?”

Good lord, my husband was a worrier. It was like pulling teeth to get him to come this weekend even though Suzie’s due date wasn’t for a few weeks. If he was this worried this time, I couldn’t imagine what a wreck he was before Emma was born.

“Oh. Okay.” He calmed. “Yeah, we made it fine. Here, let me put you on speaker so Emma can hear you.”

“Hi, Mommy!”

“Hi, baby girl. How is the hotel? Is it beautiful?”

“It’s just like in the pictures Jay Jay and Daddy showed me. My name is everywhere!”

Suzie laughed. “That is awesome. Have Daddy take lots of pictures of the lights for me okay?”

“Okay, we can take pictures of me riding in the princess carriage.”

“That sounds perfect, baby. I will see you when you get home.”

Mark picked up the phone and took it off speaker and started talking to Suzie in the same voice he used when Em was upset. “Okay, do you feel better now that you talked to her? I know, sweetie, I wish you and Tom could have come with us as well. Maybe next year. Justin and I can help with the baby and we can make a long weekend of it. I’m going to go now so we can get settled in. We will see you in a couple days, okay.”

“I can’t wait until she has the baby,” Mark sighed. “She’s a basket case.”

“She’s a basket case?” I laughed. “You’re both a basket case. But I can’t wait either. I have never been around a newborn. It is going to be awesome.”

“No, it’s not. Abby’s mom had a baby, and all it does is cry.” And there was that adorable pout that both she and Mark shared. “It can’t play with her or do anything but sleep and sit in a bouncy seat.”

“Well you know when you were first born, all you did was cry and sit in a bouncy seat. But then you got bigger and now you are fun to play with,” Mark reasoned.

Emma sighed. “Mom says the same thing. She says it won’t be long before it can do more than sit and cry, but that is all Abby’s brother does. I hope our baby does more fun things.”

“Well, on that note, let’s go do some fun things. Like ride in a carriage.”

“Yeah! Time for the carriage. Let’s go. Come on, Daddy. Come on, Jay Jay, let’s go!”

We headed down to the River Walk to our prearranged carriage ride. Before we got in to ride, Emma posed in front of the carriage and Mark took picture after picture. I watched them, Mark talking to Emma like she was a model and Emma laughing and striking poses. To think I almost missed this. For the rest of my life, I would be grateful that I didn’t let my fear stop me from loving these two. This was my forever family because just like Suzie said, we refused to accept anything less.